mo ali ali Nepali balshu

Allow me to tell you all a little story...

So today, being that it was beautiful and sunny and I found myself with an afternoon off, I decided to take my bike (her name is MeanJean and she is fabulous) and head off in search of the fruit and vegetable market.

My Nepali sister Sonu had already taken me there twice, so I figured I could find my way.

True to form, however, I immediately got lost. For a long time...

Determined not to go home empty handed (particularly because I had promised Sonu I would bring her back a papaya), I finally veered off to a roadside fruit stand to see if I could purchase some goods.

After a good ten minutes of miming and garbling my way through my Nepali vocabulary, a kind gentleman who spoke a bit of English took pity on me and came over to translate. With his assistance, I purchased 4 kilos of bananas, apples and mangos (amph) for 210 rupees. That's about 3.50 Canadian.

Bolstered by these successful purchases, and happy to have found myself a personal fruit guide, I asked my new friend if he could inquire about the possibility of procuring some papaya.

"Yes yes, i asking for you".

Sadly, the response was in the negative. No papayas at this fruit stand.

"You no worry, I am seeing some papaya, you come with me" and he walked off, motioning over his shoulder for me to follow him.

5 steps later, we were on the sidewalk, staring at what was very clearly someone's garden wall.

"You see? papayas!" he cried, pointing upwards.

And there, hanging from a tree in all its yellow-green glory, was a papaya.

"Oh yeah, but I think those belong to someone" I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Was he really about to go ask some random family to sell me two papayas off the tree in their backyard?

"No, no! No worry, I am asking them" he exclaimed, and walked off to talk to a group of elderly gentlemen who were sitting curbside enjoying a cup of chia.

15 minutes and 10 new Nepali friends later, a nice young gentleman walked out of the house, shimmed up the tree and cut down my prize. Coming out onto the sidewalk where I stood, he held out not one but two glorious papayas (meowa).

The price? 75 cents.

You don't get service like this in Canada.