Forgive me for being a Grinch, but Nepal definitely has us beat when it comes to Holidays. The entire month of October is, more or less, consumed by two massive festivals and great debauchery. Then, the rest of the year is filled with scattered holidays and sacred weeks. If you really tried, one could find a reason to celebrate for each and every full moon, most new moons, and a good portion of the days in between.
It appears that I’m back in the States. The holidays loom, snow piles up upon the roof then slides onto the lawn. I plow the driveway, fight with old logging equipment, talk to my colleagues in Nepal on the phone.
Hi Everyone!
After being in England for almost 7 weeks, I am finally home. It has been quite the journey in this time, experiencing everything the Grit could throw at us: success, failure, ground falls, injuries, good weather, horrible weather, awesome locals, generous hosts, and way more climbing than we could hope to cover in the time we had.
November 20, 2008
Transit, Again.
They’re de-icing the airplanes already. The fog that swaddles Kathmandu, tucked into the serpentine alleys, the early morning roadways all calico with bicycles, the odd bus, the vegetable sellers – all behind me now. For now.
The last weeks in Kathmandu, of course, some blur of last meetings, work unfinished, hurried goodbyes. My heart littered across the valley, strewn like fourth-of-July candy along the parade route, and parts of it now, still, leaking through the windows and fuselage of this airplane headed home.
October 8th, 2008
I think my motorcycle is a vegetarian. I’ve tried to explain this to my Nepali family, but it falls upon deaf ears. This year, yet again, I found myself compelled to rattle and shake my way across the bad roads to the ancient city of Bhaktapur and whittle away an afternoon with my family drinking the local rakshi (moonshine), watching Hindi movies, and then sacrificing a helpless duck and spreading the blood across my bike – all to appease the vengeful goddess, Durga.
October 19, 2008
The flight from San Francisco to London began in the afternoon on October 13th, a date I had been long awaiting. Our eastward flight hastened the sunset to the west and the sunrise to come. Too excited to sleep, I watched passively has the turbulence threatened to slosh the water out of the cup sitting on the tray table of the vacant middle seat. Hours blended into one another and soon the reflection of the moon on the right wing of the plane was replaced with the pale glow of the coming sunrise over England.
September 29, 2008
Kathmandu in all her glory, in her veil of rain. The monsoon rains should have left by now - retreated with the squadrons of china-white cranes that have begun to strafe the city on their way south. But it is still raining, making a very bad year for flooding even worse. Floods have taken dozens of lives all across the Southern belt of the country, and hundreds more in India. Still it continues to rain.
September 16, 2008
I guess I’ve made it. Packed, tied up the loose ends, changed my voicemail greeting, said my furry goodbye to the dog, put the last few boards up on the barn, and jumped a bus to the airport. I’ve passed immigration, checked in two massive bags without any excess baggage penalties, and now the endless wait ensues. The other side of the world is indeed a long ways away.
August 12, 2008
Namaste! This blog will be a foggy portal into my life and adventures as the Nepal Country Director for the dZi Foundation. I, admittedly, have one of the top three jobs in the galaxy – getting to spend 5 months each year stomping around in some of the most remote and poorest villages on Earth, helping communities build new schools, bridges, waterworks, and more. In the process, I am continually reminded that the most intelligent people often cannot read or write. The most capable people have never seen a computer or ridden on a bus. The wisest people only own two sets of clothing, and sleep in houses with thatched roofs.
