where I shop...fresh fruit and veggies!

there are so many wonderful reasons why i love living in Nepal. one in particular is that the pace of life here is sooooo much slower. even in the capital city. kevin and i wake up together. he puts the coffee on and we both find our little quiet places to rest in the stillness with the Lord. 

friends, it's been a very healing stillness for me. 

time to reflect, to be very far away from so many of the expectations I put on myself in the US. 

time to be and grow in the areas where I'm so desperately lacking. 

one of my favorite parts of life here is shopping, it's an experience.

it ain't trader joes, that's for sure.  

Kevin and I do this together

 {well, we pretty much do everything together}  

which I love and cherish

at the end of our street is a big outdoor market with fruit and vegetable sellers. 

everyone has their own stall, and sells the exact same thing,

but it's fun to check out produce and bargain and try new fruits. 

the first day we went shopping for vegetables, one sweet nepali woman, with a twinkle in her eye called us over. after we bought our produce, she said "you can always come to me!". The next time we arrived to purchase vegetables we actually felt a bit guilty if we didn't buy from her, even though some other produce looked better. But wanting to build a relationship we dove right into her veggies! And that's the way it's been for the last 2 months, and she's pretty adorable. 

The fruit sellers are pretty hilarious. at first they tried to con us and charge us an arm and a leg, but we caught on. We decided to start using our limited nepali to speak to them, and the minute we did, they said "ok, now I give you nepali price!" haha. who knows if we are actually getting the real nepali price, but at least it's cheaper for us than it was before. 

before i moved to nepal I was juicing up a storm, and almost died of happiness when I discovered that the previous owner of our home left a juicer there!! so now there is even more reason for me to buy produce to juice! 

at the end of the market is an area where people sell homemade nepali food. 

samosa's, roti, mo mo's and other items {that i have NO idea what they are}

food sanitation here is a bit very questionable,

but Kevin hasn't died yet so that's a good sign. 

it feels good to walk home with a few huge bags of fresh goodness. 

 {our sweet veggie lady!}

 {one second before this was taken this guy was laughing, 

but in classic nepali fashion he is frowning for the picture!} 

 {yesterday i learned the difference between indian lychee and nepali lychee. nepali lychee (above) is more colorful on the outside and is a little more sour. indian lychee (below) is more muted in color on the outside and sweeter on the inside. we bought a huge bag of indian lychee and i'm enjoying it right now! yum!}

{this is our resident fruit man. he is HILARIOUS! love him}

{we got 5 mangoes for a dollar, i'm in HEAVEN!!!}

  {a man making simosa's}

{a boy making mo mo's...nepali's favorite snack food!}

{i'm just not too sure how I feel about a massive bowl of raw meat sitting out and raw hands, haha}

{lastly, a very typical sight. yes...a cow just chillin in front of an atm. or in the middle of the road. or in front of a shopping mall. it's really hilarious.} 

Have a great week friends! Will be sharing more of our exciting news in the next post...stay tuned! 

love Katie