Happy Dashain

We are in the middle of the 15 days festival Dashain and on Friday Nepal closes down for about a week.
You could say this festival is like our Christmas. People go back home to their villages to meet with family and friends.
For many people it takes one whole day to go to the village and one day to come back, so no wonder they need at least a week to celebrate.
On Saturday we will stay indoors because during that day they will kill a lot of animals for the blood thirsty Goddess Kali.
I wish they'd stop these insane animal ritual killings on the town squares.
Read more about Dashain here.

Autumn greeting

My mom sent this beautiful photo of my dad's horse Royal.
Sweden is so beautiful right now.

Photographer

Maybe Leya will be a photographer when she grows up.
I love this photo. She really managed to capture the yellow, vibrant colors of the flowers against the brick wall.
Obs! Photoshop hasn't been near this photo. Naturellement!

Dogs

I really, really love dogs!
Every day I boil meat to our darlings and every third day I go and buy left over meat at the local butcher.
Next to the butcher lives one dad dog, one mom dog and three grown up puppies.
The dad and one of the puppies, with one ear split in the middle so it looks like she has two flapping ears on one side, love when I give them some special attention while I'm waiting for the butcher to chop whatever she has in her freezer.

Homework

Nepal's most important holiday, Dashain, is coming up and the kids are free from school for two weeks.
But they are not free from homework and that is insane, according to my opinion.
The kids need to be free from all type of pressure since they go to school six days a week and always have a ton of homework.

Himalayan Heroes

Himalayan Heroes is our new Nepalese brand. We want to dedicate this brand to all the women and men up in the Himalayas who are struggling every day to survive.
They carry everything they need up, up, up the mountains. Food for themselves and their animals, trekking tourists's heavy backpacks and food.
They live far away from civilization, with limited material comforts. A tough life few of us would survive.

I'm making my own designed "Human with a heart" earrings to our new customers Leslie and Alain in France.

Orphanage

Our neighbour house is an orphanage and we knew when we moved here that it's a Christian home.
Every day the poor kids have to get up at five and sing songs. The boys sometimes wear a t-shirt and shorts, but the girls always have a grey, full home dress.
The other day the owners of the orphanage came and it felt like we suddenly were in US and in an Amish area.
The married men have beards and the unmarried men are shaved. They are dressed exactly the same.

The women have full covering dresses and knot hair style. Not a single hair is loose.

I think I'm a rather open person, but when it comes to religious extremes I just don't understand. Regardless religion I must add.
I'm wondering how these kids will manage to live in the Nepalese society when they grow up, since they don't have any Hindu or Buddhist traditions at all.
Why do some Christians have the urge to convert people to their faith? This is one of the reasons I have problems with Christianity.
I believe in God, but I believe in my way.
I think Jesus would have been very sad if he knew how some people are misusing his name.

A Swedish visitor

Yesterday we finally met with Camilla, a Facebook friend who I know via another Facebook friend. (This is how life works today and I love it!)
Camilla (sounds like comilla) means ant in Nepalese, so of course she got a new nickname after meeting us, Myran, ant in Swedish.
So exciting to hear about her travelling in India, Bali, Thailand and Japan.
When she goes home in December-January she has been out in the big, big world for almost one year. Amazing!
Tonight we had a real Italian pizza. Of course we took her to the best pizza place in town, Fire and Ice, and she was in heaven with the rest of us.

A life story

I'd like to share a life story with you. One of our dear Nepalese friends is 24 years old and is the oldest son in a Brahmin family.
Brahmins are the highest cast according to Hindu traditions. His family lives in a village a few hours from Kathmandu and they are very conservative.
When he was 16 he moved to Kathmandu all by himself. For many years he'd been suffering from seizures and even though one of his aunts died from having a seizure and drowned in her own backyard, our friend's father refused to seek a doctor for his son. God would cure him.
When he moved to Kathmandu he went to the hospital and after a few years of medication he was fine.
He started at the bottom in a clothes shop and today he manages the shop and runs a successful cargo company. Our friend has always been very driven.
Now his both younger brothers have moved to Kathmandu and he takes care of them financially since his parents don't have that much money. Imagine what a difference from moving to a big city all by yourself when you are just a kid.
It's the current situation that I want to share with you.
Since he is the oldest son, his father has been calling every day telling him that he must get married. And why is it so urgent, you might wonder.
I'll tell you why. His parents are getting older, even though they still have the health, and the oldest son's wife is bound to live with them in the village to take care of them and all the housework.
Our friend is a modern guy. He drinks alcohol, which is a huge No No! when you come from a Brahmin family and he has had several girlfriends.
One of these girlfriends he broke up with the same day last year when we met him for the first time. He is a passionate man who needs love in his life, but the only girl he could consider that would be suitable for his parents was this girlfriend.
For the last six months the father has been calling every morning about the marriage and the same goes for this specific girlfriend, who he broke up with since he didn't love her anymore.
She is 20 years old, living in the next village and she also comes from a Brahmin family. Her parents started pressuring her that she had to get married. Every morning she called our friend, crying her heart out and begged him to marry her. She knew her family would pick a suitable stranger and marry her of in a couple of months unless he came to her rescue.
When they had a relationship no one knew. That's how it works here.
Our friend had this pressure over his shoulder day and night for months. On one hand this girl would be good for his parents on the other hand he didn't lover like he imagined he would love his future bride.
The pressure got even worse a month ago when his parents told him that they were going to the astrologer. They never talk directly about things, but our friend understood that they had found someone for him.
He went to an astrologer her in Kathmandu to check that he and this girl was a match according to the stars, (you can always pay a little extra to make them match), because one thing was for certain. He would never ever marry someone he hadn't chosen for himself.
For weeks he's been tormenting himself. It's been hard to see him suffer. I know he wants to travel and build a house on the land he just bought, but he must get married when next wedding season starts, in mid November.
He finally told his parents that he has chosen this girl and they wasn't too happy about it. Probably they'd already promised another family to take in their daughter, but now everything seems alright.
The girl cried for a whole day when he said he was going to marry her.
Even though he has decided to marry her, he isn't completely convinced that he is doing the righ thing for himself, but at this point he has no choice. He is forced to get married to her (or someone else).
This is the harsh reality in Nepal today.

