Kaskikot village stay

Kaskikot village stay

After staying overnight in Dharding, we drove on to Pokhara, where we used to live, It is now a very big dirty city and the mountains were obscured by cloud  but we stayed in a friendly guest house at the lakeside for a couple of nights which gave us a chance to have hot showers, wash our clothes and regroup before Roger and I travelled by taxi up to a hill called Kaskikot for our village stay. This was part of our orientation programme and the idea is to live with a rural nepali family and experience their lifestyle. Because of my plaster cast, it was quite a challenge getting from the taxi down the track to the house which had a stone yard looking out over the hills and the lake way below. It was the same altitude as the top of Ben Nevis but here that is just called a hill or Kot!

The house consisted of three bedrooms and a kitchen each opening onto the courtyard with a large plastic water tank with a tap in it above a concrete area for washing dishes, brushing teeth and washing people. The house was a new one made of concrete to replace the old house badly damaged by the earthquake. The chickens wandered about everywhere and the water buffalo was penned just below the yard, next to the goats. The family consisted of Parvati (name changed), the mother, 4 daughters, a son, and granny, all living at home except for one married daughter.The father worked in Pokhara and was rarely there. Every morning we were up at 6 by which time the girls were already carrying water from the village tap to fill their tank. It took 10 water pots each day for the families needs, even though clothes were washed in the village pokhari( pond) where the buffalo enjoyed wallowing in the heat.

 

 

 

It was the dry season so there was little to do in the fields but lalmaya still had to feed the goats and buffalo and cook the dahl bhat meal for us all. Nepalis traditionally eat rice, lentils and curried vegetables twice daily, at about 10 am and again at about 6 pm. Meat is a rare treat for rural families  Granny was frail and spent her days lying or sitting in front of the house. I usually sat there too studying language, chatting to the children about their experiences of education in the government school. I also enjoyed some great birdwatching. Neighbours were often coming to call, to meet the “badeshis” (foreigners) staying in the village and always asking about my injured foot. The women were very supportive of each other and I enjoyed cooking with Parvati. However, when any men were around the women became very submissive. Parvati got married at 17 and can only write her name, yet all her daughters are educated. It is good to see the next generation of girls having better access to education.

One afternoon it was stiflingly hot and a thunderstorm was brewing. Roger helped Parvati shield her precious vegetable seedlings from the rain and we sheltered inside while it hailed onto the tin roof. The next morning it was beautifully clear and I was keen to see the glorious mountains visible from the other side of the hill. Roger eventually found a taxi passing through the village and he took me to see the mountains. A kind nepali gentleman invited us to the back of his home which faced the mountains so I got to see them even though I could not make the view point on crutches.

 

We were sorry to leave the family but eventually it was time to say goodbye and make our way back to Pokhara where we had our first shower in days, wonderful!