Checking the bees on the rooftop with friends at our new place in Godavari (about 10 km outside Kathmandu). Getting out of the pollution of Kathmandu and into a more village setting has been great. We are the only westerners in the neighbourhood and so we only speak Nepali out here.
One day I was talking to a store owner about bees and he mentioned that he had some in his mother's bedroom and that if I wanted I could have them. He explained that the colony of bees were in her cupboard and had been living there for three months and would sting his mother periodically or kill themselves bouncing into her bedroom light. Naturally I was confused and was sure that my Nepali language was failing me, but... when I got to his house it was exactly like he had told me. A colony of bees lived in her cupboard and flew across her room and out her window to gather nectar and pollen everday. She slept about five feet from the large mass of bees and didn't think it was all that strange. Colleen and I removed and boxed the colony thinking that we had been part of a bizarre and unrepeatable scene. As we walked home another guy approached us and told he had some bees in his cupboard too! So went over there and sure enough about two feet from his bed was at least 3 pounds of bees hanging off of combs from the inside of his cupboard. They had been there 4 months making comb and honey. We removed that one as well.
I am not sure what to make of all of this but we are at least getting to meet a lot of people and getting chances to spend significant time in their bedrooms and cupboards.