As I cut my hair over the sink with newly purchased kitchen scissors costing £1.45, it occurred to me that last time I paid £39 for a hair cut in the trendy hairdressers on Beech Road in Chorlton. Now without a moments hesitation I was hacking off the dry ends of my hair with no apprehension. What’s changed? Just about everything! £39 is actually more than I have from VSO as my living expenses per week and although I think a hair cut would be pretty cheap here (50p) I don’t trust that my Nepali language would translate into, ‘just a trim please’.
Although Nepal and Nepalgunj in particular is in stark contrast to good old blightly there are actually some aspects of life here that suit me very well indeed. For a start there are few; cars, buses and lorries on the road, bycles scooter and motorbikes dominate the roads. So I cycle here there and every where on my Indian style bike which has no gears and I love it, even when I am weaving precariously in out of rickshaws and horse and carts. And I am really looking forward to cycling to India to go shopping, where apparently its really cheap and I can buy bargain items like cashew nuts! I will have to wait till I go to Kathmandu and get my visa though which won’t be for a few months.
Secondly the majority of the people in the country are Hindu and do not eat meat or eat very little meat, so being a vegetarian is the norm rather than the exception which makes eating out or at friends houses very easy. Thirdly I don’t start work until 10:00, which means I can lie in till 8:00 go for a run or a hoop, have a relaxed breakfast and do some chores before I go to work.
There is one thing that I really miss though(aside from all my wonderful friends and family of course) which is a hot shower and bath oh and heating I can’t understand where there isn’t a purpose built fire place and chimney inside the houses as its freezing in January.
I also want to mention the price of toothbrushes, they are exactly the same here as in blighty but they cost 40p, we are being seriously ripped off! The national minimum way here is £40 per month, so that is why it appears so cheap, but relatively speaking I think it is expensive for Nepali’s.
Internet is 25p for an hour and milk is 20p a litre, which again my sound cheap but not if you are unemployed or living on the minimum wage here. I shall shortly be splashing the cash on internet access at my home, I was going to do this earlier but I have decided to move out of my community centre style house into something a bit less isolated. I am moving into a smaller apartment which has a landlady living below and an office so the security will be a lot better. I feel a bit like a sitting target living here alone, white lady, big house, living alone hmm...time to make a sharp exit. So this week my landlord has had the unfortunate news of my tenancy termination, which is all above board, obviously he is not happy but I have to overlook this fact and think of my own safety sorry.
So week 3 tick, only another only another 101 weeks to go, not that I am counting believe me I want make the most out of my time here and make the biggest difference I can whilst I am lucky enough to have the opportunity!
The photos were taken when I visited my colleagues village and stayed the night, check out her granny, she is so cool. She is 70 and still works in the fields farming (by choice), whilst we were sitting round the fire when she was warming the inside of her woolly hat it melted and although we couldn't communicate in Nepali (village Nepali is very hard to understand)we shared a laugh at the melted hat.
Peace and love from across the world
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