Part of my itinerary in Nepal included leading an expedition for Choice Humanitarian. Choice is the group that I have traveled with over the past couple of years and they focus on supporting sustainable humanitarian projects such as water systems, school houses, biogas systems etc. Like I mentioned in my last post the group had arrived and we were headed off to a small village called Pasachaur to work on a school house. To get to the village we had to first make it to a small town called Besisahar which is located in western Nepal and is one of the trailheads for the Annapurna Loop, one of the more renowned treks in Nepal.
We arrived to Besisahar on Monday afternoon after a 6 hour ride in a microbus on a road that rivals the road to Hana on Maui. What makes it worse than the road to Maui is that it is the only road that connects western Nepal to Kathmandu so the road is shared by motorcycles, cars, semi trucks and busses both large and small. That coupled with the lack of any rhyme or reason to how people here drive makes it one of the craziest roads I have ever traveled. I have traveled the road probably 8 times in my travels to Nepal and I have yet to not see an overturned vehicle or two…..This trip was no exception. I always love the adventure. (Nancy...don’t read that last part)
Speaking of adventure...did I mention that the Choice group is comprised of 3…yes three single women? They are well traveled and easy to get along with. So far things have been great. The only challenge might be sheer amount of luggage that they are toting around Nepal. I brought less luggage for 3 months than they brought for 2 weeks. I completely understand the need for hair dryers, curling irons, and make-up when you are traveling to a remote country and into a village where there might or might-not even be electricity (NOT….I barely comb my hair here), I need to convince them that they might want to leave some of their stuff at the hotel in Besisahar. (I will never be able to let them read the blog after writing that…) Having gotten all of the mean comments out of the way...I should now say that they are great. We get along well and they are almost as sarcastic as I am…life will be good.
Pasachaur
The hike into the village was a bit of a challenge for us Americans who are not accustomed to hiking steep trails day-in and day-out….but we made it…with the help of a strong village kid to carry the suitcase filled with soccer balls, crayons, and miscellaneous stuff for the school and with the constant support from other villagers encouraging our every step. I think the women were loving me the whole while because I was successful in convincing them to leave a big portion of their stuff at the hotel.
As we rounded the last bend and the village came into sight, we saw all of the school children waiting in a line for us with flower leis and fruit in hand to gift us as we walked passed. By the time we had worked our way through the long line, we had flower leis up to our ears, handfuls of flowers and fruit, and a tika on our forehead. I have always seen these very small and strategically placed tikas on the men and women of Nepal. In fact I have worn them on occasion myself and again they have been…well…..appropriate. Needless to say the tikas we received in the village were neither small, nor strategically placed. To be honest, I don’t know if big, sloppy tikas are saved for the most special of guests, or it they were doing it so they could laugh at us later…..In light of the rest of the greeting ceremony and welcoming party I am certain that they were given with the deepest of respect and appreciation, but we sure felt and looked ridiculous. I probably cannot complain too much as mine was the smallest of the bunch. Poor Lorraine had one that started at the top of her nose and went to the crown of her head. I think she is still washing it out of her hair even a week later. Despite the fact that my brain is telling me not to post pictures of all this…I will do it anyway….but there needs to be an understanding that they can never be used against me for blackmail. We then went and sat with the headmaster of the school and the 4 teachers eating oranges from the recent crop. We talked about the new school and the impact it will have on the village. We were told that it had only taken them 2 months to build the school, a feat that everyone told them was impossible. It is a 4 room school house that will be home to 100 primary aged school students.
After spending about an hour at the school, we were lead down a path to take our belongings to the home where we would be staying for the next 4 days. As we walked and passed other small houses along the way people came rushing out of their houses to place more flower leis around our necks and gift us handfuls of fruit and flowers. We were able to politely shed the previous leis in the school house as they were causing us to itch like crazy and even break out in rashes…only to be greeted with more and more leis. As we rounded one of the bends in the trail, we came upon a large group of villagers standing in a line with more leis, fruit and flowers. The kindness and the respect that they showed us throughout our stay in the village was overwhelming to say the least. I doubt that I am capable of adequately describing all that we experienced in the village. From a family giving up their beds so we had a place to sleep, to the 4 young men that spent endless hours daily preparing us amazing meals, to the hours of dancing and singing (and I mean hours…like up to 6 hours a night) to both celebrate and entertain us, to many invites to come visit homes and eat meals with the different families. I have been into many villages with Choice in many different countries….but I have yet been able to put into words the feelings, the emotions, the thoughts, the experiences of spending time in a village. I will write more about this experience later.
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