Traditional meets Modern

Above: Lalita (on cell phone) and Lissim, who come from a small village in South Western Nepal.

In Nepal, especially, I constantly witness amazing intersections between traditional and the modern.

Just 10 years ago the goats and chickens in Lissim's village would be attacked regularly by tigers. Now, that particular threat is less probably due to influx of population in the area, as well as poaching. But coming into this village, in many ways (though not needing to be worried about the tigers), I feel like I could have stepped back hundreds of years earlier and things would have otherwise looked just the same way.

Lissim's house was actually built only 20 years ago, with wood, straw, mud, and cow dung. The hand washed laundry is hung to dry on a beautiful, hanging wooden pole. She cooks as her family has always - over a fire in the kitchen on the first floor.
A bit worried about the health risks associated with cooking this way (the smoke inhaled is hard on the lungs) and aware of the work involved with gathering firewood for every fire, I asked if they ever thought of having a gas stoves.

No, she replied. The rice cooked over fire is sweet. Rice cooked over anything else isn't as good.

Her "refrigerator" is a ceramic bowl, a vessel for the milk that comes from the cow she milks every morning. Rice is sifted by a hand-cranked fan that, when cranked hard enough, can separate the rice from it's hull.

Absolutely everything on her piece of land and in her house is organic, natural. Except for a very few items within the house that are immaculately taken care of. A comb, one small mirror, a picture on the wall of she and her brother (who is working in Dubai), and a computer. She proudly shows me video after video of traditional Tharu dances on her computer. I'm not sure that she uses the computer for much else. But her cousin seems quite adept on the computer and is often surfing the net.

While Lissim's house and surroundings are absolutely beautiful, life in the village is difficult. She works hard all day, every day, taking care of all the animals, cooking, planting rice and cultivating. And there is a severe lack of water in this village, which presents not only daily living task challenges, but also health risks.

So some, who have the opportunity (or through necessity), have picked up and moved to towns like where I live, Hetauda, which aren't quite city and aren't quite village, but somewhere in between.

My neighbors, who moved here recently still cook outside every morning and evening on an oven that they have built from mud as they did in their village. But now live in a concrete house with electricity and running water.

I was leaving home the other day to come to work and noticed that they had a new puppy. A black and white dog who was drinking water at the time. I had to fight the urge to go and play with the puppy since I was already late to work. For future reference, however, I wanted to know what the puppy's name was, so I asked.

The answer? Facebook.