After giving me what I thought was to be my own room, the ani-haru removed me from it a few days later, and I starting sharing a room with two ani-haru. My insomnia did not like this at all: the ani-haru talk loudly through the night, get up at four in the morning, and leave food and dirty laundry lying around in the bedroom. There is very little space for my things, so after nearly two months of being in Nepal, I'm still feeling unbearably unsettled, and long to be able to sleep a full night through.

Lama comes up with an odd solution for me: go sleep at his younger brother’s house. Lama’s wife Chimi shows me the house, saying, “Lama brother very clean. If clean, use shower, no problem. If hair, then he little angry,” meaning I mustn’t make a mess, which I found ironic considering the ani-haru’s standards of sanitation. Lama’s brother’s house is small, clean and tidy—the spare bedroom large with a great soft carpet. From now on, I’ll go down after dinner to sleep there, and return to the ani-haru’s house in the morning.