Invitation

Last Saturday we were invited to spend the day with one of the teachers and his family. We had possibly the best food we’d eaten in Nepal – an amazing Dal Bhaat with beautifully cooked vegetables which melted in the mouth as well as chicken and yoghurt. Afterwards we were treated to a Jack fruit. The flesh is orange and slimy and tastes like a nice combination of banana and mango, but cannot be chewed to any effect so one savors the taste for a while and then has to let the prune-sized lump of goo slide slowly down the gullet. Alastair quite liked it, but Wiebke wasn’t so keen.

Our host then had to go to a meeting at the school, the arrangements for which give you an insight into the Nepali attitude to timekeeping. First of all the meeting wasn’t called until late the previous evening, and then was arranged for 11.30 on Saturday morning. However our host was enjoying his lunch and didn’t set off until nearly 12.30, which apparently is entirely acceptable – no one else will turn up for the first hour anyway. While he was away, we went for a walk down to the hydroelectric plant, where pipes carry diverted river water a couple of hundred metres down into a spectacular gorge. Big rivers go at an amazing pace here – a sign we really are in the Himalaya. After lunch we returned to the house and played with children before our host returned for a final cup of tea and we headed home.