Lunch with friends...

(This picture is out of order but just after we pass those sweet Tibetan ladies (in the photo below) we arrive at the stupa. This is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist temples in the world. It is less than a 10 minute walk from our house. It is a little less than 1/2 way to our friends house.

(getting ready to leave our house. we are thankful that our apartment has a nice paved driveway and a small yard!)


I know that life in Nepal is much different than life in America but sometimes it is hard for me to explain. The other day we were getting ready to go have lunch at a Tibetan friends house and I realized that going to have lunch at a friends house here is very different than going to have lunch at a friends house in America so I decided to bring my camera and document our trip. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into our everyday life here!

We walk everywhere within a 20-30 minute walk from our house (otherwise we take our car or a taxi). The roads around the community where we live are very small and narrow and many people don't have cars so most people just walk. When Keane and Gracie were smaller we would just carry them in the baby carries everywhere that we went but now that they are getting bigger we have started to use the stroller as much as possible. In some cases it is impossible because of the horrible roads but thankfully they have just put a nice road between our house and our friends house. There are some problem spots (as you will see from the pictures below) but it is really a blessing that it is even an option to take the stroller to some places. Here is Ryan pushing Keane and Gracie exiting our gate and starting out on the dirt road.

Just around the corner from our house we see a man walking with boxes on his head. They carry almost anything on their heads here.

As we walk we pass our local mini grocery store. Here we often buy chips, soda, some vegetables, water, eggs, bread and many other different little things we need from time to time.
It is only about 2 minutes walk from our home. Little mini stores like this one exist all over Nepal. We will pass at least 30 of them on our walk to our friends home.

Keane and Gracie are famous in our community. People love to see them and talk to them and touch them. Keane and Gracie are usually such good sports about it. This usually makes our 20 minute walk much longer because we are stopping all the time to visit with people who are amazed by the American twins.

At the stupa (the Tibetan Buddhist temple) there are MANY pigeons. Keane and Gracie love to stop and look at them.

Between one "good road" and the next there is this torn up dirt road. This is what the entire road between our house and our friends house used to look like before they paved the road with flag stones. I was glad Ryan was pushing the stroller here.

Thankfully they have smoothed out a walking path to the right of the torn up road.

More friends stop us to see Keane and Gracie on the way.

We saw this beautiful Nepali girl standing in the doorway of her house as we were walking. She is so sweet.

We get back on the "good road" and we pass a field full of trash and cows roaming freely.

Keane likes the cow. They usually point and call them dogs.

Some young Tibetan monks walked in front of us. And it was not raining...many people carry umbrellas here to be protected from the sun. It was HOT this particular day so many people had umbrellas. Many Nepali and Tibetan people carry them to stay cooler but also because they don't like to have dark skin. They like to be as white as possible so they try and do all they can to keep the sun off of them.

We stopped just before our friends house to buy them a bottle of soda and some crackers. In Nepali and Tibetan culture it is customary to bring something like soda, fruit or bread to the people who are hosting you.

While I was buying soda for our friends. This Nepali man who was selling coconut (you can see his blue bucket with the slices of coconut on top of it) and tried to get Ryan to buy some. He kept holding the plate of coconut in Ryan's face and finally I guess Ryan said no enough times that he put the coconut down and stopped trying to sell it to us. We thought he would just leave but he was so interested in Keane and Gracie being twins. He just hung around and talked to us and smiled at them. It was funny.

When we arrived at the gate to our friends home there was a small crowd of people there. It turns out that the Nepali men who are squatted down on the ground were going from house to house piercing people's ears. Crazy!

Here you can see the man getting ready to pierce this little girl's ear. Do you see the plyer/tweezer like things he has in his hand...ouch!

30 minutes after leaving our house, Ryan is walking through the gate to our neighbors house. Their driveway is now "paved" with very uneven bricks. It was kind of hard to navigate the stroller over them.

Some Nepali children (including the girl who just got her ears pierced on the left) who had come inside of the gate so they could see Keane and Gracie some more.

Keane and Gracie were happy to be out of their stroller and had fun laughing and playing with these neighborhood kids for a few minutes.

Once we arrived at our friends house we ate right away. Everyone was really hungry. They had made us one of the traditional foods of Nepal...momos with a spicy dipping sauce called 'achar'. The momos are steamed meat (water buffalo) filled dumplings. Water buffalo actually tastes a lot like beef. We eat these momos on a very regular basis here.

A typical serving of momos is about 12. Anytime you finish your plate they are up to give you seconds and thirds. You have to be really adamant if you don't want another serving of momos or you are going to keep getting them.

Here we are eating the momos at our friends house. We brought the babies seats (which makes life so much easier) and we all sit on the floor to eat. Keane and Gracie actually really like momos. They don't eat the spicy sauce of course but do like the momos.

Most people here wash their dishes outside. Some people do this because they don't have running water inside but many people just think it is cleaner and easier to wash outside. Here are our friends washing our dishes after we ate. Keane and Gracie are "helping" them.

Keane and Gracie have just started to drink from juice boxes. Here Keane is drinking some mango juice. They love having their own box!

Washing the dishes.

Tenzin loves to carry around Keane and play with him. Keane doesn't mind at all and enjoys having another boy to play with.

Me with momola (grandmother), Tenzin and Tsomo.

A group picture (minus Keane, Tenzin, Tsomo and Ryan). We are so thankful for this family. They are truly a blessing to our family. (I love the grandmother's faces in these photos)

Lhakpa and Numtso holding Keane and Gracie on their patio. Keane and Gracie were sleepy and ready for a nap at this point but were still having fun.

Our walk back home. Passing another cow on the dirt road.

On the way we passed this cute Tibetan boy trying on a Tibetan monks hat at a local tailor shop.

It was so hot on our walk back so we stopped to buy a bottle of water for about 20 cents.

A field that we passed on the walk back to our home.

Right in front of our house is this very narrow dirt road. We passed this man on his motorcycle carrying so much tubing on his bike. He smiled as Ryan pushed Keane and Gracie passed.

Once we passed the motorcycle we kept walking and there was a baby cow walking in front of us on the road. Of course Keane and Gracie loved that.

2 1/2 hours later we arrived back home (we only spent 1 hour at our friends home). We had a great visit with them, some good exercise and a great walk where we got to catch up with many friends along the way.

Keane and Gracie were ready to be home and went right down for a long nap (Keane took his shoes off on the walk home...guess he was hot)!

Almost there...we live on the third floor and so we have to bring the stroller up and down each time we take it with us. Here is Ryan carrying it (and Keane) up the 3 flights of stairs to our apartment. Our stroller does fold up...I guess Ryan thought this was easier.

Anyone for lunch in Nepal?