In Jyagata, we usually eat tons of spinach, a banana with dinner, and chicken every once in a while. In Simigaun, we ate an enormous amount of potatoes, and many types of small vegetables I’ve never seen anywhere else. We also ate meat from a mountain cow that was mixed with a yak called a chaudhi (it doesn’t have an English name). Each home grows almost all of its own food and buys very little from other places. That’s why each place eats different meats and vegetables, and even the same types of vegetables look different in each environment. People in Simigaun have the hardest time buying outside products because there are no roads that reach all the way to the village. Then, after getting off the bus, there's a steep, two hour walk to the start of the village. Futhermore, unlike my home in Jyagata, both of my other homes still cook everything over a wood fire. The new house in Simigaun has a chimney now, but the older home in Tangting still fills with smoke during every meal.
Far too many differences exist between each home to list them all. What’s most amazing to me after experiencing all of this is how quickly each place has felt like home. Besides the welcoming families, the homes have not had many similarities. Even the languages have been different. People living in smaller villages speak their mother tongue first and then speak Nepali as their second or third language.
Despite all of these differences, the most consistent thing has been tradition of drinking tea. Every morning, each family in Nepal starts their day off drinking tea. If anyone visits them throughout the day, everything stops and cups fill with tea again. As simple and small as it is, tea has been my small comfort throughout my stay in Nepal.
