Monday, May 31, 2010
Not having church on Sunday really messes up ones sense of the week.
Since we traveled out of the Kathmandu valley into the southern and much lower parts of Nepal yesterday, the temperature would normally be quite a bit higher. However it rained quite heavily during the last part of journey and last night so that it is still quite pleasant out. It is however early in the day ( 6:15am ) and it might yet get warmer.
Last night we met with the pastor whose Church we are headed out to visit today. He wanted to know if I liked pork. Apparently his tribe is big on pork. I think I will spend the rest of my time here in Nepal at his village.
Later the same day . . .
From the hotel we walked down to the bus station and caught a bus headed out into the country. While we were on the bus JB set to work with gusto, making certain not a single person got on or off that bus without a track in their hands, all the while smiling and joking with the passengers. Meanwhile I sat in back almost certain this was the same bus and driver from the Harry Potter books. I never actually saw any trees or houses jumping out of the way, but it’s pretty much the only rational explanation I have for how we managed to miss them. Naturally of course I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to go again tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are headed off to some other village up in the mountains. I should mention we are just barely out of the Himalaya’s where we are. The first mountains begin just a few miles north of this town and the plains sweep away to the south down through India. This means tomorrow we have a short bus ride, and always assuming we survive a good uphill hike. The good news is that once we get to the village it will be much cooler. The temperature isn’t bad even here, but it was getting rather stifling inside the church this afternoon after a couple hours of teaching.
Speaking of inside the church, the church roof was mere millimeters above my head and I was towering over the natives sitting on the floor, hence I thought it would be better if maybe I sat down with them and taught. Well the pastor thought that wasn’t a good idea, he says the teaching is more exciting when I am standing up.
As promised we had pork and rice for dinner. It was definitely pork anyway though it wasn’t so much meat. Apparently the fat is the best part so there were a number of large cubes of pork without a bit of meat in them, only squares of grilled fat. All I could think of was the line from Community “now he’s eating the gristle eww.” The pieces that had meat however were really good.
The country side itself was beautiful. Large fields of corn separated with mud huts, and a backdrop of wooded hills ( the foothills of the Himalaya’s ) switch out the mud huts for barns and houses and it could almost have been august in Wisconsin, except of course the fact that no one was grilling brats.
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