Caterpillars and Yak Dung

(I don't know what happened with the Chinese symbols and I am too tired to figure it out!)

Saturday June 16, 2012
Things are very relaxed here. I抳e spent most of my time sitting outside with others, reading, or playing Chinese checkers which I抦 no good at. I did win once but that was because everyone helped me find good moves. There抯 also a cat, Shimi Little, that visits every day. We like to play with it and feed it meat since it抯 not afraid of us.  

The weather hasn抰 been too bad. It rains almost every day, but never for very long. It抯 hard to see very far past the mountains and the storms come up fast and pass quickly. The sun can be really hot when it抯 shining, but as soon as the clouds cover it, it抯 quite chilly. I dress in many layers桰 feel like I抦 wearing the entire contents of my suitcase most of the time. Everyone else here is wrapped from head to toe and wearing giant Tibetan overcoats even though I feel like it must be really warm to wear one even in the cool weather. 

The only place that抯 heated is the kitchen (via the yak dung-burning stove), so people stay there most of the time if the weather isn抰 good. In my bed there is an electric heating pad and three comforters, so I haven抰 had a cold night yet. Two nights ago the electricity went out (probably because of the thunderstorm) and I all I could think was 揘o heating pad?!  I抳e gotten really used to climbing into an already-warm bed. Luckily, the electricity came back on before it was time to sleep.

The other people around town are busy this month searching the mountainsides for caterpillar fungus. These are caterpillars that die off in the winter and somehow end up vertically underground, and from which they sprout a fungus about two inches out of the ground, the part you have to look for. They are the strangest things! They look like a little dried up caterpillar carcass with a stick coming out of its head. From what I can tell, they抮e pretty hard to find. Namnang抯 cousin spent two days and found thirty. These are very valuable and they are sold to businesspeople at the end of the day near the end of the shops in town and are then taken to the cities and sold for more. They抮e used to make Chinese medicine, but no one seems to know what kind. 

 Caterpillars:

 At the house people are curious about whether I like the food or not. Ani told Namnang that I抦 easy to cook for because I eat anything. The only problem is stopping everyone from giving me too much. They always refill for each other, which has taken some getting used to. I am enjoying the food though. We eat a lot of rice and noodles with vegetables, and lots of sheep and yak meat. It抯 all served hot梖ood, tea, and water. In fact, I was surprised today when we ate sugared cucumbers, fresh. It抯 the first time I抳e had a raw vegetable since I抳e been here. We have watermelon every day after lunch but other than that, we haven抰 had any sweets. There are three kids that sit outside our window every day eating ice cream, so I think I抣l have to figure out where they get it!