Nepal Day 8

This day happened to fall on Saturday, which is the sabbath in Nepal. The previous day when we went to the River Spring Resort we met up with the rest of the group from Singular Humanitarian Experience (SHe) and Choice Humanitarian. Since the majority of people on the expedition were LDS we had sacrament meeting prior to departing for the villages. We had a really good service. Then as a group of 40 people we gathered in two buses to head up to Dura Danda.

This photo was taken on the way up another big hill to get to the villages. Almost halfway up the hill one of the buses broke down. The original plan was for us to change to two different buses with a better ability to go up tretcherous terrain. So, we stopped in someone ones yard and ate some lunch. Then we walked up the hill to catch the next set of buses. The second set of buses were overloaded with people. Since they were full, I was given a ride in the 4Runner belonging to Choice Humanitarian. Even in the jeep the ride was really bumpy and close to the edge of the cliff.

We were in the Lamjung area and the views from up the hill included the Annapurna range from a different direction. Those mountains had a lot of snow on them, but we were nice at warm at 80 degrees.
When we arrived at the villages they met us with a celebration. As part of the celebration we were all given tiikas and marigold garland. This in not the greatest photos, since it is taken of my chest....a little awkward, but in the dark with a lot of people you don't know it is hard to get a picture of your garlands. The village people were so excited to have us there. They sang and played the drums up to the school house where we were sleeping.

The girls slept on the floor of two of the school rooms. They were actually quite comfortable because Choice Humanitarian provided us with mats and pillows in addition to the pads and pillows we had brought with us. Don't you worry they separated the males from all the females. They were placed in another school room in a building down the hill named the "Man Cave."

To get a better understanding about Choice Humanitarian I have added a link to an article in KSL that discusses the man who was leading our expedition. A friend of mine sent this to me in an email prior to leaving for Nepal.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=12874911