Day 4 - Trekking

This morning we packed up our tent and belongings to trek to the next village of Nessing. We had been invited the night before to have breakfast of daal bhaat with another family on the way out of the village. We set the time to eat at 9:30 because we wanted to be walking by 10 am. The family said yes the food would be ready at 9:30 am. We arrived on time to a two room house. One room was for the cows and chickens and the other (divided by a fence) was for the kitchen fire and sleeping planks. We waited for another hour for the food to be finished. Shem asked why when they said it would be ready at 9:30 it wasn't ready until 10:30. The father said that he didn't have a watch or clock and so he looked at the sun and thought it was about 9:30.

We had a large meal, took some family photos and set off. It was going to be a 3 hour, or so, walk until we got to Nessing. The first hour involved us going about 1500 feet straight up to cross a pass. Tom was cruising up the mountain, but I had learned my lesson from the day before and went very slowly, taking the smallest steps possible and making my own switchbacks on 3 foot wide trails and stone steps. It worked, my body never got tired and I was never out of breath. I was ultimately even able to make it to the top in very good time because I never needed rest. Shem was a trekking guide and so he showed me (by example) how to walk this way. The rest of the hike was a long gradual downhill through a Rhodendendrum forest (the national flower). We met men shepherding goats, a women camping by a stream with a cow who invited us to tea and saw view after view of distant remote villages. It was beautiful and I was overcome several times that I am so fortunate to be living my dream.

On approaching Nessing, we were joined by a group of children ranging in age from 8 years to 3 years old. They all had a bundle of firewood strapped to their forehead, even the 3 years old had a big strap of sticks!

On arrival at the small church building in Nessing, we set up the tent, made a cup of chai and were shortly joined by a woman with an infant. The child was about 4 months old and had fallen in a fire and his backside had 3^rd degree burns on it. It was awful, the skin was black and crusty and the entire baby was filthy. Again, we are not doctors, but I did have some soap and triple antibiotic. We heated some water to lukewarm and I showed the woman how to clean the baby and gently get the dead skin off and apply the antibiotic. I was as gentle as possible, but the baby screamed (as burns are extremely painful) and then peed on his mother. We covered the wound with some toilet paper as there was nothing else clean to be found. There are no stores and no soap available in this village. No soap at all!!! So, we cut off a chunk of our soap and gave it to the mother with some more triple antibiotic and instructed her to clean the baby at least twice a day. I didn't know what else to do and so we prayed for her. It was not long before I realized that Nessing is very very poor in a way I have not seen before and very very cut off.

That evening we had dinner at a home of a young married couple. The wife was 16 (and a good friend of Shem's adopted daughter) and the husband was 19 or 20. She was a fantastic cook and her potatoes were some of the best we'd had. We started to make very simple Nepali conversation and I asked them how long they had been married and he said about 8 years. 8 years!!! What?! Did I hear that right? She confirmed and said they were very young. Young is right, she was like 8 years old! I started asking around and found that it was very rare if I girl was not married before puberty. Wow, wow. This began a string of thoughts that I have yet to fully process. It's a different thing hearing about this practice that I find pretty much repulsive, and then sharing a meal in friendship in the house of a couple where this is common and accepted. Sometimes, it's a good thing that I don't yet have the words to share my complete thoughts on a subject.