India

Before coming to India, I had few expectations. I had heard so many different things that I didn’t exactly know what to expect. After being in India for almost a month, I know that almost everything I had heard about India was true even though most of them contradict each other. So far I’ve seen mansions and shacks, beaches and jungle, rich and poor, new and old, healthy and deteriorating, Muslims and Christians, Sikhs and Hindus, the happy and the hopeless. The fact is that India is a country full of contradictions and I think that’s what I like most about it.

The first three weeks we spent in India were on the beaches of Goa. Coming from Nepal, it was a complete shock. Everything was different; the weather, the people, the houses, the money, the food, everything. I hadn’t even noticed that we were living under a rock in Nepal and I had no idea just how different India was. After a week of doing pretty much nothing in Colva, we started to evolve to the new environment. One night we decided to bus to Panjim, the capitol of Goa, to go to the International Film Festival. After bussing for two hours, we were told that tickets were only sold during the day. Of course, we decided to try to sneak in. On our way to one of the back doors, we ran into the head chairman of the film festival and he ended up giving us free passes. For the first time in almost four months, we sat in an air-conditioned movie theater and watched random Hindi, American and European movies. It’s crazy that something so normal back home felt like an incredible treat after Nepal. A couple nights later, we heard about a “Silent Rave” in Palolem and decided to check it out. After driving our mopeds for two hours and getting severely lost (although my dad won’t admit it), we came to a bar filled with people wearing headphones. After paying about $10, we walked into the “Silent Rave” and it was literally just that, a rave that was silent. There were three DJs playing up on a stage, each with a certain color in front of them. All of the people there were wearing headphones that were wirelessly connected to the DJs on different color-coded channels. We ended up having a great night dancing around or taking off our headphones and watching other people dance to complete silence. The second place we went to was Aranbol. So far in India, Aranbol has been my favorite town. The town itself is the perfect size, you can walk from one side to the other comfortably, but there is still much to see. The people we met there were amazing. For the first time in almost four months, I hung out with people my age, who also happen to be American. Although it’s been great learning how to converse with people of all ages, it was so relieving to be able to talk about stupid teenage stuff instead of things like the meaning of life or how sick society is.

            After nearly three weeks of swimming in the ocean and relaxing in the sun, we decided it was time to move on. My sister, dad and I split off from the group and took an overnight train to Fort Cochin. Although it was dirty and slightly crowded, the train ride was fairly exciting. We slept on small bunk beds with six to a compartment. Every few minutes a chaiwalla would come through offering the delicious tea that I’ve quickly become addicted to. Half way through the night I woke up and looked down to see two men curled up, sleeping on the dirty floor and another two men on a single, miniscule bed. I felt racked with guilt looking at my enormous backpack taking up half the room on my own bed, but I don’t move it. After about 12 hours, we arrive in Ernakulum and take the ferry to the island that Fort Cochin is on. Fort Cochin is a complicated place with a simple life. There are beautiful old temples, mosques and churches everywhere. The history of the island is filled with religion. There lived Jews who escaped persecution, Portuguese Christian missionaries, as well as followers of the more native religions of the country such as Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. One night, we decided to go to Ernakulum to see the newest Mission Impossible. I had no idea that Ernakulum was a big city until I found myself on a massive street with malls, tall buildings and streetlights. It wasn’t until then that I realized just how long I’d been traveling. Everyday things like sidewalks, real stores and streetlights now seemed foreign to me. After that I couldn’t help thinking about how foreign Seattle will feel when I go home in only a few weeks. That’s one of my favorite things about traveling for such long periods of time. The foreign becomes ordinary and the ordinary becomes foreign. The longer you travel, the more and more you get used to abnormal things.

            After a few days of exploring the fort town, we caught a train to the Amma Ashram. The Amma Ashram is a place where people from all over the world come to explore spirituality and to be in Amrita Singhs’s presence. An ashram is a place filled with positive energy where people can meditate, contemplate, become yogis, etc. The Ashram is in the town where Amrita was born, who is more commonly called Amma, meaning mother in Hindi. Amma is an incredible woman, there is no doubt. She is a celebrated humanitarian and has helped people all over the world but she is more famously known for her hugs. Three times a week, Amma gives Darshan for eight hours at the Ashram. During this Darshan, Amma hugs lines and lines of people. She is known to be able to give such a Darshan for up to twenty hours without a major break. You would think that a woman who has hugged over thirty million people would be brisk with her hugs, or be constantly agitated, but from what I say, Amma gives special intention to every single hug and is happy to do so. Her message has spread all over the world to people of every religion. Many people consider Amma to be an enlightened being, here to lessen the suffering of the world. Many believe that meditating in the presence of an enlightened being is a sort of shortcut to becoming enlightened yourself, thus many people live at the ashram for months, working towards enlightenment. These “students” spend their time meditating and doing daily chores to keep the Ashram running. They all dress in white clothing, typically traditional saris or Indian tunics. My time at the ashram was enjoyable, and I could see how people could live there a long time because of the positive energy surrounding the place. Personally, I find myself closer to happiness when I’m out trekking or exploring a foreign place, so I doubt I will ever live there but I have great respect for Amma and her work.

            While we were in Aranbol, we heard about a place called Hampi that we could not miss out on. After a few days in the Ashram, we decided to get on a train and spend Christmas there. Personally, I hadn’t heard a single thing about Hampi except something about rocks, so I was quite surprised when we got there that it was literally a desert filled with enormous boulders. By the river there is a small town and tree groves. If the scenery weren’t enough, there are also dozens of ancient stone monuments that have begun to crumble in the most beautiful way. To me, Hampi is like the rock formations of Cappadocia in Turkey or Utah, jungles of Laos, and the ancient temples of Cambodia. You can’t look anywhere without being impressed. The best part is that you’re allowed to explore all of the monuments. If Hampi were in the states, each ancient building would have barbed wire fences surrounding them with trespassing signs forbidding you to come anywhere near them. So far in India, Hampi is by far the most beautiful place I’ve been. Christmas day we decided the best way to explore would be to rent motorcycles and drive wherever we could. My dad and I ended up driving around for five hours and we still hadn’t seen every monument. Later that night, my dad, sister and I climbed up to the Hanuman Temple, which lies on a mountain of boulders, and watched the sunset. The Indian sun is an incredible thing. Instead of lighting up the whole sky and being a central region of an especially bright color, the sun is an enormous circle of solid orange or pink. So far I have not been disappointed with a single sunset, and the one that evening at Hanuman Temple was especially impressive. Not a bad way to spend Christmas in my books.

