Strike strike

Sleep was not good! I had a hard time getting to sleep. I am not sure if it was the excitement or the constant buzz of Mosquitos in my ear or even possible the rat that ran back and forth across the ceiling all night long, but I barely slept. When we woke up in the morning e all had a good laugh about iur new living situations.

Only a 36 hours ago I was being chauffeured around and eating good off of chocolate cakes. The lifestyle is so different that it is impossible to describe, I am having hard believing it myself and I am living it. 

These people literally have nothing but are so happy.

They are content in their lives. It will be interesting to see how this compares in the future as I travel through towns.

It was really raining outside so we bundled under what little gear we had and hiked back up to the shed for some Nepali language courses! Our teacher is one of the nicest and cutest girls I have ever met! She has one of those smiles that makes you smile back. We started to learn the basics,

Hello - namaste

How are you- kasto cha

I'm fine- tik cha

And so on and so on. One regret I have in Sweden is that I did not truly try to learn the language. This time around I think it would be very cool to try to pick up on as much as I can.

During our lunch break, dal baat again, we learned that we may be stuck. Ske of the volunteers panicked a bit while some of us just laughed. Currently in Nepal one political group, the Maoists, are rebelling against the upcoming elections. Now and then they will strike and all roads are shut down. If a car is seen driving we have been told they will break it or burn in.

Our group coordinators from hope and home worked their butts off all morning trying to get permission from the government to let a tourist bus through. While they worked on that a group of the people I had become close with decided to go hang out in one of the private cabins (this consists of walls with tin slapped on top). Claudia, Ivan, Shanee, Elana, and I had a blast swapping our past travels and life stories. It was amazing to learn some things I did not know.

One of the boys in our group is from Serbia and was just a book full of knowledge. Story after story kept us entertained. We were called to come back up to find out that we would be heading back and allowed in the city.

The ride down was terrifying. Now I am not exaggerating at all,, these roads are dangerous. Take the most worn out road you know, twist it back and forth up a steep mountain, make it narrow for one car, and then pile a bunch of mud and rocks on it. Feeling safe? No I didn't think so. On top of that the edge of the road shoots straight down the cliff side. Oh and I almost forgot, it had been pouring so it was muddy and slippery. 

Needless to say we were all a but scared. Yesterday's ride now seemed like a piece of cake. The whole time this is happening the same group of volunteers was with me cracking jokes right and left. I do not think we ever stopped laughing. I've always had luck at meeting good people while traveling but this bunch is by far the easiest to get to know and love instantly.

Halfway down some type of brackets fell off the jeep and our driver just picked them up and kept going. The thing that kept my mind at ease was that the girl coordinator was with us. I figured if she was pnt scared then why should I? Wrong! As soon as we made it down she grabbed my arm and told me how scared she was the entire time!!!!!!! Oh boy!

Next we herded into a tourist bus and all of the white people had to out their faces in the windows while the coordinators and colored volunteers had to hide on the inside. This was an experience and a half. 

The entire city literally was shut down. No joke literally the entire place! Going into the city there was a huge line of cars waiting to me let in whenever the strike lifted. An armed police van came and escorted us past the line and into the city. It was a different snide to Kathmandu. Just two days earlier my arrival was overwhelmed by beeping horns and crazy traffic and now we were only motor vehicle. Every person we passed just watched up. It was terrifying yet thrilling at the same time.

When we reached the city center we got our first glimpse of the protesters. There were very few of them and at first I was scared to look, but when we made eye contact I nervously smiled and was immediately greeting back with one.