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After our Goa vacation, we made our way back to Nepal via two days in Hampi, a breathtaking landscape of huge boulders and dramatic temple ruins along a holy sleepy South Indian river. It puts Rome to shame! From there, it took us two days to get back to Nepal, with motor-rickshaw, sleeper train, taxis, and airplanes. Arrival in Kathmandu felt a bit like ‘home’. Time to get back to work!
Nach unserem Goaurlaub haben wir uns auf den Weg gemacht zurueck nach Nepal. Aber mit Zwischenstop in Hampi- einer wunderschoenen Stein- und Tempellandschaft an einem heiligen Fluss. Von dort mussten wir noch weitere 2 Tage reisen mit Motorrikshaw, “Uebernachtezug”(Tim), Taxis und Flugzeug.
 A refreshing, noisy indian train ride / Die Landschaft geniessen mit den langsamen Zuegen von Indien  Hampi is a place of pilgrims and Indian and foreign tourists of all types./ Hampi ist auch fuer viele Inder ein Pilgerziel.  Life on the river is clorful. The elephant's name is Laxmi. / Nicht nur der Tempelelefant Laxmi nimmt ein Bad.  Even the buffalo are colorful!/ Ochsenkarren mit Holzraedern.  We learned to steer the round basket river boats. / Die runden Boote zu lenken war gar nicht so einfach...  ... and drive a rickshaw./ ... wer will mit nach Deutschland?  Tim learned the local greetings./ Inzwischen hat Tim keine Angst mehr vor den Sadhus.  A sweet treat at the sugar cane harvest?/ Hmm, Zuckerrohr schmeckt lecker...  One of these tricksters stole my banana! Really. Einer dieser Affen hat Dave die Banane geklaut, die eigentlich fuer Laxmi gedacht war.  Laxmi gave us her blessings, elephant-style. / Jeder, der Laxmi einen Rupie gibt, wird " gesegnet".  In the heat of the afternoon, my eyes started playing tricks on me.
After a beautiful, but increasingly cold stay in our Nepali village, Gangkharka, it was time for a bit of warm-up. Our winter Christmas/New Year (and beyond) ‘holiday’, planned from long ago, would be a visit to the beaches of Goa on the west coast of India. Six weeks of sand and surf, boat rides to watch dolphins, lots of sleep, yoga, and good food… it was hard to imagine that we deserved such luxury. The kids, too, enjoyed themselves, with daily kindergarten, endless hours of sand-castles and wave hopping, interspersed with cow-feeding, a circus, touring on a scooter, watching the coconut harvest, ‘helping’ the fishermen pull in their nets, lounging in the shade of the fishing boats. Below are a few snapshots from the trip.
Nach einem schoenen, aber immer kaelter werdenden Aufenthalt in unsererm nepalesischem Dorf, Gangkharka, haben wir uns sehr auf die Waerme Goas gefreut. Unseren, seit langem geplanten, Weihnachts- und Silvesterurlaub flogen wir nach Arambol, wo Dave und ich uns vor 10 Jahren kennengelernt haben. Sechs Wochen mit Sand, Wellensurfing, Bootsausfluege um Delfine zu sehen, Standspaziergaenge, Poisswinging lernen, Yoga, leckeres Essen…- erst in Indien haben wir gemerkt wie sehr wir “echten Urlaub” benoetigten. Die Kinder hatten natuerlich auch ihren Spass mit vielen Sandburgen, den Fischern beim Netz rausziehen helfen, Scooterausfluege und den Palmenkletterern zuschauen. Die Kinder waren sogar in einem Kindergarten fuer 3 Wochen, was fuer alle Luxus war. Anhaengend sind ein paar Fotos :
 Sunset wave-hopping - Baden beim Sonnenuntergang  Sand, sand, sand!  Sand for construction is 'harvested' from the rivers of Goa / Sand fuer die Baustellen wird muehsam aus dem Fluss geholt  Video conferencing with friends in Germany is part of the modern Indian vacation experience! / - aber fuer uns das 1. mal !  Every culture has its images of the 'devil'!/ Jede Kutlur hat ihre Teufelsvorstellungen!  Tim learns street building - Tim lernt Strassenbau  Finally back in Kathmandu, where it's just too cold / Wieder zurueck in crazy Kathmandu.