            Although India and Nepal are neighbors, there are an incredible amount of differences. For example, Nepali’s are almost always either Buddhist or Hindu. In India, all religions combine. As history shows, this has created many violent battles, but in every town and city I’ve been in here, there seems to be a peaceful coexistence. Also, one of the very first things we noticed about India was the fantastic infrastructure. After being in crumbling Nepal for three months, we were stunned to see fully paved roads, street signs, stoplights, modern buildings, highways, etc. Of course, not all India is like this but it seems that most of the major towns and cities are incredibly developed. But nothing is more different between the two countries than the people, specifically their attitude towards foreigners. Every time I walk down the street here, people step in front of me and immediately ask my name or what country I am from. In Nepal, it is usually a simple “Namaste” or “how are you?” In India, I have struggled with appreciating the attention that sometimes feels invasive. Another subtle difference is that many financial transactions seem to be much less appreciated than in Nepal. Almost every single time we purchased something in Nepal, the salesman, etc. were very happy to receive the money, even after you haggled with them and gave them less than they asked for. Here, no matter whether you haggled or not, it often seems that they are not satisfied with the amount given, as if we cheated them. Also, getting change is nearly impossible here. If you pay for something that was 85 rupees with a 100 bill, they will often grumble about it, make you go and get change, or even not give you full change back because they don’t have it. I have struggled even more so with the staring here. In Nepal, the locals tend to watch your every move but as soon as you look over at them, they go back to their business. Here, no matter what face you pull at them or how long you stare back at them, the staring is constant and merciless. With all of these things, I constantly have to remind myself that it isn’t wrong, simply different.

            With all these differences from Nepal and America, it is only time that can help you evolve to appreciate it. I cannot possibly change the way things are done here, nor would I if I could. The intense dissimilarities are what make traveling so interesting and addicting. The world is a massive place and we need to remember that our way of doing things is certainly not the best or only way. It’s because of this that one cannot possibly start to appreciate the versatility of life without first making themselves incredibly uncomfortable in a foreign place.

Donation Project

Why do we give? Is it out of guilt? Compassion? More importantly, does it matter? These were the very questions I asked a monk named Yeshe. Yeshe is a 60-some year old monk born in Philadelphia, living in Pokhara. Throughout my months in Nepal, I frequently questioned him on Dharma (truth according to the Buddha). When I started this project, I asked him to explain the Buddhist beliefs behind giving. He told me that generosity is one of the basic principles to living a good and happy life. Karma plays an enormous role in giving but we must not give to get good karma for ourselves or to receive thanks and praise, but because we want to see the other person happy. Pure generosity benefits you even more than the person you’re helping. However, even if our generosity or compassion is not pure, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give, because it makes little difference to the person you are giving aid to. Another thing Yeshe told me was that we must stretch beyond the people we know. Many times when we help people we know, we are aware that it will somehow benefit us in return. However, when we benefit complete strangers who we doubt we will ever see again, we expect nothing in return and that is when simple generosity becomes compassion.

Before I left for Nepal, I created this website and sent out an email to friends and family, asking them to contribute money to my donation project. I explained that I would be traveling through Nepal for a few months and would like to give back to the communities that welcomed me. Over the summer, I raised $1,325. This amount of money is almost five times the average Nepali’s yearly salary. Last week, I finished surveying possible projects and selected four organizations, all of them working towards the betterment of various issues in the education system. Instead of researching every single organization and project in Nepal, I researched the ones that found me through friends, people I trusted. My unorthodox plan of coming to Nepal and finding the need instead of finding projects online and judging them from afar has paid off. This way, I created relationships with the people I was helping. Although I have little experience in giving and a lot of experience in taking, I found it incredibly easy to get started. Once I had an idea, or someone else recommended something, the doors opened up and opportunities spilled out. People were so gracious and kind, not just because I had money to give but because they were so happy with the work they were doing, I was simply helping them get a little closer to their goals. Before I started this project, I met with Rob Rose, a very important man doing inspirational work in Nepal. He told me that while I looking for people to donate to, to let things come to me, rather than search for them. This has probably been the most important advice I received for my donation project and has transferred into my overall attack at life.

There are several issues concerning children’s education in Nepal, and these problems have long term affect on every student’s life. On average, a school in Nepal has around 250 students and five teachers. That’s 50 students per teacher, thus making it impossible for students to have each of their personal needs met. Another major issue is the social norm of corporal punishment. Many government schools are in bad physical shape and are extremely underfunded, especially in the countryside. Most of the very few books in the schools are written in English or other foreign languages. These books are so rare and precious that teachers often lock them up, making them unavailable to curious children. Another major issue in Nepali education and home life is corporal punishment. According to Nepal law, guardians and teachers should not be held responsible for grievously hurting a child in the course of education or defense. Education can mean teaching anything from the ABCs to potty training. The Nepali laws that forbid violence and cruel treatment exempt “the act of scolding and minor beating to the child by his father, mother, member of the family, guardian or teacher for the interests of the child.” When we first hear or even see this firsthand, it is shocking and unimaginable. How could a child learn about compassion and general kindness when the people who are supposed to love and care for them the most are legally allowed to beat them? But we must understand that it is not our culture and it is not their fault. Most of these parents do love their children dearly, corporal punishment is just the only way they know how to teach. It was taught to them by their parents and teachers, and theirs before then, and so on. But just because it is the norm, doesn’t mean it can’t be changed.

Looking more closely at education, it is immediately noticeable that the small amount of opportunities available to Nepali men is enormously greater than those to Nepali women. Fewer than half the people in Nepal are illiterate and the amount of literate men is more than double that of women. There is a saying in Nepal that educating your daughter is like fertilizing your neighbor's crops. It does not benefit you in any way and is a waste of money. But this belief is greatly outdated. A child whose mother is educated is twice as likely to survive past the age of five. The social norm is that women don’t need an education because their responsibilities are in the house only. It is the woman’s duty to feed the kids, clean the house, take care of livestock or domestic animals, wash the dishes, and do the laundry. They also have to take care of their husband’s mother, brothers and sisters. Because of this and having the men as a priority for healthcare, Nepal is the only country in the world where women’s lifespan is shorter than men’s. When all the major decisions are made by Nepali men, from who the daughters will marry to whether they are taught to read or not, it is evident that most women in Nepal never get a say in their own future.

I chose education and women’s rights issues to focus on because it is clear that with the betterment of these problems comes the betterment of life. It is for this reason that I have chosen to support the Fulbari Project, the Room to Read Organization, the Cosmic Brontosaurus School, and the Himalayan Children Care Home. After months of searching for valid and hardworking organizations, these four have inspired me the most. As I said earlier, each program has a different mission to better the education and lives of children in Nepal.

Fulbari Project

The Fulbari project is working to create a center in Pokhara where teachers and parents can come to learn about the issues of corporal punishment and how to teach without hitting. They are also trying to get schools to require their teachers to go the center and complete various courses before working for them. My sister was actually the one who found the project. A family member who was friends with the creator of the project, Ram, recommended it to her. With Ram, my sister worked over a grant request that asked different embassies in Nepal for money to help build the center. After she told me about the work Ram was doing, I was intrigued. I’ve seen parents, teachers, even strangers hit children and each time I see it, I feel like I’m getting hit as well. I decided to meet with Ram and asked him about the work he’s doing and the funding needed. I immediately liked him. He was so enthusiastic about the project and I could tell he would work hard to complete it. He told me that right now, they are working on finding money to make the pathways wheelchair accessible and said that any money would help. I decided to give the project 20,000 rupees, the equivalent of about $240. This may not seem like a great amount of money, and doesn’t cover most of the costs for the wheelchair accessible pathways, but Ram was incredibly grateful and said the money would help greatly.

