Nepal...Y'all
Aug. 24
Ok since the visit in July I have been in and out. Not in Madampe too much. We have been working really hard on all my visa renewal stuff. Weeeeeee!!!! lots of reports and statistical analysis. During that week I did get to go to a cricket match that I thought I would get to participate in. But apparently “women can stand by the side and cheer.” Even some of my male friends thought it unfair AND it wasn’t the first year for this event or the first year women have been denied the right to play. I left and will no longer be attending events hosted by this particular CHRISTIAN organization. Yes, I did say Christian. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr aaarrrrggg.
On a more exciting note, I coordinated games for vacation Bible school. It was good times and I got to know a lot of people and kids. The songs were good. It was a great time. Most of my games involved water balloons. It rocked. Ok now I am done updating you.
I really am rubbish at keeping this thing up to date. I do try. How many of you all have a journal that you update? How often do YOU update it? I am doing more than the annual Christmas card thing. Anyway, I just spent some time reading a few of my earlier posts. Ha, life is funny. Hmmm since August 24th I have…
Farmers went to a day-long training at a government center and to see the National Livestock Development Board dairy farm.
We had the cornerstone placing ceremonies for the community building in our 5th dairy village Bibiladiniya.
Weighed calves for feed program in Gorakgasagara
Had 2nd annual Colombo Cow Party (big success)
Had loan and insurance training in Bibiladiniya.
Went to Nepal for 2 weeks.
Visited farmers after my vacation
small clinic in Meegahapelesa
Ok Nepal…
I went for a MCC Bangladesh/Sri Lanka retreat and then took an extra week to go trekking in the mountains. The way the flight schedules work out I arrived a day before all the MCCBang peoples. I have never traveled alone when I wasn’t meeting people once I got to a place. I was a bit nervous. But alas I did ok and all was well. I went looking around this touristy trekker area the day I got there. I needed to get some things for the trek for myself and Lena one of the people that also went on the trek. The next day I bought all the stuff and met the MCCBang people at the airport. It was great to see them. From there, they had arranged a van to take us to where we would stay, an hour out of Kathmandu. Well, like half way there we encountered a road block. There was apparently an accident and for some reason people were angry and blocked the road. In Nepal a common form of outrage is seen in road blockages. No one could pass and they said that they were burning people tires and throwing rocks if they passed. However, passing on foot was ok. So, we got out and walked a kilometer to the other side of the road block. On the way we passed 2 large streams of blood (a gallon each maybe) a shoe and partial contents of a bag. It was a bit yucky, definitely people died in the accident. Once on the other side we took a Jeep to our hostel. We were 9 adults, one driver, 4 children and all the baggage all packed in…well 2 adults and some bags rode on top of…the Jeep. I had purchased some walking sticks for the trek and they were on top and apparently in a rather precarious position, leaving Larry- also atop the roof- feel violated. Anyway, September 9-13 was spent relaxing mostly. We played games, went on small hikes and explored the village. Very peaceful. I was however a bit afraid when we went on this 6 hour hike that turned out to be a bit longer and we had to take a bus back. Also, as we were leaving we thought that we had actually gone to the wrong place and were very dumbfounded at our hiking 6 hours and not even seeing what we had hiked to see. But in the end it was in fact the right place. This incident did not give me much hope for our 5 day trek.
After that, Robin, Lena and I left for Pokhara where we would start our trek. On the 14th we got all the permits you need to trek where we would be. It is a conservation area, so you have to have a trekking permit and the also have a system where you sign into a city so they can follow your trek and look for you if you disappear. That took quite a long time and by the time we started the trek it was like 12 noon and we stopped for lunch at 1. The hiking that day was good. Up hill but gradual with ups and a few downs, nothing steep. Day 2 however was a KILLER. Oh my goodness, like 9 hours of stairs strait up. It was a doozey!!!! Only promises of Choco-pies at stops kept me going. I am sure that day was even more beautiful than what we had seen the day before, I was just too tired to notice. However when we got to the town we were staying in for the night, THE VIEW WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness. It was so worth it. We had a triple room with three walls of windows and a view of the mountains from each side. It was magic. I woke up a few times during the night that evening, because my thighs were paining so much. In the morning we hiked up to 3210m (from 2874m) at 430am to see the sunrise and a 360 degree view of the mountains. However…it was a bit cloudy and the view was better from our hotel room the night before…but we did it…ok!
