Having been to both Nepal and India in 2006, the hotels I stayed at successfully shrouded me from some of the challenges in these nations. One of the most enlightening aspects of this trip is that as aspiring temporary residents, rather than tourists, I am seeing a completely different picture of daily life. Below, I’ve highlighted three examples related to municipal infrastructure.

1. In Kathmandu, it typically gets dark around 6pm. And when power has been out for up to 12 hours a day – and this includes homes, stores and street lights at night – it gets real dark. But interestingly, your body starts to adjust. You get up early as soon as the sun is up and you get tired once the sun goes down. We don’t set alarm clocks; here, we live by the circadian rhythm method.
2. Water is plainly scarce in this part of the world. In Kathmandu, homeowners pay for the right to receive water and for the amount of water consumed. This buys them a window of roughly 30 minutes each week for the government to fill their water tank. But sometimes it doesn’t come at all – yet you still pay. Here in north India, we’ve been taking 2.5 gallon bucket showers every few days, making us keenly aware of the volume of water we consume daily. For context, a 10 min running shower probably equates to 25-30 gallons. Thus, we have been trying to conserve water and this has implications such as not flushing the toilet as much or wearing the same clothes for a few days. Earlier this week, I was even shocked to see a boy fill his thermos with muddy water from a puddle.
3. When you drive through Kathmandu, it is common to see black smoke emanating from fires along the side of the road. This is the burning of garbage as there is no garbage pickup. As such, the waste that you produce is a nagging reminder of what you consume. And as you might expect, it is mainly processed foods that not only costs the most, but produces a disproportionate amount of garbage.

This is not a social commentary, but rather, in some small way, we feel like we’ve gained some insight into life outside Canada and even grown a little bit. We are learning to be better stewards of the earth, Joyce and I are talking even more, and we’re also eating a bit healthier.

- Jonathan