Back to Kathmandu

Last Wednesday, there wasn't any school because it was a Hindu holiday. I don't really know what the holiday was about, but I got the impression nobody really did. They just knew how to celebrate it. Sonam came and got me that morning and we followed crowds of other people coming from all over down to a little pond past Phaplu. Everyone crowded around and tried to push their way through to the water's edge where they would light incense, throw a couple rupees into the water as a blessing to God, and wash their face, hands and feet. And then everyone pushed and shoved to try to make their way into the really tiny "temple" area where there was a little statue of Shiva covered in paint and flowers and tika. I got a big, wet tika on my forehead and lit some incense at the altar. Afterwards, a Hindu priest wrapped red-dyed twine around my wrist until it made a little bracelet. Supposedly it's supposed to protect you from any difficulties while you wear it. It's also supposed to protect you from ghosts…..

On Thursday afternoon, after all the students were finished with exams, the seventh and eighth graders got together in one of the classrooms to give me the little going-away shindig they give all the volunteers and teachers that leave the school. They sat me down in the front of the classroom and a representative from each class came up and gave short, awkward speeches thanking me for teaching there. And then any students that wanted to got to come up and give me a tika. But because going-away things are apparently special occasions, the students don't have to just dot a little tika on your forehead. If they want, they can smear it all over your face. So, a couple of the more daring students came up and slapped red tika all over my face. I think most of them did it with love, some probably in revenge for the trigonometry I made them learn.

After that, I went and hung out with principal for the last time at the hostel, drank some tea. Then I went and hung out with Roby for the last time at his lodge, drank some tea. And then I had a really nice dinner with Sonam and his wife at their house. They were super, super nice and we talked for a really long time. They gave me a bag of fruit and biscuits and ramen noodles for my trip to Jiri and Sonam gave me prayer beads to wrap around my wrist. They called them "tokens of love".

Friday morning, I got up and started walking at 4:00. By the time I was past Phaplu the sun was coming up, and by then I could already tell it wasn't going to be a fun day. My backpack weighed like 40 pounds, mostly because of all the books I'd brought with me to read. After walking down from Phaplu for about an hour to a little town called Beni, it was uphill all the way to the Lamjura pass at over 3500 meters, the highest point on the trek from Jiri to Namche that lots of trekkers take who go to Everest Base Camp. By the time I was nearing the top, I was having to stop ever ten minutes or so to rest. And I started having leech issues. In the past 9 weeks in Solukhumbu, I'd only found maybe 4 or 5 leeches on me. But on Friday alone I found probably 15 on me, either just crawling around or already attached and sucking away, plus a ton more on my clothing. When I finally got to the top of the pass, I started the long, 2000 meter descent to the river. Apparently going up this side of the mountain is the hardest portion of the full trek to Everest Base Camp, so I was more than happy to be going down instead of up. Along the way I stopped near a little house and a bunch of kids ran out, really curious at the quire drenched in sweat and looking like he was near-death. Their mom came out and asked me if I wanted to buy some weed. And then she tried to sell me some little black balls that she said you smoke. And then her kids started pulling leeches off me that I hadn't seen. It was all very odd. I reached a town by the river called Kenja around 5:00 and stopped for the night at a little lodge, ate two big plates of daalbhat (which is an all-you-eat meal) and went to sleep.

When I woke up Saturday morning, my feet and shoulders were incredibly sore and it hurt just to sit up in bed. But I strapped on my backpack and headed out around 5:00. From the river it was straight up 1200 meters to a town called Deorali and then straight down 1000 meters to a town called Shivalaya. By the time I got to Shivalaya, I was beyond exhausted, but I was only three hours away from Jiri, so I kept going. I made it to a little town called Mali before I almost collapsed at a little lodge around 5:30. There I met a dude who didn't speak much English but I figured out was also going to Jiri to take the bus to Kathmandu and we agreed to leave at 5:00 the next morning to make it to Jiri before all the buses left. I ate another couple plates of daalbhat, slept, woke up Sunday morning, put my bag back on and kept walking. But this guy was really fast and he didn't have a heavy bag, so I had to power-walk for the next two hours to keep up with him, which was pretty miserable. But we made it to Jiri and managed to get tickets for a bus that left two hours later. From Jiri it was a pretty miserable 8 hour ride to Kathmandu but I managed to make it back to Suganda's house by around 6:00. I took my first shower in two weeks (it was a weird shower situation at the house in Nayabazaar involving a hose, long story) which was pretty wonderful.

Since then, I've basically just been hanging out around Pepsi-Cola, meeting a ton of new volunteers that have arrived since I've been gone (only one is still here from when I was in Kathmandu), drinking lots of tea, and spending a lot of time on the computer here at the VSN office. Yesterday I helped Dagan, a guy from Texas/Singapore, paint a classroom at the VSN school for a couple hours, but I haven't really been doing much. After three days of super intense travel, I haven't really wanted to do any work. On Monday I went into the city and met up with Jenny Vaidya, a friend from Davidson who lives in Kathmandu, and we walked around Thamel, one of the big touristy shopping districts. I bought a super cool Nepali wool hoodie. Yesterday, I tagged along with a couple new volunteers to a little town nearby called Thimi. While they walked around with one of the VSN guys I got a haircut at a little sketchy barbershop.

Next Tuesday, I fly back to the States. Until then I'll just be hanging out around Pepsi-Cola with the other volunteers.