Arrived

Okay we arrived in Kathmandu! The trip over hear was incident free… long, but no problems. The flight to Bangkok was 16 hours (10 of which I slept… surprisingly). I finished a book on the plane!... Three Cups of Tea, a really inspiring story about this guy who built schools in Pakistan. He’s my new inspiration.

We had a 5 hour layover in Thailand, and then a short trip to Kathmandu. The Bangkok airport is huge and intense. There are high-end stores like Gucci, salons, you name it. The kids got pizza and milkshakes. Someone asked me if the airport in Nepal was like that… I said, “Picture the opposite of this… that’s KTM.” I actually love how we walk across the tarmac into the tiny, un-air-conditioned building.

On the plane trip, Katie saw Mt. Everest out the window…

The sewing gear and clothing all arrived without incident…mostly. I wanted to declare them at customs, but the customs officer said not to worry about it, which was a blessing. We had so much luggage, that it took 3 cars to transport us and our stuff. I was proud that I had only my backpack. Some packed 2 huge suitcases full! We did, however, have 4 bags exclusively for our humanitarian projects.

The ride from the airport was perfect. We passed a lot of cows in the middle of the road and took some near head-on collision passes… enough to give everyone a thrill. We had our first Nepali meal with Tej and Rupa - Chow Chow – the Nepali equivalent of Ramen noodles. The kids were excited to eat something familiar…

We took them to there homes. They seem okay with their living situations. I’m staying with Sugandha’s family again. It’s great. There are three Dutch girls here and a guy from LA. He told me he came because of my blog!

Moment of the day - Maddy asked her host how to use the toilet. I’m not sure what she wanted to know. He thought about it and then told her to shut the door.