After our October horse-trek through Helambu, we spent two weeks in Kathmandu, organizing the logistics needed to begin our work with VEC in Gangkharka. Here’s the story of what came next.
On the 1st of November, at 5 in the morning, we head back up to the mountains in a rented jeep. The early start, intended to avoid a planned general strike that is likely to shut down some roads, proves lucky, as the poor mountain roads are very slow going. Time is lost, too, trying to organize 6 porters to carry our household and children up the mountain; 7 are needed. After a tough first day on overgrown and rough trails, rice paddies full of nettles, and slippery river crossings, we arrive at our overnight stop, Yangri, in the dark. It’s a beautiful Tamang village at the confluence of the Indrawadi and Yangri Khola, low enough in altitude to have a wonderful climate and lush rice paddies. Here we’ve rented two rooms in an unfinished house; it’s where we stay on our frequent stopovers here. We also begin the logistics to setup a small health ‘outpost’ here.
 Our jeep packed to overflowing with our household supplies  Chatting with the locals on the new road near Baruwa.  The jeep-load transformed into porter loads  And we’re off – 2 days to Gangkharka  When it’s steep uphill, a porter carries both of our kids.  The new bridge at Yangri  Lucky points out our two homes: Yangri (circled), and Gangkharka (somewhere behind the ‘X’). The next morning, after ordering several dokos (big baskets) of firewood for later use in Yangri, we head off up the river towards Gangkharka. The porters go on ahead, as we pass through the beautiful canyon above town, stopping for lunch in Maikharka (‘Buffalo Hut’) at the home of Passang Lama and family. On the way we watch a band of monkeys playing on the cliffs of one of the valley’s spectacular waterfalls. After lunch, the trail turns steep, and we’re glad there are lots of people in our group to help with the kids. Lucky and Dolma, two young Kathmandu-based women from Sherpa villages in the area, alternate carrying Lia. Pema, a trekking guide whose house we will ultimately rent, carries Tim. Dawa Sherpa, retired and recently back from living in Bhutan, rounds out our party. Dawa will be building a new house in Gangkharka.
 The trail along the Yangri Khola  Near Yangri we stop often to make photos.  Near Gangkharka, views open up toward the snowy Ganja La Range, the gateway to Langtang, the original home of Gangkharka’s residents.  A twisted ankle adds some troubles to the trip.  On up the mountain  Arrival in Gankharka is a wonderful relief, and warm jackets come out – up here at 2,300 meters, the air is always chilly.  Our home  Cleaning and painting is the first order of business.  Our kitchen in traditional Sherpa style After the usual greetings and tea, and catching up on news from Kathmandu, it is then down to the business of finding a home. Three different houses have been suggested to us for rental, and after we’ve been in the village an hour, we’ve visited them all. By day 3, we’re already started on the task of setting up our household; cleaning (a two day job!), painting, building shelves. Lucky teaches us the basics of staying warm and clean in the mountains, acquiring food, cooking over a Nepali-style wood stove, and cleaning dishes without running water.
 We also need hats for sleeping!  It’s not so easy to bathe, when the air temperature in the ‘shower’ is near zero!  Huge radishes from the garden are a treat in the autumn. There are no shops in Gangkharka – we have to carry up everything we need to eat, with the exception of potatoes, rice, and some vegetables, which can be bought from our neighbors. We store the food in mouse-proof pots; every night is a concert of clanging and scratching as the mice try to find something to eat. We quickly learn the value of earplugs for a good sleep!
 Lucky cooking with Lia  A typical meal for us is fried potato, beaten rice, boiled egg. Daalbhat (rice and lentils) is even more common, and Tim even likes it now!! Evenings are dark, as there is no electricity here. We use candles and flashlights and go to bed early! If a nighttime trip to the toilet is necessary, it means climbing out of the warm sleeping bag into a cold coat and shoes, taking a flashlight, trekking out around the back of the house (what stars!) to our pit-toilet. Most houses in Gangkharka have some kind of outdoor latrine – unlike Yangri where there are no toilets in the whole village!
