Buddha boy

For some reason I've completely missed the Buddha boy, but since our friend Lee has gone to the Bara (also the number 12 in Nepali) district to try to find him, I've searched for information about him.
I found this documentary, click here, and I must say that Ram Bahadur Bomjon is a fascinating boy, or man nowadays.
The documantary was filmed a few years back when there still was a civil war going on here in Nepal and it ends with a cliffhanger.
If you want to see a more recent film, click here.
You can clearly see that this man is not profeting from his unusual personality, like other gurus that have their own TV channels and fancy cars, and he is suffering a lot from the attention that he's trying to avoid by disappearing from time to time.
At first I felt he was sort of numb, but watch him when he try to talk about the animals. I couldn't help but shed a tear.
It's rare to see such a pure soul these days.
When it all started.

A more recent photo.

SACC meeting in Kathmandu

This week we have some prominent guests visiting Nepal.
It's a SACC meeting with politicians from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who are here to discuss peace and prosperity.
How are we effected by this meeting?
1. They have painted walls and put concrete on the roads in two days, when it normally takes up to a year. At least the visable walls and roads are repaired.
2. The kids are free from school. We got the information only the day before, something we would never accept in Sweden, but luckily we can plan our work around Leya's needs.
3. The traffic is a hilarious part in this drama. Every other day vehicles with even numbers are allowed to drive and every other day the ones with odd numbers on the license plate can drive. How the police can stop them is another story.
4. Yesterday I went to the shopping mall to do grocery shopping and that wasn't a smart move since there were no taxis. So I had to use my Nordic muscles and carry it all the way home.
5. There are no power breaks for 5 days which should keep our guests and the 500 journalists happy. Even though the guests are staying at Hyatt and I guess the 5 star hotel never have any power breaks.
To see the road this empty is a bit scary, but in a few minutes they came driving. You can see it in motion here.

Book club

My mom and I love to read books, so now we have started a book club.
When we've finished reading a book we discuss it over Skype.
The November book is Canada by Richard Ford.

THE birthday party

I think we all remember how exciting it was waiting for the birthday when we were kids.
Actually I still do. One of my grandmoms died young, two months before I was born and my mother use to say that we should be grateful for every year we live and the birthday is an excellent day for celebrations.
Leya was super excited about her 8:th birthday and this year we had the party at a kid's center so they could play and have fun.
The favorite kids' food here in Nepal is momo, so that was a must.

This is momo, if you haven't heard about it before.

Nepalese style birthday parties start with the cake, but we did it Swedish style with the cake after the food.

This party light was a hit.

We had also made some gifts for Leya's friends.

It was a great day and Leya was very happy, but tired at the end of the day.
We finished her birthday cuddled up in bed talking about the day she was born. Sweet memories!

Pre-birthday party

Eight years ago, this evening, we went to hospital to give birth to our lovely Leya and today we had a pre-party at Hyatt with Eva, her best friend and sister.

Lee and Zaya

Yesterday we met the sweet couple Lee, from Singapore and Zaya, from Mongolia.
We got in contact via a mutual Indian friend and a few days ago they arrived in Kathmandu.
They are on a Buddhist pilgrime journey and today they left for Lumbini, where Buddha was born.
We took them to Boudhanath, one of the world heritage Buddhist sites.

Shopping in Thamel is a must when you come to Nepal.

Farmer's market

Yesterday was Leya's free day, so we decided to go to a farmer's market we've heard about, but first we stopped by this bunch of puppies.
One of the female dogs in our neighborhood had 8 puppies. 8 puppies!
I wonder what will happen to them. Right now they are staying inside a local restaurant.

This farmer's market is specialized on expats living in Nepal and we've wanted to go here for some time.
Since it's located close to Thamel, where we do most of our work, we don't feel like going there on Saturdays, but I'm glad we finally did.

Brunch: a sandwich, Belgian waffles and lemonade.

We ran in to this happy Swedish couple, who are teaching here for a few months.
They were selling Swedish candy and chocolate balls to support sport and music projects, so of course we wanted to help.

Strange, but fun, to see Swedish signs.

We bought a mug and some fridge magnets to support a dog shelter, run by a couple of sweet British ladies and multigrain bread, fresh and creamy goat cheese and a Brie cheese made by an actual French guy. Yummy!

A working day in Kathmandu

I guess it's difficult to understand how we work, so I've made a photo diary of a typical working day.
You can see the album here.
This day started with a walking breakfast ...

Hammarby football

Nicholas is truly passionate about one thing in life and that is his Swedish football team Hammarby and thanks to internet he can watch the games here in Nepal.
Yesterday they played the most important game this season and they won with 5-0 and moved up to the top series Allsvenskan.
You can see some amazing photos here from the celebrations in Stockholm last night.
I know Nicholas wanted to be there with his brother and friends, but I guess he will be alright flying around on his pink cloud of happiness here in Nepal.