Dancing by moonlight

Usually we spend our Saturdays visiting Syangja or relaxing in the sun but this week we spent the day with Amrita and her two little girls. It was a gorgeous sunny day so they took us to pick potatoes and see their buffalo. It is about a 10 minute walk to the cow shed but it takes a lot longer when you have two 4 year olds clinging to you. The buffalo didn't seem to like us much so we went to see the potatoes. Unfortunately they were all too small so we couldn't pick any but it was interesting to watch Amrita sift through the soil to check them.

After dinner we were just getting ready to go to bed when Amrita came in and said something about a dance. We walked through the village in the pitch black with the moon and the stars shining brightly. It was so calm and peaceful and the surrounding hills were beautiful with specs of light dotted around as all we could hear was the howling of the dogs echoing around the valley and the soft voices of the villagers. It was quite magical. We walked down the hill to a house where there were straw mats and benches laid out. It was very atmospheric but also felt a bit strange I think because the village was so quiet. Both Alice and I had children wrapped around our arms which was very sweet. I was also quite glad as it stopped them getting me up to dance so much. No one at this village gathering spoke any English so we felt very lost. A groups of men started to sing and play a drum whilst the ladies danced. They then kept encouraging us to dance which was very embarrassing as we were so terrible. I think we were also quite tired from spending the day with Amrita and constantly trying to guess what was going on. It was not the most enjoyable evening but it was certainly ana amazing experience and very special to see what village life is truly like. It was just so different to anything we have back home.

On Sunday, after dinner Amrita and her daughter, Rijan came around to have our own dance. Amrita was amazing at Nepalese dancing and made it look so beautiful. Alice and I tried to have a go, following music videos which was very entertaining. Amrita and Rijan then wanted us to show them some British dancing but they were very disappointed!

Overall it was a fun few days but quite exhausting. Despite this it's been nice to get to know both Amrita and Rijan and experience more of what village life is like.