Our mornings begin with reluctantly climbing out of the warm sleeping ‘cocoon’, to start the fire, to make tea. As soon as the sun appears behind the mountains it gets warm enough to take off the down coats and eat breakfast, then heat water to wash dishes. Later it’s splitting wood for the day’s fires, and then walking the 25 minutes to school with the kids. We often ate there with the students. After the day’s work, whether with the health clinic or videos or washing clothes, it was then quickly time to get home and start up the fire yet again to keep warm and cook more food, filter water for drinking, and so forth. Village life really teaches us how easy our life in ‘back home’ in more developed countries!
Life in Nepal takes place mostly on the floor; we don’t have any chairs yet!. But we gave the order to make us a table and benches in order to be nice to our backs.
 A typical evening meal  Pema teaches us how to mix and drink chang, home-made Nepali corn beer. Then the work began: days in the Passang Memorial Boarding School, preparing videos of the students for the VEC website, organizing the clinic, and getting our own kids started in school. It really kept us all busy. The school is a new place, and the staff have the enthusiasm of starting something new and exciting. This has made working with them really enjoyable. Tim and Lia, as the only foreign students at the school, are greeted each day enthusiastically by the other kids. Lia loves the attention, especially being carried around by the older students. Tim isn’t so sure, and likes to play more quietly with one of the two friends he’s made so far: Ang Babu, and Karma Sherpa. Our kids both love to stop along the path home to play at the sand pit or the water-driven flour mill.
 The Passang Memorial Boarding School sits tucked alone along a beautiful mountainside steam.  A classroom at the school  Our kids making friends at the school In mid-November, it’s time for the health camps! Ina and an international team of doctors and nurses provide mobile health services to the students, teachers, and residents at Gangkharka, Yangri, and Bolgaon, over three days of intensive work. At each location, long lines of patients wait for care, with a huge variety of ailments, from skin infections and digestive parasites, to injuries and mental conditions. Donations from Germany and Scotland (thank you!) pay for two huge trunks full of medicines, which are carried by porters up to the camps and distributed to patients.
It is wonderful to see many people receiving the medicines they need after what had clearly been long periods of waiting. There are, of course, some with conditions that can not be helped in the field, such as several with cataracts and dental complaints and serious orthopedic problems. The team used some remaining funds to send some children to the city for specialist treatments, and we are now organizing visits by an ophthalmologist and dentist to the area to address the most common eye and tooth problems.
 Ina treats a skin infection at the school.  Waiting to see the doctor in Bolgaon  Mike Stevens explaining medicine dosage for a child to the translator. Ina builds the student medical records. As expected, the camps are full of excitement, hope and hard work, and a chance for the main international staff and volunteers of VEC to get together and do essential planning.
Life in the village after the health camps is a time to get back to the everyday routines and for our children to lean about planting potatoes, milking cows, building fires, and much more.
 Plowing a millet field in Bangdang  Shelling beans with Ibi (grandmother) in Gangkharka A visit to a local gompa (monastery) and participating in a village puja (religious ceremony) introduces us to the rich Buddhist traditions here in Helambu. The children are always very impressed by the noise and chanting and rituals.
Dave spends hours each week video-taping details of the local culture and holding on-camera interviews with those willing to share their perspectives on the changing life of families here. This is the starting phase of a project with other film-makers to develop audiovisual materials documenting aspects of the local Sherpa and Tamang cultures for use by the Gangkharka students and others.
Dave also spends some afternoons tinkering with electronics (batteries, solar chargers, inverters, adapters, mobile phones, etc.), exploring the options for setting up Internet access for the school.
 A demon in the entryway of the Bangdang Gompa The kids are pretty exhausted after each day’s adventures. Sometimes their creativity is sparked by what they have witnessed, as seen in their colored-pencil drawings (their favorite activity), and in their dictated letters to friends.
 A drawing by Tim, after a day of hiking in the hills Other times, they just want to ‘zone out’ and enjoy some modern electronics. The children are now experts in “Sendung mit der Maus”, a German TV podcast on Ipod, which provs the most popular method of relaxation.
 Watching a video on Ipod We’ve enjoyed getting to know other families during this month, even though language is always embarrassingly difficult (we’re such slow Nepali learners). In the villages, few can speak any English, so it is good to have our translator with us.