Well, it is now October 3rd and I am determined to get this posted tonight. As you can see it began on Aug 24th…now where was I? Ah yes…
After sunrise we were talking with a British and an Australian chap. They were going to do our Nay Pul- Goropani- Tatopani- Beni route, but some one told them the last 2 days are dull with no views. So they were going from where we were (Goropani) to Chule then Chamrong, Jihu Danna and then back. This would add a day to our 4 day trek but is supposed to be beautiful. I was a bit weary because we would go up more then down a lot then up some more…and some more then down a whole lot. In the end I thought, “when am I going to do this again?” so that is how we added a day to our trek. So, day 3 we climbed up 1hr to see the sunrise then down 45min back for breakfast. Then up 1hr 30min then down 2.5 hours then lunched…down another hour then up an hour then down an hour. I think this was my favorite day as most of the time we trekked through the forest and we accompanied by a beautiful stream and many waterfalls.
Day 4: we went down 2hours and then up 20min. After that it was supposed to be flat to the place where we were going to have lunch…haaa. It was about as flat as my behind. It was flat at one point…unfortunately it was flat VERTICALLY!!! That was only like 10 feet though. There were also many new landslides since it was the end of monsoon season. This made for some “uncomfortable” paths. They would have been ok I think had we not had our packs. At one point I was almost bellying up to the mountain and grappling for any hold I could find. Eventually after 2 hours of this “flat” (i.e. up up up) land we got to our lunch destination. Today was a leech day and when we took off our shoes for a bit at lunch, I was the leech winner. Three baseball diameter size blood stains on my socks from leech bites. After lunch was a 2 hour trek down to where we stayed the night. We rested for an hour when we got there and then trekked 30min down to the hot springs. Oh man this was nice. Although, getting there the path was FULL of leeches. The hot springs had been destroyed in a recent flood- they sit on the banks of a mighty mountain river- and had only just been repaired. So, we had the pool all to ourselves!!! It was magic and got us ready for our last and final day of trekking. So, the last day was pretty much down the whole way. Not bad down like the other days…gently rolling down. Yeah!!! This was also a leech day. We all got it good this day. When we stopped for tea at 1030 I had like 6 bites, 3 of which were at the same spot. One leech biting through my sock and the other 2 in the same place under my sock. We also had to walk through many water falls on this day so my shoes got soaked. However I set them out at lunch and they mostly dried. That day I was the fast one because my body was dirty, my clothes were smelly, and there were leeches on my hands, belly, back and feet. I was itchy and smelling from the sweaty dirty cloths and I just wanted to be done! ALAS we were done!!!!!! We took the bus back to Pokhara and cleaned up. I had left a pair of clean clothes at the hotel. Mmmm it was nice! We had planned on going to get steak that evening, but we were just too tired and would not have been able to enjoy them properly. We got ice cream instead.
Then next day we went shopping and mulled around. In the evening we went out for steak. It is the same steak house that Rachel Nigel and I had been to a little over a year earlier. It was great. I got the Rum and Cheese steak. Mmmmm. After that we went dancing!! However, the new Maoist government is shutting all establishments down at 10pm. There apparently has been an influx of adult night places and they are trying to make some laws against this and until they do things shut down at 10pm. On a side note, we encountered one such establishment. We were looking for a place to dance…the sign said dancing…we went in…and there in fact was a girl dancing. (don’t worry she was fully clothed, but it was still weird.) The scary waitresses with REALLY dark/trashy make-up pleaded for us to stay…but as three women… we were less than inclined to stay. The next day we went back to Katmandu and the next day I was off back home.
And so ends the tail of my trip to Nepal.
What has happened since I got back.
Highlights:
· Navin got 2 puppies, so I have been over at his place a lot playing with them.
· Went on trip to Rathnapura with Gorakgasagara…they now know for sure that I am absolutely nuts. I think they like it though. Sometimes I am serious…at trainings and stuff.
· I washed my car today.
· I hope to finish Children of Húrin this weekend.
