Nepal

From Boudha, Nepal. This morning I went running up to a Krishna temple with Chandra and Rajeesh. Chandra (center) is hoping to move the USA.

This is the Hindu month of Shravan, a sort of Hindu Lent, where people intensify their practice.

I went to mass this morning with the Missionaries of Charity. The Gospel was the Good Samaritan, who took care of the stranger in the road who had been beaten half to death.

They say, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” It is something like that when the sun breaks through during rainy season. After a week of rain, the sun gloriously broke forth this morning. In the picture you can see the shadows of the prayer flags on the stupa, as if they are no longer simply hovering above it but caressing it with their blessing.

I used the opportunity to wash my sheets and hang them out to dry—with an effect that was no less glorious than the sunshine. I won't go into detail, but let me just say that I will continue to do my own laundry here.

Getting sick in a different culture is always interesting. I obviously ate something problematic and was running a fever, was tired, and felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

Electricity and water never run continuously here in Nepal, though now, in the rainy season, they work for about 18-20 hours a day (since much of the power is generated hydroelectrically).

I have a “comfortable” room in the Om Guest House here in Boudha, Nepal, in a quiet part of town next door to the Hyatt Regency.

Living in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, it is easy to forget that we live in a world on the edge.

Today I made it back to Nepal. Seven years it has been, and I had no idea I was so connected to this place.

Today I am leaving Nepal. It has been a long time since I have been so sad.

Chandra, as he finally catches sight of his father's house. The pace quickened, the conversation stopped, I could feel the anticipation.

A woman in a smoky kitchen, taking a break by the door. 

She is one of three working here to make Rakshi this morning. Rakshi is the local alchoholic drink, made from distilled millet wine. In Nepali kitchens, cooking is done with a wood fire, and there is never a chimney. When something large is cooking, like a vat of rakshi, the room fills with smoke.

Two nights before we arrived in Kapilakot, Chandra's younger sister had her first child, a beautiful little girl who was still awaiting a name. 

The birth highlighted the complexity of village life. Everyone came by to visit and pay respects. It is traditional to offer the family a piece of cloth or a little money when first seeing a new baby, and many people stopped by. The mother was giving birth at home, but had a difficult pregnancy. The nearest clinic is a four hour walk, so a group of men were recruited to carry her that distance (while she was in labor). Everything worked out well, and now mother and baby were back in the village.

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.

Every so often in the riverbed are little thatch huts housing water powered grinding wheels. They are communal property and well maintained.

A family planting corn in their small plot of land.

In front of a small roadside cafe next to a military checkpoint somewhere in the Terai (the lowlands in the south of Nepal), the proprietor stands in front of her god-stone.

Spring has come to the Terai.

I had forgotten
how beautiful 
the forest in the spring.

Tenzin is the first of the Tsering Lama's grandchildren, and is being raised by his grandmother.

"The bodhisattva vow is like a golden pot, the others like earthen pots.

Today is the first day of a week-long national strike, a protest against the coming sham elections.

I made it to Tibet! That red line I am leaning on is the border, and I am on the Tibetan side.

A scene along the roadside near Tibet. As we get nearer to Tibet, the road gets progressively worse.

Day two of the bike trip, we headed north towards Tibet, leaving Greg to get back to work. It is a beautiful day, and many take advantage of the warm weather to have a picnic by the river.