 Passang Lama and family in Maikharka  The tea house keepers at Mahankol  Garnesh Lama and family in Yangri, the shopkeepers  Near Bolgaon When we’re frustrated with communication difficulties, the beautiful landscapes put us at ease. Each day we marvel at the spectacular mountain panorama in front of our home. “Nepal is so, so beautiful” is on our tongues nearly every day!
Hallo liebe Freunde und Familie
wir sind wieder zurueck in Kathmandu nach unserer 2 Wochen Wanderung
in Helambu. Jetzt geniessern wir wieder warme Duschen und gutes Essen.
Auf unserem Treck ist alles gut gelaufen und es war sehr schoen,
trotz einiger Regentage. Der Monsun fing dieses Jahr spaet an und ging
dafuer leider etwas laenger. Wir sind dann einfach laenger an unserem
Stop geblieben, was fuer die Kinder ideal war. Es gab immer neue
Sachen zu entdecken bei unseren Erkundungstouren und wir waren schnell
von einer Kinderschar umlagert, die alles beobachteten.
Die Kinder haben echt gut mitgemacht, sie mussten auch sehr wenig
laufen. Unser 2. Pony, was eigentlich fuer Gepaeck gedacht war, hat
sich geweigert dies zu tragen. Also haben wir noch einen Porter mehr
genommen und beide Kinder konnten die ganze Zeit reiten- so gab es
wenig Streit. Auch die befuerchtete Motivationsarbeit waerend des
Laufens fiel aus, da die Kinder ohne Probleme 5-6 Stunden geritten
sind (natuerlich mit Pausen). Lia wurde total verwoehnt von unserer
Crew, sie musste kaum einen Fuss vor den anderen machen. Sie wurde
immer getragen, auch wenn die Kinder von den Ponys steigen mussten,
weil es zu steil runter ging. Das war doch relativ oft, weil die
Wanderwege in Helambu viel mit Steinstufen gebaut sind, Das war dann
sehr rutschig fuer die Pferde. Tim ist toll gelaufen wenn es noetig
war.
Besonders wenn wir in Doerfern mit vielen Kindern und Tieren waren,
hatten Tim und Lia spass. Kueken fangen, beim Wasserbueffelmelken
zuschaun. Getreide ernten und trocknen etc. Das Leben in den
Doerfern war fuer uns alle faszinierend weil es so anders ist.
Besonders duch die vielen verschiedenen Handwerke die ausgefuert
werden: Teppiche herstellen, Matten und Koerbe flechten, Messer
schmieden …
Da wir auf keiner Touristenroute wanderten wurden wir (besonders Tim)
genauso bestaunt.
Wie auch bei meinen vorherigen Besuchen in Nepal bin ich wieder von
der Offenheit und Herzlichkeit der Leute begeistert.
Es war etwas schockierend wenn wir nach dem Alter der Kinder gefragt
haben. Sie sehen alle 3-4 Jahre juenger aus vergliechen mit Kindern
bei uns (was auch ihr Benehmen betrifft).
Obwohl Festivalzeit war und viele Staedter ihre Verwandten auf dem
Land besucht haben, gab es so gut wie nie jemanden der Englisch
sprach, was uns sehr daran erinnert hat endlich intensiv mit dem
Nepalilernen anzufangen. Bisher waren wir immer so mit organisieren,
shopping oder Kindernprogram beschaeftigt, dass wir kaum Fortschritte
gemacht haben…
Wir hatten eine sehr nette Gruppe zum wandern. Alle arbeiten auch in
der Schule in Gangkharka. 2 Pferdefuehrer, die auch Gepaeck getragen
haben (plus Lia, wenn noetig). einen Porter-Koch und unsere 17
jaehrige Uebersetzerin, die nicht so gut war. Leider konnte die
urspruenglich geplante nicht kommen, da ihr Mutter krank wurde. Die
haelfte der Zeit war auch noch Sonam, der 9 jaehrige Neffe von Dorjee,
dem Gruender unserem Organisation dabei, was fuer die Kinder schoen
war.
Wir haben in Guest Haeusern oder Familien geschlafen und haben unser
Zelt gar nicht gebraucht.
