Before heading out for my long walk to class, I head over to the squat toilet. Since toilet paper isn’t used in Nepal, I wash off with water. Grabbing my things, I slip my shoes on outside, wish my family a good day and start my journey to class around 7:30 a.m.
To date, I’ve lived with three different Nepali families. The morning I described depicts a typical school day with my family in Lalitpur, Jyagata. My other two families have been in Tangting and Simigaun, which are small villages in the hills that most people haven’t heard of. Much of what I described above emphasizes how my Nepali life differs from my American life, but my lifestyle in each village has been very different, too. Each village’s culture and environment largely dictates the lifestyle of the people who live there.
In Jyagata, most of the families are Chhetri, a high Hindu caste. Many of them built modern, concrete homes after the 2015 earthquake. Simigaun is home to Tamang and Sherpa families, but many of the villagers are in other countries or in big cities to find work. My house is brand new, as are most houses, because the earthquake wiped out all of the homes here. It’s made with wood from the surrounding jungle, big stones found all over the area and lots of mud. Tangting families are all Gurung, and most of their homes are made with mud and wood from the community forrest. However, their village was much less affected by the earthquake because it lies farther west.
In Tangting, we ate soybeans everyday and sometimes bison meat. Every morning I sat outside with my aamaa and shucked the soybeans for our evening meal before I left for class.