Room to Read

Room to Read is an organization that works to build libraries, provide books written in local languages, and send girls to school. They have built 3,000 libraries and 900 schools and have sponsored over 13,600 girls. Their teams speak the language, know the customs and laws, and understand the issues surrounding their various programs. This makes it possible for the workers to partner with the local community to complete a given project. This makes the community self-efficient. Instead of giving the village a fish, they are teaching them to fish themselves. Because I could not afford to build a whole school or library, I decided to sponsor a girl to go to school for a year for $250. Room to Read is a greatly respected organization that has done incredible work all over the world. Their main mission is to fight global poverty and they are doing this by attacking with education. There is no doubt that the organization has made great headway and it’s a great feeling knowing I could help out.

Cosmic Brontosaurus School

The Cosmic Brontosaurus School is a school run by Prem Kunwar. The school teaches foreigners the local languages, but there are several other projects Prem works on. Prem is from a village three days away from Pokhara. There he has built clean water stations and medical clinics to treat the villagers. He has also built a school for 200 children. The fees for each student to attend the school are $60 a year. Even though this seems incredibly low, there are so many families who cannot afford this and if they can, the sons get priority for the opportunity. I donated $300 to send five girls to the village school for a year. This money, besides allowing the girls to be educated, will help sustain the school by paying teachers salaries and paying for new books or materials. I have the opportunity in January to visit the village with Prem and greatly look forward to it. It would be an incredibly experience to see first hand what his compassion for his people has accomplished.

Himalayan Children’s Care Home

The Himalayan Children’s Care Home works to provide a better life with free education, health care, food and lodging for children from the Mustang region. Throughout rural areas in Nepal, parents engage their children in household activities such as fetching water, grazing the cattle, collecting firewood in all seasons, including the dead cold winter. At present the home has 45 children aged between 5 and 16. Some of them are orphans; some have only one parent while others are from financially poor families who are not in a position to afford any fees. Himalayan Children’s Care Home is aimed at providing a modern education and upbringing while trying to preserve the unique Tibetan culture and traditions that are currently on the brink of extinction. After meeting with the administration, they told me the fees to sponsor a girl to go to a school for a year. They brought out three girls who were hardworking and greatly deserving of the opportunity, Tenzing, Lhakpa, and Nyima. Tenzing is 11, speaks incredible English and was born in Tsarang. Lhakpa is a shy 10 year old from Marang. Lastly, Nyima is 7 and was born with  I was originally planning on only sponsoring two girls, but after hearing the fees were much lower than what I had originally thought, I decided to sponsor all three for $480. After meeting them and making the donation, the girls wrote me a letter of thanks and promised to email me about their schooling.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for the support, without you there would be ten more girls working every day instead of receiving the education that all children deserve. I am so grateful for your pure generosity. Thank you.

http://children-nepal.net.np/page.php?id=42

http://www.roomtoread.org/

http://hchmustang.org/

(Pictures coming soon)

Goodbye Nepal...for now

After three months of traveling through Nepal, I can easily say I have fallen in love with the country. The people, the food, the mountains, the dogs, all of it. I learned so much from the people I met and the things I did, and for that I am forever grateful. From the Buddhists, I learned about impermanence and compassion. From the Sherpa’s I learned about strength and the importance of family. From the locals of Kathmandu and Pokhara I learned how to be carefree and grateful. From the mountains I learned about strength and determination.

The way of life there is incredible. Simplistic and happy. Everyone takes only the bare minimum and gives back the rest. Nepali life is a family life. Strangers are brother and sister, mainly due to Buddhist belief that we are all family, we just haven’t met each other yet. If someone needs help, everyone is there for them. The communities are so tightknit that it’s hard to walk down a single block without several friendly and enthusiastic conversations. I think Western societies have a lot to learn from Nepali’s. It is too often in our world that we reject a phone call from our parents, or don’t take the time to smile at a stranger and brighten there day, only if just a little. In our world, we become friends through gaining trust but in Nepal, trust is immediate, and thus so is friendship. The differences between our lives and theirs are infinite, but the biggest difference is that they look past it much easier than we do.

Throughout my travels in Nepal, I came across an incredible amount of surprises. It seemed that nothing was what I had pictured. The mountains were a thousand times more massive than I ever imagined, the people a thousand times more hospitable, the rudimentary lifestyle a thousand times barer, etc. I think the biggest surprise of all is a tie between the mountains and the economy. The first time I saw the Himalayan Mountains, I almost cried. The size was unimaginable and the peaks were so incredibly steep that it looked like they could topple over at any second. My time in the Himalayan range was unforgettable. There were very few moments where I was unhappy or wanted it to be over, but they were just that; moments. What was so surprising about the economy was that there was no %1. Everyone was poor, some just slightly less than others. In the three months that I was in Nepal, I did not see a single fancy building that showed off its wealth. This might sound weird but I loved that. It was so great to see people so happy with what perceive as so little. A lot of houses are made from spare tin or stones and walls separating rooms is a luxury, as are outhouses, running water and multiple beds. Then again, houses are a luxury. One of the things I get the most annoyed with back home is people with three cars, five televisions, four bedrooms they don’t need, massive amounts of clothing, etc. We don’t need these things and Nepali lifestyle is the proof.

Although I can rant and rage about how much I love Nepal, it definitely wasn’t always that way. I had several days, even almost whole weeks, where I was so fed up with getting stared at, asked to buy things, fake holy men, etc. that I just wanted to give up and go home. These days were mostly within the first month that I was here. Over time, I realized through the people I met and places I saw that this place I am in is beautiful and I shouldn’t waste a second of it. Of course, I still have those days where I miss my friends or I’m sad about not being able to go to homecoming, but in a little over five short weeks, I’ll be home and missing Nepal and India. Although I miss them now, and I’ll miss here then, I know that there is no time but the present, and I might as well enjoy it.

Heart Chakra Course and Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Heart Chakra Course

            From Halloween to the second of November, I spent from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm in a workshop, concentrating on my heart. There were ten of us at the retreat from all parts of the world. Together we meditated, sang, hummed, prayed, napped (on accident), danced and healed. We were all lead by a woman named Imana (the same woman who created the Quality of Life School/Click Click Program) who is a Raiki master and actually cured herself of Chromes disease through meditation and energy work. She taught us how to heal our seven Chakras through various exercises and singing bowl meditations. The seven Chakras are our power sources or balls of energy stored up in our bodies. Each one has a different color, location and purpose. Although we learned about all of the Chakras, we focused on our hearts and the exercises were created specifically for them. The most powerful exercise was when we each took turns laying down with our eyes closed with everyone sitting around us. At the same time everyone would whisper or sing your name in a loving way. This went on for a couple minutes. For me, it felt like a memory. I remember thinking back to when I was little and my mom would sing me to sleep or read me stories. Another incredible exercise was dancing. Of course everyone has danced before but most people don’t do it enough. It was so great to just dance however my body wanted without being self conscious because we were told to keep our eyes closed if we could. The songs we danced to were picked out to fit certain Chakras, starting with our feet and working our way up to our heads. This course was incredibly interesting and I felt it was truly beneficial, although not life changing. The most important lesson I took home was to pay attention to yourself. If you are in a state of dis-ease, the only way to get rid of it is to heal yourself, other wise the problems will just build up and eventually overflow.

