Our Life in this Land--Staying Warm

I have not kept up with blogging lately, and my emotional and mental energy is a bit low to write anything terribly reflective, so I thought I'd start a series of posts on some basics of life as we experience it here in Kathmandu.  I'll call them "Life in this Land."  There are many things that are different for us here than what we are used to.  Some are exciting, and some are a bit more challenging.  John and I have spent the last 12-13 years in Southern California, so the cold here is one of the things that we are definitely not used to.  During the day it is quite pleasant, even warm usually, in the sun outside.  But nights get quite cold.  And buildings here are all made of cement or marble, so even during the day, it seems to always feel cold inside.  It is a bit of a flip to go outside to get warm.  Even in places we've lived (and I grew up) where winters are really cold, you go inside to warm up.  So, we are trying to gather tips from people around us and build our arsenal of defenses against the cold here.  

One of the things we do is to put hot water bottles into the bed at night.  This is perhaps not foreign to many, but I had never done this before.  We boil water and then pour it into the bottles.  This has become John's job mostly, as I seem to have a knack for getting the boiling water on myself or dropping the bottle or other such things.  If we slip them into the covers we bought and then tuck them under our blankets, they actually stay warm until morning.  

Several of my friends suggested putting some flannel over the sheets on the boys' beds, as it feels more comfortable and retains heat a bit better than just laying right on the cold cotton sheets.  You can find flannel here in many little fabric/clothing shops.  This is the least "busy" pattern I have seen, and Isaiah actually really liked it.  There is a word/phrase in Nepali "rangi changi," which I love to say and means multi-colored (or many colors) and describes most things that are available here.  But, when you're cold, who cares about color overload?!

As you can see in this picture, Ezekiel also always sleeps on top of a quilt Grandma made for Isaiah when he was a baby.  It is soft and warm and cozy, and Ezekiel totally expects it now.  We drape it over the side of the crib closer to the wall to also help try to block some of the draft.

This is a space heater that we purchased to use in Ezekiel's room.  There is no central heat in homes here, so space heaters are the option.  There are larger gas ones that are much more efficient, but they are also much more expensive, and they are fairly dangerous, as they literally have a gas tank just setting on the back (think propane tank like you use for a big grill in the States), and you can't leave them running while sleeping because of leaking gas.  The downside of the ones like we have is that they are electric.  That seems good, but we are up to 10 hours per day without electricity, so that limits things notably.  And, they are bright!  So, it's pretty much like leaving the bedroom light on in Ezekiel's room.  But, it seems to help take the chill out of the room.

I didn't take a photo of it, but we have also tried to cover one of Ezekiel's windows with a big piece of plastic that we got when we bought some cushions because his one window felt as if it might as well have just been wide open.  The windows in general here in our home don't quite close tightly or fit quite right, so we are thinking we'll try to follow up on a tip to get more big sheets of plastic to put up on other windows, but Ezekiel's room was definitely the worst.

"Chinese" blankets.  These seem to all be imported from China, and they are big and fuzzy.  Again, they are nearly always very rangi changi, so in spite of the funky velour pattern look to this, it is the most mellow one I could find.  It is barely wider than the top of our mattress, so I recently bought a second one, as I was often waking up with the blanket all piled on the other half (um, my husband is a sound sleeper and a blanket thief!).  I actually found one that was all brown!  Those of you who know me can imagine my excitement! :)

We wear a LOT of layers and much of the time have our coats on in the house!

They make these great felt slippers here.  This is a picture of Isaiah and I showing ours off after we bought them a couple weeks ago.

Perhaps my "favorite" thing that is a new experience here (not specific to winter but used more frequently now) is lighting my oven.  I've taken a little video to let you in on this little task of mine.