The New Year 2059 was an auspicious year to get married in and 2060 is not, so there were a lot of last-minute weddings going on when we arrived. These are a few guys from a marching band that accompanied one of the marriage processions through the streets of Kathmandu.
Riding in the New Year One of the massive
chariots which are pulled through the streets of Bhaktapur on new year's day.
15 April, 2003
Hello friends!
As with too many other things, I've put off this email until the last minute and now find that I don't have much time to write. I found the one email shop in Kathmandu that stays open past 10pm and yet even it will close within an hour. In brief, things have not been at all what I expected and my experience has been 180 degrees from my time here two years ago.
But first... HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope the year 2060 is wonderful for you, filled with happy memories and lots of time with great friends. Yes, Nepal celebrated the first day of it's new year just yesterday. The center of festivities is the town of Bhaktapur, a few kilometers from Kathmandu. I was in that ancient town just two days ago and saw a bit of the celebrations taking place on the in the shadow of it's many ornately decorated temples. The memory that stands out most is the severed ox head I saw at a small shrine, the blood running as a small stream red down the hot brick road.
I can hardly believe I've been in Nepal for over a month now. (My apologies for taking so long to write.) I arrived full of excitement at completing the infamous Annapurna circuit as an acclimbatization warm-up to bagging one of the big peaks here. My friends Shaun and Andrea, whom I met on the flight, shared in the giddiness that comes from arriving in such a mythical town as Kathmandu.
I wasted little time getting on the trail and was soon trekking away with my new aussie friend Ash. The circuit takes about 21 days to finish and takes you all around the Annapurna Massif. This emmense hunk of rock contains numerous high peaks, including Annapurna III. Over fifty years ago, it was the first 8000 meter peak summitted, proving that Everest might be within human capabilities.
Some food poisoning on the first day had me loosing my lunch while running down the narrow trail to escape an incoming donkey train. These trains are very common, and a good means of distribution in a land where there are no roads.
We huffed and puffed through the next few days, ever ascending. The hills gave way to mountains which gave way to the mighty himalayas. Soon we were the town of Manang and settled in at the New Yak Inn. I was feeling exhausted and had headache, so I sent Ash on ahead while I took a rest day. I felt much better and stayed up late into the night talking with the international assembly of trekkers gathered in the Yak dining room that evening.
Looking at the huge Annapurna massif from just outside Pisang. A picture just cannot capture how huge that hunk of rock is! I'm standing at 2800m, the peak behind me is nearly 8000m. The wall behind me contains over a hundred Buddhist prayer wheels, which are "said" by passers-by when spun.
That's when it happened.
All seemed good until about 3am that morning, when I woke up coughing and twice the headache of the previous night. I downed a day's dosage of ibuprofen but the pain kept growing, and then I starting coughing up fluid. It felt like my lungs were filling up. I knew it was all the signs of alitude sickness. It was a long sleepless night of trying to keep my head perfectly still and trying not to breath so deeply as to trigger another coughing fit. The next morning I very slowly made my way to the health center, hoping that maybe I was wrong and maybe it was some simple illness that a few antibiotics would clear up. However, the doctor (from Colorado Springs, no less) confirmed my worst suspicions. The condition had struck at the worst possible place, where there was no way to descend without hiking for a day over level or ascending ground. So that was that and they made the call, the call. I sat stunned for most of the helicopter ride back to Kathmandu, but managed to snap a few photos.
On the bus ride to the trail head I had met a Duchman and a Nepali who worked for nonprofit organizations and were inspecting some schools in the high hills that had received aid. They invited me to do some volunteer work when I finished trekking.
Trekking was certainly over. So after a few days of feeling sorry for myself and eating a lot of imported candy, I sent out the email and began my new adventure as a volunteer for Nepal Educational Support Trust. (NEST)
The hillside town of Kirtipur. A 40 minute ride from downtown Kathmandu by bus, like the one you see. I lived just to the right of this photo.
It's been a wild three weeks. The Nepali I met was Purna Shrestha, who seems to have a hand in almost every humanitarian effort going on in this country. I stayed in an extra room in his house, which is shared with the landlord, the landlords wife, and their son, daughter-in-law, and daughter! The house is in the small town of Kirtipur, perfectly situated on a small hill in the Kathmandu valley. On clear days you can see Kathmandu smalling out below and the mighty himalays spread out behind.
I've built a lot of small databases and web pages for affiliated nonprofits. More importantly, I've gotten a much deeper look at Nepali life and at those people who are working to improve the conditions in this poor nation. It is somewhat ironic that after six years of software development work, my most lasting and most appreciated work may turn out to be an invoice traking system at a small Motorbike Shop that trains disabled and drug-addicted persons to become mechanics.
Like many Nepali youths, this young girl is doing hard work instead of going
to school. NEST works give Nepali children
educational opportunities. But now my time in Nepal is running out.
Tomorrow I'm off on a smaller and less ambitious trek, this time into the
Langtang region. I'll be moving slower and staying at lower altitudes. With
a bit more humility and a greater love for this country.