Annapurna Base Camp Trek

            After the Heart Chakra Course, I left to do a solo trek to Annapurna Base Camp. Supposedly an eight to ten day trip, the ABC trek is considered one of the most beautiful in the world but it comes at a cost…your knees. The villages in the Annapurna region are almost all placed on top of enormous hills with no way of getting to them except long and steep staircases with up to two thousand steps each. As if that is not frustrating enough, as soon as you get to the village at the top, you have to go right back down similar steps on the other side to get to the river where there is a bridge to take you to the next hill where the next village lies on top. Each hill took usually three to four hours to climb up and over, but if there were a trail that followed the river through the valley and went around the hill, it would only take about twenty minutes and half the amount of knee use. This is why I’ve been told the ABC trail is more like a stairmaster than a trail. This would be difficult but more doable if it weren’t for my forty-pound pack weighing me down.

The first four days were all so cloudy I could barely see where I was going. There were times I would end up in an open field and had no idea which way to go, luckily a Sherpa was nearby to point me in the right direction. Finally, there was a huge storm on the fourth day that lead to a perfectly clear day which happened to be the day that I made it up and out of the tree line and into the real mountains of the region. The view was spectacular. Although I couldn’t see as many peaks as I could in the Everest region (because I was much higher up there), it was amazing to be at the feet of the Himalayan mountains once again. That night I made it to Machuputre Base Camp, which is in a basin where you can see, Machuputre, Annapurna III and Annapurna South. There was quite a lot of snow on the ground and after the sun set, it dropped well below freezing. With a fleece shirt, enormous down jacket, long-johns and fleece pants on, I was still cold, even though I was inside.

A while after I had fallen asleep, I woke up suddenly with sharp pains in my stomach. I went to the bathroom but nothing happened and my stomach still hurt so I drank some water and tried to go back to sleep. The next time I got up I barely made it out the door before violently throwing up over the ledge outside my door. Two more times I threw up that night before someone woke up and offered me medicine that stopped the vomiting, but not the pain. The next morning I heard that three people who had been at the Annapurna Base Camp were evacuated for similar conditions. I decided to leave my pack at Machuputre Base Camp and make a careful attempt at ABC. I promised myself if I got anywhere near throwing up again, I would head back down. ABC was only two hours away, too close to not make an attempt. After about an hour and a half of slow and treacherous walking, I gave up. Even though the base camp was in sight, I couldn’t go any farther. I turned around, got back to MBC for my pack, and started the slow decent to Dovan with a completely empty stomach. The next two days are fairly blurry in my memory from lack of food and having the trail as my sole concentration. Every morning and night I forced down as much food as I could, but it was never more than a handful of bites. Finally, I came to Biranthi where I could take a taxi to Nayapul and finally a bus to Pokhara. Even though I still wasn’t feeling much better, it was overjoyed to be back in the city. A few days later I went to the Ayurvadic Health Home in town to see what was going on with my stomach. When I was at MBC I thought it was simply altitude sickness, but after going down I still didn’t feel better so I knew that wasn’t the case. I told the doctor what was happening and he informed me that they were the symptoms of Giardia, a sickness from unclean water or dishes that were cleaned in a dirty stream. I got some medication and so far have been feeling much better.

Even though it was tough going, I still had an incredible time. I befriended Sherpas who sang American love songs to me by a fire, older Korean tourists who all wanted to take my picture and a trekking guide who was so worried about me hiking by myself that he insisted I hike with his group, which I respectfully declined. I learned that I can get myself out of sticky situations without depending on other people to lead me. Overall, I have had better trekking experiences but learning how to take care of yourself is always an important life lesson.

The Students of Sarangkot

These past two weeks I have spent every day except Saturdays volunteering at the Quality of Life School on top of Sarangkot Mountain and I loved every minute of it. It was through a friend of my Dad’s, Imana, that I got involved there. Two years ago she sought out sponsors to help fund a school for kids, aged three to six, from the mountain area. The unique part of the school is that it has a program for disabled kids. In Nepal, and most of Asia, there is a belief that people are disabled because of their bad Karma and deserve the life they have been dealt. Although this social norm is slowly starting to be reformed, there is still an incredible lack of opportunities for the disabled. Also, the illiteracy rate is around half the percent of the country and illiterate simply means unable to sign their own name. This school works to help village families, 90% of whom are living under the poverty line, have a future and open doors to them that were previously unknown. They also have a free medical post for injuries, sickness, etc.

At the Quality of Life School, there are six disabled children, ages 6 to 13. Sangita, Bikram, Bijaya, Shoba, Kumar and Biswas. Each student is incredible in his or her own way. Sangita is the oldest and is incredibly loving, every day I came she would hug me and lay with her head in my lap. Bikram is a sweet and curious boy who loves to dance and stare with his enormous Nepali eyes. Bijaya has a beautiful smile and can finish a puzzle in record time.  Shoba is very bright and loves being the loudest while singing the ABC’s. Kumar is curious about everything and always showing off his cartwheels. Lastly, Biswas is amazingly intelligent and remembered my name a month after we first met for a few short minutes.  Even though I was only volunteering for two weeks and couldn’t speak the same language as them, I feel like I really got to know them, mainly because their personalities are so vibrant and distinguishable.

Every day I would wake up around 7:45 and start the journey up the mountain. I had three choices; one, hike for a couple hours up hundreds of stairs; two, pay a paragliding jeep to bring me up (if they had space); and three, take the local bus up a fairly terrifying drive. Most days I ended up choosing the bus because it was cheaper than the paragliding jeeps but I got to sleep in a little later than if I hiked. This meant I got to eat breakfast but it also meant I nearly regurgitated it an hour later as we winded over the ridges at an alarming speed. After I finally got to the school, most kids were already there and playing in the dirt playground that had one swing, a slide, and a few toys. At 10:30 the teachers would call out “golo!” meaning “around” and every student would grasp hands, forming a circle. We’d all sing songs for the next ten minutes or so, some were Nepali and others were English like “If You’re Happy and You Know It…” and “the Hokey ‘Cokey’” as they called it. It was absolutely adorable. Every kid was screaming the words as loud as they could, making it impossible to know what song we were even singing sometimes. After a few songs, everyone would head to their class, leaving their shoes at the door. For the rest of the day I would repeat the ABC’s and count to fifteen so many times it would get stuck in my head. After a short snack of Ramen-like, packaged noodles, we would resume class and I would take the first of second paragliding truck back down the mountain. The truck was a lot cheaper going down than up because they weren’t cramped for space after dropping everyone off. One day, my dad hiked up and flew me down back to Pokhara, not a bad comute if you ask me.

