Public Transportation in Nepal...

After their hike down from the monastery, it was time to catch a public bus the 125 miles (200 kilometers) to Mainapokhari, the mountain village where they would be spending the next 10 days volunteering on a variety of projects. They were on this express bus, so the outbound journey took six hours; the return took eight hours.

This was definitely the part of the trip that had me the most nervous. Marieke assured us that they had reservations, so there was no risk that the kids would have to sit on top of the bus.

Veronica actually had no idea if there were people and/or goats on top of their bus, but enjoyed taking photos of buses she saw during the trip.

Their backpacks were kept inside the bus for the outbound journey, so there was no worry that the bags would fall off a mountain, but were piled on top of the bus for the return. We found out afterwards that there was an avalanche in Jiri that killed several people just hours after they returned there from their expedition.

Outside Kathmandu...

After their first two nights in Kathmandu, they travelled by private minibus to the Kavre Deaf School, which was their most challenging teaching day. Veronica helped run the English workshop, in which they taught grammar. They put exercises on the chalkboard and the students filled in the missing words in the correct tense. The Project Nepal Team had learned some basic sign language and the school teachers acted as interpreters. As you can see, the students were intrigued by her camera.

That night they stayed in a guesthouse at the Namo Buddha Monastery, one of the most important Buddhist sites in the world. Veronica survived eating the spiciest meal of her life before witnessing the Monks “debating,” which is their way of memorizing ancient religious texts. The next morning they watched the monks chant their morning prayers in a breathtakingly beautiful hall; they later ate breakfast with the monks, which was one of her favorite meals of the trip. Afterwards they hiked down from the monastery, which she thinks was the most stunning hike she’d ever been on.

Kathmandu...

Veronica’s trip began and ended in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, which she said was “beautifully chaotic” and surprisingly colorful (she’d expected it would be dusty and dirty). Here they are in front of the Great Buddha Stupa.

The first day, they visited three UNESCO World Heritage sites: one Hindu and two Buddhist temples. Of course, there was no shortage of photo ops during the entire trip.

The group spent their last day in Nepal in Kathmandu’s tourist area shopping for souvenirs in an attempt to use up the rest of their Nepalese rupees.

Off to Nepal...

On the evening of July 21, it was finally time for Veronica to head to Nepal. She looked like quite the adventurer as we left for the train station.

We met up with Kelly at the station. She was also all smiles.

Marieke, the team leader, had everything under control to check in the entire group.

The Project Nepal Team just before going through passport control.

We were very excited for her, but it was hard to say goodbye knowing that she’d be away for three weeks with no communication.

Who’s Walking Kati?

While we were away, Kati spent the weekend at Veronica’s singing teacher’s home. They have a rather large Bernese Mountain Dog named Hall-e. Kati was a bit shocked to be dropped off and whined at first, but eventually warmed up.

Apparently, Hall-e was quite good at walking Kati.

Let’s Dance...

Friday night, Boghole played DJ for an evening of dancing. On Saturday night, we were thrilled to dance to Madly, the same band that has been entertaining us at Dutch Nash Hashes for years.

As usual, we boogied until the wee hours of the morning.

Jahn and Laila, former Hague hashers who now live in Norway, aren’t big on wearing costumes, but clearly enjoyed wearing glow-in-the-dark jewelry. Unfortunately, we couldn’t join them dancing on Sunday as we needed to leave just after dinner since Veronica was leaving the next evening for Nepal.

Our Neon Family...

The theme for Saturday’s party was neon. Jimmy surprised us by coming home one day with matching dresses for us girls. I was a bit intimidated wearing the same dress as my skinny daughters, but it was actually more fun than I expected.

Jimmy managed to set up a studio in an outdoor shelter and spent part of the evening taking SquishPics of groups of hashers. Of course, we had to get into the act as well.