After four years I finally managed to return to Nepal and how excited I was. My last trip was with my girlfriend and we hoped to return 6 months later but before we could make it back we were engaged and my fiancé, as she had become, became pregnant with our first child. So the plans to visit Nepal were put on hold. A second child followed and then finally an opportunity became available for me to return this October.
The main purpose of my trip was not only to catch up with all the people in the community but to see how our new project manager Bikram was getting on after his first 6 months working with us.
It was great just to have all my senses overloaded again, the smells, the sights, the sounds. I can honestly say I missed dal bhat as was so happy to eat it again.
I arrived during the Deshain/Tihar festival period which was great to be there during this time and to celebrate with many old friends. It also gave me time to spend with Bikram and discuss about what has been happening and his feelings towards the project and the community, before visiting Aandhimul.
As you can see in the photos, Bikram’s house where I stayed is a traditional Newari building built by his grandfather and has some beautiful hand carvings that is typical with Newari architecture. He also had a plot of land in front of his house where he grew vegetables, and from there he picked to include in our dal bhat every day. And I must say he is a very good cook!