Nepali teaching is very different from what I am used to in America, even with my already unusual schooling background. One major problem is that it is normal for a teacher to hit their students as punishment or to get them to pay attention. There is little progress being made on this issue, but there are a few programs working on stopping violence in the school systems. My sister is helping the Children Nepal group write a grant asking for money to build the Fulbari center. They plan to have workshops that teach other ways, nonviolent methods of teaching, in the homes and schools. Another academic issue is that everything is memory based. Students copy lines after lines of letters, words and numbers.  It becomes engrained in their minds, but is rarely understood. Also, iIt was incredibly difficult sometimes because I can’t speak Nepali and the only English words they know are “hello” and “good”. I resorted to a lot of pointing and saying “esto”, meaning “this”. Luckily, I was never alone with my own class, there was always a teacher that could translate for me or give me instructions.

It seemed that my role at the school was half assistant teacher, half playground toy. During recess, kids would fight over holding my hand or cutting in line to be picked up and twirled around. I quickly discovered that the easiest way to avoid getting sore arms, but still playing with the kids, was to tickle them or chase them. All tickling required was just the motion of going towards their stomachs to tickle and they would run away screaming and all chasing required was a few steps and a scary face. Kids are so easily entertained and I became envious of that. There have been a few moments on this trip when I had nothing to do and would’ve loved to be a kid just to be content with a pile of rocks or a string.

My last day of teaching and playing was during a day of the ceremonies where the sponsors came to visit the school and play with the kids for an hour or so. As I watched them dance to the beat of a single drum, giggling and having the time of their lives, I realized how much I would miss those chubby cheeks and huge eyes, the screaming and singing, the tickling and chasing, the teachers and students, the busses and jeeps, even the ABC’s and 123’s. At the end of the day, the teachers had a couple students put Tikha on my forehead (they missed a few times so I had a few red dots on my cheek and nose), another to give me a necklace made of flowers, and another to give me a white blessing scarf. I promised them I would return in a couple weeks after another trek (this time solo while the rest of the crew is in a ten day silent meditation retreat), even just to visit. Even though I came back to our room exhausted every day, I was always satisfied with the work I had done. It was a bittersweet farewell to leave for the last time but I am nonetheless grateful for the time I spent with these students and teachers, it gave me a small taste of service I have been craving since we arrived here seven weeks ago that will hopefully continue on for the rest of this trip and my life.

Next up on my list is to attend a three day Heart Chakra Course, guided by the creator of the QOLN school, Imana. There will be meditations, bowl singing, and yoga. After that, I plan on doing a solo trek for about a week, possibly the Ghorepani trek, while the rest of the crew is doing Vipasina (a ten day silent meditation course). Right now I'm working on the donation project and have several ideas on how to help here and there will be a blog post on that very soon so keep checking in!

Namaste,

Emily

October 7th to 13th

October 7^th-9^th (Chitwan)

For three days, my sister and I volunteered in Chitwan National Park with a mahoot (elephant owner/trainer) and his elephant that worked for a hotel giving rides through the safari and jungle. On the first day, we arrived after a five or six hour bus ride from Pokhara and explored the village until the elephant returned back to her stable after working for the day. Around 6pm we walked to the mahoot’s home where he and the elephant lived together. We soon found out that the elephant was not the only one who couldn’t speak English. We discovered this after the manager left and the mahoot attempted to teach us how to make elephant “candy”, which is folded up hay with rice inside. Very difficult to make but probably would have only taken a few more days for us to get down because the elephant needed more than 400 of them a day. After a few hours of getting laughed at by the mahoot and his family, we gave up and went to bed in the mud hut next to the stable. Most volunteers stay at the hotel where the cheapest room was about ten dollars a night (extremely expensive for Nepal) but my sister and I decided we might as well experience real mahoot life…plus it was free. After an uneasy sleep on a wooden bed, we awoke to find the mahoot had already left with the elephant to start their day giving rides to tourists through the national park. We’re thinking he either didn’t understand our sign language version of “when you wake up, knock on the door so we can help” or that we were so bad at making the bundles of hay and rice that he figured he could do it faster himself. We eventually found out that the elephant and mahoot work from 6 in the morning to at least 6 at night so we decided we might as well explore Chitwan and see what things we can do for a cheap price. We talked to the mahoot’s nephew and he offered to take us on the jungle walk and canoe ride for minimum charge and we accepted. For the next four sweaty hours, we paddled down a river in a somewhat rudimentary canoe looking at alligators twice its size and walking through the jungle as quietly as possible to not get killed by surprised rhinos. We learned a lot about Nepali life from our guide. He told us about arranged marriages and how he got married when he was 16 and his wife, 13. At first we were both pretty shocked but he told us how happy their life had been together, even though they didn’t marry for love or at what we deem as an appropriate age. While we talked and walked, we saw deer, monkeys, enormous bugs, a rhino and a wild elephant. By the end of the day we were thoroughly exhausted and started to talk about leaving the next day. Through our two days there, we could see that we weren’t really needed there so we decided to pack up and leave. The next day, the mahoot gave us a ride to the bus station on his elephant and we took a bus back to Kathmandu to meet up with the other girls and our dad.

October 9^th-11^th (Kathmandu)

            For the next three days, we reconnected with our group and explored a section of Kathmandu called Thamel. Thamel is a fairly touristed part of the city, but it hasn’t been taken over yet and is still authentic, just cleaner which was a nice change from our mud hut and dusty heat in Chitwan. After a mix up with the rooming situation, Dorothy and I ended up with a storage closet for a room. A lot of people we had met in Pokhara were in Thamel for the weekend so we got to hang out with them. It was through one of them that we ended up buying tickets for the Shanti Jatra Organic music festival from. We decided it was worth checking out and if we didn’t want to, we didn’t have to stay all three nights. The main reason for the festival happening was the full moon on the 12^th. It was supposed to be the strongest of the year and what better way to celebrate it than to dance with some hippies on top of a mountain and get healed by some shamans? A couple days after arriving in Kathmandu, we headed out on a bus headed to a beautiful resort in the mountains for some well deserved dancing.