Ich hab das Wandern in der wunderschoenen Gegend sehr genossen.
In Gangkharka, wo wir jetzt leben werden, hat es 3 Tage nur geregnet.
Es liegt am Ende vom Tal auf 2000 m Hoehe. Die 110 Kinder und Lehrer
waren fast alle in Urlaub bei ihren Verwandten. Deswegen konnten wir
keinen alltaeglichen Eindruck vom Leben dort bekommen, Nur die
Aufbauarbeiten an der Schule/ Internat waren im vollen Gange. Alles
war in den Hof getragen, da es neue Betonboeden gab und es wurden
Holzdoppelbetten hergestellt.
Das Dorf ist 20 Minuten Fussweg entfernt von der Schule. Es ist sehr
schoen gelegen mit tollem Ausblick auf die Langtangschneeberge und
tiefen Taeler. Aber es wirkte. verglichen mit den anderen Doerfern.
sehr leblos, da nur noch 3 Haeuser bewohnt waren und es gibt dort
keine Kinder. Die meisten Bewohner sind in den letzten Jahren in die
Stadt oder ins Ausland gegangen, insbesondere waehrend der Zeit des
Zivilkrieges.
Wir werden in das freie Haus neben Ibi und Meme (Grossmutter und
Grossvater) ziehen. Sie sind die netten Eltern unseres
Projektdirektors Dorjee und leben noch das traditionelle Sherpaleben.
Der Vorteil dort fuer uns ist, dass sie schon eine Toilette haben (
das ist noch gar keine Selbstverstaendlichkeit in dem Tal), eine
Wasserstelle dirkt vor dem Haus und ein Solarmodul auf dem Dach. Das
bedeutet, dass wir wenigstens ein bisschen Licht abends haben und
nicht nur im Kerzenschein sitzen muessen.
Unser Raum ist ca 50qm gross und hat eine Feuerstelle zum Kochen und
heizen. Dadrueber ist ein kleiner Metallherd mit Abzugsrohr. Das
Kochen mit dem Feuer sieht sehr leicht aus, mal sehn wie wir das
hinbekommen.
Gerade kaufen wir hier in Kathmandu viele Sachen fuer unseren neuen
Haushalt und freuen uns darauf ihn einzurichten.
Am 2.11. brechen wir wieder nach Gangkharka auf, da dort eine Woche
spaeter das Healthcamp losgeht. Danach gehen wir noch in 3 anderen
Doerfer um die Leute dort medizinisch zu versorgen.
Bis Anfang Dezember sind wir dann erst mal nicht erreichbar und wir
melden uns wieder wenn wir in Kathmandu sind.
Am 10.12. fliegen wir fuer 4 Wochen nach Goa und werden dort den
Strand und die Waerme geniessen. Ach, haben wir ein gutes Leben!
Our days of rest at Yangri included lots of play with the local kids. Some, we learned, go to school way back up at Gangkharka, others at the ‘local’ school 45 minutes walk away, others across the river and up the hill and hour to the ‘good’ school at Botang, and still others in Kathmandu. Schooling in Nepal is not easy!
 At the river in Yangri  Bibi and friends A couple days later, it was uphill again, to Bolgaon, with it’s spectacular mountain views and lively village center. Our host, Pimsen Lama, is the father of the Gangkharka school’s yak keeper. His young Indian bartender nephew, Raman, was also there, and we enjoyed hours of fun talk discussing the modern versus traditional perspectives of the generations!
 One of Ranu's many relatives in Yangri  Friendly Shamani women of Simpani On again, through Simpani, to Baruwa. Here there’s a brand new ‘road’ cut into the mountainside (not yet vehicle-ready), and we hear that it’s scheduled to reach Bolgaon next year. Our staff race back and forth, running the horses, thrilled for the chance to test their riding skills. Electricity is here, too. The result? The evenings, which had been a time of silence and rest in the previous villages, is filled here with television, radio, and loud music from nearly every house. Welcome back to ‘civilization’! The town also boasts a government health post, and Ina enjoyed the chance to work for a day with the staff there, making plans for our own medical work in the other villages.
