Some funny stories from the month…
- The very first morning at Papa and Ama’s house, we were awakened to the sound of a screaming chicken…then a slam…then silence. We all knew in our hearts that that poor chicken would be our lunch. Yum. Mike even took to being our chicken slayer. You’re a beast Mike!
- We asked Rueben how the other world race team did when they had to hike 5 hours of treacherous terrain over mountains to get to his parents house compared to us…..His response(in his Nepali accent)- I think it was easy for them because they are more young and slender. Oh you have to love Nepali manners…totally cool here to call people old and fat.
- Our bus ride to eastern Nepal was literally the most curvy FAST loud bus ride I’ve ever been on. Advice- don’t take public transportation in Nepal.
- Our bathroom/shower situation all month has been a new experience. Some straw out in a field stood up and tied together to make a square, with 2 logs to stand on, and a deep hole with maggots and flies. And our showers or “springs” as we like to call them, were underneath bamboo pipes or at a well where you had to pump the water, all with children, men and other women washing clothes, taking showers or just staring at you while you try to get clean in a bathing suit or underwear. We got to the point where sports bras and panties were perfectly acceptable. Naked is fine when bathing, just don’t show your knees when you’re fully dressed 🙂
- Coming back towards Kathmandu, our bus ride turned into us sitting up on the luggage rack of a charter bus on top of a load of bananas and our luggage, winding up and down mountain dirt roads straddling gullies in the road with the tires. Holding on for dear life, ducking for power lines and branches every few seconds. I’ll be honest, it was the most I feared for my life on the WR so far. Haha, but fun at the same time. We were singing “God of the angel armies!” as we held on and the Nepali people just laughed.
- It’s not weird anymore to see goats on tops of cars while riding, or chickens in bags under the seat in front of you on a bus.