October 11^th-13^th (Shanti Music Festival)

            After a terrifying drive through the mountains, we reached an incredible mountain top resort that looked like it was built out of old ruins and paintings. We had a view of the Himalayan range right in front of us the entire time. We quickly found a place for our tents and began the long struggle of piecing together broken and mismatching pieces of two rented tents from Kathmandu. Finally, we figured out some shelter and the music began. We soon discovered that one stage was incredible and the other, terrifying. The good stage had more earthly, ambient-like music that was soothing and was a great combination with the beautiful scenery and location. The scary stage was this very fast psychedelic trance music that rarely changed and had a very dark sound. The music from that stage didn’t turn off until noon the next day…didn’t exactly help us appreciate it any more. Needless to say, we spent almost the entire night by the better stage. The next day, we met the producers of the festival and got a tour of the VIP area, which was a big room, built into the hillside, with a few lofts with beds and a really nice fireplace. It was probably the nicest room we have seen since in Nepal. The second night (the night of the full moon) the place was crawling with police. Turns out they had tried to extort the producers, telling them that if they didn’t pay them they would shut the place down. The producers, being Indian, weren’t used to handling Nepali police so that’s exactly what happened. I’m not sure what the difference is between the two countries process of extortion but I guess something went wrong and there was no more music for the rest of the night. The next morning, we were all awoken by people telling us to pack our bags and leave as soon as possible because the night before a producer had passed away and everyone needed to leave before the police arrived. Thankfully, my dad and I had already planned on leaving and had most of our stuff ready to go. We left on the motorcycle my dad had ridden there and got all the way back to Pokhara in a long eight hour trip. About two hours before our arrival in Pokhara, a bus stopped suddenly in front of us and without enough time to stop, we crashed into it. The entire back end of the bike bounced a foot into the air and if I had not grabbed for my dads waist in time, I would have been launched off. Thankfully, only the front of the bike was damaged and minus a burn on my leg from the exhaust pipe, my dad and I were totally fine. We went on our way and finally got to Pokhara with sore butts and dusty faces. The labor cost to fix the bike as $9.

For the next two weeks I plan on volunteering at a school near Pokhara, on Sarangkot Mountain, with three other women from Europe. I had my first day today and was able to help teach English letters to a group of four year olds who were unbelievably adorable. One girl named Susmita took a liking to me and jumped on me whenever she got the chance. It was totally sweet but I can already tell my arms are going to be sore tomorrow from swinging her around.

Until next time!

Emily

Buddhist Philosophy

This weekend, I did a retreat at the meditation center with twelve other people. Our schedule was wake up, meditate, do yoga, eat, have a “class” with Yeshe (the monk here), eat, have another class, do yoga, eat, meditate and then be silent until after the next mornings meditation. It was an incredible experience and I learned so much. My favorite part was the class. We mostly talked about Buddhist philosophy. The way Yeshi explained everything was amazing and so eye opening. It was almost as if oh of course that’s the way things are! That’s not to say I didn’t struggle, or am not still going down to his room and pestering him with questions. I wrote an essay on what I learned and am learning. I apologize for the length, kinda hard to keep philosophy short but don’t give up! There’s some valuable stuff in there I promise. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I may be able to answer, or I may just have to go down and ask Yeshi myself. Namaste!

Buddhism can be determined as many things. Buddhism is a religion because enlightenment is a way of salvation. Buddhism is a philosophy because there is no God or creator. Buddhism is a science because its theories have been tested by meditation practitioners and proven to be true. It may be all these things, but the simple answer is it is the study of self and path to happiness.

            2,500 years ago, a young boy was born a prince and named Siddhartha. A prophecy was made that if Siddhartha saw the suffering of world he would become a great teacher, but if he did not, he would become a great ruler. His father, being the king of a small land (it is now what makes up part of Nepal), wanted his son to achieve greatness and kept him locked inside the palace. Siddhartha lived an incredibly sheltered life and had never been outside the palace walls until one day. He and his driver rode through the city and for the first time the prince saw suffering. He saw a sick man and asked his driver, Chandaka: “Channa, what is this?” The driver responded, “This is a sick man.” He again questioned the Channa, “What is a sick man?” To which Channa responded, “A man that is dying.” Once again, he questioned, “Does this happen to everyone?” “Yes.” Again, “Will this happen to me?” “Yes.” These things may seem obvious to us, but Siddhartha was in shock. The next time he went out, he saw an old man. Again, he asked Channa the same four questions. “What is this?” “This is an old man.” “What is an old man?” “A man that is aging.” “Does this happen to everyone?” “Yes.” “Will this happen to me?” “Yes.” The next time, he saw a corpse. “What is that?” “That is a dead man.” “What is a dead man?” “A man with only a body left.” “Does this happen to everyone?” “Yes.” “Will this happen to me?” “Yes.” The fourth time he went into the city, he saw a holy man. “What is this?” “A renunciated man.” “What is that?” “A man who has given up everything.” “Does this happen to everyone?” This time, Chandaka says, “No.” “Will this happen to me?” “No, you are a prince.” This was the first time the prince had ever seen or thought of an alternative life. After that day he decided to find the meaning of these things and fix them. He spent many years in meditation and rid himself of all attachments. After he discovered what is now referred to as Buddhism. He was never again called Siddhartha but gained the title of Buddha, meaning the awakened one, and he began to teach, fulfilling the first prophecy.

            One of the concepts the Buddha came to realize was that we all suffer. Through his meditation, he found that the root of suffering is ignorance. Ignorance can be defined as a false impression of something that cannot be. There are infinite ways we suffer, but the way that seems to be most common and pervasive is the suffering of change. This does not mean that change creates suffering, but that we are either in a constant search of it, or terrified of it. In the first case, we are never satisfied, whether we should be or not. This is because we always want what we believe will relieve our suffering from the absence of this thing, and it could at first but it never lasts. For example, you have just been hiking for hours and hours in the unbearable heat, what do you want? Water. You take out your bottle and take a sip and it’s delicious. Completely thirst quenching. You finish half the bottle and start to realize the chlorine taste from the chemicals, or that it’s lukewarm from the sun. You finish it anyways and reach for a second. After draining the second bottle, you feel sick and bloated with water. The water was always the same, but you no longer want the water because you’ve had more than enough and it actually ended up causing you to suffer.

Anything could be pleasurable at first but at some point we will no longer want it. There is nothing we could do over and over again without suffering besides breathing and things we do out of complete love and compassion (example, a mother changing a babies diaper). This is why the Buddha believed that the ultimate suffering is life itself. This does not mean that life has to be painful, but we make it so. In the other way we suffer from change is denial of suffering. This creates a false sense of happiness. The first step to fixing this is to diagnose our suffering, to be honest with ourselves and say, “I am in pain”. It is a lot harder than many think but once we have achieved this we can change. Through this process, we have stepped onto the path of wisdom. It is the only advantage of suffering, but how many wise people do we know? This is because people are so attached to this false sense of happiness that they deny themselves the ability to realize suffering and therefore change.

Wisdom is the insight into the way you and things exist in the world and is attained through a realization or a understanding deep enough to change the way you act in the world. It is the antidote to ignorance and suffering. When wisdom is combined with compassion, it is the antidote to others suffering. The relief of this suffering is called peace. Another part of finding peace is to separate yourself from negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are addictive, toxic and contagious and will make you suffer no matter what you’re doing. You could be doing your most favorite thing in the world and be completely miserable because of how you are thinking. Your thoughts change your mind. If this were easy, we would be completely content with only our most basic needs, but since our sense of happiness is so deformed by our attachments to possessions, other people, ourselves, the world, etc. it is near impossible. We are also enslaved to our perspective. If you live a wealthy life and have a lot of possessions, it is a lot harder to be happy with less. If you live a life surrounded by others, it is a lot harder to be happy alone. It goes back to this warped idea that change is bad. So is lasting happiness even possible? Yes, by filling yourself with positive thoughts and energy. Your thoughts change your mind.

