We finally arrive at Kapilakot-Ratmata-Marin. I am the first foreigner to ever come here, and I suspect it will be a while before another comes. In our hike we passed scores of other villages, and could have stopped at any of them. My digital camera was quite the hit, especially when I turned the screen around so that people could see themselves getting their picture taken.
Life is slow here, and children are plenty. I could not really tell if life stopped to watch the foreigner passing through, or if it is usually this slow. But Chandra had to answer a hundred times, "How did he get here? How could a foreigner WALK all the way here?"
People's hospitality was overwhelming, so overwhelming that we did not even arrive at Chandra's parents house that night. We had to stop and talk to many, many people, and to have Rakshi at various relatives' homes. We got involved in a long discussion of village life and religion with Chandra's brother and brother-in-law as the sun was setting. It went on well into the evening, and we ended up spending the night there.