Back home!

Thursday in Delhi was absolutely crazy since it was my last day and I had quite a few loose ends to tie up.
I always buy typical Indian glittery, silky, patchword bedspreads, wallhangings and bags from this man.
He is in charge of the payment.

I also bought myself some sandals and I use to buy them from this man and his brother who always greet me with "Here comes the boss!".

10 at night I could finally take a deep breath and drink some banana lassi in the hotel room.
You find the recipe here.

Friday morning I flew home to gorgeous Nepal, to my lovely family and our sweet dogs. Love! Love! Love!

Wednesday in Delhi

Shopped summer dresses and perfume oils and pastes for different customers.

Got the order for the borders/trims (kantband) so I went back to Old Delhi and Kenari bazar.
The traffic was a nightmare, just like last time. Apparently they are building an extension to the metro along that road, so the traffic was actually worse than usual.
Well, well. I survived and got back to Main Bazar in one piece.
Went to my favorite bead guy in India and bought a few kilos of space bead parts for my own designed necklaces and bracelets.
Here he is making shiny silver color look antique with the help of some oil. He puts the stuff in a cloth and rocks it back and forth.

This time I stayed at the hotel All iz well for the first time. I can really recommend it if you ever go here.
In the lobby it's a separate cafe owned by a Korean woman and her two super cute dogs.
I use to drop in at least once a day for a lemonade and some puppy love.

Tuesday in Delhi

Yesterday I went to the nail mat factory and met Bob.
We've worked together for 6 years and now we've decided that they will hire a woman, (he asked if I wanted a man or a woman for this job and my answer was of course a woman), who will only work with sale sites, like Amazon, Flipcart, ShopClues, ebay etc. and sell our Prana nail mat on the Indian market.

They've moved to a new location and here they have one room just for buckwheat hull for filling meditation cushions.

This is a picture typical for the most factories all over the world.
The women work in one end of the room and they are paid the lowest salary. The further in to the room you get the salary increases and at the far end you have the tailors who earn the most.
I explained to Bob that he should teach women how to stitch and since he is a man who is open to suggestions, he will follow my advice.
In India you never, at least I haven't seen it, see a female tailor, but in Nepal it's more common.

In the afternoon I went to my favorite market Sarojini nagar and bought labeled surplus garments for myself and my family.
The guys get nuts when I arrive. They are shouting Mam! Mam! and want me to check the clothes, mostly tunics, they are holding up.
When I took this photo I had chosen the clothes and the guys had gathered to get paid.
Yesterday I wished I could go there incognito and just roam around, but it's impossible. When I come there they are like sharks circling a surfer.

Monday in Delhi

I've missed the auto rickshaw! It's almost a pleasure going places in this easy maneuvered sewing machine.
But going to old Delhi in the middle of the day made me realize that the traffic here is completely insane and I will try not to complain about the traffic in Nepal, that is dream compared to this.
It took more than an hour just to go a few kilometers.

The last bit I had to go with this gentleman on his cycle rickshaw.

Then I spent hours taking photos of borders and when I came back to the hotel I worked til 3 in the morning with all the photos and prices.
This man is always helping me when I get to this huge shop with borders covering 4 floors.

Aren't these colors breathtaking!

Delhi

Today I'm going to Delhi for a few days of business meetings and shopping.
Main Bazar here I come!

Pernilla and Anna from Sweden

We have Swedish visitors this week. Pernilla runs her own company P-Eko Produkter and she wanted to see factories and check the working conditions, so we made a day of it.
We are grateful that Nepal has a tradition of good working conditions with light working areas, a salary you can live on, normal working hours and no child labor.
Garment factory No. 1:

Garment factory No. 2:

Wool felt factory:

Angel and Lizzie

When Lizzie isn't coming with me to town to work, it looks like this when I leave the house.
I sure feel loved and longed for!

Swine flu

Apparently the swine flu has reach Nepal and the schools, I guess it comes from the government, say that the kids must wear a face mask.
I don't like this mask thing at all since I know it's not helping and after the swine flu panic vaccinations we had in Sweden in 2009 it's well known that swine flu isn't more deadly than other flus.
Of course Leya wants to be like the other kids so she also has a mask, but I wish the schools would teach the kids generally how to avoid to get infected instead.
Like sneezing and coughing in the elbow instead of in the hands, blowing the nose in a paper tissue and wash the hands frequently.

Aircraft removal kit

Two days a go a plane from Turkish airlines had to do an emergency landing here in Kathmandu.
It seems as if it was something wrong with the landing gear.
No one was seriously injured and the passengers slid down the slides to the ground and safety.
Now the international flights are cancelled since they don't know how to remove the aircraft from the only runway.
Luckily India has sent a Hercules with an aircraft removal kit and they say the runway will be clear at 10 am tomorrow. I believe it when I see it...
Anyway! We got very curious about how this removal kit looks like. The word removal got us thinking about nail polish removal and kit seems so small, like a sewing kit.
Well. As long as it gets the work done it doesn't matter how big or small it is.
Here you can see the Hercules landing yesterday and the damaged plane in the background.

Kathrine and Manish

Last week we had friends from Sweden visiting.
It was their first trip to Nepal so we did some touristy things like going to Pashupatinath and Boudhanath, but we also did some shopping. A must when coming here!
They had to leave two days earlier since they had to go back to Delhi for train tickets to Manish' hometown in the East of India.
Sad to see them leave, (they are so sweet!), but soon they are moving to Delhi and then we can meet more often.

