We loved our de facto homestays with Pasang’s grandparents. First, in Thumbuk and then later in Khumjung. We spent a total of ten days between the two villages with loads of trekking in between. The kids voted Thumbuk the most peaceful. Most exciting and Peace Corps-esque were the squat toilets, bucket showers and hand laundry. Laundry, and getting it dry in the monsoon, was a group endeavor.
The ingenious door mat is fragrant, compostable and locally made.
Sherpa homes have some distinctive qualities: colorful window frames, potato fields and blue or green roofs. Some of my favorite touches were the gray cats curled up on the earthen stoves, the fantastic meals cooked from the simplest kitchens, the hired monks to bless the fresh-monthly prayer flags, the daily incense, the fragrant door mats but the absolute tell-tale sign is the tall Sherpa flags in the front yards.
View down the valley from the front door. The defining Sherpa flag pole out front and the detached bathroom.
Pasang’s father’s family lived in Thumbuk which is a small village with a gompa, monastery and a small K-4 school. There is no wifi, no road, nor store to buy staples, but they do have wild pepper tress, pines and herb gardens making any walk through the village an aromatic adventure. The 2015 earthquake caused significant damage here and our adoptive grandparents in Thumbuk spent a year living under a tarp and wood shed until their house could be rebuilt.
Our cozy upstairs quarters.
Most meals are farm-to-table at their finest. We helped grandmother dig some potatoes and had them boiled up with chili-pepper sauce for dinner. Garlic chives, cilantro and wild pepper season just about every meal. (These local peppers are a mix of our black pepper and spicy pepper and more than a quarter teaspoon with make your mouth totally numb for about five minutes. Will and I were slightly obsessed and urged each other on with the pepper sauce.) The whole wheat flour is grown locally, milled locally, and helped make our chapatis, momo’s and dumplings for Sherpa stew. Bring on the gluten!
Chimi, the cat, always staying warm by the stove.
All this time without connectivity, mirrors, stores or roads is some of what Will and I were hoping from this gift of a year away. The daily simplicity of our Sherpa home is what so many Americans crave. There’s an excuse to be unresponsive on email and the only to-do list is taking care of what’s important: food, family, friends and maintaining health.
