Chapter 2: Nepal 7-Aug-08 to 8-Sep-08 Middle 10 days or so +ve spin rating: 7 out of 10

I never mentioned the earliest football game I've ever played... a few of us volunteers got up the first Saturday after I arrived at 5am to play with 16 of the older Umbrella kids. Most of them were togged out in their Umbrella jerseys and I had my white wife beater on. The playing area had little grass, a lot of water and a lot of animal s*** on it...a bit like a building site really, but worse. Nonetheless everyone got stuck in and the end result was being covered in all that was on the 'pitch' and pretty knackered too. Time was getting on so we called it a day at 7.30am!

I also went to watch the Umbrella lads play in a trial game for the Swayumbhu Club team... it rained, the pictures show it all.

So back to the last 10 days or so. I left it that I was heading off to Gurje, up in the hills, for 8 days. It was class, turned out to be great to get away from Kathmandu for a bit and also strange but nice to be completely cut-off from the world for that time.

5 of us (Jeremy, Alex, Regis (French), Sean (American Hindi and called Sean, awesome!) and myself) left Kathmandu on Monday 18-Aug in a 12 seater van with our backpacks on board. When we got out of Kathmandu we almost immediately started to ascend until the van could go no further due to the road. Out we got and off we trekked up the mountain in a decent heat, when we reached our summit in about 40 minutes we were all drenched with sweat (and not just me so there) and were greeted with a few peculiar looks from the odd fella kicking around. We then walked down the other side of the mountain for about 20 minutes to our base camp in Gurje. The looks were not as odd then because the people there had already dished them out the week before when all the French arrived so we were a little less of a surprise this time. We dumped our things and took the first opportunity to soak up the view, It was spectacular and a joy to think we would get to witness an ever changing sight for 8 days on the trot.

So what did we do up in those tame hills (our altitude was not even close to Everest)?

Well Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings consisted of us giving talks on hygiene to the women groups in the area. By in the area I mean within a maximum 1.5hrs trek away so we got some good exercise in while we were at it, frequent leech attacks were included (those little f***ers!).

Now you must realise there is time as we know it and then there is 'Nepali time', one involves an hours and minutes, the other does not. Mind you we, the volunteers, didn't take long to adjust... 'what time's lunch Chandra?' '10 minutes.' 'OK, see you in an hour...' worked every time!

Sean and I spoke about hygiene because we were the only two fluent English speakers (we had an English Nepali translator, we have no idea if he actually told them what we said!). Now what do you think the result was given that I was involved? Yes that's right, in one ear and out the other. When Sean spoke I gave a practical demonstration, my hand washing technique is second to none. My finger nails are pretty freaking clean actually but the state of my clothes and feet...filthy, the women and kids were tidier looking than me.

We also got shown how they have cultivated the land for agriculture, all very interesting, I think I will start gardening and growing my own veg whenever I get back.

The afternoon's of the weekdays and the weekend was hole filling time. The base camp is to be completed first for the workforce (Volunteers, contractors) to stay in when working on the new Umbrella complex. *Warning! for most people the following will be very boring* As its on a hillside the land must be terraced. At the front of the house there was an enclosed wall, inside that wall (on the house side) needed to be filled so it would be level with the ground floor of the house. This is where we, the donkeys, came in. No, we didn't have the luxury of using a digger, the only way was to take dirt from higher ground and carry it in woven baskets on our backs to the hole. The basket is simple but the strap for carrying the basket goes over the head and round the basket. This sounds a bit dodgey on the old neck but its actually not too bad, the reason for this design is so one can easily tip the dirt out of the basket, Ideally there'd be a couple of shovelers, a couple to break up the ground with picks and about 4 carriers. The locals were the experts at this, we were working with them, they were also volunteering so they have bought into what Umbrella are doing. Once they were confident we had got the knack for the job they left us to it.

Every evening after either Daalbaht or a lovely improvised meal cooked by one of the volunteers or the cook (I never got involved, seemed like way too much work - washing up was my time to shine), we played poke for big money i.e. 50 Rupees (or 50 cent, go go go shorty...) each. There was always a bit of whiskey or the local alcoholic beverage Raasi going round too, now Raasi is made from maize and whatever else they decide to put in it. It costs 5 Rupees a glass, not bad really. One glass makes my head feel funny but in a good hallucinogenic sort of way. Always good to have a sneaky Raasi after a hard day's hole filling.

We had to leave to come back to Kathmandu on Tuesday 26-Aug which sucked ass to be honest but our work was done so it made sense. We had a fair old trek back and rewarded ourselves with a large beer before boarding the bus. There was no beer in Gurje, only Raasi to make you Roxy (Nepali for drunk), so this was a nice moment. That night in Kathmandu we went for some western food, we were all craving it so much, and a night out in Thamel. The next day I was sick as a dog, got some food poisoning or else it was a combination of the night out and stuffing my face with a complete change of diet, I dunno, either way I was wiped out for the day. I'm not gonna lie to you, I delved into the negative spin dimension for the first time on my travels, it was the low point so far. Nevertheless it lasted only 24 hours, then with another 24 hours rest I was right back into the positive spin zone where I belong. I'm now loving Kathmandu, never thought I'd say that, but its probably got something to do with the fact I've only a week left now. Going to miss these kids something serious...