Still on the anecdote side of things. I find myself sitting in the Indian embassy again, 6 days after my latest writing. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up my visa when the counter/ticket system decides it’s my turn, as I’ve read the stories on the internet where peoples visa got denied for no reason whatsoever. After paying the 50 dollars on the first visit, of course. We’ll see.
So 6 days ago, one of the friends I’ve met on the Panchase trek, let me know she found a couchsurf in Kathmandu, where I arrived a day earlier than her. She was experienced with surfing the couch, and therefor organised and selected, and let me know.
So I arrived at this big house, in an almost Western neighbourhood, 3 floors and a rooftop, solar power, marmer floors and table.. all very fancy.
The people were incredibly nice, pointed me to the room and gave me lunch. For the next 5 days I would eat with them, sleep there and get to know them, just like that! I was amazed by the existance of these people and this friendliness.
So, their story. The lady of the house and her husband used to have a successful business, an undefined while ago, and with their personal money, they created an orphanage institution. Amazing, is it not?
They now rent a place, feed the children, provide shelter, beds, and allow them to go to (private) schools.
They were building a new house for the children in Chitwan, but that’s when misfortune stroke and their business didn’t run so well anymore. They thus now have an unfinished building and still are paying rent, and search for people with ideas or ways to support the orphanage.
For me, it was a bit weird..
I hadn’t expected this lifestyle and luxury anywhere in Nepal, to be honest..
Their house was very fancy and Western, although they did live in it with about 15 people, and the guests. They were really nice and friendly, welcoming anyone just like that, serving them all the food they’d have on a regular day. But still the life standards were pretty high. It just felt a bit weird I guess, the fact that the children had a nice mobile phone and/or laptop, how some of them were even a bit chubby.. The only chubby Nepalese people I’d seen before were taxi drivers and businessman.
But still I made very good friends with my collegial couch surfers, and everyone in the house and orphanage.
We made pancakes, and with that I mean ‘my Canadian friend taught me how to make pancakes’, once for breakfast for the people in the house, and once again the same thing, only we made way more and served the rest to the children in the orphanage, their single bite consumption technique made us assume they liked it.
I also weeded their garden, a job that took a couple of days and one I actually enjoyed by a great amount. Just sitting in and smelling the grass, feeling it with the soil, was really relaxing and meditative. I loved to work on it on my own, not thinking about the time or day, just weeding that garden. They were quite happy I did it.
Playing football with these kids was also particulary entertaining, some of them were ridiculously good at it! It appears to be a pretty popular sport here, not so different from back home. It’s kind of funny how the Nepalese inform me how my country is doing and when they play, as I personally couldn’t care less.
So after being in this rich neighbourhood, I felt a bit weird and torn to multiple sides.
It’s nice though, how they can share their wealth and do good things with it. And I also was just lucky, fortunate, to have grown up with comfort and enough money.. Am I to blame? I don’t know. I think we should enjoy the things we have, and try to not take them for granted. Although it’s easier to fixate on things one does not have, or sees somewhere else, we’re always alive whenever we can ponder, and looking at that fact, and bringing the things we have and have accomplished to the front of our minds, contributes way more to happiness, a restful mind, and a peaceful being in general.
It’s funny and touching if you see the broad and deep smiles of people living in a ‘house’, three walls made of stone with a metal plate being roof, that in contrast to the 3 story house with Ferrari, computers, smartphones, cleaning personnel, air conditioning, king worthy bathrooms, and all that stuff we know and want house owners, with depressed faces, sadness and agression, because their bank account is increasing less than the week before.
Life’s revealing itself in many ways, and I’ve had a hard time swallowing this reality as it is for a few times.. But I stand powerless on this, can only learn and let my presence inevitably have its impact, only to move on to the next spot. It takes some energy, and can be unpleasant at times, to not be in the comfortable, all around shut cocoon you can hide and live in at home. But I think I’m feeling a strange kind of knowing and understanding starting to stretch deep inside. It’s valuable.. All we can do is learn and see about the miracle that is the experience of being alive, and accept that gift with both hands, to live it as fully and intensely as possible, with all that it implies. Not running, but facing. Not sheltering, but jumping in the rainfall to see how it feels, to see it doesn’t come separate from the sun and is indifferently valuable.
So far this contemplation on a rich experience that was my first couch surf.
Posted from my phone, apologies for typing mistakes – Happy reading!