The appreciation that these Tibetan people eluded was incredible. I
have never felt so at peace and so grateful for their hospitality
during the trip. My guide
Tsering Passang
(shown in red and blue jacket) was incredible and although we both
lacked each others first language, which proved to be a huge emotional
headache at times, he provided outstanding assistance in guiding me to
the people who needed our donations the most.
this is the reason why Upper
Dolpa was our destination
altitude sickness on one of many 17,000 ft passes ( these three photographs were provided by
http://www.solbeam.com/ because she rocks and my camera broke)
I have just recently re-emerged from "the upper dolpa"
as I call it, with a fresh new perspective on life and just straight up
love for it. The time in the mountains rocked me to the very core and
it's just too hard for me to explain how that happened, and I am sure
you will learn of it more in my future posts. It's taken some days to
get back into civilization but it has been all too easy to eat anything
but dal bhat
and enjoy simple things like calling friends and family, telling them
that I love them, catching up over e mail, and reading about what has
been taking place within the rest of the world while I was lost in my
own great nook of it. A nook that now holds all of my fears and dreams
in the cracks of the dirt, roaring rivers, and spirits that guard each
pass.
You know you have shead
some serious layers both physically and emotionally when you stroll
into town, ask for the nearest international phone, and call home;
caked with dirt, hair mated to my head, trekking pants being held up by
an extra shoe lace, and my emotions SO raw that tears strolled down my
face as soon as my sister and mom both answered
the phone 5am east coast time. "I am out, that was the most difficult
and scary thing I have ever endured. I messed up my ankle, but I am
fine. I am changing my flight and will see you in August. I love you."
was pretty much all I could muster up and say before the connection was
pretty much lost within a crackling line and 15 Nepali men eyeing me
like hawks.
And while there are just too
many stories to get lost in on one post, and this might excite you, I
have decided to update more frequently with hysterical and emotional
dailies of sorts so that you can feel like you yourselves were on the
roller coaster of a journey.
I
am still recovering from a retched bout of food poisoning, which by the
way I got our first day out of the wilds and into an actual "town"
which was more like a village gone mad and trying to become a town.
Electricity and cellphones, refrigerators but still cooking on a clay
oven using fire. Tibetan based hardboard beds and National Geographic
on TV. Yeah, National Geographic TV, is in a village in Lower Dolpa. It was nice though, red bucket to my right and a NG special on rare alligator species.
Please stay tuned for another "story" in a day or so.
