March 15, 2018
I am writing from the Gateway
Himalaya Resort Hotel in Besishahar, Lamjung.
We got up about 6 AM, this time after a wonderful night’s sleep. We departed for this area about 8. This time we took one of the highways out of
town that was not all broken up. Even
though we had some rough roads, it was nothing like yesterday’s horrible,
rocky, jarring ride. Nevertheless, they
put me in the front seat till the road got better. On this highway we stop once at a bus stop
and again for lunch in the same places we always do on this road. It makes for a more pleasant drive.
Later I changed places with
Jim. After observing the driver’s
reckless passing on curves, he couldn’t take it anymore and so complained about
it. The driver knows enough English, so
he finally slowed down a bit, which kept Jim from having a heart attack. Here in Nepal almost everyone passes on the
curve and they drive rather recklessly. When
I was up front, I saw a few near-misses with vehicles suddenly before you…
Our driver on the left, the chef on the right. We always stop at this restaurant and resort on our drive to this area. The chef came out to
This post is 'wigging out'. So, it won't get fixed, sorry....
It was a long journey, but we finally arrived to our destination. We had our little meeting with the water committee where we are beginning a water project with them. They took us on a hike to see where the source was and also where they were going to add a very large collection tank. This was a typical Nepali 15 minute hike—translation…at least one hour. We are partnering with CHOICE for part of our agreement with the government. It felt good to hike after the long drive and always feels good to get some exercise. After my exhaustion yesterday, I was pleased to see that my legs worked just fine.
It was a long journey, but we finally arrived to our destination. We had our little meeting with the water committee where we are beginning a water project with them. They took us on a hike to see where the source was and also where they were going to add a very large collection tank. This was a typical Nepali 15 minute hike—translation…at least one hour. We are partnering with CHOICE for part of our agreement with the government. It felt good to hike after the long drive and always feels good to get some exercise. After my exhaustion yesterday, I was pleased to see that my legs worked just fine.
On our hike up the road
to see the water project points of interest, this cute girl came out to talk
with me. Her English was excellent. I think she was wanting to thank us for
bringing the water. I think her father
was one of the men on the water committee.
We finally departed for the hotel
and arrived shortly thereafter at about 5:30 PM. I recall staying here before. I told the Wilkinson’s that they have no hot
water and that it is typically colder here than most places we will be going. Well, they said that they DO have hot water
now and I was so excited; well, there is no hot water—the city water was off
and their hotel generator is not good enough to power the hot water—darn!! We had been sweating during the hike and I
desperately wanted to shower! But I’ve
been fighting a sore throat and am not in the mood for a freezing shower—the
water here must come from the mountain snow!
So, a spit bath it is for tonight!
Our room has a view of the Himalayas
if the clouds part so that you can see them.
It is often stormy here and clouds sit on the mountain. Perhaps tomorrow morning. We arrived just as it began to rain. We quickly got our luggage, most of which was
on the roof of the car, and got it up to our rooms. Then it finally cut loose—all the threatening
thunder we’d been hearing produced a driving rainstorm mixed with hail! The restaurant is across the way outside and
it was time for dinner. Well, it was
gushing and water was running down the parking lot that we had to cross. I didn’t want to appear to be a chicken so I
was the first stupid person to run across.
The water was roaring down the drive and soaked my shoes. When I got to the restaurant I was soaked
even though it was a short distance away—my windbreaker and hat, my shoes, and
even my pants were wet from my thighs on down.
As soon as we took off our outer, wet clothes and sat down to order, the
rain stopped!! That’s why I said I was
the first stupid one to run in that rain…
We hiked up to this
water tank area, which apparently needs a new one. They will be replacing it with a very large
tank and bringing the water with taps to the homes in the area. They at present have water lines going
everywhere, taking turns at hooking into whatever water they can get. This new systems will supply it to their
homes, without having to hook up to some source whenever they need some
water. It is not the neediest area, but
in Nepal we are running out of really needy people that get no water at
all. This area though has proven to be
organized and support past projects.
They donate all the labor and a good deal of the money. They will be able to sustain it, and that
means a lot to us. This area is called
Gaunshahar. [Jim asking questions to one
of the committee members.]
Tomorrow we have to get to the
hotel restaurant to eat our breakfast, about 7:30, and meet a group at 8 AM. Darn, I really, really need a shower!!!
Right: one of the water sources.
It was interesting
learning about Kiran’s arranged marriage and how he felt about it. He said he knew his wife for 20 days before
they were married. He said that you do
have some choice in the matter—you can meet and then one might say that they
don’t agree to the marriage, but mostly they do as they trust their
parents. And, he says that as marriage
is hard work sometimes, it is if you had dated and fell in love, you still need
to work at marriage, and he is right of course.
In Nepal they don’t really date, although in modern times there are less
arranged marriages. When we talked with
a young man that works with Rakesh, he said he met his wife while they worked
with an NGO. They fell in love and
married last June. Older families had
lots of children, but now they usually have about 2. It seems their parents usually had big
families with many, many children. Most
modern couples plan on 2.
This is our tiny
balcony—that white stuff you see is hail!
This hotel has very hard beds,
and Jim knows this so in his suitcase he had cut two pieces of foam pad to
bring—it SO helped! Besides not having
hot water, there is one tiny rug just before you go into the bathroom—it is
filthy. The toilet seat is a little wobbly,
and there are no other rugs on the floor.
The furniture is basic…but in truth, none of it matters as much as the
lack of hot water!! However, the three
of us stayed one night for about $65.
They pay a huge tax here, over 20%, and that is about what Kiran got for
us as a discount, about 20%.
Time for my cold spit bath…ugh!! It just started raining again, hard, and
blowing like crazy! It is very loud out
there! And it knocked out the Internet
connection—still no letters going out!
It rained all night. How will we
walk around? We shall see… It has been hard going from cold weather to
hot weather. It was hard to know what to
bring in our one suitcase for this 4-day jaunt.
Tomorrow is another day…
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