Cha$e - Daal Bhat- New Single

"Daal Bhat" by Cha$e

Wake up in the morning feelin' like Daal Bhat

Grab my glasses I'm out the door, don't forget your Daal Bhat

Before I leave, brush my teeth with a tray of Daal Bhat

'cause when I leave for the night I eat a lot of Daal Bhat

...and so on.

Daal bhat is the traditional food of Nepal. It consists of lentils or other bean types along with many spices in a thin broth, poured over rice, usually with some kind of side, such as spicy vegetables, pickle pieces, or mutton.

The typical meal schedule here is to wake up early (7 ish) and have some tea and cookies. Then around 9:30 you eat a big plate of daal bhat. Then, in the middle of the day, you have sort of a small, snacky style lunch, and in the evening around 8, daal bhat again.

You eat daal bhat a lot here, so I consider myself fortunate that I really enjoy it. It contains more rice than I'm used to, but all of the flavors and textures of the different types of daal bhat I've had have been delicious, so cheers to that.

Soon I will post a picture of the view I look at when I eat breakfast on the balcony.

Then you will be jealous.

<3 Chase

p.s. for those not hip to "lame" cultural detritus in the U.S., my above album cover and song are parodies of Ke$ha's "Tik Tok"

Cycle Swagga'

I have been living with my host family in Chapagaon (10km south of Kathmandu, uphill all the way), and cycling into Kathmandu for a couple of days now.

A watercolor of my swaggadocious cycling outfit.

Gaijatra photo the second

A young child being given milk from a pitcher, which is a Gaijatra tradition. Many of the children, with fake moustaches, hair, and ascetic robes, were being carried or holding hands with their parents, sometimes with other family members walking alongside, carrying large bags of cookies, candies and other loot. Trick or Treat.

Gaijatra

This was during the festival of Gaijatra, in which young boys dress up like ascetics and parade through the palace square, often in honor of a deceased relative. Bystanders then give the young'ns treats, like candy and packaged cookies, as well as giving them drinks of milk, water or orange drink (Slice?) from periodically placed pitchers and coolers. It is vaguely reminiscent of Halloween in the U.S., and some of the participants had really good costumes!

Many Architectural Styles

Here are some pagoda style temples in Kathmandu, built to honor Shiva, and there in the background is a pretty tall apartment building. There are many architectural styles represented in Kathmandu, and hopefully also in Chapagaon, where I'll be moving on Friday.

We're going to a festival called "Gaijatra" today, so I'll probably post some pictures from that later on.

Cheers.

Esophagus-esque Architecture in Bangkok

Airport in Bangkok. This place looks like the inside of an esophagus.

A Quick Turnaround: Redirected

For the past six months I’ve been preparing myself for an 11-month placement as a Photographer/Storyteller in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.
Some complications arose.
For the past three days I’ve been preparing myself for a placement as a Peace Program Assistant with the Rural Institute for Community Development (RICOD) in Chapagaon, Nepal, 13 km outside of Kathmandu.
I’m leaving tomorrow, and will be flying from Pennsylvania to California to Thailand to Nepal. This blog will be my main form of communication to friends and family at home though email will certainly be an option as well.
After spending a week in Akron, Pennsylvania doing orientation activities, and feeling some uncertainty in the face of rapid changes in plans, I am feeling ready to be stuck on a plane where all I can do is read and sleep (and play Gameboy:)
This week I’ve been consciously trying to reinforce the idea expressed in the title of a book by Thich Nhat Hanh: “Peace is Every Step”
With every interaction, I try to remind myself that the more peaceful interactions I have, the more peace there is.
Peace is every step.

note: this blog post was copied over from my old blog at www.chaseinnepal.wordpress.com  .  Due to some software complications with Wordpress and the internet here in Nepal, I've started using Blogger instead.