Saturday in Pokhara

Claire and Sworupa

For those who don’t know her, Claire married Sajal Sthapit and moved to Nepal with him in 2010 (you can see my blog about their wedding by clicking on “View my complete profile”--down and on the right--and then “Claire and Sajal Nepal Wedding Blog”). They live with Sajal’s mother Rajya in the house his father Bhuwon built.  Bhuwon himself works in Delhi, so can only come home occasionally. Sajal’s sister Sworupa is home from college right now, doing an internship with Claire at her organization, Kopila Nepal, which provides social services to families in nearby villages. I’ll post a new family picture soon. Their other sister, Swopnil, lives with us in Indiana. 

First thing in the morning we had Italian coffee, then Claire made oatmeal, which we all ate while destemming the mustard greens for our saag today (all greens are called saag here). Tomorrow is the holiday of root vegetables, so for lunch we had dal bhat with saag and a yam called taru. The rice is a strain recovered and developed by Bhuwon, who is a conservation biologist. It's called jetho budho, which Sajal said means “eldest oldest.” It’s very particularly suited for growing in the microclimate beside the Phewa Lake in Pokhara.

Fishtail Mountain behind the Sthapit house

Solar lights charging

Christmas tree, with monastery

To charge up the solar LED lights that we use when the power is off, we put them out on the sun porch next to the drying popcorn and radishes. This porch faces the Buddhist monastery founded by Sajal’s family, Dharmashila Vihar. Claire left the Christmas tree up there for my arrival. 

Pot maker

Finished pots

Poinsettia, the real thing

Boys bathing in the Seti River

Then we put our shoes on to take a walk beside the Seti (White) River. The sun was shining on Fishtail Mountain behind the house. Along the way we saw a poinsettia plant and a large group of boys bathing in the river, and talked to a pot-manufacturing family.

Coffee bean picking

Picked beans

Back at the house we picked ripe red beans from the coffee tree. We checked on the lettuce and other vegetables growing beside the house. We squeezed the coffee beans out of their fruits, washed them, and set them out to dry. 

Drying coffee beans

Lettuce garden, with taru leaves on the left

Rinsing beans

Later, when the power was about to go off for the evening, we went out to eat at the award-winning “Best Restaurant in Pokhara,” Almonds, which is owned by Gotham Daai, a family member. It was amazing. If it were in Louisville, it would still be the best restaurant in town. The chefs sent out one dish after another, whatever Gotham thought we would like: cheese balls, vegetable tempura, spicy chicken, spicy potatoes, different kinds of very flaky naan (flat bread), paneer (cheese) in creamy masala sauce, delicious dal, I can't remember what else. We rolled out of there and came home to sit in front of the gas heater and then go to bed.