First Day in Nepal

Now on the ground in the Nepal airport, our team regrouped at the baggage carousel. It was really nice after a couple days of travel to have entered another country. None of us had trouble gaining our visa into Nepal and we are all set to start our adventure. And once we got our bags, it did.

Getting our bags in the Kathmandu airport. 

Now picture nearly 30 people, each with a carry-on backpack and two additional bags each weighing 50 pounds on carts being pushed through the airport. We were quite the site. Our leader had done this many times before and instructed us to have the ladies be in charge of the carry-on bags and the men push the carts with the larger luggage. Then the ladies walked at the side of the carts between us and the security workers and we all set off together and overwhelmed the customs agents. They basically waved us through as a large group and we gained the fresh air of the parking lot at full speed.

Andy in the back of the truck with our bags. They are piled pretty high, glad they brought the truck they did. 

Once outside in the dazzling sunshine and the sweltering heat and humidity we found our Nepali friends in the parking lot and loaded our bags into the back of a truck. The supplies inside them made their way to a storage area where they will be distributed on an a more individual, needs-based method than we had anticipated. We initially had the thought of carrying those supplies into the mountain villages ourselves while trekking but were later told that this wasn't the best means. Gift giving could be misinterpreted and we want the supplies to go to those who need it rather than those just taking free things.

Then our group headed toward the bus to take us to our hotel. I had been told this before but in my travels it hasn't been that much of a problem: be aware of people wanting to help you with your bags. In this instance they were literally taking them off our backs and loading them into the back of the bus for us. They are very nice and considerate, albeit fairly aggressive about it, but then they will demand money even if they only "touched" your bag on its way into the back of the bus.

If I was in Hawaii I would have thought I had been given a lei! Marigolds in Nepal.

Our friends greeted us on the bus and then "welcomed" us to Nepal by giving each of us garland necklaces of marigold flowers. They were very beautiful! I noticed marigolds strung together decorating other door frames and floating in bowls of water in other places. I never asked but assume marigolds to hold some sort of significance to the people of Nepal.

We took a slight detour on the way to the hotel to visit a Hindu temple built to honor the god Shiva. The idea was to go on our first day into the country to begin to get a feel for the country and its culture, as well as it being conveniently located close to the airport. It is recognized as a World Heritage site by some world-wide organization (UNESCO maybe?) so there is an entrance fee to maintain that status. I don't know what the money would be used for however, it was kind of a dirty place.

A Hindu funeral. Notice the majority of people are in white.

They were in the midst of funeral ceremonies while we were there and the smoke from the burning bodies was almost overwhelming. Burning the bodies is part of the reincarnation process and is a large, family involved affair. If you are mourning as a Hindu, you wear white, as opposed to black in Western culture. Much of the ritual has to do with separating the body from the spirit of the person so that they may be released to start another cycle of life or, if they have gained enlightenment, release from this world. Here's an interesting wikipedia article about it. In this place, once the body is burned the ash and leftover wood are pushed into the sacred water of the river below. The water is considered holy and is used to cleanse people of certain things. People also bathe in it, brush their teeth with it, and attempt to die with their feet in it because they believe it will help them have a better chance of success in the next life.

A Hindu Lingam idol depicting male and female reproductive organs. From my understanding this is a representation of Shiva and his Hindu goddess consort and is worshiped as a fertility idol. 

I am including information about the Hindu and Buddhist religions as I understand it from my trip. I don't agree with the teachings and am merely wanting to share what I learned and try to have you as a reader understand some of things that we experiences. We saw a lot of evil and corruption in these beliefs and practices. Many people we encountered seemed to have lost hope and joy in their lives because of Hinduism and we could see it in their faces and their eyes. I hope that in sharing what we saw and experienced I might be able to share some of the happiness, freedom, life, love, and joy that I have in my relationship with Jesus.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur. We got to our hotel (greeted in the lobby with fresh mango juice!) and checked in. We had a training meeting to go over the materials that the teams would be taking into the Himalayas and to discuss scheduling for the week. It was very hard to stay awake in the hot room. Then we all had dinner together before saying our good byes as the four teams would head their separate ways the following morning. Dinner was almost comical: we were all zombies barely able to stay awake to eat. I think I fell asleep a couple of times before our food came, and I don't even remember what we ate other than it was a buffet and it had rice. But I could confidently guess that nearly everyone of our meals had rice in it so that may or may not be an actual memory...