Well the time has come; I am packing up for the trip home. It has been an amazing trip--walking around Kathmandu, riding elephants in Chitwan, touring the country on top of a public bus, climbing, trekking, seeing the Everest region, summiting Island Peak, hanging out at base camp, meeting lots of interesting people, and living with Chandra, Lisa, Prushant, Shova and which ever other children and pets were around.
There are definitely things that I will miss about Nepal and things that I look forward to at home. It has been great to travel around seeing amazing places and meeting interesting people, but it will also me nice to come home and see family and friends again. I have also enjoyed the relaxed nature of Nepal but I do appreciate things happening on a schedule in the US. It is a remarkable idea for scheduled events to actually happen and more or less on time; something that is generally not the case here in Nepal. I will also be glad to get away from the dual pricing and generally dual treatment of foreigners and locals throughout the country.
We had some frustrations with the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) this past week. At the beginning of my trip we had met with the chairman and he told us about a rescue course that they were offering this week. Chandra and I expressed interest and asked to be sent a course schedule. We even met with the chairman again and he again mentioned the course. Since then, however, they have not responded to us. This past week Chandra called again to find out what was going on and was told that the course was full. We asked if we could observe a piece of it just to see what they were doing and were told that they would give us a call. That never happened. Turns out they did not want any foreigners involved, nor did they want Chandra apparently. Unfortunately, they would not come out and tell us this until midway through this week, they just decided to ignore us.
We both found the experience rather frustrating and at the same time were amazed that an organization that operates in such a manor is functioning, and relays so heavily on western doctors to staff their medical outposts. It may partly be a result of a Nepali mentality where they don't want to disappoint people by saying no. (This will sometimes result in one getting really convoluted directions to places that don't exist or are really far away.) I for one find it far more frustrating to be given the run around though than told that something isn't going to work.
On a slightly funnier note, early in my trip here I was trying to get involved with the HRA and I sent an email to the chairman following up on a meeting we had had and asking if he had any further thoughts on what I could do. I never heard back from him. When we went to talk with him a couple weeks later he said that he had received my email but was waiting to get back to me until they had my office set. Funny, I wasn't aware of having agreed to do anything yet and certainly not sit in an office.
Anyway, enough ranting. I have packing to do and a few last minute errands to run. And then my 23hr and 55minute flight from Singapore to JFK.
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