Spring is here

Finally the winter has decided to loose it grip over Kathmandu.
A few degrees warmer and it makes a big difference. Yesterday was the official spring day since we had the windows open even after the sun had gone down and we didn't even feel it.
Britt-Marie is helping me stitch on beads on recycled silk wrap bracelets and Angel is relaxing.

This is one of my favorites.

Sewer bath

Yesterday Leya came home crying and screaming. We thought she had hurt herself really bad, but the problem was something completely different.
She was dirty and smelling like ... (fill in the blank) from falling in to a sewer ditch somewhere.
For obvious reasons I didn't even think about taking a photo. I just threw her in the shower and thank god there was some lukewarm mater.
We truly, truly appreciate the guys cleaning the sewers! They should have their own public holiday.

Festivals

This week has been full of festivals.
Tuesday it was Shivaratri, a day that Hindus who worship Shiva celebrate him by visiting Pashupatinath and smoke ganja.
Read more about Shivaratri here.

Today it's the main day of Lhosar, the Tibetan Buddhist new year, read more about it here.
Here you can see the Lhosar celebrations at Boudhanath.

Today it's also the Chinese new year and that means Kathmandu will be invaded by Chinese people spending their holiday here.
We wish you all a happy goat year!

Maya

Since we have to leave the house to work a few days a week we have hired Maya.
Maya is selling pouches in the street in the tourist area and I've known here since we moved here.
I use to give her some money, but she always asks me to help her find a job and finally we could give her one.
She is really hard working taking care of Britt-Marie, doing the dishes and laundry.
Maya is the sole provider for her two daughters, a younger sister and a brother. They live in a small room that also is used as a kitchen.
She is struggling every day to pay for school fees, rent, food and everything else that we take for granted.
I'm really impressed with Maya since she has learnt really good English just walking the streets the last 14 years trying to get a rupee here and there.
Maya is 33 and her mother is 45. You do the maths! Maya's mom got married when she was 9 years old with a 29 year old man and Maya was born when she was only 12. It's as if we would get Leya married this year.So incredible horrible for a little girl!
The sad thing is that I think it still happens in remote villages.
Maya is determent to give her daughters and siblings a good education and if you want to sponsor her we'd be glad to make sure the money ends up in the right place.

Valentine's day

In our family we celebrate Valentine's day all together, eating a nice meal, saying nice things to each other.
It was the first time Britt-Marie was out in her wheelchair.

Leya's friend Unisha came with us. At Valentine's day everyone is welcome!

Broken hip

The last two weeks have been, say the least, chaotic.
Britt-Marie, my mother-in-law, tripped and fell on the concrete outside our house and broke her hip.
Luckily she has a great insurance so she could get the best care available in Nepal.
A week ago she had the surgery and it showed that her bones are very fragile, but the orthopaedic surgeon is one of the best in Nepal, so he managed to screw them back together.
A few days ago she came home, but she is not allowed to put pressure on the leg for at least six weeks, so we are taking care of her. Which we gladly do since she is happy patient, determent to get back on her feet.
Here she is right after the operation with the surgeon Deepak Mahara.

Saraswati puja

Sunday it was Saraswati's day and we were invited to Leya's school to celebrate.
Saraswati is the Goddess of learning, if I simplify it. (Few things about Hinduism is simple).
Read more about Saraswati here.
The staff at the school had made this beautiful decoration for the puja altar.
If you don't have any ties to Asia or Hinduism/Buddhism you might react on the swastika painted on the wall, but in this culture you see it everywhere since it's an important symbol for good luck and prosperity.
Read more about the swastika here.

We gave Saraswati some bananas and oranges.

Leya with her class mates and theachers.

You can see Leya's own Saraswati puja in our house here.

New furniture

Finally we've come around to update our home. Since Britt-Marie was coming the bank, (read Nicholas), had to open the wallet and spend some money.
I found this gorgeous second hand desk that was four-men-heavy to carry up the stairs and I've painted it in my favorite color lime green.

Our first wardrobe, daraj in Nepali, since we moved from Sweden five years ago.
Don't ask where we've kept our clothes, it's a mystery, but now our clothes can be tucked in just like all the other normal clothes.
I love both the design and color. Not something I can say about all ready made furniture here in Nepal.

We've been thinking about buying a fridge with a separate freezer for some time now and two days ago our old, very small fridge suddenly stopped working.
Wise from earlier experiences we should have checked the cable first, but since we hadn't seen a rat in months it didn't even cross our mind.
Yesterday a guy carried home the new fridge and I'm super happy and grateful to the rat who shewed of the cable of the old one.
We caught the hero/cute/disgusting rat last night and this morning I let it out a few streets away from our house for another house to get a not so welcome visitor.
I still don't understand why the freezer part is at the top here in Asia. In Sweden most of the freezers are at the bottom and I think that makes much more sense.

Hermes of Paris

Hermes are making woven products here in Nepal and I'd love to share one of the factory's not so high tech tool.
This bright painted upside down turned part of a bike is helping the worker roll threads.

Grandma is here!

Saturday morning Leya's grandma finally arrived after a long journey from Stockholm via Istanbul to Kathmandu.
She brought Swedish candy, magazines and other typical Swedish things sent by my mom, so we were even happier that she came.

Britt-Marie loves the sun, so a Nepalese winter is preferable to a Swedish one.