Well here I am in Nepal! I don't know how many days and night I spent dreaming of this in Canada, or how many traffic accidents I almost caused imagining myself here.

I was suppose to arrive on May 1st, but couldn't tear myself away from Africa. May 29th I arrived around 7am in Kathmandu, the capitol of Nepal. I was picked up by a friend of friend and taken to the Nirvana Gardens Hotel. Quickly to discover my money belt was not in my daypack. Eek. Luckily I had my passport on me, but my debit cards, ISIC card, credit cards and drivers license were all in it. I got a drive back to the airport and it was waiting for me at the photo booth at the visa counter. Lucky me. But it was a quick introduction to how friendly the Nepali people are. Never in a million years would I have ever gotten it back in Africa.

Driving through the streets to the hotel is a bit of an eye opener. The street are narrow and filled to the brim with people walking, people riding bikes, people riding motorbikes, taxis, rickshaws, cars, trucks, dogs, cows, chickens and goats. Organized chaos if you will. The streets are pretty dirty and extremely loud. Honking, yelling and motors is all you hear. It takes a few days to be able to walk down the street and not hear all of it. It's clear that people are pretty poor here and everyone lives a modest life to say the least, but everyone is sooooo friendly! It seems to be a hippy stronghold as well. The vast majority of westerns here are dreaded. For those of you who have lived in freddy, you could describe the vast majority of the stores in Thamel as begin just like Cultures in Freddy, or like the Black Market in Hali. Thamel, by the way, is a tourist area of Kathmandu filled with shops, trekking agencies, guest houses and restaurants. Of course, you don't see street children sniffing and huffing glue in the Maritimes, nor do you see children and adults alike begging in the streets, disfigured from leprosy. Seems like something from a history book. Sad that such preventable and treatable diseases can and do still fester.

So yeah, I spent 2 days exploring Thamel. Then Don and Matt got back from their Tibet trip. For those you that go to STU, Don Robinson was here for a month and a half and we meet up at the end of his trip. This for me was really cool because it was in his classes that I fell in love with this culture and country, so to see him in Kathmandu was pretty extraordinary! He and matt (former student and trekking partner) showed me around a bit, pointed out some places to eat etc and we went out for a few meals together before they headed to the airport and back to Canada a couple days later. Sad to have seen them go!

On the 31st I headed out to the orphanage. The children are so adorable! There are 5 of them aged 7-12, 2 girls and 3 boys. The orphanage is small with only 4 rooms, 2 bdrms, a kitchen and a study/play room. I have a room in the building next door (about 10 ft away). There is electricity but not hot water, and the toilet is a whole in the floor! The electricity in Kathmandu is also periodically shut off twice a week for a few hours to save energy. I am so happy that I have my 2 djambe drums, they are such an ice breaker and the children just love them and have already picked up a few rhythms!

Nepali people generally only eat 2 main meals a day, one around 10 am or so and the other around 8pm. And every single meal, and I DO mean, e.v.e.r.y s.i.n.g.l.e m.e.a.l, is the same, dahl bhaht, which is a mix of rice, veggie curry and lentils. You get used to it but I can see by mid month I may loose my sanity! Well, maybe not, but I can see it getting old in about 2 weeks time...so I keep a little food stash in my room (you would too!).

The children are in school from 9:30am- 5pm so I have the day off and so far I have walked into Thamel everyday (about a 30 minute walk or 10 min taxi drive) to use the internet, get a smoothie and just wander about.

I'm going to end here, time for the trek back to the orphanage to meet the children. I'll upload pics soon!

Thank you to everyone who has sent messages, sometimes they are my saving grace. I can't believe I have just over a month before I'm back in Canada. Time sure does fly.

Cheers,

Ash