Baby, Its Cold Outside

It is cold outside tonight.  I don't really like cold weather.  It makes me want to stay inside in my pajamas and sit around watching TV or be in the kitchen cooking a big pot of vegetable soup.  I don't want to go anywhere.  I don't love the piles of clothes, hats, gloves and coats that make it tolerable.  I dread the icy whip of the wind as I step outside.  I hate getting into a frost covered car and waiting for the heat to kick in.  No...I don't like cold weather.

As I considered this, my thoughts turned to another time and another place.  When my youngest daughter decided to "trek" in northern India a few years back and to live in the Himalaya Mountains for a couple of years, I didn't know what to expect.  I spent a lot of hours on the internet learning as much as I could about the place she would be living.  I learned about the dangers of mountainous trekking - lions and tigers and bears...oh,my! Well, tigers, anyway.  I learned about the random trail shelters that are common on the paths for trekkers to stop in and spend a night.  I learned about the need for wool socks, good trekking shoes and an all efficient back pack.  I thought I had a good idea of what it would take to survive and tried to help prepare her with the best we could afford as she left our US shores and traveled half-way around the world.

Some years later, I now know that I didn't know anything and had no idea about life "over there".  Although I know now that I know so little, I am beginning to get a better picture of what it looks like to live in a third world country, in the winter, in the mountains.

I'd like to compare life "there" with life "here" based on the beginning statements of this writing.  In the Himalaya Mountains in the winter, it is cold...very cold outside - AND inside.  My home would have no insulation...and no heat.  Yes, there is electricity - when it is working (hydro-electric power from the Himalayas freezes in the winter months thus not much "hydro" to be had).  It would be cost prohibitive to heat the house with electricity.  People don't heat with wood.  Wood is precious.  At the highest altitudes there are no trees.  To burn it for heat would be wasteful.  Gas is available to use in small amounts for cook stoves and heating geezers, but it would be very expensive to heat a home with it.  I understand that in some places they burn dried yak dung, but that would not be the norm for the type of structures that are the homes in small towns in the Himalayas.  So yes, it is very cold outside tonight - and every night.  I'm sure I would make use of a hot water bottle and thick wool rug-like cover for the mat intended for sleeping.

If I were living in the Himalayas, I would probably NOT want to sit around in my comfy pajamas all day...I would be wearing layers, instead.  A bottom layer of long johns and a couple of layers of warm shirts and my coat.  Since it is too cold to take a shower more often than every week or so (or longer), and I would not want wet hair for sure, I would wear a stocking cap...inside and outside, around the house and in the bed.  As for watching TV, I could do that when the electricity is working...but it would not be all English and it would be mostly old shows, if I could get any.  I could watch a DVD on my computer - but the locals really don't have much of an opportunity to do that.  Most of them, if they have a computer, would have to visit an internet cafe and pay a pricey amount to use the internet.

As for cooking a big pot of vegetable soup, I suppose that would be possible.  I would have to visit the market and get the vegetables I needed - of which most are small and poorly grown.  After going through a cleaning process, I would have to cook my own tomatoes and would need to learn to cook with a pressure cooker for best results.  If I chose to have meat in the soup, that would require visiting the market to purchase it from a slab that is hanging in open air and probably has not been butchered in the cleanest of situations.  But vegetable soup is very tasty.

Going nowhere would not be a big problem.  There is nowhere much to go...no malls, no amusement parks, no indoor activities...just home.  I have already addressed the piles of clothes that are necessary for survival and not an option.  Now about transportation...the most common form is at the end of my  legs.  If I must get out, walking is the only option.  That is true for most - both tourists and locals.  The Himalaya towns and villages are not easy to traverse.  The roads are made of dirt with potholes and the streets are too narrow for traffic.  There will be an occasional car or delivery truck that will make its way through the winding hilly township, but for the most part walking is the way to get around.  So - no worries about waiting for the frost covered car to warm up.

As I was considering all of this, I became more and more grateful for these cold winter days.  And more and more grateful for insulation, electricity, heat, hot water, clean prepared food, coats and hats and cars.  It is cold - tonight, but I live in a place where it will probably be warm by the weekend - even in January.  This comparison brings to light how spoiled and blessed I really am.  Bring on the cold night! I really think I can "tough it out" now.

*By the way, as it turned out, my daughter did very little actual trekking while living in the Himalayas, but she did experience the harshness of those long cold winter days in a small village town.  She lived a difficult life during that year and a half, and I am proud of her courage just as much as if she had faced a tiger and won!