Christmas etc

Just a couple of things to write about now.  I went to Pokara for Christmas, and celebrated with my friends.  I came into Pokara on Christmas Eve, and immediately went to a restaurant and ate some delicious pizza with a bunch of the other volunteers.  After that we went out to a cool bar with live music, and stayed out until about 2 AM.  I got back to the hotel and slept for an hour then got up at 3 for a sunrise hike.  I hiked up to a town called Saranghot with two of my friends which we thought was a three hour walk, but it only took us 2 hours.  So we got there an hour before sunrise and I was able to climb a nice cell phone tower.  From the top of the hill we watched the first light hit the Annapurna Range which was spectacularly beautiful.  I got a few pictures:

Early, early morning light on the snow covered peaks of the Annapurna Range (LtoR: Annapurna Dakshin w/ Annapurna I behind, Macchapucchre, and Annapurna III)

Shawn and Matt

Ethan!!

(LtoR) Macchapucchre, Annapurna III, Annapurna II, and Lamjung Kallas

The (publicly, at least) unclimbed Machhapucchre  (I'm convinced at least one person has climbed it illegally).



Some sweet sunlight and glaciers on Annapurna II

A hazy Dhaulagiri

Annapurna Dakshin (south)

We hiked back down and I took it easy for a few hours until Christmas dinner where we did a “white elephant” gift exchange; I got a light-up bouncy-ball.  Then back to the bar from the previous night.  The other volunteers here often get too drunk because I guess they are children.  I usually find them fairly entertaining, but occasionally that can be a real pisser as I end up babysitting.  (Of course, I can’t complain too much as it is my choice to help my idiotic friends, but I feel for them.  Being in a foreign country can be scary for many people so I can’t blame them if they occasionally need to drink away their fear).  Anyways, on Christmas one of my friends got way too drunk, and I wasn’t about to walk his ass back to the hotel and luckily a couple of other volunteers…volunteered to do this.  I went and grabbed him a bottle of water and met them on the street just as my friend stumbles into the back of a taxi and breaks a light.  They just start walking faster, and I am standing there surrounded by six bewildered taxi drivers.  I decided I should try to fix the situation, and started talking to them.  They started demanding exorbitant amounts of money and say they are going to call the cops, so I said I can’t pay and they can get whatever they want to.  They tell me to go get my friend.  I say I don’t know him and that they can go get him if they want.  They tell me to stay there, and they are going to get my friend and the cops.  I say, “Nope.”  And start walking back into the bar.  I was wondering why I even tried to fix the situation in the first place.  When I start walking away two of them grab me, and I whirl around and yell in English, “Get your hands off me, boy!!!”  They let go, took a step back and I walked into the bar and had no problems.  I found it funny that I called the taxi drivers boy since I only call my brothers boy, but I guess when I am angry, and I was, I confuse people with my brothers… or I am just a huge racist which is also a good possibility.

The next day all the other volunteers headed back to their sites and I decided to go para-gliding.  I haggled a decent price and then got in the company’s jeep and went up the hill a ways.  I was just a passenger on the paraglider as there was a pilot who actually knew what he was doing.  It was pretty fun; we quickly caught a few thermals and shot up way higher than our take-off spot, and soared out over the lake.  I get motion sick pretty easily and so I barfed (there was a barf-bag).  This was a bummer, but the whole experience was still pretty exciting.  I recommend it for those who either don’t get motion sick or who have a lot of motion sickness meds handy.

Looking out at the lake just after take off

Stoicly trying not to barf

My feet!

Another hang glider!!

I think the pilot is more stoked than me... I think I'm just concentrating on not barfing

I'm flying it!  And trying not to barf.

Back at site, I went to a puja with my host sister and her friend’s family.  They did some various religious activities and I sat on a rock and napped in the sun then had rice pudding and vegetables: great success!!  A few pics of that day:

Having fun weaving a grass and flower necklace thing

Cutting up potatoes for snack

Making the flower thingy for some ceremony or another

HAHAHA.  My older sister's child

Hanging out

My health post

My village

My sister (left) and her best friend (right)

Sister, random girl, Ethan, and sister's friend (left to right)

And recently, I helped give a two year old boy stitches on his forehead.  That was a very loud experience… lots of screaming.  I also found my first positive deviant.  A positive deviant is someone who doesn’t do what most people do when it comes to some activity, but in a positive way.  In this case it is mother-baby nutrition.  I had just had another conversation about improved flour with a young mother and how to make it out of various bean flours, corn flour etc.  And again, the mother asked me for money even though all the ingredients to make the flour are readily available in like 99% of the households around here.  Breast milk and plain rice is just not enough for a one year old, so most babies are on definitely on the small side.  I was thinking, “I need to find someone who is doing this right, and who actually has the results to prove that it works (aka a healthy baby).”  Ten minutes later in walks this beautiful, radiant woman with a one year old baby that has a light fever.  So, while she is waiting I approach her to talk to her about improved flour to make porridge.  I do this with all the women who come in with babies and usually get ignored, misunderstood, or asked for money.  I ask her what she feeds her baby and she says mother’s milk and improved flour porridge.  I did a double take, and then asked her to weigh her baby.  I plotted the weight and age on the baby weight chart I have and sure enough the baby was at the highest end of the curve.  At one year old, you really can’t have a baby that is too fat and hers looked very healthy despite the fever.  I was so happy that she came in and that the practices that we are preaching really worked for her.  My counterpart and I talked to her, and he said that she is the only one in the village who comes in regularly for check-ups and who follows his advice.  I asked her if she could come to the trainings we do, and she said that she never has free time…bummer.  But I got her name so when we actually have a training scheduled I’ll go find her and ask her to come again.