Yo and I spent a week in a tiny village outside of Pokhara after trekking to Annapurna Base Camp in June 2008. Our trekking guide Buddhi was heading home for the rice planting season and invited us to come with him. We had wanted to visit a village on our travels through India a few months before but it wasn't to be, so when we were invited to a village in Nepal we jumped at the chance.
It was the wet season and all family members were set to return home to help with the seasonal rice planting (or replanting). The smaller buds were transplanted to the larger fields that would ultimately transform them into food for the village for the whole year to come.
We wanted to help! Reluctantly we were allowed.
It's one thing to want to help and another altogether to be able to help! What we didn't know was how technical it was - while it wasn't difficult per se, there was definitely a certain expected speed and level of assumed knowledge that was required for the job.
While we were allowed to 'have a go', it's for sure that we were being placated (we were a tad relentless) - which was lovely of Buddhi's mother. I'm very thankful the "no way, no chance" turned into "OK, you can come this one time" as it's one of my absolute favourite memories from all our time spent in Nepal over the years.
I was inducted into the job the village women perform; transplanting the rice pups. I was lent a head scarf and shown how to squat (not that I did it correctly), and how to gently pull the plant from it's bed before replanting it in the larger watery terraces.
This was no small achievement for me - let me tell you! I had developed a kind of fear and disgust at the regular leech ... attacks (?) during our trek, and was being goaded into believing the leeches in this village could be the size of your wrist! I laughed along with everybody else, but was secretly wondering if there was an element of truth in it ... were they bigger here for some reason?! For me to be standing there barefoot tells you how determined I was to participate (although not without regular checks).
Yo was shown how to complete the men's jobs; using the buffalo driven plough, and building the muddy retaining walls of the terraces.
We wanted to take some pictures, but everyone said no, please and thank you. We were disappointed, but of course no problem - we respected that.
Then Yo was put on the plough to the great amusement of us all (it was hilarious!) and one of the children asked if he could take the pictures and was given the go ahead, so I gave him my camera. What a great idea, and we're so happy he did or we'd have none of these wonderful images to look back on.
We made sure we got a picture of the photographer too!
I don't know if the local children of the village always spent that much time at Buddhi's house, but when we were there they were a constant fixture!
Wearing our sunglasses was the highlight ... as was the children taking the camera and snapping pictures of the (stunningly cute) local cat!
After seeing how Buddhi's mother washed her hair wet season style one day, I decided to give it a go. We were there for a week after all and why not! The water run-off from the roof had been directed into a perfect shower like cascade! It worked a treat.
The food was just WOW! Local, organic, picked-that-day fresh, vegetarian and cooked to perfection. We ate this meal (dal bhat) twice a day and couldn't get enough!
Buddhi's mother called me her Australian daughter and we took a portrait together. The female kinship in Nepal (and certainly this village) is something to aspire to, and perhaps this is why she had such an affinity with me (but not so much with Yo).
He wasn't left out though, don't worry!
(Below L-R: Buddhi, Yo, Aama and Aama's sister.)
The night before we were to leave back to Pokhara, and then on to Kathmandu the women in the village held their monthly 'mothers meeting' night (two weeks early) - and we were the guests of honour. Yo, Buddhi and younger boys were allowed to stay, but the men had to leave.
There was singing and dancing, a fabulous meal (dal bhat), the madal (traditional Nepali percussion instrument) was played with expertise, and the laughter didn't stop all evening.
It was a truly joyous experience for us.
Although it was only one week, we'd been exposed to a far happier, simpler, healthier, community focused way of life than we ever had before. We couldn't believe how welcoming everyone was, and were humbled by the generosity. It was like the cities that we'd stayed in for the previous 2 months (Kathmandu and Pokhara), but even more so.
We knew that we'd found our people.
We left the village with heavy hearts, and wandered around Kathmandu a little out of sorts when we arrived back. We knew we would be leaving the country as well soon, and didn't quite know how we felt about that. (Yes we did - we were devastated).
We had a teeny tiny little bit of money we could spend at will. We had already planned a month in Bali with Yo's family in the August of 2008, so we needed to keep some spare. We decided to use our remaining funds to start a business trading with Nepal. While it meant that we wouldn't be in Asia for a whole year as scheduled, we were fine with that if our new plan worked.
It seemed we had found a solution to be able to visit Nepal again and keep this in our lives! Forever?
... and don't worry - while these felt hats did come back to Australia with us, we thankfully didn't invest in any more!
Our first purchase was the harem pant style we'd been wearing around Asia for the past 7 months (although we all called them ali baba pants back then). We included some hemp items we were also in love with, some shawls and rugs we thought would sell well (they did) and ... Tibetan incense bizarrely! (was not restocked).
We were off and haven't looked back since.
The ali baba pants sold out in record time - back then they were the latest (old) new hot product. Had we not decided to take a risk on them (hey, fisherman pants were IT back then in Australia!), we would not have had a business for very long. Can you believe that we still sell them (and wear them) too!
True thanks must be given to you all though - if you didn't love our products as much as we did back from the beginning, we wouldn't have been able to give back to Nepal as much as we have over the years.
So we're off on a new wet season adventure in Nepal soon, and we cannot wait! Our business has changed so much over the years, but the one constant - our love of Nepal herself - has not. We can't wait to update you all. In the meantime though, here's a little teaser!
Thank you as always for your amazing continued support!
Until next time,
Mel Xx
