Kathmandu, Nepal

Namaste from Kathmandu!! What a city; the power is out a lot of the time, I'd forgotten how precarious it was to cross the road here- you need to have your wits about you 100% of the time, not 99.9!! Gapped for a split sec and almost got nailed by a motorcycle!! Brian got attacked (not in a bad way- it was funny, actually) by a monkey at Swayambu Temple yesterday- it stole 2 oranges- he had gapped for a split sec too.

We are now switched over to Nepal time, and we are off to our trip to the Tsum tomorrow morning; just have to tie up loose ends here. Logistics are still "difficult" here to say the least. Garbage and pollution is unbelievable, the rivers are worse than before, even, which is to say beyond filthy. We are looking forward to the fresh air of the mountains.

We met with the Tsum Welfare Development Committee yesterday and they are excited about our community's connection with theirs. They are grateful for your involvement. I probably won't be posting for awhile now. If I find it difficult to do this in KTM, I imagine it'll be even harder in Arughat (where we are taking a jeep to tomorrow), though who knows.......and in the mountains, probably non-existent. We have a solar charger with us to charge the big camera batteries, so that's cool.

See you in 2 1/2 to 3 weeks!

Happy Losar!!!

Happy Losar, bringing in the Metal Year of the Tiger (or should that more appropriately be Snow Leopard,the nearly extinct cat species that inhabits the Himalayas)? Today is the first day of LOSAR, the New Year, which is celebrated with great fervour amongst the Tibetan people all over the world.

We'd like to have a party, but we're too busy getting ready to leave!! Certainly don't have time to make momos (a traditional Tibetan dish). So now we're taking the truck to the coast. We've had such an awesome response from this wonderful community we live in (plus some others from afar!!) that we just can't get it all in our little Echo. Not even close.........the community has donated over 250 bags, first aid supplies, and other items, and we've had such a huge amount of support and help from friends, helping to inspect and pack parcels, etc etc, that we are truly in awe!

Okay, this is just a short one today; hope you have a wonderful new year- take the tiger by the tail!!

Donations of Care Packages

Thanks to the generous support of the people of the West Kootenays (and also from the Yukon, Vancouver Island, and Eastern Canada), we have collected over 130 care bags, $790, and a whole bunch of other loose items like toothbrushes, etc. Friends have been busy helping, and folks have been quite creative getting together the items. We still can use some first aid supplies, like compression and butterfly bandages, gauze, tape, etc, and oral rehydration salts if you have some kicking around....light stuff, now, please, as we're getting close to the max. We don't have a lot of our own stuff to take, but we can only fit so much into and on top of our little (normally good gas mileage) Echo!! Plus we have weight and size restrictions for the luggage (and our bodies). But we thank you for your generosity! We just hope nobody asks us to take our bags apart at an airport or a Customs somewhere on the way!!! Here's a photo of the room full of items! We are getting excited about leaving soon, but still have a ton of things to do.