Niklas International Cargo Ptv Ltd

According to the documents the lawyer drew up the first time we applied for a business visa, we have invested a grotesque sum of money in Nicholas cargo company.
Apparently we didn't invest in a desk. Or an office for that matter.

Asianet

Great news! The 24 hour teleshop Asianet, that covers Kerala and Pune (population: 35 million people and many elephants), wants to promote (free air time for us) and buy our original Prana nail mat.
This means that we are making a promotion video in the next few weeks and then we hope for the best.
I know the Indians will love the nail mat as much as the Swedish people.
Read more about our Prana nail mat here.
We also sell nail mittens and here is Leya 3,5 years old showing them. Mommie's little cutie pie!

"Nepali speaker"

Today Leya came home from school and told me that the teacher had made a sign that said "Nepali speaker" attached to a necklace.
When a child happened to speak Nepali the kid got this sign around his or her neck.
Already the first day the kids started turning on each other, telling the teacher if someone was speaking Nepali.
The kid that had the sign was also humiliated and laughed at.
I rushed over to the principal and told him my mind. It's scary, but they really don't understand the impact this kind of punishment has on the individual student.
99 % of the parents demand that their kids must speak English at all times. It's the same in all schools here in Nepal.
The parents apperently believes that English is the answer to all problems.
For us this is just too much and we alwyas tell the principal that we think the kids should learn more Nepali, their mother tongue.
We now have a generation gap where the parents don't know English and their kids don't know Nepali.
Sometimes I wish we could homeschool Leya, but we want her to be a part of the society a school is.
The sad part is that her English is horribel, both in speach and writing.
If you don't have qualified teachers you can make as many stupid signs as you like. It woun't help!
At least the principal was clever enough to back off and stop this stupid punishment.

A bird in my skirt

Yesterday a little birdie got stuck in my skirt.

Heellooo!

I wonder how long time he had been hanging there before a man said "You have a bird in your skirt!".
Well, when he got loose he needed some rest. As you can see he (or she) has alopecia, just like me.

Blankets

Today we went shopping for beautiful, soft blankets for our customer Ulsans in Oskarshamn, Sweden.
The old buildnings are so beautiful and the sellers hang their blankets and shawls down the walls.

The Indra Jatra (I'm sure it's called something else after the first day), the thanks for the monsun rain, is ongoing.

The Mauler

This morning I just happened to follow The Mauler's ultimat fighting for the champion belt in Toronto, Canada.
I'm absolutely not for fighting, but we know his mother, who runs a B&B in an old royal mansion in Sweden and use to shop from us.
Find Eleonora's B&B here. It's in Swedish, but click on Kontakt if you want to contact her.
It was so exciting to follow the live report, but he lost on points to the current champion.
Read more about the Mauler here.

Home delivery

Today we bought our first proper dining furniture since we moved to India, 3,5 years ago.
I've been longing for this day. To be able to sit like a typical Swedish family around the kitchen table.
The delivery method here is a little different. In Sweden we take the car to IKEA and buy flat parcels we put together ourselves when we get home.
We planned to transport it on a taxi roof, but we got a manpowered carrier instead.
It was so heavy and he jogged with it on his head for half a mile, almost a km.
Here you can watch his last meters to the house.

Finally the furniture are in place. This is the before-photo. I have plans involving paint. An after-photo can be expected.

Fun Park

Today we took a few family hours at Fun Park.
Leya met Minnie Mouse or Mimmi Pigg as we say In Sweden.

She was so happy riding on one of the horses. It was a long time ago.

She took a ride on the train with her dear mom.

Then she took an aeroplane round trip.

She ended the day at Fun Park with a photo together with a boy who's parents wanted Leya in the picture.

Happy

I can honestly say that I'm happy with my life. Every day I thank universe that I'm living my dream life.
We live in a nice flat and our financial situation has finally stabilized.
I can even treat myself with a food massage if I like. (Hilarious misspelling!)
Thank you, Brahma!

Indra Jatra

Yesterday it was the big annual festival Indra Jatra, or more specific Kumari Jatra, at Durbar square.
Ready about the festival here.
It was completely crazy! People and police everywhere.

We even saw them carry the living goddess, Kumari. Poor little girl!
Read more about the Kumari here.
She is right below the arrow.

Leya and I were standing right next to the largest chariot of three, but when they brought a cute lamb to the scene, we left. I knew they were going to kill it and I can't watch killings.
Here is the chariot where I assume Kumari was going to sit.

Many prominent people came, one by one in the flashiest cars ever seen in Nepal.
Here is a high officer and in the background you can see the Mercedes he came with.

Boliden

This is very strange!
Next to the road, on the way to our house, you can see this sign.
Boliden is a Swedish company. Who put this old sign there? And why?
One of life's unanswered mysteries.