Virtues of leading a simple life

Nepal

Contemplating the meaning of life in the thin air at 4000m above sea level in the high Himalayas of Nepal is not something I do every year, but it surely gives one perspective. 31% of people living in Nepal lives below the national poverty line (23% for South Africa).The Gross National Income per Capita is US$490 (SA is $6 090)

In the 21 days I spent trekking through the rural countryside and up into the mountains I have seen no luxury, not even in Kathmandu (the capital). Food consists mainly of starches like rice, noodles and potatoes with some vegetables in the mix, very little meat. In Kathmandu you get electricity for 3hours in the morning and again in the evening. For 18 hours of the day you have to generate your own or go without.

The roads are nonexistent. Eating and drinking is like playing dice with your health. Proper sanitation is just not in the top half of the daily grind list (I got violently ill twice). Kathmandu is so polluted that most people wear those surgical masks to prevent developing a horrible cough.

And after all the negatives there is one grand positive, the people get along just fine. 

I have spoken to many of the locals and they all tell me that the problem is with the government playing politics all day and not helping with the upliftment of the country's infrastructure and managing the huge potential tourism offers. 

And at the end of the day the thing that kept coming back to my mind was that people are very adaptable. We can forgo our creature comforts if we have to without too much tears. We can adjust our lifestyle (up or down) without too much fuss. But there is one thing that we have to guard against with much vigil, dropping below the minimum level of comfort to the level of suffering.

Many people earn just enough to cover their expenses from month to month and have nothing to save for a rainy day. The best they can do is making sure they keep their job by doing it exceptionally well. For those of us who do have a couple of coins left over at the end of the month, please consider saving it instead of spending it on something useless. 

There is no shame in having very little money, but having some helps in desperate times.

I have great admiration for people living a simple life, taking pride in what they do.