Catching up

Monday, August 20^th

We are going to the rural placement in Mahadebbesi today. They say the Muslim holiday is today so we are not leaving until 1PM. I’m not entirely sure about some of these holidays… I think the Orchid Garden was open.  Oh well it gave Hailey and I the morning to spend with Michael as this was his last day and everyone else (from our initial group) has already left.

Hailey, Michael and I went to Thamel so he could do his last minute shopping then we all went to OR2K for lunch. Take care Michael…will miss you.

The bus ride to Mahadebbesi was the usual Nepali adventure. Two over crowded busses and 3 or more hours later we finally arrived. We certainly are in the hills. There are houses way up on what we would call mountains but of course in Nepal these are merely hills.

People here use the strength of their heads to carry everything. This was what we did in India when we were carrying bricks for the house that we built. In Nepal they have big baskets with straps around them. They have the strap over the top of their head and then fill the baskets with whatever… On our bus ride here I saw a man carrying a piece of furniture using one of these straps! I will attach a picture I took of a number of men coming into the village to fill up their milk jugs.

Other things I noticed on the ride:

-       I saw a boy filling his pop bottle with water using a cloth do drip it into the bottle so that none would get spilled. Resourceful but not very sanitary.

-       There is corn planted on the hills, I would hate to be the one picking that!

-       The road is very windy and hilly

The house we are staying in is large; there are two brothers, their parents and grandparents, their wives and children.  We spent all of our time with the one brother and his family (Gokarna, Nirmalas, Madhusugan, Niranjan & Sumitra)

The lack of anything else to do gave us plenty of opportunity to finish reading “the Kite Runner”. Great book but now I need a good laugh. I think the family took some joy in watching Hailey and I taking turns reading to each other.