Saturday with the Lal family

Today was my first real "hang-out" time with the Lals. Over chai and fruit, I learned that Padam and his wife (I'm still learning names) did meet and marry in the refugee camp. They both came to Nepal when they were about sixteen years old, and stayed there for the next sixteen years. Their main reaction to American so far is, "We like it, but it's cold." I still haven't seen Padam actually take his coat off, and when we stepped outside later, on a pretty mild fall day by Idaho standards, he pulled his hood on and cinched it tight.

They told me a little about their refugee camp, Beldangi. It was pretty much it's own town, perhaps out of necessity, since no one was allowed to leave. Padam had a small business in the camp, selling cigarettes and fruit. Women weren't allowed to work. They lived in a hut made of bamboo, about half the size of the living room they have now--maybe 15 or 20 feet square. I was glad to hear they hadn't lived in the Goldhap camp, which burned down in a matter of hours after one of the huts caught on fire. Bamboo may be cheap, but it isn't very fire-resistant.

They had home DVDs to show me. One chronicled Padam's brother leaving Nepal to work in Dubai, then coming back to celebrate the holidays with his family. I'm not sure if that means he has family that has always lived in Nepal? I don't know, sometimes we have a definite communication gap. Another video was filmed in the refugee camp, and it showed the wedding of his wife's sister, which happened a year and a half ago. A thousand people celebrated for seven full days. I was impressed by how normal life seemed to be even inside a refugee camp. It was obvious that many of the guests were wearing a hodge-podge of whatever clothing the UN provided, but the women of the wedding party were all wearing saris, and the bride had a beautiful scarf with gold accents over her head. One scene showed Padam and his wife blessing the new couple by sticking flower petals in their headbands and anointing their hands with water. Every guest at the wedding does this, and by the end the couple have foreheads full of flower petals. There was a lot of rice involved too, but I'm not sure what exactly they were doing with it.

We then went on our adventure to find a vacuum, which meant a trip to Deseret Industries. Padam headed over to the electronics section first and was looking at old computers. Earlier in my visit, they had shown me the various computer parts they had collected--monitor, mouse, keyboard, and kept talking about a "CPU." In my head I was thinking, "I'm a humanities major. I have no idea what a 'CPU' even is." Apparently, it's the computer part of a computer. I dissuaded Padam from buying one from a thrift store, especially since all the ones there were labeled "parts." We ran into other Bhutanese refugees while we were there. Several Bhutanese families are in Twin Falls right now, and more are coming, including Padam's mother and older brother. The US has made a commitment to taking in 60,000 Bhutanese, and they're being sprinkled like salt all over America. Padam now has family members in New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, and California.

We pressed onward on our mission, and looked through the ranks of dusty vacuums. I steered them toward the bagless ones, since I know from experience the exasperation of not being able to find the right bag for an old as dirt vacuum. We selected one and had a sales guy plug it in to make sure it worked. When we got it back home, Bikash excitedly plugged it in and pushed it all around the living room, making sure to try out all the attachments as well.

I was then introduced to Nepalese music videos, featuring a lead singer with side burns and glasses who looked freakily like Johnny Depp. Padam's wife had disappeared into the kitchen, and soon came out with a bowl of soup, motioning for me to sit and eat. The soup was the most amazing thing I've seen done with Ramen noodles, ever. It had basil and ginger and chilies and tomatoes--served with a bowl of microwave popcorn on the side. Gradually more bowls of soup appeared and Padam and his two kids sat down, but not his wife. I'm not sure if this is a custom, or she'd just already eaten. The soup was followed by pomegranates and more music videos, and then I said I needed to go. They invited me for dinner on Friday, and Bikash said, "After dinner, we go to beautiful place." Not sure what the beautiful place is, but I can't wait to find out.