After a day and a half of R and R in Kathmandu we said goodbye to our new friends from California, Washington and New Zealand and boarded the plane to Bangkok. The hardships and just different experiences we shared made saying goodbye more difficult but I think everyone was happy to be headed home.
Getting a last aerial view of Kathmandu from our plane confirmed our conclusions about this city. It is what we would call a very large slum, little modernity, no modern buildings, freeways or major highways, little or no traffic control, chokingly lethal pollution everywhere and organized chaos in the streets. The lack of electricity for at least 12 hours a day means many restaurants and other food handlers can’t keep food consistently cold, which leads to food born illnesses. We were all sick to varying degrees while in Nepal. The 4 or 5 major hotels have generators but smaller restaurants and guesthouses, even if they have generators, can’t afford to run them. Fuel (gas) is over 4 dollars a gallon and people have to wait in line for hours to fill up.
We got to know a local volunteer at the clinic. Her name is Sushma. She helped translate with the schoolteachers and children and was a huge help. She didn’t want to return to the clinic after our first 4 days because her motorbike was low on fuel and she didn’t want to wait in line. The clinic director offered to pay for a taxi but she refused, too much trouble and expense she said (the taxi would have been less than $5.00).
All of that said, we would not have missed this opportunity for anything. Every Nepali that we personally met has been so kind and gracious. It was a privilege to come here and very satisfying to be able to offer our little bit of help with dentistry to a few of the children of Kathmandu. We were able to experience this country from a different perspective than just as a tourist.
We understand there will be an election soon and we hope, along with many of the Nepalis, that there will be an improvement in the infrastructure of this struggling country.

May 10, 2009

     This is the first chance we’ve had to get on the Internet in several days. We are back in Kathmandu after a hard climb down and more great views of Everest. We’ve been trekking nearly a week and it’s nice to be back with a real bathroom and bed.

      Our Sherpa guide was incredible.  He speaks 4 or 5 languages, travels to Italy for 3 months a year to guide Italians up the Alps and maintains his family in Namche Bazar. He treated us like a mother hen, we always came first and while the conditions were primitive, he always tried to find ways to make things better for us. Right down to hot water bottles (there was never any heat and the temp dropped to freezing at night) and making sure we ordered our meals at least an hour early (it took at least that long for them to prepare our food).

     The Himalayas are incredible, they seem to be younger than the Rockies, much more angular with sharper peaks. Like the Rockies, there are beautiful pine forests everywhere. This is different from the Himalayas we saw in India; they were almost barren of vegetation.  Almost everywhere it is possible the mountainside has been tiered to accommodate agriculture, mostly vegetables for local use. There is not much animal agriculture. They have cattle, Yaks and Tzoes (mix between a cow and a yak) but they use them for work not so much eating. There is meat processing in Kathmandu and other cities but since everything has to be carried up the mountain, it limits the amount and increases the cost of meat.  Plus there is very little refrigeration available.  Chickens seem to be everywhere and so are more commonly found on menus.

     On the way up all our gear was packed on the back of a Tzoe. At Namche the Tzoe driver decided he could carry our luggage himself and make more money, so he loaded up everything,  put the strap around his head and headed off….amazing!! He beat us down by quite a bit. By the way, the washer and dryer I mentioned earlier were carried up on a man’s back not by a Tzoe, the load was too wide for the animal, it has to be balanced, equal amounts on each side.

     We flew out of the Lukla airport this morning for Kathmandu. The planes (twin engine props) start coming around 7am, they land on the short uphill runway dump their passengers and baggage, load up and take off within minutes. We saw at least 4 planes land and take off within about twenty minutes. The window of opportunity to get to this airport is very limited by the weather and usually by afternoon it has to close.

We had lots of trouble getting on the internet in Kathmandu and with a slow conection it was hard to upload photos and video. The power is only on for 12 hours a day and rotates in 4 hour segments. We always seemed to be working or asleep when the power was on, so we didn't get as much as we wanted onto the blog.
Now we are in Namche Bazzar at 12500 ft. in the Himalayas, it was very difficult getting here, very steep, it took us two days of trekking. Unfortunately, the toothbrushing clinic we were scheduled to give has been canceled. So this morning we hiked up to the Everest Visitors Center for photos of the top of the world. We are surrounded by spectacular mauntains, Everest is just the tallest. Namche Bazzar is the largest Sherpa community in the Khumbu Valley, you have to trek to get here, but our hotel has a shower with tub and they have a modern washer and dryer for laundry. The appliances were carried upon the back of a Dzo (sp.), a cross between a Yak and a cow . There are no cars or transport other than the rare horse and your own feet. The locals are very proud that they have full time electricity via a hand built hydro power plant, plenty of clean water, and no pollution, something Kathmandu ( the big city) can't claim. Internet seems to be easier to access here as well.
The living conditions in Nepal are so different from Nebraska. I wish there was a smell component to this blog. The people cope well with their limited resources but we are missing home.

5/1/09

Nepal is mainly Hindu but does have a large Buddhist population.   The area we are staying in is mostly Buddhist, at least partly because we are so close to the stupa. We are told that Buddhism is more a philosophy that a religion.  Buddhists seek purification or Nirvana. They must overcome six human frailties; jealousy, ill-will, hatred, addiction (or attachment), and ignorance to become like the Buddha.

 

We attended a Buddhist Puja or a religious ceremony last night, and as I understand, it could be compared with our Sunday church service. The monks were sitting cross legged in rows in a special room in the monastery, they read from books of meditative writings in unison to the beat of two large drums interspersed with chimes, gongs and horns, please play the short video clip that is attached.

 

This evening, in honor of May Day, there was a ceremony on top of the stupa.  We watched part of it from the roof top restaurant.   It was very similar to the Puja we attended but on a much larger scale. The stupa is decorated in colored lights (like Christmas lights) and hundreds of monks are chanting in unison following a leader with a loud speaker. Following the ceremony they all circumambulated the stupa clockwise. We have been told that any time we pass a religious structure we should go around it in a clockwise direction to show the proper respect