Ok since the visit in July I have been in and out. Not in Madampe too much. We have been working really hard on all my visa renewal stuff. Weeeeeee!!!! lots of reports and statistical analysis. During that week I did get to go to a cricket match that I thought I would get to participate in. But apparently “women can stand by the side and cheer.” Even some of my male friends thought it unfair AND it wasn’t the first year for this event or the first year women have been denied the right to play. I left and will no longer be attending events hosted by this particular CHRISTIAN organization. Yes, I did say Christian. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr aaarrrrggg.
On a more exciting note, I coordinated games for vacation Bible school. It was good times and I got to know a lot of people and kids. The songs were good. It was a great time. Most of my games involved water balloons. It rocked. Ok now I am done updating you.
I really am rubbish at keeping this thing up to date. I do try. How many of you all have a journal that you update? How often do YOU update it? I am doing more than the annual Christmas card thing. Anyway, I just spent some time reading a few of my earlier posts. Ha, life is funny. Hmmm since August 24th I have…
Farmers went to a day-long training at a government center and to see the National Livestock Development Board dairy farm.
We had the cornerstone placing ceremonies for the community building in our 5th dairy village Bibiladiniya.
Weighed calves for feed program in Gorakgasagara
Had 2nd annual Colombo Cow Party (big success)
Had loan and insurance training in Bibiladiniya.
Went to Nepal for 2 weeks.
Visited farmers after my vacation
small clinic in Meegahapelesa
Ok Nepal…
I went for a MCC Bangladesh/Sri Lanka retreat and then took an extra week to go trekking in the mountains. The way the flight schedules work out I arrived a day before all the MCCBang peoples. I have never traveled alone when I wasn’t meeting people once I got to a place. I was a bit nervous. But alas I did ok and all was well. I went looking around this touristy trekker area the day I got there. I needed to get some things for the trek for myself and Lena one of the people that also went on the trek. The next day I bought all the stuff and met the MCCBang people at the airport. It was great to see them. From there, they had arranged a van to take us to where we would stay, an hour out of Kathmandu. Well, like half way there we encountered a road block. There was apparently an accident and for some reason people were angry and blocked the road. In Nepal a common form of outrage is seen in road blockages. No one could pass and they said that they were burning people tires and throwing rocks if they passed. However, passing on foot was ok. So, we got out and walked a kilometer to the other side of the road block. On the way we passed 2 large streams of blood (a gallon each maybe) a shoe and partial contents of a bag. It was a bit yucky, definitely people died in the accident. Once on the other side we took a Jeep to our hostel. We were 9 adults, one driver, 4 children and all the baggage all packed in…well 2 adults and some bags rode on top of…the Jeep. I had purchased some walking sticks for the trek and they were on top and apparently in a rather precarious position, leaving Larry- also atop the roof- feel violated. Anyway, September 9-13 was spent relaxing mostly. We played games, went on small hikes and explored the village. Very peaceful. I was however a bit afraid when we went on this 6 hour hike that turned out to be a bit longer and we had to take a bus back. Also, as we were leaving we thought that we had actually gone to the wrong place and were very dumbfounded at our hiking 6 hours and not even seeing what we had hiked to see. But in the end it was in fact the right place. This incident did not give me much hope for our 5 day trek.
After that, Robin, Lena and I left for Pokhara where we would start our trek. On the 14th we got all the permits you need to trek where we would be. It is a conservation area, so you have to have a trekking permit and the also have a system where you sign into a city so they can follow your trek and look for you if you disappear. That took quite a long time and by the time we started the trek it was like 12 noon and we stopped for lunch at 1. The hiking that day was good. Up hill but gradual with ups and a few downs, nothing steep. Day 2 however was a KILLER. Oh my goodness, like 9 hours of stairs strait up. It was a doozey!!!! Only promises of Choco-pies at stops kept me going. I am sure that day was even more beautiful than what we had seen the day before, I was just too tired to notice. However when we got to the town we were staying in for the night, THE VIEW WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness. It was so worth it. We had a triple room with three walls of windows and a view of the mountains from each side. It was magic. I woke up a few times during the night that evening, because my thighs were paining so much. In the morning we hiked up to 3210m (from 2874m) at 430am to see the sunrise and a 360 degree view of the mountains. However…it was a bit cloudy and the view was better from our hotel room the night before…but we did it…ok!