            Because Buddhists believe in impermanence, they believe that there is no fixed essence or self. All Buddhists teachings lead to emptiness. Emptiness does not mean nothingness, but the “emptiness of inherent, concrete existence”. The goal of emptiness is the total eradication of this false way of seeing things from our mind. This is what leads to enlightenment. To Buddhists, the soul is like an erroneous reading of the subtle consciousness that has been created over time to answer the question, who am I? Again we have to remember that emptiness does not mean nothingness. The Buddhists version of the soul can be called the subtle consciousness. The only differences are that a God did not create it and it is not permanent. A God could not have created it because there was no ultimate beginning and it cannot be permanent because we are always changing as people. This does not mean we do not exist. As Decares once said, “I think, therefore I am.” We function because we exist.

Here is the hard part. Where is the chair? It seems ridiculous to ask but try pointing to a chair. You might have pointed to the top or one of the legs, but that’s not a chair. Just the leg does not function as a chair. We have given the chair an essence, a being. We must realize that nothing is what it seems to be. Everything is made up of and dependent on an infinite number other things and is still constantly changing. We define and define, saying “this is a chair”, “this is a leg” and “this is a tree”, these labels we have attached deny the inevitable and constant change that is happening everywhere.

Here is the scary part. The ego is a mental construct created by our minds to create security for our egos. We have to remember that even though it was created by our minds, it isn’t permanent either, but do exist. We sub-consciously created the soul because we want to believe there is something permanent for us to cling to, to define our existence. It is created out of ignorance and changes the way we act in the world. Everything we do is to satisfy this ego or uphold our self-image. Even things we think we are doing out of love are for ourselves. If someone says, “I love you”, how would they feel if the person they were speaking to didn’t say anything back? We will forever live to serve ourselves until we can transform our minds and get rid of these false definitions. All of this does not mean there is no “I” in the question “who am I?” but it is not this false and permanent sense of self we have created. We must realize that everything is always changing and the way we have perceived or defined things is not the way they have been, are or will be. After we understand this, we understand the truth of life. When we are empty of all false notions and attachments, there is nothing left but what must be true. This is when you can do things because they are right and not because they serve your egotistical sense of self. This is where true compassion is created and is one of the ultimate quality someone can achieve. This is when we realize that we are not all one but all connected. This is when we can end ignorance and therefore end suffering.

Never Rest on Everest

Ever since I was nine, when I was first given my real dose of an adventurous life, I can remember wanting to go to Mt. Everest. When I told doubting adults about this dream, they’d ask why. In my head I could see an older version of me in a huge down coat and hiking boots, trekking through enormous mountains and talking to Sherpas.  This month, I was that older version of me.

(Everest center, Lohtse right)

On the twelfth of September my Dad and I left Pokhara on a bus headed to Kathmandu. About four hours in to the supposed seven-hour drive, the truck drivers of Nepal started a strike by parking their trucks along the one and only highway that we were trying to drive through. Three hours later we had barely gone a mile. Being stuck on an air conditioning-less bus in 90-degree heat was not exactly how I wanted to start off this adventure. Nevertheless, we reached Kathmandu after eleven painful hours and the next day we were at the airport, boarding our plane to the most dangerous airport in the world. The village of Lukla is perched on a ledge right in the middle of a steep cliff-like mountain. Logically, since there’s not enough space for a full-length runway, the strip is slanted uphill pretty drastically. Needless to say, landing on the edge of a cliff with a mountain right in front of you is terrifying but awesome.

(runway in Lukla) 

Most of the towns in the Sagarmatha (Everest) region look a lot like Lukla, except most are smaller. The towns are mostly made up of different and fairly identical stone guesthouses and smaller stone houses with yards guarded by stone walls for yak grazing and gardening. The three main sources of income for Nepali’s living in the mountains are portering (carry goods on their back from Lukla, where the last airport is, to wherever ordered), housing hikers and farming so the only things that make up the villages are the necessities to make money doing those things. This makes the villages very small and rudimentary since everything has to be carried in by porter or yak. As we were hiking along, we saw porters carrying the most amazing things. We saw men, old and young, carrying washing machines, a sick woman, ten pieces of plywood, fifty-five gallon drums of kerosene, and more. We even saw one young boy with a giant basket of yak poop. Really makes you stop complaining and watch in awe. As if the load’s weight wasn’t enough, the terrain made the job seem near impossible. In the lower villages, the trail is more like a road that sometimes would stop and turn into steep, slippery and narrow stone steps. On our way back down, one of the bridges had collapsed because of a landslide so there was an incredibly steep, muddy, barely existent trail formed that went up and over the new cliff. We stood and waited as a group of Sherpas helped a young porter carrying an unbelievable load of plywood navigate over an especially nonexistent area right on the cliffs edge. It looked impossible but the young porter finally made it across. We all clapped.

(monastery in Tengboche)

Since everything is carried in, prices are three times higher in the mountains than in Pokhara. At the higher villages, a Twix can cost up to 400 rupees, which is about $5. It seems ridiculous, but once you see the effort it takes to get that Twix up to 16,000 feet from 9,000, you know it’s that high of a price for a good reason. Without a porter to carry our bags or a guide to lead us to the right trail, the cost of our trip was much lower than most. REI advertises the trip at $2,100, not including food, which was definitely the better half of the total money we spent. My dad and I spent around $700 each for two weeks, including housing, plane tickets, food, and hiking permits. The larger part of that total was spent on food, second was transportation and last was room (usually less than $3 a night) a night for a double room without a bathroom). The trip cost only a little lower than we had expected, but we made it that way. Compared to the complete backcountry trekking that I’m used to, this trip was quite luxurious with beds and “toilets” (most bathrooms were outhouses with holes in the ground). There were definitely some people up there that weren’t budgeting by watching food prices and getting fancier rooms with attached bathrooms, there were also others who spent much less than us.

            Even though this trip was more luxurious than what I’m used to, there were definitely some moments where I didn’t exactly feel like a princess. There were two lowest of the low moments on my trip that made me doubt my abilities, question my sanity and pray for time to speed up. The first was the night we spent in Monju. It was our first night sleeping in the high altitude of the Himalayas and we felt it. That day we had decided to skip through Phakding and stay the night in a village that had the same altitude as where we had started that day (Lukla), which would have been fine but both my Dad and I were unknowingly dehydrated and knowingly exhausted. My Dad woke up sweating despite the freezing temperature, went outside to cool off and threw up. As he came back in, I woke up and felt like I was suffocating. Since I’m prone to panic attacks, I would wake up several times hyperventilating and not be able to stop because I was so stressed. Finally, morning came and we were both still alive so we hiked on. The next worst moment on the trek was Shomar. Once again we had skipped past a village that we were supposed to stay in (Pangboche) and once again, we felt it. For hours my head felt like it would split in half from the pressure. Altitude sickness exhausts you to a point that you just want to sleep for days, but we knew that walking up higher and acclimatizing there was better for us so we hiked to the top of the village and walked back and forth along the path for almost an hour. As we went back to our room, I felt good enough to eat and sleep, but my Dad didn’t. He had a headache all night but finally went away in the morning. That night we also stayed in our least favorite lodge of any on our trip. It was bitterly cold in the common room where you eat your meals. Finally they put some yak patties in the stove heater (there aren’t any trees up there so that’s their fuel source) and it warmed up to where we were more comfortable. Sadly, the plywood square rooms don’t have the luxury of heating so it was hard keeping warm at night even with our -10 degree sleeping bags and fleece pants.

