THE NEIGHBOURS AND VILLAGE LIFE

My neighbours are quite an interesting bunch! The closest being Vim, who I see quite alot. Vim is 19 years old, he went to school but like so many of the young in Nepal he cant find a job. Only the very very brightest and those who have some sort of connection are able to find jobs. From what I can make out he seems to busy himself helping his brother who is building a house in Pokara, he has made a shelf unit for his mother, and also a bed with the help of the local carpenter, and just about everyone else who seems to turn up to help. They do all help each other which is so nice to see. You always know when Vim is around, he gobs incessantly honestly all day long, he must gob at least once every 30 seconds, in the morning he also nose snorts, and burps. This by the way takes place immediately outside my door which is where they all do their washing and wash themselves, we frequently brush our teeth together spitting over the edge.............. So if the water collectors have not woken me up I wake to the sound of Vim.

Everyone gobs even the women, I must make sure I dont come home with any unsociable habits!! I must say Kaman doesnt, I think when he did his trek guide training, they are told that it is not acceptable with tourists around. Although, He does scratch his balls rather alot!!!!!!!!!!!

Santo, Vims mother, is a very wiry little lady, she works so hard tending all the animals (this is womens work)cutting grass, climbing trees to cut leaves for all her stock. You will see her carrying a huge basket on her back full of leaves, you cant see her at all you just know shes under there somewhere, it must weigh a ton! Santo is very shy, she doesnt say much to me other than Nameste, although she did pluck up the courage to come and see us last night. When Nitu, Santo.s daughter in law is working in the coffee garden, Santo looks after Probosh, I saw her today cutting grass with her razor sharp sickel just below us, Probosh was with him strapped to her back. This family are very low caste, they do not own any land. Their job is to take care of the building that I live in and the land that is owned by a wealthy (relatively speaking) engineer who now lives in Pokara. Santo by the way is only 60, my gosh it just shows you what a hard life can do to you. Shes younger than you Theresa!!

Nitu is a very beautiful 20 year old girl who takes so much reponsibility and again works incredibly hard. She helps Santo with all the animals, tends the maize crop, collects the water, works in the coffee garden and looks after her son. She usually arrives home from the coffee garden around 6.00 and immediately takes over Probosh, washing him, feeding him and being a very lovely gentle mother.I frequently just sit and listen to her singing to Prosbosh in the evening when she is trying to get him to sleep in his makeshift hammock. Her husband works I think in India and rarely comes home, but he sends the family money. This is quite normal in Nepal. As kaman was explaining the other night, for day to day living they dont need money they literally live off the land. Money is required on the festival days of which there are many when they buy new clothes, make sacrifices, and generally try to please their gods which are many in the Hindu faith. Kaman has not been home since October 09 and has 4 children ranging from 2 to 8 years, I asked him if contraception was available in Nepal, he just smiled. Obviously not.

Lutchens.............. she is a real character, and seems to have taken me under her wing. Lutchens holds court every day around 5 to 6 pm when everyone is collecting water for the second time in the day. The whole village seems to come to life at this time, children play together, either with a hoop and a stick or a long pole with a couple of wheels attached, and there is an atmosphere of real enjoyment. Water is not available during the middle of the day,it is fed by a spring and the pressure has to be built up in the collection tank before it flows. Lutchens sits on her rafia carpet with some of the other older women and they all,laugh, sing, share stories and gossip about I dont know what. But plenty of raucous laughter can be heard. Sometimes theyre there until quite late. They also take care of the babies while the younger women fetch and carry. Im always invited to join them, and Sarita, lutchens daughter brings us tea made with buffalo milk,cardamon and cinnamon. Its delicious, so you ll have to suffer that when I come home (minus the buffalo milk, which has quite a strong flavour) Lutchens loves to involve me in what ever is going on. I helped her churn the milk to make the butter, everything is done so simply but very efficiently with the most basic of tools, she scooped out the thick white fat and patted it into a bowl. This would be added to maize flour, boiled and eaten. Her husband, who is ex Indian army is called M.P.he is in hospital at the moment, very ill from what I can gather. Lutchens says he drinks too much millet wine, has it for breakfast !. He has quite serious liver problems.

After everyone has filled their urns, that is when the ladies come and wash their hair with a bar of soap. Most have hair down to their buttocks, how they manage it I just dont know. You frequently see mums de-licing the children.

I have also tried my hand at milling!! at licmayas house, she is one of the nursery teachers at school. Pretty hard work and not as easy as it looks, but by the end of 30 mins the quality of my flour was pretty good, or so they said.I told them My great great grandparents used to own the mills at Brill so it must run in the family. Lutchens daughter picked the bananas from their garden today, they were as green as green, did you know that if you put salt on the ends they will ripen in 3 to 5 days? I didnt.

Kedar............. a seriously lovely, jolly bright spark.. Kedar involves himself with every aspect of village life and is always around, playing with the children, talking to the elderly, collecting the honey and suffering numerous stings, or helping Kaman to make the bread. Both Rosham his son and Kedar seem to permanently wear a smile, and always brighten up any day. We took Roshan on our trek with us as a treat, and he was a joy.

