Vacation is Starting!

Vacation officially starts now! I am in the Delhi airport on an eight hour layover, and Mike should be boarding his El Al flight to Hong Kong.  So, this is really the vacation of a lifetime and I have decided to run two blogs.  The first one is this one- ramblings, occasional posts and pictures with whatever catches my fancy.  This one is for family and close friends.  I will try to post a more polished piece on my Slow Travels Blog from time to time (I would love to say weekly, but I am afraid to commit) for the "public."  Choose which one you want to follow and come along for the ride.

A quick recap of the last two weeks is in order to set the stage of where I am and where my head is.  I spent the last 14 days in Kathmandu, capital city of Nepal.  This is my third trip to that country in the last nine months.  I have been working with Tevel B'Tzedek and its sister organization Nyayik Sansar developing psycho-social interventions post earthquake, called the BRI-Building Resilience Intervention.  Here are a few photos from the recent training.

with completion certificates

Aside from the four day intensive workshop, I was fortunate to make a field trip to rural Nepal.  The road was harrowing, grueling and every other adjective you can think of.  Ten hours, some of them spent in teeth clenched terror (I exaggerate not).  Here are a few photos from the road.

Coffee Break

Inside the Jeep

Our Jeep

Four Hours of Off Road

Passing on the Narrow Road

It turns out that coffee breaks, lunch breaks, tea breaks and what have you are a critical and important part of travel here.  All in all we went about 100 KM in those ten hours.  Can you believe it???  And our average speed was between 20-40 km an hour.  So go figure.  I can't do that math.  By the way, for those who want to see where we went, here is the map-  we were west of Kathmandu (to the right).

 The conditions were remarkably rugged. Outhouses (of course), no running water, no electricity for the most part.  Most of the villages use solar panels to charge their cell phones and for an occasional light at night.  Village life is pretty spartan.  People get up, work to feed themselves, eat, bathe (very infrequently because of the difficulty and in the winter because of the cold), wash clothes, and go to sleep early.  Very early.  I was in bed by 8:30 all three nights!! And was it cold.  Freezing.  We had staff meetings under the covers! I wore six layers of clothing every day (in Kathmandu too), very warm socks, thermal underwear, and sometimes I was still cold.   And now, a few scenes from the villages (two), the people we met, and the women we worked with. 

 Terraces for Rice (not the season)

 Mud and stone houses

Making Butter

Outhouse

The Women Schlep

 Group Meeting

So that's it folks.  Checking out for now.  Will keep you posted as we move along.