            Even though these two moments were uncomfortable and frustrating, my Dad and I never once seriously talked about backing down except to say if we have to we will. It wasn’t even long after these two days that we learned that garlic soup is the cure for everything from an old Nepali woman we complained to one night. After we got out of the less impressive lower hills where frustration and exhaustion built was where I had my two most amazing moments. The first was the earthquake. This would have on the terrible moment list but just the enormity of the movements and sounds made it amazing. We were staying the night in Periche, just above 13,000 feet, playing cards with a couple we had met in Monju and eventually hiked most our trip with. All of a sudden I hear the owner of the lodge saying “shaky, shaky, shaky, shake”. I started to feel the common rocking back and forth. My first thoughts were, “what the heck, why are people trying to move the lodge?” I had thought that people were rocking the room like we used to rock the floating dock on the pond by my grandparents cabin in Vermont right before we jumped off. Then it got bigger. And bigger. After about 10 whole seconds I finally realized it was an earthquake. I quickly got under the table and waited. After about thirty seconds, it slowed down to where you I could barely feel it and we got out. My dad and I looked at each other and started laughing but quickly stopped when we saw the Nepalis’ and couples faces. Later, we went outside to see the damage and we saw several walls of houses and lodges had fallen down. Our own lodge had a part of the roof cave in, but everyone was completely fine, only shaken up (pun intended). The excitement of the moment and surety that I knew I’d be fine the whole time made it one of the top moments of my life. It wasn’t till after that I thought about rock falls and avalanches crushing us. The next most amazing most is a close tie between reaching Everest Base Camp and summiting Kala Pathar, but summiting wins. We woke up on the 23^rd at 3:30 am and started hiking at 4 from Gorak Shep, the last village on the trek. Immediately, it was a steep ascent. At about 5:00 or 5:30 the sun started to rise and revealed the enormous mountains right in front of us. The sky turned an amazing cotton candy pink and blue and the peaks were so close we felt like we could touch them. We sat and waited for the show to be over and eventually started hiking to the summit. Although it only took us two hours to reach the peak, it was the longest two hours of my life. Each step was laborious and each breath was half-filled. At 18,000 feet there is only half the amount of oxygen as sea level, where I live, so it was hard work getting up the steep and completely rocky slope. Climbers attempting to summit have to sleep at nearly 18k feet for almost a month before they can start ascending higher. There was actually only three teams at Base Camp when we were there because it was the off season for summiting, one was a Japanese climber attempting to solo summit, without oxygen, and not in the right season…could he make it any harder for himself? We got to the summit at 6:05 and it was covered in ice so movement was limited. It was absolutely incredible up there. We had a 360 degree view from the top with full views of Lohtse and Ama Dablam. Fortunately, the entire sky was clear except for a single cloud right in front of Everest. We did catch a glimpse of the peak a few times though. All the mountains just towered over us. Everywhere we looked, the peaks were right there in our faces. After a celebratory Twix and a few pictures, we headed back down to Gorak Shep for a much needed breakfast. Later that day, we continued all the way to Periche. It was incredible watching the terrain change in one day from moon-like to low bush, and the next day back into the tropical forest.

 

(damage from earthquake)

 

(base camp sign)

 

(summit of Kala Pathar)

            Some mornings in the Sagarmatha range were a lot like that morning. Beautiful clear skies with the sun touching the peaks as it rose, but most days in the lower were fairly overcast, if not completely foggy. The mornings with beautiful sunrises made all the work worth it, times a billion. We talked to a lot of locals about the weather and what we got from them was that by early October, the skies were most likely to be clear every day. This is also when the crowds of tourists start to pile in to the little villages. At first we were a little miffed about the weather, but when we got closer to October and started to see the amount of people starting their trek, we completely changed our minds. My Dad and I agree that mid or early September is the best time to go if ever. Either way, you will get views of the mountains and beating the crowds is always vital. The experience is so much more pure when there aren’t large amounts of people crowding around and cramping the lodges. We also had impeccable timing with meeting people and getting views. We met a lot of amazing people while we were trekking and ended up hiking the last half and most the way down with a couple from London and a man from Singapore. My Dad and I taught them and a few Sherpas the great (card) game of Spite and Malice, which we played in big tournaments almost every night (this was our one and only source of entertainment for two weeks, so we took it very seriously, with prizes and everything). When it came to the views, whenever it was most important to get one, we got one. There were some days we could barely see a hundred yards in front of us, but it left some mystery to it and made the clear days just that much more special.

Overall, I had an incredible time. It was hard work and exhausting, but it was an amazing opportunity that I will always remember and inspire me every time I hike. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to tell people about my experiences and prove those doubting adults wrong. I envisioned this trip a long time ago and I was just stubborn enough to make it happen. Anyone can complete the dream they’ve created, they’ve just got to work around the altitude and keep hiking.

 

(monastery in Tengboche)

 

(Everest left, Lohtse center)

(hiking up Kala Pathar, break for sunrise)

(angel statue on summit of Kala Pathar)

Day 1: Lukla (9,320 ft) to Monju (9,320 ft)

Day 2: Monju (9,320 ft) to Namche (11,290 ft)

Day 3: Acclimatization Day in Namche (11,290 ft): Day Hike to Thame (12,470 ft)

Day 4: Namche (11,290 ft) to Tengboche (12,670 ft)

Day 5: Tengboche (12,670 ft) to Shomare (13,160 ft)

Day 6: Shomare (13,160 ft) to Periche (13,910 ft)

Day 7: Acclimatization Day in Periche (13,910 ft): Day Hike to Chhukhung (15,520 ft)

Day 8: Periche (13,910 ft) to Thokla/Doughla (15,160 ft)

Day 9:  Thokla/Doughla (15,160 ft) to Lobuche (16,100 ft)

Day 10: Lobuche (16,100 ft) to Gorak Shep (16,900 ft) - Day hike to Everest Base Camp (17,600 ft)

Day 11: Gorak Shep (16,900 ft) to Kala Pathar (18,200 ft) to Periche (for the night) (13,910 ft)

Day 12: Periche (13,910 ft) to Namche (11,290 ft)

Day 13: Namche (11,290 ft) to Lukla (9,320 ft)