Mero Naya Parivar (my new family)

My brother Robin and his wife Sampada.
My new mom – doesn’t she have such a friendly smile?

I wrote this entry on Saturday night:

I am sitting in my new bed. A rather hard bed, I must remark, but a bed nonetheless. And a clean bed, in a clean home. So I guess I have nothing to complain about.

I arrived at the Acharya home in Pokhara today just after noon. I was welcomed by one man and a whole lotta ladies! In the house there is a mom (who is almost 50), her son (the guy I’ve been in contact with through the HELP organization) and his wife, two daughters (ages 22 and 13), and a 14 year old helper girl. (Sorry, I can’t seem to remember their names yet). Everyone seems very friendly and smiley so that’s a good sign. There doesn’t seem to be any tension in the household and everyone seems to get along as a good, happy family should. Again, a good sign. The house is a typical Nepali home – a tall home, with only the first floor belonging to this family (although in some homes, several generations will share the multi-floored home, and sons will live with their wives on the upper floors). Inside is a long hallway with rooms on each side. On the left is the room that the mom and her two daughters share, then the room for the helper girl, then the kitchen, and on the right is the living room, then my room, then the son and his wife’s room, and finally the bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, I was very happy to see a Western toilet, but it will be interesting to see how 7 people share the only bathroom in the house. Anyway, when I mentioned that this home is typical Nepali, I’m definitely making a comment about Muna’s family’s home – theirs was certainly a-typical, and actually more Western-style than anything else. Though this house is certainly nice and I have no complaints, I was certainly lucky to get to live in such a beautiful (3-bathroomed) home with Muna and her family.

The afternoon was spent feeling each other out. I arrived and sat down with the family in the living room. We had that normal awkward moment when no one quite knows what to say and there is a language barrier between some. But the children all speak English fairly well (though not as well as Muna and her friends) so that quickly passed. It was lunch time and the family had waited for me to eat, but I had just eaten a rather large breakfast (it was my first full-sized meal in three days, as I had some stomach issues again) so I let them eat and I just drank tea. Then the son and his wife had to go to work so I had some great quality time with the two daughters, the mom, and the helper girl. We chatted, watched TV, drank tea, showed one another pictures, and tried speaking Nepali/English (myself and the mom – she doesn’t speak more than a few words on English). By the time the other two came back at 8pm and sat down to join us in front of the TV, I felt pretty comfortable. I think the main reason is that everyone in this family smiles so much that it’s impossible not to think these people are nice. I certainly hope it’s not a front… J

My room is fine. It’s got a nice big desk and a cabinet in which I have stored my clothes, toiletries, and other random items. There’s a window, a mirror, and an outlet for me to charge my things – what more could a girl ask for? Well, there’s one thing – Muna. I miss her. While I was in Kathmandu we slept in the same bed, so I really miss having her warm body next to me (warm being key in these cold Nepali homes). Muna leaves to go back to Chicago tomorrow and I think I’ll miss her even more then because I’ll know she’s no longer in Nepal at all. We had such a wonderful time together – words can’t even describe how happy I am I got to spend the last four weeks getting to know her and her country. One of the last nights Muna and I spent together we promised that we would meet again – this time in Africa. We both did a semester abroad in Africa (she did hers is Tanzania) and loved our time there and miss it tremendously. So Muna, if you’re reading this, our promise is now cemented in words in the internet so there is NO BACKING OUT OK???

Tomorrow I am going to my new school to get introduced to some other teachers and learn a little more about what I’ll be doing. Originally I thought I would be teaching on Monday, but I was told that Tuesday is a holiday so they may prefer to have me simply start on Wednesday. That would be fine with me because it would afford me a little more time to prepare my classes and get a little more settled here at home.