Daily Rhythm at My Desk

Woof.

Woof.

Cockadoodle, cockadoodle;

Woof woof barking running mad pack:

Ding-a-ling temple bell.

Honk! Honk-honk-honk!

Ding-a-ling temple bell.

Cockadoodle, "Amaa!!" 

"Eh?"

Clink! Clink! Tumble glass!

Motorbike buzzz.

"Amaa!!"

Rumble bumble old truck.

Engine starting generator buzz.

Ping! Ping ping bong! Metal drum bong!

Beep beep! Crrryyyy baby.

Moooo.

Ring ring bicycle bell, Seller's ca-aaalll! Ring! 

Come to the biii-cycle!!! Buy my stuu-uufff!

Clink, clink, bong!

Ha-BAA. At-TAA. Monks! Do! Exercise! YAH!

Murmur-and-roar, men-next-door, mumble, murmur want a job send me abroad. 

Metal rumble store fronts tumble come and buy some coke and soap.

Blaaaare-of-a-horn-tru-umpet. It's time for puuuja! 

Beep beep honk!

Door SLAM! Yell!! Mad or glad? Shriek and laugh.

Tick tick, belch.

Yelling clink clink! Tumble glass!

Loud-speaker! Listen to me! Words and music!

Sizzle, sizzle, fry.

Bumpy tractor bouncing by.

"Eh?"

Flap, flap, sheets shake and fold.

Cough-hawk-spit.

Woof woof beep!

Cockadoodle.

Rumble.

Beep!

Cave-like temperatures

If you look at the average winter weather in Kathmandu, you will find it quite reasonable. At the coldest time of year (now-ish), it gets into the low 30's at night and up to the 60's during the day. 


Despite this salient fact, if you take a vote of expat residents, you will find a majority say that they have never been so cold. Seriously! This is scientifically proven by people from Wisconsin, upstate New York, and Finland independently stating that they have never been so cold as in Kathmandu.

Why is it so cold if it doesn't even freeze? (I won't even mention the fact that it is often sunny). 
#1: Short days mean the cold, concrete brick-built walls of the house spend more time losing heat at night than gaining heat during the day.

#2: Draftiness of windows, particularly in the bathrooms, and exterior doors.

#3: No central heat. You can heat up a room with a space heater, or build a nest of blankets right next to one as my child and dog are wont to do, but the plan fact is that the STUFF in the room does not heat up. Chair - cold. Bedsheets - cold. Jeans -cold. Floor tiles - cold. Etc. 

#4: (Not applicable to those of us so lucky as to be in USG housing) The power goes out. A lot. In fact, at peak times of "load-shedding" a home might have power for 8 or 10 hours out of 24. "Load-shedding" is a term that means "there is not enough electricity to go around from our hydro power plant during the dry season so you have to take turns." Bye-bye electric space-heater, hello indoor parka.

It goes like this. One night, you notice a nip in the air when you go to bed, and turn the space heater on when you get up. A few nights later, the indoor temperature is a bit lower. A week later, even lower, as those concrete bricks start evening out with the nighttime air temp rather than the daytime air temp. Now, you turn on the heater when you get ready for bed, too, and be sure to get your clothes for the next morning out of the closet because it is REALLY cold in there (Andrew is using it for our wine stash). By morning, air temp in the bedroom is 55 F. Just try taking your tushy into that drafty bathroom that is noticeably colder than the bedroom, and you, too, will begin your day saying you have never been so cold. 

Cute-isms

This one's for you, Mom.

Amidst the overwhelming number of details to take care of in getting ready for the international move, a few weeks of life without "stuff", and a vacation in Paris on the way to home leave, the kiddo has come up with a few questions. Most of them revolve around the schedule, which is complicated at best. But some of them reflect how truly she is a third culture kid.

For example, when on the phone with her grandparents, who have talked about taking her fishing or panning for gold in the lakes and rivers, she asks,
"Are there any hippos there? What about crocodiles?"

A wise question from her usual milieu.

This past weekend we were doing one of our "why didn't we buy this stuff before" shopping trips, and we went right through a big fancy new Nairobi interchange, which happened to have a cell tower  in the middle (a REAL one, not a pole with guide wires). The child asks,
"Wait, are we in Paris already?"

When we expressed confusion, she points out the cell tower and says it looks like the Eiffel Tower (it does, a bit), and notes, "It must have been that this road was so smooth I forgot we were still in Kenya!"

Household help haiku

Laundry, floors, bathrooms

Does it need to be this clean?

I can't find my socks

This is new

Andrew went rock climbing with a neighbor for his New Year's day off. You've gotta watch out for that baboon pee, it makes the rocks slippery.

Reading Lesson

The wee one's teacher sent home a note over the break asking parents have the kids review their phonics. She didn't say where.

Acculturation

I parked on the sidewalk when I went to the market, didn't even think twice until my way home...