Bistichaap, Nepal

July 8th, 2008 by Alyson Hard

Namaste,

TJ and I have just returned from a week-long training session in the village of Bistichaap. Bistichaap is a rural village about 1.5 hours away from the main city of Kathmandu here in Nepal. In Bistichaap, we stayed with a host family, which consisted of an aamaa (mother), baa (father), two didis (older sisters), the husband of one didi, and their three children. We were given a nice, small room. Each day, either our aamaa or didi brought us tea and we ate Daal Bhaat, which is the main dish in Nepal. In fact, it is all the Nepalis eat! Daal bhaat consists of a plate of rice, a cup of lentil soup, and some curried vegetables. You simply mix it all together with your hands, and viola! You also eat with your hands, which is very interesting, although we are beginning to get the hang of it. Then kitchen, where we eat, has a hardened mud floor, one light, a fire pit, and pots and pans which our didi uses to make the daal bhaat. It seems quite nomadic to us, and at the same time, charming.

In Nepali culture it is rude to refuse any food or drink that you are offered, so needless to say, we ate a LOT of daal bhaat this week, once every morning and once every evening (with a snack –khaja– in between). It is actually pretty tasty, although we look forward to any chance we get to eat something different! Our didi especially enjoyed TJ because he often ate 2 or 3 plates of daal bhaat. Her face lit up every time he asked for more. In Bistichaap, there is a central chiyaa pasal (tea shop), where we frequented to have cups of tea, sweets, and just hang out with each other. Everything was so cheap– cups of amazing chiyaa (tea) were about 3 cents! Our family also boiled our water for us, so we haven’t gotten sick at all.

During the day in Bistichaap, we had language training with our teacher, Hari. We learned to say basic phrases in Nepali, such as: Mero naam Aly ho. Malai sanchai chha. Daal bhaat mitho chha (which translates to: My name is Aly. I am well. The daal bhaat is delicious). These phrasea were actually incredibly useful in communicating with our family, as only the children spoke English. After language training, we took a lot of hikes. Every afternoon it downpoured, so we were often walking through mud or water, which meant that we got leeches on our feet! One hike was particularly interesting, as we had to stop every 10 minutes or so to pull leeches off our feet (luckily, they were small)!

Bistichaap is a gorgeous place. Everything is lush and green, and everywhere you look you are surrounded by hills and rice fields. Although it is not far from Kathmandu, it seems a world away. The rural, simple living is interesting and refreshing, as is the villages sustainability. Whatever we ate in our home seemed to come from the fields. The rice came from the many rice paddy fields surrounding Bistachaap, the eggs came from the chickens, and milk from the cows in the backyard. Each day, the children went to school, and our didis worked in the fields, then came home to prepare daal bhaat.

We are happy to be back in the city for a couple days. We have learned to be extremely grateful for a meal of our choice, a warm shower, the ability to wash our clothes in a machine, phone/internet service, and a flushing toilet! Nepalis use charpis (toilet), which basically consist of a porcelain hole in the ground, with a bucket of water nearby for flushing. It definitely takes some getting used to, as they are not the cleanest, and we are happy to have a clean, flushing toilet for the time being.

Although only for a week, we feel that we have experienced true Nepali living. Luckily for us, we are placed in the Children’s Home that is in Bistichaap, and we will be living in the Home. This placement is owned by our volunteer service program here (VSN), meaning that VSN has guardianship over the children in the home. Our home is very clean, and the children have all their basic food and health needs met. Unfortunately, this is not the case in some of the other homes where our colleagues are placed, as there are major health problems in other placements. One of the main challenges at Brighter Futures (our home) will be to work with the 2 boys with down syndrome and the girl with cerebral palsy. Each day, we will do speech therapy with the boys and physiotherapy with the girl. Other than that, we will do health checks, organize activities, and supervise children with their homework. In our free time, we will visit other volunteers, go hiking, hang out at the chiyaa pasal, and relax! Each week, we will return to the city of Kathmandu for one day and night(our day off).

We are so incredibly blessed to be having this experience, as it is helping to broaden our knowledge of the world and feel that we are contributing to something very meaningful. We are also becoming very grateful for the comforts we have at home, although realizing that life does go on without them. I mean, who would have thought I would be excited to see a toilet that flushes?

Namaste,
Aly & TJ