we love kumar

after being home in the states and seeing my friends and their workloads as moms, it has struck me even more how precious kumar is. i would not be able to afford someone who can take care of us like he does, stateside. we are very fortunate to be in the position to have the kind of help we do. since our friend, lydia, living downstairs, with whom we shared kumar is gone, christy and i have decided to continue with kumar full time, paying him the same wages he has made all along. he has one less apartment to clean and less ironing to do, so what was already a cushy job has become like a lazy-boy. because lydia..."madame ladia" as kumar refers to her, was a vegetarian, we asked him to make only veg stuff with occasional shrimp. our first day back in kathmandu kumar asked me if he could cook meat...he was so excited! i think we tapped out his "veg dishes" and he was getting bored. he makes an excellent dal, which is like a thick lentil soup, that we eat with naan. i have not tired of that one bit; it's so yummy. but, with less work and one fewer person for which to cook, i decided to send him to cooking class with the principle of lincoln school's cook, hari. he will begin this coming monday and i explained it to kumar that we want him to go to network with lincoln people so he can get a job with one of the 7 new hires for next year coming in august, because we are leaving in september. once you're in lincoln's system, it's a good gig. yes it will be nice for him to learn some new dishes, but the impetus for the move is to network for him. he is a good guy and would make someone a nice cook...his cleaning and ironing aren't stellar, but we let that slide. : ) ...like i can complain, eh?! we will pay the extra 550 rupees, which is about $7 every monday and give up a day of having kumar at our apartment. i wonder what he thinks about the cost because that's more than 1/20th of what we pay him every month (10,000 rupees)...or, his daily salary. he seems very happy with the idea and thankful for the opportunity. i hope it all works out. i've heard horror stories from other staff about cooks and house help that turn out horribly. kumar has been consistent for us and is a nice guy to boot. he cooks, cleans, does laundry and ironing, shops, hangs pictures, mails christmas cards, takes our mending to be done, has things repaired, goes to the bakery, cuts up our fruit, squeezes limes for juice...i know, ridiculous..., changes our sheets, dusts, and whatever else we ask him to do. he even changes lightbulbs, except that the one we had him change the other day came crashing down while we were watching the inauguration speech. oops. so, all in all, he's like our surrogate husband and if we can help him find his next job, that will be great. plus, there's just not enough work for him to do for the two of us 5 days a week. hmmm, maybe he can take up knitting...i've been wanting a new sweater. : ) sheela, on the other hand, i'm trying to figure out how to get her to leave her family and move to the states with me! lol...she's awesome... take care and leave comments!! i love to know who's reading the blog. i'll add some pics/video soon. love, j