A typical Saturday in Nepal

6am
The sun starts shining through our window and pretty soon we're stuck to the sheets because its nearly thirty degrees and the fans not working because theres no power, time to get up. Too hot to go for a run so we lie in bed and listen to the landlady sweeping the yard and frantically ringing her puja bell.

7am
Wander out into the kitchen to make some breakfast. Mark cooks some eggs for breakfast as his stomach is still not used to dairy products thanks to several bouts of ghardia. And Jo has museli that she makes herself since its not available over here. Toast is cooked using a gas grill.

945am
Take a shower at the last possible moment before going to church as its going to be a hot service, fortunately the power has just come back on so at least the fans in the church will be working. The hot water is via a solar system, on the hot sunny days when you need a cold shower it is really warm and on the colder days it is freezing - nipples can cut diamonds! There isn't much water around so at least both ways you keep the shower really short.

10am
Walk the few minutes around the corner, past the grazing water buffalo to the church. Jo sits on the left side with the ladies and Mark on the right with the gents. Theres no seats at church so its two hours on a concrete floor with a thin layer of carpet with people touching you on all sides. On the womens side children crawling around on the laps of the adults. The service starts with twenty minutes of singing sitting down. Every now and then between the songs a few notices are read out as more people arrive cos being on time isn't done in this country. We can join in with the songs as we can read the Nepali script but sometimes working out the song number and finding it can take the length of the song. After singing sitting down we stand up for some more singing. Then its time to sit down again and listen to the sermon in Nepali that takes around an hour. Jo tries to work out words, grammer structures and what scriptures everyone is reading. Mark gives up and reads from his English bible.

Once a month the service finishes with communion. Here people walk around offering it to the rows of people. A plate with a flat naan is the communion bread and a small watering can with juice inside is the wine. The watering can is to be held near your mouth and you tip it in without the can touching your lips or spilling it down your front!! In the hottest season they ran out of 'wine' as many people took it as an oppotunity to quench their thirst!

12pm
Church finishes and we spend time talking to our Nepali friends outside. Sometimes we may go back to someones house for a drink and light snack.


In the afternoon we might go to a local hotel that has a small swimming pool which provides a great relief from the heat.  We might go to a street stall to buy some fruit that is weighed on the old school balancing scales with weights or stop at a local shop for a cold sprite and watch the world while talking to the shopkeeper - where are you from? why are you in Nepal? do you like Nepal........
If it is cooler we might get on our bicycles and go out past the city and check out that latest tasks that the women are doing in the fields. We like to get out of the city as there are less vehicles on the road. That way there is less chance of being cut off, pushed over into oncoming traffic (not oncoming lane as they don't exist) or even just coming around the corner to find a truck taking the whole road. The gravel country roads aren't much better than the town roads with all their potholes - either way it is hard on the bum.

In the evening we come home with the hope of being able to cook pizza in our little bench oven (Marks side won't have the yak cheese available here or he'll be on the bog for the evening), unfortunately the power has gone out again so we can either change our plans or cook it in a box oven. A box oven is a metal box that sits on the gas hob. It gets hot but there is no way to regulate the temperature making cooking cakes and bread difficult but possible. Pizza can also be cooked on the gas hob in a frying pan over a low heat.
Again the call of puja bells and sweeping is heard all evening as is the sound of everyones pressure cookers cooking the daily Nepali food of dahl bhaat. They eat it everyday, dahl being a lentil soup which is cooked in the pressure cooker. The rice (bhaat) is also cooked in the pressure cooker which does make it come out light and fluffy.

Then it is back to bed to lie under the mosquito net as the mosquitos in this country are really big and hungry and wait for the fan to come back on to make sleep possible. It is about this time that the dog choir starts. It goes from 10pm to 6am and the stamina is phenomenal. Every Nepali has a dog and all are terrified of them so the dogs bark to ward off theives and evil spirits. Therefore a night of barking is very important - and also very annoying!