In the Village

A short walk up the track, just above the buffalo pond, is a  pipe protruding from the ground  pouring out water, which over time has eroded the ground and left some stones and a little mud. This is where I wash the families clothes. Scrubbing out Nepali dirt with an efficient Thai stiff bristled brush, on an excellent Nepali large flat sandstone rock. Occasionally the water will stop flowing. Up the pipe somewhere, someone  is using water. There are two water pipes that can hook up to this one. One supplies our guest house and if it is needed I carefully slide the correct black polyethylene pipe into the slightly wider bore pipe that ties into the washing clothes pipe secured, curiously with a green plastic crisp packet. And then as I walk back down the track, the ground above the cracks in the pipe mysteriously hiss and bubble with leaking water. The water comes from up the hill directly from the river, somewhere.... I have yet to find it.

Tara and Luke finish an apple. The highlight is taking the core to Kali the heifer in her shed. She recognizes us now, enjoying the regular supply of banana skin and apple cores chucked with varying expert aim at her eating area. Her head is tied  with two ropes and sometimes Lukeys  throw seems to fall short of her reach but often she manages by kneeling, extending her head and snaking out her long bristley tongue. She belongs to Bimala who  takes her rice knife/machete and collects grass for her every 3days. Sometimes Bimala walks up the hill to the jungle for Kalis food . Sometimes she walks down through the millet fields gathering grass from the field edges and pathways. There is no long grass for the snakes, every walkway is trimmed neatly in the village.

Today we walked with the kids up the hill and out into the forest. Its Saturday and the forest was busy with people collecting firewood for cooking. We watched an older man chop his firewood and arrange them carefully on a rock, all trimmed straight to neatly stack into a bundle weighing about 40kgs. He  worked steadily cutting with is rice knife/machete, stopping occasionally to remove leaches. We met a small nani (young girl) who shared some tiny chestnuts with us. We watched as two groups of buffalo met on a meadow above the Jungle  bellowing greetings and rebuttals, over the jingle of their cow bells. It took us 3 hours to walk home.

The power goes out most nights and the internet uploads photos occasionally before 6 am .... My camera has a broken lens shutter from so may pictures taken...... So for now... Just words. :-)