We have the day in Kathmandu all to ourselves! What is this thing called choice that we get to exercise today? Many groups decided to go climb mountains. My team, on the other hand, has dealt with some sickness in the past few days, so we decided to take it easy today. We asked a girl to go with us who lived at Nepali Youth Ministries because she knew the city and spoke English. Her name is Archana and she’s 13. My heart broke for her. She is so shy and sweet. She helped us so much today.
We left the home and walked toward the bus stop. Something I’ve noticed about Nepal is that – unlike India – there is hardly any trash. We took the bus to the main city so that we could shop, and even there, only a few piles of trash were present. The piles that were on the street were really large and smelled very foul.
We then took two taxis for all of us and went to the tourist part of the town. Man, did we find some great stores there! Huge outdoors stores with knock-off North Face clothing and equipment. If I would have known that Kathmandu shopping was an option, I would have waited to buy all my World Race equipment here! When I come back to Nepal to climb Mount Everest, I’m only going to bring a small camera bag with lots of gu and power bars, and then purchase everything else here: 75L backpack, camelback bladder, great hiking shoes, poles, literally everything! We were in town for about 5 hours just meandering the stores and streets. By the end, we were shocked at the amount of time that we had spent there and were absolutely exhausted. So, we caught a bus back and decided to relax. I took a nap. After he realized that we were back from our trip, Bhuvan asked for money to pay for this month, but we didn’t have any team money. So, around 5:30 Kaitlyn and I left for the market.
My heart has broken again and again over the past month. It broke again during our time in the market at night. We went out with Suzana – a different girl from the home – and she helped us to find an ATM. Soon after we left, it got quite dark, and by 6:15, it was pitch black in the city of Kathmandu.
We walked from ATM to ATM with no success. On the way back to the bus stop, we passed the same garbage pile that we had seen earlier. Only now, in the dark of the night, the pile was swarming with people picking through this nauseating pile of refuse trying to find food. When I saw a family crowded together, picking up beans, and putting them in a plastic bag, I had to turn away to hide my tears. This family survives off other peoples’ garbage. Immediately, I felt rotten for buying all this stuff for myself in the market earlier that I didn’t even need while people are literally starving and willing to put their health at risk just to get something as simple as food.
What is their story?
Do they have hope?
Do they know how to trust anyone?
And then there’s Suzana. She’s in 10th year, she’s beautiful, and she’s so smart. What has she had to go through? My heart breaks for her. Along with her, my heart breaks for sweet Archana. I can’t imagine the life these girls have been dealt or the atrocities that they have had to endure.
It breaks my heart to pieces. There were so many people at the home. Young and old. There was a woman who was probably in her 60’s. She braided my hair and keeps a giant smile plastered on her face. When she sees me, even though language keeps us from communicating verbally, she radiates love and gives me hugs.
There is so much pain in the world. We cannot stay where we are. We cannot stay silent. There is no such thing as indifference towards the story of a life. Especially the life that has endured so much tragedy and suffering.
