For my placement I am to be living at Saila Dai house in Tinpiple, about 11km north of Kathmandu, up in the hills. About a 20-30 minute local bus ride from Belaju where the VIN office is in Kathmandu.

Let's start with the building, the house in on the side of the hill, on one of the main roads out of Kathmandu. Due to the poor road conditions in Nepal this means that with the constant stream of traffic passing during the day, there is dust thrown up everywhere all the time. The house is badly situated for many other reasons too, the main reason being it is on the side of the hill that gets very little sunlight. So from about 10 in the morning for a few hours, about 10% of the house is in the sunlight and its mainly the outside area not the building. This means that the house is always cold as it never gets the chance to warm up, the walls inside are covered in mould from the damp and it smells, this leads to the family being sick with a scary regularity. There seems to be a sort of kitchen inside where they keep all the dishes and there is a gas stove, but no one sits in there or does much in there except maybe make tea sometimes. There is a small porch type area outside and in the corner where they cook all the food. They make a fire inside this clay looking hump, with a hole in the side for wood and a hole on top for the smoke to come out and the pots to go on. It's quite amazing how a whole meal for such a huge number can be made on this contraption. The courtyard has the entrances to most of the rooms and there is a separate toilet and room for washing. We are very lucky to have a western toilet instead of a squat toilet. The house has a constant supply of water, with 2 huge water tanks and a tap which is used for everything.

The family; I'm not really sure where to start there are so many. So I think the house belongs to Saila Dai a 42 year old man, with heart problems and worsening eyesight. He cannot work and spends most of his time cooking the food. His wife also lives there, she does lots of work, constantly with the animals, and carrying huge baskets of food and generally busy. They have 2 children a girl and a boy, Singetia and Dipock. Also in the house is Saila Dai's sister who is very sick, she does not do much just trying to keep warm by the fire when she can sit around it. She has one daughter, although I get a bit lost with names and which one she is. Salia Dai's cousin lives in the house, Shiva, with his second wife. His first wife and children live down the road, apparently in Nepal that can be accepted by the community. He appears to be the member of the family with all the money, he wears nice warm clothes, doesn't do any work at all and is constantly waited on by his wife. From what I could gather he works in Kathmandu in real estate and goes to LA sometimes for part of the year. With his second wife they have a daughter who lives at the house. I believe that is all the family members that permanently live in the home, except for the buffalo and baby buffalo that live in the shed outside. As well as the live in family there are always regular visitors coming and going, some staying over. Sam a worker for VIN who lives around the corner comes for nearly every meal at the house, morning and evening, his nan also comes around everyday for tea in the morning. Frequent visits form Saila Dai's brothers and their families, most notably his brother and wife come around to wash their vegetables.