Kuber's House

One of the wonderful things about being here is that everything turns into an adventure. The minute you wake up, the minute you step out of the door, life turns into a fabulous adventure. This phenomenon happened yesterday on our visit to Kuber's house. Well, now I look back on it and think it was a wonderful adventure. At the time, not so much. But as long as you can look back on things, and think they are funny, then it's all good.
So, we planned to visit Kuber's house on Saturday and meet his family. Kuber is our... servant? I hate that word, but I'm not sure when to call him. He cooks our meals, cleans, generally serves everyone. Anyway, we've become great friends with him. He is 17 years old, and a typical pubescent blubbering boy. He is quite amused by us and I think really likes working at the house and getting to hang out with us. Kuber is quite a funny young lad, his English is not so good which sort of adds to how entertaining he is. He just failed his English test, so we are all tutoring him to help him pass his next test. Kuber has a habit of saying "Ok," to everything that he doesn't know what we are talking about. Examples: "Kuber, when is food ready?" "Ok!" or "Kuber, what did you do today?" "Ok!" All of us have become quite good friends with Kuber, he is like our little brother in a sense. So we all decided we must meet Kuber's family. All we really knew about him was that he is from a village and has worked for Anuj for a while. So we woke up early Saturday morning and left to meet Kuber's family. "Kuber, how long to your house?" "30 minute bus ride, 30 minute walk." Ok, that doesn't sound so bad. So we pile on the rickety, creaky, bouncy local bus that seems like it is held together with duct tape and are on our way. An hour later we pile off the bus and set out for Kuber's house. It is pouring down rain at this time and most of us are wearing flip flops, crocs, or other very inappropriate shoes for hiking. And hiking is what it was. Into the corn fields we went, through the rice paddies, up into the hills. It's a bit difficult to describe the "paths" on the way to Kuber's house. The paths are about 6 inches wide, and with the monsoons basically turn into mud rivers. In the first 15 minutes everyone of us (except Kuber) had slipped and fallen in the mud. So, starting to get soggy and covered in bright orange clayish mud we were ready to be at Kuber's house. "Kuber, how much longer?" "Ok!" Hmm.... we continue on. After about 2 hours of mud rivers, rice fields, scramblling and sliding up (and down) trecherous clay hills we were starting to get a bit miffed. We were all covered in head to toe in mud, soaked to the bone, and starting to get rather annoyed that this supposedly "30 minute walk" was actually a 2 hour (so far) trecherous trek through the mud mountains of Nepal. By this time we were deep into the countryside. No houses anywhere, not even any cows. Along the way we had picked up two old Nepali men who were laughing histerically at us. "Nepali road! Nepali road!" Yes, we understood. These were the Nepali "roads" and we were illprepared Americans slipping and sliding through these horrible paths. As we trekked deeper and deeper into the jungle I was not going to be surprised if any R.O.U.S's came out and attacked us. (Rodents Of Unusual Size... anyone seen the Princess Bride?) After 2 and a half hours we were all horribly irritated. I kept reminding myself to not be annoyed, I was trying as hard as I could to not get agitated. Wet, cold, muddy, and hungry. Then to top it all off I took off my shoes to to go get some of the mud out and to my surprise found quite a large colony of leeches had taken refuge between my toes. Wonderful. After leeches attach and start sucking, it's almost impossible to pry them off. So after a long while of attempting to get the little suckers off, finally I succeeded. The little buggers left my feet covered in blood, which just topped it off even more. Almost three hours had gone by. Kuber kept pointing to the nearest house on the hillside that we passed saying it was his house. None of them were. The thing I have learned about many Nepalis is that they will tell you something, even if it is not true, just to make you happy. So Kuber tells us it is a half an hour walk to his house. The problem is that this backfired horribly because we were much more annoyed that he didn't just tell us it was 3 hours into the jungle through mud rivers and leech country in the pouring rain. The thing is Kuber just didn't quite understand this, and it's not his fault. So after a horribly long walk, drenching rains, multitudes of leeches, dozens of falls into the mud, faces covered in scatches by brambles, a couple ant and other unidentified bug bites on our feet, and empty stomaches we arrived at Kuber's house. After this walk I truely understood how difficult it is for rural Nepalis to get anywhere. Going, literally anywhere, would take 3 hours on trecherous paths. It is important to know that Nepal is 90% rural, so this is where most of Nepalis live: in the countryside up incredibly steep hills, with no roads, and usually not even any paths to their homes. Going to the doctor would be a difficult endeavour, so you can image that these rural Nepalis really don't go to the doctor. Too far. (Note: I now understand why at the geriatric clinic we had