 Maya's grandmother in Baruwa A visit to the local school completed our stay in pretty Baruwa, before our final decent to Tipani and Melamchi Bazaar, and the long jeep ride back to Kathmendu, interrupted by one bad traffic jam behind a bus that had slid partway off the road in the mud, and the astonishingly bad late-evening traffic jams of Kathmendu.
Writing this four days later, the whole trek seems far off now, somehow magical. The city and village lives are so hard to reconcile with each other! Like oil and water.
We’re back, meaning back in Kathmandu. Back in the noise, crowds, filth, intensity. But ah, the hot shower, good food, phone and Internet; the little luxuries are so enjoyable after weeks without. That’s part of our experience as westerners, as visitors.
For the Nepalis, Kathmandu is family, jobs, connections at festival time. It’s Tihar time now – the Nepali version of the holiday known as ‘Diwali’ in India – the festival of lights, with candles, fireworks, dancing, and beautiful artwork on the ground before doorways. It’s a time for families to get together and mark each other’s foreheads with red ‘tika’ blessings. Tomorrow the busses will be full again, as a whole country heads back to work.
 Dossai time means full busses. Our two weeks in Helambu benefited from the relaxed holiday atmosphere – many people having time to share with us, and many English-speaking kids visiting their grandparents’ village homes. This, of course, meant enthusiastic translators helping us out.
Our ‘trek’ was a bit more like a slow migration through several towns. A half day jeep ride up a bumpy dirt road brought us to the start in Timbu, a tiny settlement along the Melamchi Khola in central Helambu. From here it was up, up, up with our two horses (Tashi and Lomsang), a horse driver named Karsen Lama, our own kids, Tim and Lia, another boy, Sonam, on his way to the school, two of the NGO’s staff (Gyamdzo and Tashi), two apprentices learning the ways with horses (and helping with our packs – Ram Prashad and Dawa), and our guide/translator, Ranu. What a group!
 Rain in Bangdang Sweaty and hot on the second day, we reached Tarkegyang, a picturesque settlement nigh up on a hillside. Here the work began, getting to know key contacts for the video documentary work that comes later in the winter. The kids enjoyed a chance to bang on some huge drums in the town’s monestary, and the next day sit in on a special celebration there (a ‘puja’), with all its loud clanging, banging, chanting, and incense. One evening was spent hearing of the founding myth stories for the village: Mountaintop monasteries struck by seven bolts of lightning; a king’s wife cured of illness; a hundred horses given as a gift and exchanged for never-ending ownership of a rich valley of rice, and a copper tablet describing it all!
 Langtang and Panch Pokhari from Baruwa The weather turned rainy as we huffed and puffed our way up over the ridge at Yangi Peak through the Langhang Monestary, and down to the new boarding school and village at Gangkharka. Over the next two days, we got to know this town and its history, prepared our work in the school (a clinic and video project) and organized housing and logistics for our next time here. We stayed in the home of Dorjee’s (VEC Director’s) parents, a sweet older couple living the traditional ‘picturebook’ Sherpa lifestyle.
 Shelling beans in Gangkharka Sadly, about 5 years ago, during the Maoist uprising, most residents took their families and left for Kathmandu, or India, or further abroad. The handful who remained are now re-building, setting up village governance structures, and preparing for a period of growth, now that the school is in place. No bombs or even bullets have fallen here, but the wounds of war are obvious.
 Lia learns washing from Ranu More rain and lots of leeches helped us down the trail to Bangdang, another nearly empty Sherpa village overlooking the steep wooded mountains. Here we lunched in the home of a retired Gurka army officer, with a beautifully tidy kitchen, a common pleasure of many Sherpa homes. Here another ‘retired’ man struggled behind a team of cows plowing in the potato field in preparation for a winter planting of wheat or barley.
On down the hill, we entered the ‘stairstep’ Tamang village of Dalegaon, where we watched people of all ages weaving ‘dokos’, large baskets used like backpacks, and sold in the market towns further down the hill.
 Making dokus in Dalegaon A few thousand more steps down, and we were in steamy hot Yangri, a compact, busy little Tamang village directly on the Indrawadi Khola, with breathtakingly beautiful traditional houses and at the confluence of two rivers. Here we discussed establishing another health post, and here Ina got the chance to give some medical treatments – a boy with a bad fever, a dog bitten by another dog, one of our staff bitten by our horse, and an infected foot (mine) from a leech bite.
