$5 Rent for Our Village Home with Cow Dung and Mud Floors and Walls: Tales from the Mountain Tops and Valleys Below #3

We spent our first summer in Kathmandu, Nepal, working hard learning to speak some of the Tharu language while becoming friends with Kissan and learning about his life and culture. It was hard for him because he had to leave his wife and baby in the village. Kissan's daughter Mina, pictured below, was the same age as Jonathan.

When the summer was over and the monsoon season came to an end, Bill and Kissan returned to the village. Bill went to arrange for permanent housing for us. He was able to rent the only brick structure in the village for $5 a month, though it needed much work which we were required to pay for. It was brick on the outside, yet to be completed with the typical cow dung and mud floors and walls. Plus it still was without a roof.

We also needed a clean source for water and Bill arranged to have dug the only village pump in town. This we willingly shared with the rest of the villagers, glad we could provide them with a healthier source of water too (Jenny likes the focus on clean water for all villagers as she is currently working on her masters in public health). We spent many hours around this pump...washing clothes and pumping drinking water, and talking with all the village women.

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The day before our scheduled flight to the village, Jonathan broke out with measles. Then there was so much rain that our flight to the village was almost cancelled. But in spite of these challenges, we were able to leave anyway. When God leads He provides. 

After a bumpy landing, we found a new friend who spoke English. He worked for USAID and was stationed in Bharatpur (our airstrip town), getting ready to leave the country. His wife and baby were already gone. He sold us all his baby furniture to use in our new village home. This meant Jonathan had a real crib and high chair. Here's a picture of Jonathan in his crib on one of our first night's there. His crib was right next to our sleeping bags (on top of a straw mattress on a string frame). Notice the mischievous smile on his face. :)

The first thing we had asked the Lord on our return was for our house to have a roof. We were thrilled and very thankful to the Lord when we saw the roof covering most of the house. 

Later we planned to have cement counters installed in the kitchen with shelves underneath. These would hold our kitchen supplies, but not keep out the mice and roaches. We had one kerosene burner to cook on and a fold up camp oven I could make bread in. There was no fridge so we needed to purchase fresh buffalo milk daily. We had all grown quite used to the taste of buffalo milk by now.

We also built an Indian style outhouse (no seat, just squatting down), with thatch walls that the village kids liked to peer through when we used it.

According to my journal, the first day there was wild: “Jon fell out of his crib on his head, I fell down the stairs and Bill pounded his thumb and finger and the rest of the house is definitely not finished. Plus we had a rat disaster of our stored things with much of our clothes chewed up. But, praise the Lord,the roof was on so we’re staying here…..The challenge now is the floor—mud and very wet. We walk sloshing around and Jon has a cold already.

"The first morning we were awakened by our landlady standing over our bed speaking loudly to us in Tharu. We thought we’d closed the doors which meant no entry. But we soon learned they could do what they wanted in and with the house—including taking things they liked. It was challenging due to language limitations and cultural expectations to navigate the fine line of privacy and friendship. 

“But the people are very friendly and helpful, especially all the children in and out of our house every day. It’s the custom to go in and out of each other's house. Once in our house I asked a boy whose house this was and he answered quite firmly that it was his--of course--everyone knew that! So we are learning culture as well as language.”