"It's a nice country."

Yesterday I was standing here.

A group of young men walked by.  We greeted each other with the customary "Namaste" (pronounced Namastay) greeting with our palms together and a slight head bow.

Here is a cute little boy greeting me as I walked by his house.  (You can see his sister was a little afraid, so she calmed herself by putting her hand on his shoulder!  Precious!!!)

These two little ones greeted me while they were playing.

In Kathmandu, Ramon got a greeting while outside of the grocery store.

Anyway, the young men greeted me this way.  Then one of them asked me, "Are you from Germany?"  Not an usual question, since there are many German tourists in Nepal.  Many people ask me where I'm from as I walk about and the children especially like to say, "Hello!  Hello!"  (...such as these boys in the picture below did:)  I don't know why, (smile) but they usually just assume I speak English!  (I never can blend in!) 

Well, I answered the young man, "No.  I'm from America."  "Oh," he remarked, "It's a nice country."  "Thank you."  I said and I really meant it because in the past decade since I've been living out of America, this was only one of the few times someone told me that!!!  Can you imagine?!  It feels good to know that some people agree with me that my country is a nice country!  (big smile)

By the way, many people believe Ramon is a Nepali and patients will say, "Why isn't that Nepali doctor talking to me in Nepali?"  When he lived in Mexico, people thought he was Mexican, and when he was in Saudi Arabia and grew a beard and wore a turban, people thought he was a Saudi!  He can blend in!  However, he says when we visit Sweden, he probably won't be able to blend in there.

Have a nice day, which ever country you're in!