Surprisingly if fathers are lucky enough to be around their children when they are growing up they play a very large part in the childs life. It is quite normal for father to sleep with their children in the same bed and mother sleep alone. This was explained to me as it gives mum a break, also if the child has been scolded by mum during the day maybe they prefer to be with dad, and also developes a closeness between the father and children. This will carry on until the child is around 6 years old. The whole family usually sleep in one room.

"World friend" Ive already told you about him. He still comes but has settled down a bit and is not trying to impress me quite so much, which is a great relief! He has accompanied us on a few walks and spends most of his time eating berries which I have to say are quite delicious. They look like black berries except they are yellowy orange in colour. Many of our walks include a feast of different types of berries and wild strawberries. We went on a walk the other day which was wonderful, they always are!!!!! From my room I can see a village in the distance which I had said to Koman I would like to walk to. Hes always enthusiastic about walking and never seems to tire of it. You can tell he loves his country. We set off a little too late and could see we were not going to have enough time. When the sun starts to drop every thing seems so much more vivid and rich, the light is quite beautiful. We decide to take a shortcut back which takes us pass a Hindu temple solitary and high on a hill, we could see what looked like the instuments of sacrifice through the locked gates along with the idol of Sheba, a very popular hindu god.

The main crop growing at the moment is Maize, crops of varying sizes but all look healthy, they are tended regularly, the women hoe by hand. Runner beans seem to be planted amonst the maize which provides some support. Wild flowers, hydrangea, in abundance grow on the banks and at the sides of the path. Im sure you will know what they are to all the gardeners who read this!!!! Gates and fencing made out of bamboo. photo especially for you Jimmy so I hope you look at this!!!!

When we came into the village of Bortok I was very surprised to see the 2 little horror sisters (from nursery)who were sitting on a mat outside with their grandmother. They smiled! or was that a look of "Oh no she knows where we live now."

When we arrived back at our village Santos, Licmayas brother and an elderly chap were busy thatching the buffalo shed!

Kedar and Rosham come every night to talk about the day and share chai, along with too numerous to mention other teenagers who always like to come and see whats going on. I had a visit from the oldest lady in the village , she was incredible, striding up the stairs. I gather she was 95, and I think the oldest man is 102, havent seen him yet!!!

Binot......... a bit of a sad case.... hes older than the other youngsters and still hasnt found a job, I get the impression he is embarassed by this as he seems to just help his mother. He is mad about football and was delighted when I gave him a poster of Manchester united for the youth club wall, and insisted we had a photo taken in front of it, which I will frame and send out for the wall.

And then of course my four legged friends. The oxen who are just around the corner from me, and the older goats these belong to Santo and vim, and I must say they are the only ones that dont seem to get taken out to graze. I tried to persaude vim to take them out the other day and I would join him, but it didnt happen. They will be expected to plough in june/july and will have no muscle to do the job. Oxen are very gentle creatures who dont seem to mind how hard they work. Every one has oxen, chicken and goats, the people who have a buffalo are the well off ones.

Every morning the baby goats are let out by all the different families and they all seem to congregate together in the centre of the village by the water to play. They are just so funny, and are a daily source of entertainment for me. Vims always come to my door along with the chickens and their clutch who rush around for the tastiest morsels. Occasionally the baby goats will realise they are far from their mothers and start bleeting, you ll hear their mothers up the other end of the village replying, they rush back just to check mums still there and then they re back playing again.

The mornings are very lively and lots of fun!!!

Chickens are everywhere, they eat the cockerels and keep the hens. Sometimes you will hear the villagers shouting HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. It reminds me of standing around a covert in the Autumn!! This is when someone spots an eagle circling over the village just eyeing up a tastey chick. The whole village erupts into a chorus of HA HA.

Killed the most gigantic spider today, nearly caused a riot with the chickens when i threw it out the door, the photo is blurred because my hand was shaking so much!!

Lutchens, bless her came and thoroughly checked my room for me, and then we put the net back on. T he spiders are the only thing that really upset me, and no one else seems to get them!!

Saw a very sad sight the other day on the way to school. A group of men were gathered round the carcass of a buffalo who had died in the night. No one knew what was wrong with her and apparently this is the second buffalo that that particular family had lost. She was pregnant and it is the custom that you do not bury the mother with the calf, so they had opened her up, taken the calf out and were burying them in 2 separate graves, after they had broken the legs of the mother so she would fit!

There was an air of solemness about the whole proceedings. This was a serious loss for the family.

I told them how sorry I was and moved on.

Vims gobbing outside and Im going to try my hand at milking the buffalo again. must remember its all in the thumbs!!!!!!

Kedar has just popped in to say we are collecting honey again tomorrow night, hes a devil for the punishment!

Success, the milk flowed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually heard a disturbing tale tonight from Binot. Apparently there is a witch doctor in a village about half an hour from here and they took a woman who was sick from this village to him yesterday. Binot helped to carry her there with a few others. While she was being ministered to Binot filmed it on his mob phone, lots of screaming etc etc all rather shocking!!

Although Im told she is better?

I go to bed tonight with the distant sound of a maudal (drum ) coming from another village probably miles away as sound carries here. I do love a party!!!

bed