Curry for Christmas in Kathmandu

The first Christmas away from home, is always a somewhat surreal experience, it’s never Christmas as you know it. Here there was no snow, no cold, no Christmas trees, no decorations, no presents and no Christmas tasty treats. But that’s totally fine. I mean what do you expect? You’re not in a Christian country, it’s not celebrated here so if you want Christmas, you have to do it yourself.

I thought as long as I can speak to my family, that’s all I need. We headed to our local internet café to use the phone booths to call home. The sound of my mum’s voice was like music to my ears, I was so happy to hear her. But less than five minutes into the call, it cut out. One of Kathmandu’s roaming blackouts. With no power for the next few hours coupled with the time difference and the opening times of the café, that meant no call home today. I was devastated. I sobbed. It was all I wanted. One of the many things that you take for granted, just a phone call home, that traveling can make you really appreciate.

We trudged back to the school, trying to cheer up as we had an invitation for dinner. Stannis and his wife Cheryl are Anglo Indian, they are Christian and celebrate Christmas. They were the only other people in the entire school who celebrated Christmas. We were very lucky that they invited us for dinner with their family. I was blown away by the kindness of that. I couldn’t imagine at home, inviting a colleague over for Christmas dinner. We had a lot to learn about warmth and kindness from Stannis and Cheryl.

“Would you like some ginger wine?”

“Oh yes, I would like some ginger wine, that sounds nice, is it a bit like ginger beer?”

“Er. No. Not exactly.....”

Ginger wine is made by getting four bottles of wine, half a kilo of ginger, and a load of chili and boiling it down until you’ve got two bottles worth left. My eyes popped out of my head like a 90s cartoon character!

So Christmas dinner was lovely but definitely not Christmas dinner as I know it.

We had salted meats (buffalo) with cherries and cake for nibbles, followed by a main of chicken in a thin curry/gravy-like sauce with pilaf rice, more buff, and salad. Then for dessert, custard but solid custard, a custard block with chunks of cherries and raisins in it.

We all had a good laugh by having a little bitch and moan about all the daft things that come hand in hand with living in Nepal. While I would complain about how LOUD Nepal is compared to home, Cheryl would complain about how quiet Nepal is compared to Calcutta! I couldn’t sleep for the noise and she couldn't sleep for the eerie silence. We live in the same building.

It makes me chuckle whenever I think about it. I guess your perception of a place is a lot to do with just what you’re used to, whether that be the quiet streets of a small town in England or the busy streets of a big city like Calcutta.

A home away from home for all of us.

Merry Christmas from an Indian family and an English couple in Kathmandu!

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This story was originally published on Medium

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Georgina Nelson. Traveller. Writer. Photographer. Yoga teacher.

Sh*t Happens - because the things that go wrong make the funniest stories.