The Village, Nepal

Namaste from the village! We arrived in Ghalechap, walking up the stone stairway just like I used to do it 18 years ago. Of course, there's now a dirt road and an incredibly durable bus that makes the climb once a day, but we wanted to walk into town after a brain jangling and dusty bus ride to the base of the mountain.

Once in the village, we were welcomed by some of the people that I used to hang out with. The first house we stopped at welcomed us and invited us to spend the night. The old man got on the cell phone (another huge bit of "progress") and before we knew it old friends were showing up to say hello and get caught up.

We stopped by the schools where I used to work and re-united with some of my teacher friends, and had some fun with the students.

It's winter here in the foothills of the Himalayas. Everything is a little brown and dusty, and only a few fields are planted--mostly with potatoes and spinach. The rest of the fields lay dormant until May when they will be prepared for rice planting in June. Bananas, papayas, and oranges still ripen on the trees, and there's a little plowing and fertilizing to be done, but work slows down a bit on the mountain farms. This leaves time for other chores, like making new straw mats.










































After a couple days in the village, we continued on to the district center--Damauli. This is a bustling town where Mohan lives with his wife and kids. Mohan is the elder son of the family I lived with in Ghalechap. He was 10 years old the last time I saw him. He now has a seven year old daughter, who took quite a shine to Debbie, along with her two best friends as we sat on the roof of Mohan's home and got caught up.