(Part 2/2) “My husband’s ancestral village is Bajhang and I am from Achham. When I came to his house after marriage, it was difficult for me to understand the way they spoke. They would ask of me to do one thing and I would do something entirely different. The practices at my parent’s home were more strict than here. During my period here, they said I could come in and sleep. It came as a shock to me. No one would invite you in while you were menstruating where I came from. No girl or woman dared to walk in. It was the strangest thing for me. I was so accustomed to the practices at home, I just could not enter. I stood there outside fighting the storm that had descended. I did not have the brains back then. I remember my husband came back home from work and seeing me standing in the wind and rain told me that it was okay for me to go inside. But I stayed put. It was only when he said, “There are snakes, scorpions here. Do not think that this place is like your parent’s home. Go inside or you will get bitten.” That fear finally made me go inside. It was only the fear of death that made me step foot inside the house. But deep in my heart, I was happy that I will not have to into the shed every month, anymore. 

But something was difficult especially to keep clean during and after menstruation. I was used to bathing in the river but here I had to bathe in the communal tap. There were a tap and over 10 families. And because I could not use water freely, I did not feel clean. So I stopped going to the tap and started going to the nearby canal where the water was plenty. I could wash my clothes and I could bathe properly. When my husband installed a tap inside the house, that was also another day of happiness.”

#BreakingTheSilence with Dignity Without Danger: Menstruation in Nepal