The Passal

Bullet points!

• The word passal means ‘business’, and while our passal is in an area that contains many, it is the passal. We eat lunch and dinner there nearly every day. The passal is a ~12 minute walk from our house along a very (need I say it?) winding road. In my experience, the more I traverse a given distance, the shorter it seems. For some reason, the walk to the passal seems to grow longer with each trek out. This bodes ill for the next few months.

• Before we came to Sundrawoti, we were told by certain reputable individuals that our passal serves the best dal bhat (lit. lentils and rice) in Nepal. For instance, Ari, who was just in Sundrawoti, said that he can only hope that he one day comes to love his wife as much as he loved the dal bhat in Sundrawoti. This was encouraging information, because dal bhat is more or less the only food in Nepal so Nepalis eat it twice a day, every day.  Unfortunately, after approximately two days of eating dal bhat at the passal, we were all ready for something else. This bodes ill for the next few months.

• Avigayil is still having trouble with her Nepalis. The following is a brief conversation regarding the didi (lit. older sister; by way of explanation: in Nepal, everyone is somehow your brother or sister) who runs the passal:

Avigayil: She is so beautiful. She looks like a Yemenite goddess.

Me:  Allah?