Around Kathmandu

Don and I rose at a reasonable hour and found ourselves a decent breakfast before taking a look around some of the souvenir shops in Thamel. Don was set on buying Kukris for himself and Tony amongst others and, having spotted some likely examples, we agreed to come back and make our purchases after the trek. I also took him into Lotus Gallery to meet Santosh and because I knew the artwork in there would probably catch his tasteful eye. Much as with the kukri, we promised to return after the trek when we could apply some serious thought to Don’s carrying capacity for the trip home.
For lunch we took a taxi over to Kalapul to see Ram and Sarita and, once again, we were treated to an exquisite example of Nepali cuisine. Once again, I felt myself regretting missing out on Sarita’s fine culinary skills…but then, I reasoned, I wouldn’t be enjoying my newly-noticed comparative svelteness alongside my, now, much larger brother.
From Ram’s we took another taxi down to the school so I could show it to Don. I timed it so that we’d have a chance to speak to some of the kids as they were finishing their exams…and it just so happened that Uttam was around for a bit of a chat too. Don was really impressed by the bright, personable natures of my class 6 girls and I couldn’t help but swell with pride as I had when Michael had first met them. I felt a considerable sense of involvement in these young people’s lives and, over recent weeks I’d come to the conclusion that I didn’t want this involvement to end when I left Nepal.
Uttam had begun furnishing the old Samata Club with bunk beds to use as a boarding house for some of the girls who needed to escape (or were being forced out from) their unpleasant home environments. I’d asked him to let me know how much it would cost to sponsor a girl to live there for a year and, today, he’d come back to me with a figure of 10,000 rupees. At a little over 75 quid, I decided that I could afford to sponsor 4 of the girls and, to my delight, Don agreed to pitch in for a fifth. Uttam was obviously very pleased and I was excited to be able to extend my involvement with the kids for another year – at least until my future prospects were a little more certain. I also revealed the second part of my plan to Uttam – namely, that after qualifying and gaining some experience, I intended to come back to Samata School for a much longer stay (hopefully a year) and, as well as teach these fantastic children again, I wanted to share my teacher training with the school’s staff. Secretly, I think Uttam had been hoping for something like this as a strong friendship had developed between us over my final weeks at the school and, for the rest of the time we were there, he couldn’t keep a big grin off his face.
After bidding farewell to Uttam and the girls, Don and I ambled slowly up to Bouddha so I could show him where I’d been living for the past few months. The one item he’d been unable to bring over with him was an airhorn, with which I’d been hoping to exact a delicious revenge on the horn-happy monks at the local Gompa. As I showed him my former digs and pointed out the proximity of the three nearby monasteries, a clear, piercing horn note emanated from one and he immediately understood why a dawn chorus of those every day could be a tad irritating. We could only rue the missed opportunity for practical jokery and after that I set about showing him the quieter pleasures that had made Bouddha such a good place to live during my teaching post. As dusk began to settle we headed back up to Thamel for a dinner date with an e-buddy he’d made on a trekking website’s message board…and the blonde Canadian he’d mailed me about from Dubai.
We met everyone at Rum Doodle’s for pizza and I was introduced to Steve (Don’s Aussie trek-chat buddy), Anna (cute, blonde) and Brent (Anna’s fellow volunteer from Canada). Everyone got on very well and, when Steve took his leave at 9pm (on account of an early flight to Lukla and a full day trekking towards Everest Base Camp), the rest of us adjourned to Tom & Jerry’s to shoot some pool and drink a few Everests. I’d been careful to book a late flight for Don and I to Pokhara the following day and we wouldn’t actually be trekking until we arrived in Jomsom on the Sunday so we were able to cut loose and enjoy our Friday night with Brent and Anna. They had both come to Nepal to volunteer at the local children’s hospital in order to do something worthwhile…and gain some experience. Anna’s job as a paramedic in Toronto gave her plenty of excitement and initial care of patients but she wanted to be involved with her patients longer than dropping them off at the hospital doors. Brent, as a full time lab researcher had come looking for some more hands-on experience. Brent was excellent fun to hang out with (not least, because he got all my South Park gags!) but it was Anna’s sweet nature and cute looks that really had me interested.
It also happened to be Colin’s (teaching colleague of Edd’s) last night in Kathmandu after three months so we chinked a few valedictory glasses in his name. His acerbic wit and different take on life had provided an amusing counterpoint to many evening’s on the Everest with Edd. He was heading on to the pleasures of India and I found that I didn’t envy him at all. It seemed right and proper to give him some kind of decent send-off before he headed into the unknown.
We all parted company at some hideously late hour – with promises between Don, myself and the Canadians to hang out again when Don and I returned. While nothing had yet happened between Anna and I, I definitely sensed a mutual attraction, which I was looking forward to investigating further.