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My first Christmas in Nepal was almost like a Christmas is ment to be.
The most people in Nepal don't celebrate Christmas but they celebrate anyway because they like to have a lot of festivals. In the supermarket they were playing Christmas carols and outside the store there was a Christmas tree. Many stores here are selling Christmas decorations and Santa Claus figures and clothes.

We had a wonderful Christmas eve with a lot of food and the menu almost looked like a swedish Christmas menu. One difference was the pickled herring. In Nepal you can't get herring so instead we used aubergine (egg plant), a vegetarien recipe. It tasted just like herring and was very good!

We also made "glögg", red sweet wine with sugar and spices. Very good and warm!

Our good friend Suresh, his whife Muna and their son Supreme, was here for dinner and tasted a lot of new food.

Leyas best friend Eva was also here for Christmas.

After dinner we saw Kalle Ankas Jul (Donald Duck) and then it was time to share Christmas presents, many, many parcels. We saw some traditional swedish Christmas moovies and after that everybody was tired after a long exciting day and went to bed.

We whish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! Posted by Fia at 07:25 1 comment: Merry Christmas from Nepal!

Leya, Eva and sweet little Supreme. Lizzie, the spoiled adopted street dog. Posted by Fia at 09:21 No comments: Something huge has happened here in Kathmandu! Since two months back we have full power.
We haven't really believed it would last, and honestly we still don't. Hopefully I will not jinx it by writing about it here.
Some background information is needed.
Since we moved here 5 years ago we have lived our lives around the load shedding.
During the summers we only had four hours scheduled power cuts, two hours in the morning and two in the evening, but during the cold, dark winter we had up to 16 hours and it was really, really horrible.
It was so horrible for us, spoiled Swedes, that we invested in a car battery and an inverter so we at least could recharge the phones and computers and have some light. We asked our friends why there wasn't full power and they had many theories.

Let me explain the three most credible ones:
1. The Nepalese government sold most of the power to India, that has huge problems with the power in some districts, and we got the leftovers.
Thanks to the Himalayas and the rivers Nepal has a lot of fast running fresh water.
2. During the civil war between the government and the Maoists, 1996 - 2006, the Maoists bombed hydro power stations, so there was simply not enough to cover the need of electricity.
We heard about different projects carried out by foreign countries, for example Norway, that wanted to build new hydro power plants, but everything was stalled due to political decisions.
Many countries want to help Nepal, since Nepal is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world.
3. Corrupt politicians got bribes from the battery companies.

Guess which one was the biggest issue?
The corrupt politicians, to no surprise really.
One day the new Minister of Energy declared, just like that, that from now on it would be power day and night, at least in Kathmandu.
There was enough power after all. They even had a full functioning power plant just standing there in case of emergency.
What amazes me the most is that the corrupt politicians don't seem to get any punishment and the Nepalese people just carry on like nothing has happened.
In Sweden we have an expression that you "tighten your fist in the pocket". That means that you don't show your anger or frustration. You keep it inside.
I'm not clear about the Nepalese people's reaction in this case. Are they angry inside or just happy and forgiving? Maybe a confusing combination of all available feelings?
I can tell you that I'm both happy and angry and I'd like to see the gangsters who did this behind bars for a long time.
The load shedding has created so much problems for people, especially for companies that had to think more about keeping the generators running than planning to grow and employ more people.
People who had to leave their families for years to go to the middle East to work like slaves.
Kali Gandaki hydro power plant. To go to the tailor in Nepal!

Last week I went to the tailor to make a pair of jeans shorts. It is very cheap here in Nepal. 1000 rupies (70 sek) fabric included.
After 10 days I could pick it up. I went to the tailor after 10 days and he said 3 more days. After 3 days there was 2 days, 1 day and then 2 hours. So after 16 days and 2 hours I finally got my jeans shorts. Very nice and fit really good.

Thats how the life is here and you get use to it. And it has it's charm! Posted by Fia at 10:48 No comments: