the trip up- definitely a trip!

The last two days have been as challenging as the first few! The good news is that I am up in dadeldhura. I made it! Yesterday, it looked like that may not happen. My ride was supposed to come and get me at 8am. Guess what? At 9am, he still wasn’t there. Nepali time has proven to be really similar to Africa time (which means it has no bearing on actual time at all and things just happen when they happen), so I wasn’t surprised he was running an hour late- but I called my hosts in dadeldhura to let them know since they were heading to church and would be out of pocket until noon. Doug made a phone call to the driver and called back to say that the roads were closed due to the bandha and he wouldn’t be able to reach me until afternoon or evening, at the earliest. What he didn’t tell me was that he really didn’t think there was any way that I would make it up. Missionaries had been stuck in Kathmandu for weeks trying to get home, and others were stuck for weeks up in dadeldhura, unable to get down. Instead of telling me that, he said “maybe this afternoon or evening.” I settled in for a blistering hot day in my hotel room in the middle of the Terai- and an hour later, the young waiter that had been bringing my bottles of water and a roll of toilet paper on a tray (I didn’t even have to ask! After all, I brought my own) came running up the stairs shouting and pantomiming driving a car. My ride was there! He started grabbing my stuff and shoving it in my backpack while I stuffed the rest in my suitcase- and then we ran down to the car, loaded up, and literally sped off. I breathed a sigh of relief when we made it through town (we were literally the only car on the road. There were dozens of bikes and people on foot, but no vehicle traffic because the roads were still supposed to be closed.).

My relief lasted about 4 minutes, until we started our ascent up the mountain. In all the excitement of “Will I get there? Won’t I get there?”, I never once considered that the road and the drive would be terrifying. Oh, but it was. It was 3 hours (that was part of the problem, considering it should take 4 hours to get to Dadeldhura) of white knuckles and desperate prayer. It was a very narrow road that twisted and turned while it climbed to staggering heights- with sheer drops on my side of the car the entire way.  Boulders and piles of smaller rocks littered the road where they had broken free from the cliff face above and crashed down onto the road. Sometimes we came careening around a corner to find a herd of goats or cows blocking both lanes. My driver was a good driver, but a fast driver, and he passed anything we came up behind. Most of these were huge trucks crammed with people and with supplies and people riding on top, or buses that were double capacity. There was never a full car width next to them, but we passed- on that sheer drop side- every time. One bus tried to close us out and cut us off and we barely made it by.  There was one part of the road that was gone completely, along with what passed as a guardrail, and was covered only by sand. We skidded sideways when we crossed that patch. Several other patches were covered with thick jagged rocks instead of pavement and the car jerked and jutted across. I can’t believe we didn’t pop a tire. I chewed a Dramamine but it was still all I could do not to get carsick.

I will also say that it was 3 hours of some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve seen.

 It was gorgeous, soaring mountaintops and thick jungled slopes. There were terraced farms and animals grazing along the road. It was primitive and the tiny towns that dotted the road were the poorest of the poor- but it was breathtaking when I could look away from the road ahead long enough to enjoy it.

And then we were here!

BYOT (bring your own toilet paper)

today has been quite a day!

i am going to start by saying that a lot of this wasn't my fault but i'll learn from it, anyway.

i woke up this morning to more of the same- confusion as to what continued to be affected by the strike, and whether or not i'd be able to travel to dadeldhura today. my host called up to TEAM hospital in dadeldhura (DDH) to see if doug, the medical director, had news but he didn't have a definitive answer at that point. what he did have was a bus accident on his hands, and 30 patients to care for as a result. it looked like we'd have to figure it out ourselves. the plan was to leave for the airport at 1045am to catch my 1230 flight. that changed. flora, the girl i went shopping and exploring with yesterday, called and said that she found a driver who would ignore the bandha and drive us to the airport but he wanted to leave right away when it was safer. evidently, the later the day the higher the tensions. instead of 1045, we were leaving at 9:15. did i mention we got the call at about 9:05? well, guess who waited until the last minute to pack so wasn't prepared for such a hasty departure? yep....me. i shoved everything i could into my suitcase and backpack and ran out the door. there wasn't time to purchase a cell phone so we put a SIM card we'd purchased the day before into an old phone my host had at the house, and programmed 3 numbers into it. flora's, my hosts (marcy) and doug in DDH. in the car, i took out the phone to play around with it and make sure i knew how to operate it. that's when i noticed it had one battery bar. i was hoping it would last since there are no outlets or charging stations at the kathmandu airport. oh- and i don't have a charger that fits that phone. :/

we arrived at the airport. no one there could tell me if the flight would go. flora wasn't allowed into the building, so the plan was for her to wait until 1130 in the taxi. i would text "okay" if the flight was going and "wait" if it wasn't, and i needed transport back to marcy's. there are no departure screens or electronic info available. there are two desks for yeti airlines (yes, you heard that right) and you know the flight you're checking in for because they tack up a printed piece of paper with the name of the destination on it. period. no departure time, no flight number. just white paper with a name. all i could do was wait and see if my paper got tacked up. at around 11:10, the guy behind one of the desks seemed to get enough of my english that i believed he knew what he was saying when he said the flight would go. i texted "okay" to flora and sent her off.

the plane was a 2 prop deal, with no overhead compartments so your carry-ons are on your lap, and the flight attendant's seat is literally in the bathroom. you fold up her jump seat and pull this knob that says "toilet". a small panel in the wall pulls away revealing a toilet. that panel swings past you to block the view of the toilet and you hold it shut while you pee. i made a mental note never again to drink fluids before or during the flight to or from dhanghadi.

when we landed, we landed in "strike zone".

the bandha was in full effect and there were no vehicles on the road and the airport was non-functional. we disembarked on the runway and 30+ machine gun wielding officers directed us around the building to a dirt patch where they dropped our bags and told us to start walking. a man came from the crowd and told me "there is someone coming for you." that was music to my ears. i grabbed my bags and headed the 1/4 mile to the security gate with the others. just inside the gate were rickshaws and men on motorcycles to take travelers the 1-2 miles into town. i didn't see my driver, so i waited. i was told that the hospital vehicle was going to take me to DDH so that is what i was looking for. after 15 or 20 minutes, i approached an ambulance to see if he was waiting for me. he wasn't. i went back to the gate and waited some more. i chanced my battery and called marcy who called doug for me. evidently, my rickshaw left with someone else aboard. i was told that another would come for me in 20-30 minutes. at this point, it was just me and the 30+ armed officers on a road in the desert. a couple of them kept pointing down the road and saying "go" but i took advantage of the language barrier and just stood my ground, pretending i didn't understand. there were no buildings except a few rundown shacks/homes as far as the eye could see. i wasn't about to head down that road with no destination and a nearly dead battery. about an hour after the second rickshaw was supposed to arrive, i talked to doug again. he had no idea what had happened but would find out and call back. i had to tell him that at any minute, my phone could die. we agreed that no matter what, i would stay put until someone arrived that was coming specificially for me and knew my name and where i was headed. even if my phone died, he said- stay put. someone will come.

at this point, the officers left. now, instead of me and 30+ armed officers, it was just me. periodically, an old nepali woman would come and sit across from me and watch me. i would say something in english. she would say something in nepali. we would both just smile...and i would continue reading and she would continue staring at me.

then a young boy joined the fun. he was bold enough to stand right next to me and stare down at me sitting on the side of the road. he, too, would wander away and then return on occasion to entertain himself. finally, doug called back. a guy was headed my way in a blue car and he was going to take me to a hotel where i'd stay overnight. the driver said it was too unsafe to travel today and especially at night- so we'd start in the morning and head up the mountain. in about 10 minutes (2 hours after landing), a silver car arrived. yep- silver. not blue. i asked the driver if he was there for me and guess what? no english. he sort of smiled, picked up my bags, and headed for the car. i had a decision to make. i decided i had enough of sitting on the side of the road in the terai. at least for today. i climbed in the car and thank god he brought me to a hotel. that's the upside... the hotel itself is the downside. ugh.

there are stains on the sheets, stains above the beds, a toilet that doesn't flush, a bucket to pour water down the toilet that doesn't flush, a showerhead right in the middle of the room (between the door and the toilet) so you just let the water run all over the floor in the bathroom...the cold water because there is no hot...and it is BYOT. Bring Your Own Toilet paper. it is, for nepal, probably a 5 star hotel. beware- that rating system isn't the same everywhere. haha. it beats sitting in the sun in the desert, though, so tonight it will be my palace. i will eat my turkey jerky and dry roasted almonds because the rest of my food melted (even the tiniest chocolate chips can make a monster mess) and the staff here speaks less english than my driver- who spoke none. i don't think i have the energy to pantomime food prep- so jerky it is. it'll be good for me. after yesterday's shopping spree, i'm determined to be more "nepali sized" when i return.

tomorrow, we try again.

dadeldhura or bust!

good news- the bandha (strike/protest) in the far west is over.

bad news- there is a call for a bandha in kathmandu tomorrow which may effectively shut down travel routes TO the airport- and then continued bandha in the terai, which includes the area between the airport in danghadi and the road up to dadeldhura, means that even if i can get to the airport tomorrow, and can fly from kathmandu to danghadi, i may not be able to get to the road that will take me to dadeldhura.

so again, i pray and wait. i wonder what kind of lessons i'm learning here? hmmmmm.... such a mystery! haha. gotta' laugh. at this point, there isn't much use in doing anything else. i have always preached to my mission teams that flexibility is the single most important characteristic they can have. now it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is.

it was a good day here in kathmandu. flora, a really sweet nepali, took me on a sightseeing and shopping mission. we rode in a micro (the name of the minivans that can comfortably seat 8 but transport as many as 24 people at a time to destinations around the city), toured temples and royal courts, bought souveniers in small shops, ate veggie samosas (oh yum) and something that was suspiciously like fried donut holes soaked in syrup, and searched high and low for a traditional nepali outfit that would fit me. let me say here that the average nepali man is 5'4" and the women on average are 5'2". fitting me was a challenge. i started by hitting my head on the doorway of every room i entered. then, after much giggling and searching for the biggest get-up they could find, they would hand it to me and point me to a room the size of 1/2 a phone booth. inside, the ceilings were so low that i couldn't get my arms high enough over my head to put on the top, so i'd have to crouch down. then, i usually get stuck inside the top AND the room and flora would have to extricate me while the shop laughed. this was great on my ego- but did double my determination to lose some weight- and maybe 6 inches of height if i can figure that one out! haha. i did finally find a beautiful kourtas (not sure how it's spelled but that is the name of the bright embroidered top over the flowy, puffy circus pants that make up this regalia and it was in my size. we found it in the back of a darkened shop pretending to be closec because of the bandha (if you are found open, they will break your windows and trash your shop). we then took back alleys and up tiny crooked staircases to the tailor- 3 men sewing on foot operated machines and 3 ladies with children sewing by hand in a 3rd floor room in a broken down building. 




one of the men made me sleeves for my kourtas so my shoulders will be covered when i wear it in the village.

they measured my arms and then commented in nepali, while looking at me with odd appreciation, that i had the biggest most muscular arms of any woman they'd ever measured. great distinction.lol. one sewed and one interrogated me. was i married? why not? didn't i have children? how old am i? what do i do for a job? again, why wasn't i married? was i looking for a nepali boyfriend? man, they sew slowly.........haha. i felt like a bond girl. very "spy sexy".

i had dinner at the home of ...okay- i have been writing this for two day and have lost internet connection and/or power 4 times since i started- so am going to send, though it is incomplete. i'd rather get SOME info out than none. i'll keep you informed when i hear the news i'm most interested in. will i or will i not get to dadeldhura today??!!??