drink lots of water and eat healthy foods!

Before leaving for Nepal, everyone was concerned with what the food would be like, if I would be getting enough of it, how safe the water would be, etc. I figured I would get sick of the monotony of the type of food after a few months and physically sick from some foodborne illness after a few months, but unfortunately both have struck early. Last Friday, all the volunteers went out for dinner and drinks at Shanhi Village, one of the two “upscale” restaurants we visit on special occasions. We indulged in French fries and spring rolls and Indian food and beers and tequila, a good change from the daal bhat we eat all the time. About 24 hours after our festivities, my body was celebrating those festivities by getting rid of everything inside of me. I couldn’t stomach anything besides a plain roti (Nepalese tortilla) and water for two days, but alas, after lots of rest and letting the bug run its course, I was fine. There are 11 fellows here, and 6 of us have had this nasty bug in the last week, and we’ve been spending our time tracking its pattern and determining its starting point. So, Brendan and Susanne ate lunch at Valley View, our other favorite restaurant laaaast Friday, and by Sunday they were not feeling so good. Caroline ate there on Tuesday, and by Thursday she was spending most of the day and the night in the bathroom. We all ate out Friday and I got sick Saturday. And this morning we woke up to the sounds of Amy and Nate getting sick, just two days after eating lunch out as well. There hasn’t been one single food to cause the sickness but there has been one drink: water. The water in Nepal, like most developing countries, is not safe to drink. At school and the home, we are lucky enough to have purified drinking water taps to fill up our water bottles at any time we want. Other than that, if it’s not sold in a sealed plastic water bottle, it can’t be trusted. Whenever we eat out, we order bottles upon bottles of the perfect and ever-so-thirst-quenching Nepalese water and melt at the sound of the seal being broken, indicating that the water is pure and safe. Or so we thought! After the many bouts of illness we’ve been looking a little closer at these bottles. How come some are filled to the brim while others are only filled to the top of the label? They are sealed shut but what’s that little stuff floating around the bottom? It seems to us that restaurants and shops recycle the bottles, fill them up with water, and use some device to seal the bottles shut, just like they do with glass coke bottles and beer all around the world. It’s a genius mechanism for saving money and a genius way to get all the foreigners sick! For now, it’s safe to say I will be bringing my water bottle filled with purified water from home everywhere I go.

This is a typical meal seen at lunch or dinner in all of Nepal. It’s called daal bhat – rice with some liquid lentil / bean goodness. Always expect potatoes on the side, and maybe some sort of vegetable if you’re lucky. Top with lemons and chilis for a little kick! My theory is, hundreds of years ago some aboriginal Nepali person threw rice and lentils in a pot, it was easy and tasted good and that person thought “okay this is what I and my entire country shall eat at all meals from now on!” and it stuck. It is very delicious and authentic, but it gets very old when you are forced to eat two heaping servings of it every day. I had a steaming plate of daal bhat right before I got the sickness, so I’m taking the week off from rice and potatoes, and eating mostly peanut butter and plain crackers and snickers bars until I can stomach the Nepali cuisine again.