Well, not a whole lot has happened since I last blogged, but I thought I would go ahead and write something because tomorrow (Saturday) morning Laura and I are leaving early with our friend Saran, to go backpacking around the rim of the Kathmandu Valley. We'll spend saturday and sunday trekking through the hills, and return on monday. However, monday afternoon I will leave for Delhi, and then take a train to Vijayawada (25 hour train ride this time!), so I may not have time to write anything until I am in India. Saran is a professional trekking guide, and takes foreigners into the himalayas. He has got quite a story to tell. In 2006, he was the only survivor of a group of 7 trekkers to survive an avalanche. He has yet to reach the summit of mount Everest (which takes around 70 days to complete, might I add!), but he hopes to soon. He has worked with producers from the Discovery Channel, and in the fall of 2010, he will lead a team to film a documentary about the himalayas.
Anyways, so the past few days have been rather quiet around here. While Laura went to the school to teach, I decided to get to know Kathmandu a little better. And what better way than to walk? I went to the main post office to send some post cards, and decided to walk home from there. Well, actually, I decided just to walk around a bit, not really knowing where I was in the city, and then just happened upon an intersection that I knew was only about 3 miles from the house/church we are staying at. It was interesting. I sat and ate PB&J's in this big park where Nepali people were having some dance festival. I would tell you more about it, but I don't speak Nepali, and have no idea what they were really doing. I also walked past the Nepali ministerial complex (pictured), which used to be a former king's palace, but is now used for different minitries of the government. I walked for about 5 hours, and somehow managed to make it back on my own two feet!
The next day, I surprised a few people in Khokana, but arriving in the small village by bus, by myself. They were surprised that I used the public transportation system alone--I guess they don't expect too much from foreign travellers! I stayed for a few hours and helped out with more of the construction work. Here, I need to tell you about the work ethic of the Nepali people. I'll describe two situations, and see if our society and culture would do the same thing: One man works 6 days a week to support his family and on his one day off, he decides to mix cement, and haul bricks, dirt, and rocks in the hot sun for hours; A mother of several children takes her youngest one to the construction site, stops carrying bricks only to nurse her child, and either gives him to a yonger girl or puts him on her back, and goes back to carrying bricks. All this work, to build a church for their community. Makes you wanna do a little more yourself, don't it?
Well, that's all for now,
matthew ;^)
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