 Aren't leeches fun? written October 17, 2009. Posted a few days later.
 Boarding the plane in Delhi, heading to nepal It’s been two weeks since our arrival in Kathmandu. Our lives back in Germany are beginning to fade into ever-less-frequent memories, as Nepalese life becomes our everyday experience. The many cultural details are as we remembered from previous times here: the familiar speech and facial mannerisms, the lively festival music, colorful dress, smell and sounds. But the intensity and size of the city are beyond what we imagined. Kathmandu has grown into a metropolis of millions, sprawling over a huge area, with traffic jams and seas of people to rival other world cities. The roads are amazing and terrifying at the same time; twice the traffic, half the space, making pedestrian movement like a crazy video arcade game. 15 years ago, on my first trip here, it was a quarter or even a 10th the size – a busy, but manageable little city. No more. While it’s been interesting here, we can’t wait to get out into Helambu, where our ‘real’ work awaits us. We’re mostly done with the logistics, bureaucratic preparations, and other details we needed to arrange. We’ve stood in lines in offices to activate our mobile phones, pushed through crowded ’supermarkets’ to buy our trekking supplies, navigated the busy streets ofThamel, the city’s trekker’s shpping district, buying jackets and sleeping pads.
 Navigating the crowds in Patan's Durbar Square  Where is Nepal? We moved into a cute little guest house, the ‘Red Panda’, which we’ll call ‘home’ each time we return to Kathmandu. From the roof here, we learned to fly the local paper kites, watching groups of children on neighboring roofs competing with each other, chasing one another’s kites through the sky. Evenings have seen slide shows about the natural and cultural beauty of the countryside, cartoon movies about Hindu deities for the kids, and lots of talk with residents and other visitors.
 The big stupa at Baudinath is always breath-taking  Kids love photo shoots! This week we visited a children’s home just out of the city, part of the projects run by Prisoners Assistance Nepal and Indira Ramanager, a dynamic Nepali social entrepreneur with whom we’ve had contact over the years. Then came the usual tourist destinations — Pashaputinath (the riverside funeral pyres), Swayumbunath (the ‘Monkey Temple’), and fun wanderings through local neighborhoods, and a chance for our kids to learn a little cricket from the local boys and girls. And then there was the expected visits to the medical clinic to get medicines against the usual digestive upsets that every new arrival faces.
The Dossai festival is happening now; families get together and exchange gifts, goats are sacrificed, bells and music are heard around the city where special festival altars are set up. Most shops are closed, as half the city’s residents head out to visit relatives in their family villages. It’s a nice time, with lots of smiles.
 A 'baba' at Swayambunath teaches Lia some signs This week we’ve met a few times with the staff and volunteers with whom we’ll be working up in Helambu: Dorjee, Yangchin, Djamdyo, Ola and Danny. Besides the medical camps and health worker training we expected to do, it looks like we’ll be participating in some oral history documentary projects, as well. We’ve even got an American film crew coming up in January to help. Lots to prepare for.
We head out to Helambu on Thursday. If all goes well, we’ll meet our horses that day and begin our introductory trek through our project villages.
Now it’s time to pack.
Setting up stuff I didn’t have time to do back in Germany is, ahh, a ‘pain’. Now I’m trying to get the post-by-email plugin working on my blog. This is test.
A very nice welcome after a tiring journay. A welcome rest in the hotel garden under a grapefruit tree, A cup of chi and all the wonderful smells of Kathmandu. Already met to make rough plans for the work ahead. It’s so nice to be here.
About 40 km north-east of Kathmandu, the Indrawadi Khola is a river valley in eastern Helambu. VEC’s projects, focus on villages in the upper reaches of the valley, with an aim toward promoting cultural preservation in the Helambu Sherpa communities. The red markers show locations of two clinics (one being built) supported by VEC. The ’school’ marker marks Gangkharka, home of the new Pasang Sherpa Memorial Boarding School. The yellow markers show the overnight stops of a trek I made through the area in 2005. Somewhere on this map will be our home for the next year!
Go here: http://tinyurl.com/lokmy3 and explore the valley yourself.
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