Shepherds, Oxcarts and Sleeping Dogs

These are just a few of the things that we dodged in our minivan tour of Nepal during the six days on the road. In all, we covered nearly 1,500 Nepal Miles. Imagine driving for that long on curvy, unmaintained forest service roads and you'll get an idea for the scale and experience of it. Our flat tire count for the journey ended up being five.

During that time we visited 15 schools, and met with nearly 100 students. It was absolutely life changing, and I just have to say again that ANSWER is really doing fantastic work in Nepal. Check them out. And, since I began the volunteer work with their students the morning after I arrived, and then I returned to Joanie, Megan and Alyson, I haven't been alone yet!

But I digress. The story today is about the roads. And the kids. And some other miscellaneous things I've learned about Nepal along the way. The first thing is to point out that less than 5% of the population of Nepal have cars. If you count motorcycles you probably get to 8%. So, the roads are owned by bicycles, pedestrians, cows, dogs, roosters, oxcarts, shepherds and rickshaws. 95% of the other vehicles that we saw on the road were either buses, vans for hire or transport trucks. So close your eyes and imagine a Nepalese "highway" and what it's like when you approach a town at 50 miles per hour. The street is filled with everything but cars. We don't slow down, but our driver Sumar just lays on the horn (as is the custom) to warn the people of our impending approach. The people and even animals have somehow learned to move out of the way JUST in the nick of time. It is absolutely one of the scariest things I've ever experienced! Well, at least it was the first few times, then I just came to accept it as the way it is! And somehow it works. (Kathmandu traffic is even crazier. In a future blog post I will talk a little more about that.)

Now about the animals. Virtually everone in Nepal has a "pet" - a buffalo, cow, goat or rooster. At least one, sometimes 100. And none of the animals are kept inside or in pens or cages. So all of them roam free through the towns and villages to eat and socialize and then apparently they return to their homes at night. I'm pretty sure that I saw more animals than people in the tour of Western Nepal.

The children are amazing. I have been so very touched by all of them. Many of the towns where the students live, there is no electricity or running water so their lives are very simple, to put it mildy. At all schools, no matter the location, each child is required to wear a uniform. The sponsor provides one, and the family provides one. At each school, I get to work with one or two students to help them read and reply to the letters from their sponsors. ANSWER is unique in that the sponors have a direct relationship with the particular child whose education they are paying for. Twice a year the students write the sponsors letter, and twice a year the sponsors respond. The kids always send a picture that they have drawn - sometimes a Hindu god or goddess, a drawing of the farm at their house, a drawing of one of their pets, or something like that. I can not say enough about my experience working with the kids. The student pictured at right with her mother and I insisted on buying me a mango juice. She ran home to get her mother, who could speak no English, but they just smiled and somehow we communicated. It was amazing considering that her family probably earns around $1,000 per year..

I hope to join Som and the rest of the ANSWER gang on their trip to Eastern Nepal sometime after the Dasain and Tihar festivals in late October or early November. What a great way this has been to see the countryside! I never would have gone to such remote places without them.

Nepali food customs are very simple. Breakfast is simple: always tea, maybe a boiled egg or something else small. Lunch and dinner consist of rice, lentils, cooked greens and what they call "pickles", but what I think is something like a specialty salsa. It is served on a beautiful silver tray with each portion occupying it's own place on the tray. Once you start eating and are getting close to done, the woman who's been cooking will come around to give you more of whatever you want, for as long as you can eat. It's like a Nepali "all-you-can-eat" except that when you eat all you can for as long as I've been here, youa little tired of it. It is prepared with loving care, and best of all it's all cooked so you're pretty assured to not get sick by eating it. It's quite a satisying meal, and especially conventient for a vegetarian like me. In the rural areas we weren't even given menus as Dal Bhat (as it's called) is the only thing that is served. If you'd lie you can order mutton on the side.

Friday morning - assuming that Megan's luggage arrives as scheduled from Singapore tomorrow - the four of us (Joanie, Alyson, Megan and I) - will fly from Kathmandu to Pokhara to begin our trek on Saturday morning. It will be a twelve day adventure, and I'm unsure if I'll be able to post any blog updates during that time. If not, know that I will be enjoying the remote regions of the Himalayas with some amazing people, and the 3 Sisters Adventures. We'll be returning by van to Kathmandu on the morning of October 10 after celebrating Dasain with the Chhetri sisters. More on that adventure later...

Pray for the end of the monsoon in Nepal!

With love,
Pam