Note: I’ve posted the links to my Singapore picture album and my first few days in Kathmandu album. I will soon post the links for my trek albums, which will correspond to this and the last two blog posts in title. Please be patient as I work on uploading… with electricity load shedding and very spotty wi-fi access, I’ve only got small windows to work with! Keep checking back for more pictures!
30 April 2011
[Note: At the top of the page is written in a blocky, childish script: "Sandhya. To Zoe.”]
The above was written by the eight year old Nepali daughter of the Prince of Everest lodge’s owners. We met her on the way up and she seemed to recognize us last night. So cute and pretty and smart! I want to find out how to sponsor her, how much it would cost. From what Nuru has told me, grade school is pretty cheap, so I thought maybe I could send money each year for school and to help her family, and then help her through costly schools when she’s older. According to Nuru, that’s about $2,000 per year for school level 13 and 14. Nuru will not be able to go to 13 and 14 because of these costs and I’m pondering how and if I could sponsor him as well. [Note: Nepalis who can afford it generally attend school until what we would call grade 10 and attain a School Level Certificate (SLC). I believe they earn something equivalent to an Associates degree if they complete through level 14, although it’s hard to figure out how it works here.]
Well, yesterday was long but eventually we got to Phakding. We ate dinner with Rimu, Nuru and Pasang, and bought a bottle of Mt. Everest whiskey to share, along with Sprite (to mix) and Coke (for Nuru, who doesn’t like alcohol). It was a nice evening. When the power went out, we ate and chatted by candlelight. I slept well!
This morning it was gray out as we set out. It took us around four hours to get to Lukla, and it rained the last ten minutes or so. Lots of flights to Kathmandu didn’t leave today due to weather, so I wonder if we’ll get to go tomorrow… if not, though, Rimu will take us to the Lukla primary school, which would be neat.
***
It’s a few hours later now. We bought Pasang two boxes of Viva baby food powder and Jan 
doled out a bunch of her stuff: trekking poles, sweaters, water bottles, socks, boots and a head lamp. We gave Nuru and Pasang 7,000 RPS each (about $100USD) as tip, in envelopes I decorated with their names. Pasang leaves for his home tonight, about three hours away, and Rimu and Nuru went to their mother’s house, about one hour away (for them, anyway). So, we’re on our own for teh evening! Tomorrow we’ll (hopefully) head back to Kathmandu… planes flew in and out for about an hour as the weather cleared this afternoon.
I think I’d like to come teach English here, maybe somewhere rural. I will have to check with Oxford Seminars to see if they’ll help place me. Have to write my resume first though. Hmmm.
Hotel: Kong-De View Lodge in Lukla.
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1 May 2011
Just as I was tucking into my dessert last night, Rimu appeared! Turned out he had to come back to Lukla to confirm our tickets. We chatted a bit, then I went to bed. We were up again at 5am, to the airport by 6am. Jan got hit with some stomach illness, which sucks. Plane ride was smooth and uneventful. We’re now back at the Shakti Hotel. It took the staff hours to get our room ready. We chatted with Pradip, Mountain Monarch’s owner (one of them, anyway), went out with Rimu to do a 
few chores, and then waited at the hotel for our room. Now we’re showered and sorting out our stuff. I’m hoping we get white prayer flag scarves when we fly out, but I don’t think we will. Jan did insist that we get certificates, at least.
Still pondering how to sponsor Sandhya and maybe Nuru too…
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It’s two days later now, the 3rd of May, and I’m fighting off a cold while Jan finishes the antibiotics for her stomach bug. We’ve had two and a half relatively lazy days and as I’ve put together the EBC trek blog posts, several thoughts in reflection of the trek have stood out:
- I desperately want to do something to help Sandhya and Nuru. I want to sponsor them but, being jobless and with a finite amount of savings, I can’t shake the fact that I can’t give everyone all of my money. Or can I?
- It’s really struck me here, more deeply than other places I’ve been, how opulently I lived in the US. Not that I didn’t work for the money I earned, but so much is easy to take for granted. For example, when I think of my three years in Washington, DC, and the standard of my life while there, I cringe a bit. It’s scary and painful to know, deep down, that for the amount I paid for eating out, new televisions, expensive clothes and parking spots, I could have supported and improved the lives of probably a dozen Nepali kids. I mean, really done something worthwhile, made a difference. I’ve been to poorer and dirtier countries, I think, but Nepal has really hammered home how spoiled I’ve been. I don’t feel bad about it, exactly, but I do hope that I can carry the lesson with me and figure out how to do something good for others instead of fairly meaningless for myself in the future.
- I wish I were rich enough to be a full-time philanthropist.
- Trekking was extremely fun and challenging and rewarding. I was grumpy some days, but for the most part I really enjoyed being tired and sore at the end of each day. And I absolutely loved the mountain views and vistas.
- There’s so much in the world to be taken for granted. It’s not something to be ashamed of, being from a place where taking electricity and heat and the possibility of getting an education for granted is so easy, but it is something to be cognizant of.
- I hate fundraising, but I want to learn how I can do so to help the two Nepali’s, Sandhya and Nuru, who made an impact on my world view. Any ideas?
- Rimu, Nuru and Pasang were really good guys. Mountain Monarch, the company Jan and I booked through, are a pretty solid and dependable trekking company. I’d recommend them to anyone interested in trekking in Nepal.
--Z
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