Bee Line

So it's been well over a week since I last blogged and there's way too much to tell. A lot has happened in a short amount of time...

We got a lesson in traditional Nepali dance and the 3 of us (Michelle, Becky, myself) performed at the Nepal Rotary District Conference (which was 3 days).

We had our last THREE vocational days. (I met with people in the government who work with semi-urban and rural water treatment projects, which rounded out well the previous meeting I had had with government urban water.)

We shook the hand of the Vice President of Nepal.

And, finally, yesterday, I said goodbye to the rotary group at the airport. It felt strange to leave the group I'd been with for over a month! And I felt really appreciate of how close Becky, Michelle and I have gotten. After leaving the airport, I met Dr. Laka - the wonderful rotarian who works in the clay pot filtration project - at her office. She said that I had been taken care of so long, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I were all alone so I'd better stay the night with her before starting my trek. As Laka and I were leaving her office, all my luggage in tow, she mentioned that the Maoists were planning a demonstration that day. Well, we ran right into it! But I don't think it would have been possible to avoid it! All morning I had been seeing people in red bandannas and waving red flags of the communist hammer and sickle. Our taxi only drove us a short distance before kicking us out! He refused to go any further and no other taxi would pick us up! So here we were, Dr. Laka dragging me, dragging my luggage (down a nasty broken sidewalk, wondering why the hell I hadn't just brought a backpack...but thank the stars, my rotary blazer has remained neatly folded!) and she's saying, "Oh! It's such a bother when they do this! We had better get home fast before they start burning tires in the street." What?!?! Burning tires?!?! She spoke like we were just about to get rained on and, oh, silly us! we've forgot our umbrellas.

In moments, we were in the thick of it, people marching shoulder to shoulder down the street, blocking all possible traffic and shouting slogans. I watched with fascination as a little woman closed up her sari shop. It was crazy to witness but Dr. Laka said it isnt that unusual. She says the police let them demonstrate from time to time and to make the demonstrations more impressive, the Maoist's recruit and pay people to march. She says half the people marching don't even know what they are marching for. Anyway, we got home and hunkered down and I'm disappointed to say that I never did see any tires burning in the street.

My very excellent girlfriend, Rachel, arrives this afternoon and tomorrow we will head to the Annapurna region to start a 16 day trek!

All the best!
SP

ps. Jain isn't Buddhist. It's Hindu. But The Buddhist and Hindu religions here are pretty compatible. But Jains don't believe in taking life (are vegetarian), similar to Buddhist.