people who said they have had headaches for 20 years, their knees have been in pain for 10 years, or that they have not been able to hear for 15 years. Too hard to go to the doctor!) Doing something on a whim would be unheard of. Example: Do you feel like going for ice-cream? .... Not if the walk is 3 hours through corn fields and mud hills, and thorn bushes. I think I would be much more content to stay home. I also now appreciate how isolated it is living in these places. Anyway, we finally arrived at Kuber's. I was in a horrible mood because I had just fallen very hard and thought I may have broken my arm. But my temperment changed quickly from the warm welcome from Kuber's family. Pretty much the whole village was at Kuber's house waiting for us. They all stood around and starred at us with smiles on their faces as they watched us drink tea prepared for us by Kuber's mother. Kuber's house is a typical rural house. Mostly made of mud and sticks. It was 2 stories. The bottom story was where the "kitchen" was, actually just a pile of sticks and a fire and some pans. The bottom story was also filled with potates. I have never seen so many potatoes in my life. There were literally thousands. It must be potatoe harvesting season. Well, we were starved and Kuber's mother made us a huge meal. We had dozens of roti (sort of like a Nepali tortilla) which she prepared over the cooking fire, potatoe and pea curry which we ate with the roti, dal, and burned corn which we ate with sugar. The meal was probably the most delicious meal ever. Partly because it really was delicious, partly because we had just had the most horrible walk ever. But we soon forgot our troubles and were having a great time. The whole village piled into the mud hut and had a great time laughing at us. We each got a burned ear of corn cooked in the fire and were eating it how we eat it typically at a BBQ. Straight off the cob. "Monkey system! Monkey system!" they laughed at us. "Monkey system?" "We show you Nepali system." The Nepali system for eating corn was to take all the kernels off the cob and put them on a plate, them sprinkle them with generous amounts of sugar. No more monkey system for us. After the meal we were stuffed. We tested buffalos milk and buffalo fat which was interesting. The buff milk was a bit chunky but very sweet. The buffalo fat looked like bacon grease but tasted like sweet milky butter. We had after meal tea and were all happy. Then we talked with all the villagers and Kuber's family. They all look so much alike, it is scary. After a while with the villagers were were ready to depart. We thanked them all very much and were off to finish the second leg of our journey, which we were not looking forward to. Along the way one of Kuber's village friends invited us to stop by his house and eat "bees honey." So we stopped by another mud hut close by. We all sat on the mud porch next to a few goats. The woman of the house came out and presented each one of us a huge bowl full of honey with a spoon in it! It was a rich orangy brown color. We could see the hives on top of the thatched roof. The honey was so delicious. It had an interesting taste, almost a bit like fermented apples. It had a wonderful grainy texture that melted in your mouth. It was amazing. We sat eating our honey bowls when more villagers came by and huddled in groups starring at us with amazement. I don't know why, I think we looked quite hilarious covered in mud and soaking wet. Anyway, the honey was SO sweet, we couldn't eat it all and felt very bad. But really, all you needed of this honey was one spoonful to be satisfied. Finally we were on our way again. After another 3 hour journey we were back at home. Clean, warm, full, and nestled in our beds. At dinner we sat around the table laughing about our adventure. The whole while during the walk I kept reminding myself "this will be funny in 5 hours, this will be funny in 5 hours." And sure enough, it was. So a simple 30 minute bus, 30 minute walk turned into a 1 hour bus, 3 hour trek both ways. But the rewards outweighed the bads in the end. We had a wonderful time with Kuber's family. They were so kind and generous, and also we had an amazing Nepali meal. I am also happy that I now understand I little more the hardships that come with most rural Nepali's lives. But despite these hardships they are still so happy and appreciative! Rural Nepali life is amazing to say the least. The people of the Nepali hill villages are wonderful and generous and so kind. Another great thing, besides just meeting Kuber's family and his village, was to watch Kuber interact with his mother, father, brother and sister and all his friends. This trip sort of completed a missing piece of Kuber for me. I now understand his life just a little bit more, and appreciate him more as well. From this visit Kuber has become a much more 3 dimensional person. It was so great to see his mother dote on him, his father tease him, his sister hang on his neck, and his older brother joke around with him. Despite the muddy falls, the leeches in my toes, the sprained elbow, and the skinned knees, this day turned into a most awesome adventure. It turned into a wonderful experience that I will never forget. I am very grateful for this opportunity. As long as you can look back, and find your adventures funny, then that means everything is ok.