A dinner for the community in Pharping
Just look what you guys did! 🙂
For those who are new here, back in late September, massive monsoon rains caused flooding and landslides across sections of the Kathmandu Valley, at last count killing more than 200 people with nearly 200 more injured and nearly 200 still missing.
Along with completely destroying the mountain roads that lead to remote villages out in the valley, the landslides and floods wiped out vast farmlands during the growing season, and killed goats, cows, and chickens. Food prices skyrocketed immediately. My Nepali language teacher told me, during my weekly 5:15 a.m. Friday lesson, “It’s very bad.” (Nepal is 13 hours and 45 minutes ahead of Pacific Time, so 5:15 a.m. here is 7:00 p.m. there. Yes, I’m tired during our lessons.)
When I told Shaha dev, at the elder care home in Pharping, that I wanted to donate money so all the elders in Pharping could have a community meal once a week, he texted back with pricing. He also said, “Didi, [sister] you cannot do every week. One time a month, yes.”
After I converted his estimates from Nepal rupees to US dollars, I thought something was getting lost in translation, but he texted back firmly: No, the cost to provide one meal with meat would run anywhere from $90 US to $120 US.
My brain exploded.
Our tribe came to the rescue, though, and thanks to all of you and to the friends you spoke with, we were able to provide a hot meal to the village elders on November 19. On that afternoon, approximately 50 Pharping elders gathered at the Senior Citizen Community Center in the heart of the village, where Shaha dev and his friends prepared a community dinner for them.
This was the first meat that most of these elders had eaten in a month. And, as per Nepali tradition, a feast like this called for music and dancing and hands in the air in gratitude.
Our tribe is truly the best, and I am forever grateful to you all!
We are planning our next meal in January, so stay tuned.
♥