Nepal: Where nursing homes don't exist.

The family tree is built differently in Nepal than in the US. It is a patriarchal system that took me a while to grasp. I guess it goes to show the true feminist within me! The daughters are transferred from their own family tree and added to their husband's. After marriage the daughters become a bigger part of their husband's family than their own. Cousins do not exist because their is not a Nepali word for cousins. All the children of brothers and sisters are not cousins, but bothers and sisters as well! Sneha has only one true brother, but she has very many other "brothers" and one little "sister!" On Saturday, the only resting day in Nepal, Sneha's family and I went and visited many of her relatives. This was not much different that any other day, because Nepali families are very loyal and visit each other most everyday! Almost every day I have visited with Sangita's parents, and now Rajan's parents are living with us so I hope to get to know them better as well! Here, the children are responsible for taking care of their parents when they are not able to do so themselves. Although I have seen firsthand the stress it can create on a family, I like this approach much more than what occurs so often in the US; sending elderly people to a nursing home. Sometimes the language causes a barrier, but with smiles and laughter I communicate pretty efficiently with her grandparents! Her grandfather, Hikmat, is especially intriguing and is fascinated with the fact that I live on a farm. He too, runs a farm in Nepal and we swap stories of how things are done and what typically goes into being successful!