Well, it is now October 3rd and I am determined to get this posted tonight. As you can see it began on Aug 24th…now where was I? Ah yes…
After sunrise we were talking with a British and an Australian chap. They were going to do our Nay Pul- Goropani- Tatopani- Beni route, but some one told them the last 2 days are dull with no views. So they were going from where we were (Goropani) to Chule then Chamrong, Jihu Danna and then back. This would add a day to our 4 day trek but is supposed to be beautiful. I was a bit weary because we would go up more then down a lot then up some more…and some more then down a whole lot. In the end I thought, “when am I going to do this again?” so that is how we added a day to our trek. So, day 3 we climbed up 1hr to see the sunrise then down 45min back for breakfast. Then up 1hr 30min then down 2.5 hours then lunched…down another hour then up an hour then down an hour. I think this was my favorite day as most of the time we trekked through the forest and we accompanied by a beautiful stream and many waterfalls.
Day 4: we went down 2hours and then up 20min. After that it was supposed to be flat to the place where we were going to have lunch…haaa. It was about as flat as my behind. It was flat at one point…unfortunately it was flat VERTICALLY!!! That was only like 10 feet though. There were also many new landslides since it was the end of monsoon season. This made for some “uncomfortable” paths. They would have been ok I think had we not had our packs. At one point I was almost bellying up to the mountain and grappling for any hold I could find. Eventually after 2 hours of this “flat” (i.e. up up up) land we got to our lunch destination. Today was a leech day and when we took off our shoes for a bit at lunch, I was the leech winner. Three baseball diameter size blood stains on my socks from leech bites. After lunch was a 2 hour trek down to where we stayed the night. We rested for an hour when we got there and then trekked 30min down to the hot springs. Oh man this was nice. Although, getting there the path was FULL of leeches. The hot springs had been destroyed in a recent flood- they sit on the banks of a mighty mountain river- and had only just been repaired. So, we had the pool all to ourselves!!! It was magic and got us ready for our last and final day of trekking. So, the last day was pretty much down the whole way. Not bad down like the other days…gently rolling down. Yeah!!! This was also a leech day. We all got it good this day. When we stopped for tea at 1030 I had like 6 bites, 3 of which were at the same spot. One leech biting through my sock and the other 2 in the same place under my sock. We also had to walk through many water falls on this day so my shoes got soaked. However I set them out at lunch and they mostly dried. That day I was the fast one because my body was dirty, my clothes were smelly, and there were leeches on my hands, belly, back and feet. I was itchy and smelling from the sweaty dirty cloths and I just wanted to be done! ALAS we were done!!!!!! We took the bus back to Pokhara and cleaned up. I had left a pair of clean clothes at the hotel. Mmmm it was nice! We had planned on going to get steak that evening, but we were just too tired and would not have been able to enjoy them properly. We got ice cream instead.
Then next day we went shopping and mulled around. In the evening we went out for steak. It is the same steak house that Rachel Nigel and I had been to a little over a year earlier. It was great. I got the Rum and Cheese steak. Mmmmm. After that we went dancing!! However, the new Maoist government is shutting all establishments down at 10pm. There apparently has been an influx of adult night places and they are trying to make some laws against this and until they do things shut down at 10pm. On a side note, we encountered one such establishment. We were looking for a place to dance…the sign said dancing…we went in…and there in fact was a girl dancing. (don’t worry she was fully clothed, but it was still weird.) The scary waitresses with REALLY dark/trashy make-up pleaded for us to stay…but as three women… we were less than inclined to stay. The next day we went back to Katmandu and the next day I was off back home.
And so ends the tail of my trip to Nepal.
What has happened since I got back.
Highlights:
· Navin got 2 puppies, so I have been over at his place a lot playing with them.
· Went on trip to Rathnapura with Gorakgasagara…they now know for sure that I am absolutely nuts. I think they like it though. Sometimes I am serious…at trainings and stuff.
· I washed my car today.
· I hope to finish Children of Húrin this weekend.
posted by Jodi Crossgrove at
7:44 AM
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