2 weeks in short and sometimes fragmented sentences

above: Milk Baba. Survived 16 years (If I remember right) on milk and water and air alone.

leaving tomorrow AM with a guide and a porter for 8 days of trekking in the Nepal mountains.

tomorrow's bus ride is 9 hours, up steep hills, corners, and on dusty roads.

i will go trekking for the first time, testing my own personal limits of comfort in many ways.

but not to get ahead of myself...

have a new dhera (apartment).

my mom says it looks like our apartment in greece. and i think she is right, especially the color is a greek blue. of people who live close to the water.

i can go on the rooftop to dry my laundry now. this bring more joy than i would have thought.

asked the family who lives below me to water the 19 plants that will keep me company while i'm here in kathmandu and trekking.

i don't know that i should have asked them to do a favor as i am just getting to know them.

but couldn't bear the thought of the plants dying while i was away. it is hot in hetauda right now. very hot.

and dusty.

we had a freak hail storm the other evening.

a ball of hail as large as a penny hit me on the head. it didn't hurt for too long, though.

the rain and thunder were so welcome. transformed. cleansed. gave me just the tiniest window of insight into what it might be like when the big rains come and i have to roll up my pants and wade through water to my calves to get to work.

it was harder to say goodbye to the family i was staying with than i thought. because i have been looking forward to my own place and some independence for so long.

no more art afternoons with nesa, though. and no more meals with a family.

food should always - whenever possible - be shared with others.

brian arrived in kathmandu two days ago. it is fun for me to share my world with an old, good, close friend.

it is good for me to see things anew again through his eyes.

the seemingly apocalyptic chaos of this city until you surrender to a new sense of order and understanding.

the blissful feeling of being in a place where the spiritual is alive, real, and part of everyday life.

song. nepali head nods. chiyaa. the satisfaction of a good negotiation. the horror of the trash in the river. and the realization that people live in the trash by the river. the beautiful, hanging cedar trees. the bright clothes that the women wear. the lack of any show of anger.

i am 34 now.

and, last, but not least, wow, the gratitude i have for being around other VSO volunteers when i have the opportunity. a shared understanding of what it is to make this place a home. to be both insider and outsider. to know that we will return to our homes new people, transformed by something we have seen and experienced.

i love the opportunity over and over again to be at a table with people fighting for justice, equality, what is healing. maybe also needing a chance to start a few things new, maybe needing to learn and grow and understand. the hunger for a bit more freedom...

pictures from langtang valley when i return.