Day to Day life in Nepal: A trip to the grocery store

Often people ask me what my life is like day to day and how it is different from life in the states. These days our power is limited (we have mandatory, scheduled power outages 14 hours per day) and that makes blogging more difficult but I have several ideas for posts about our day to day life in Nepal. Here is my first installment...taking my kids to the grocery store.

We are VERY blessed to have a grocery store (we actually have a few around town) where we can go to get many of the things that we need. It is not a one stop shop exactly but we really are able to get so much there. There are many items including those from Nepal, India and others imported from countries around the world including America. We are very fortunate that we can get a lot of really great imports from America. They often come with a high price (Kraft Parmesan cheese for example is often available but costs $10 for a regular container). It is often fun for us to walk around our grocery store and see what new items are there for that week or month (often items show up but once they are all gone they never show up again). Often some random imported product from America will hit the Kathmandu shelves and when we see it we send a text to all of our American friends letting them know what has come (for example once the grocery store got a huge shipment of really great cereal like Fruity Pebbles, Great Grains and Reese's Puff's and we all flocked to the store to get it and buy boxes in bulk...we usually end up hoarding things when we see them...that particular time I think we bought 10 boxes of cereal :)! I remember when we went back to America in 2008 and I had to fight the urge to buy everything I saw in Wal-mart just because it was there. I remember thinking to myself, "Kristin, you don't have to buy 10 bags of marshmallows now because they will be there whenever you need them in ANY Wal-mart you go to, they aren't going anywhere and if by some random chance Wal-mart is out of them when you need them you can go to several different grocery stores to get what you need." It was a comforting feeling! Below are a few pictures walking you through the process to get to the grocery store and back by myself in Nepal with my 2 kids in tow:

In the stairwell leaving our apartment. We live on the 3rd floor...

Walking down a street near our home passing young Tibetan monks on the way to get a taxi

Right outside our gate...a dirt road and tons of trash

The dirt road we walk to get to a taxi (my brother emailed me and told me how to rotate these pics but I can't get it to work...he is much better with computer stuff then me...I will try to work on it some more)

In the taxi. We all ride in the back. No seat belts are required (or available in the taxis so the kids just sit next to me in the back seat or on my lap). The taxi drivers in Nepal LOVE to hang crazy things front their mirrors and on their dashboards. The taxi ride from my house to the grocery store costs about $3 (or 200 Nepali rupees)

Keane getting out of the taxi. Lately they are really into doing everything by themselves. I guess it comes with being 3!

Thankfully this grocery store also has shopping carts. They are pretty small but both Keane and Gracie can fit inside with a few groceries (see pic below).

The rice and beans section of the store. There is never a shortage of rice and beans around Nepal...it is the countries national food.

After we finish shopping we grab another taxi outside of the store. Here is a view of some buses on the street and you can see the Himalayan hills in the background of this photo. No, they are not mountains. On a clear day you can see the snow capped Himalayan mountains behind those hills but unfortunately because of the smog and clouds we only see them a few months out of the year...they are beautiful when they are out though. 



In our taxi we pass several fruit vendors. These guys push their bicycles throughout the city all day long selling their fruit. They set up in a place for an hour or so and then move on. You have to bargain for the price of fruit here. It is sold by the kilo (2.2 lbs) and weighed with a handheld metal scale (the "old fashioned" way).

We also passed a man carrying a box of live chicks on his head as we approached the hill up to our home in our taxi.

Ah...home sweet home...the view from our balcony...cows in the street...

Time to wash Keane and Gracie's feet. Because of the dirt roads all of our feet get so dirty even just walking to and from the taxi. Here is a picture of Keane's feet in the sink!

I hope you enjoyed your trip to the grocery store in Kathmandu with us. I really enjoy posts like this and I hope to be able to write some more soon.