The day we took a trip off the beaten track

Saturday 24.

Today the weekend really starts! But we have to get up early still to join an excursion with SocialTours. This is the first time this trip is taking place: Working around Nepali. The group consists of 6 tourists, with an English grandfather 74 years old and fan of Midsomer Murders who had a remission from his cancer and came here, an Englishman who lives in New Zealand, a New Yorker the we wonder what she's doing here (also apparently she was wondering the same knowing she was not smiling or saying a word during the day), and a Canadian. We also had a driver and ofc a guide!

We drive on the roads of Kathmandu valley. With Tiphaine we love this rollercoaster aspect of driving: you cannot really talk in a car here. You're thrown around in every way, with your voice taking super funny intonations. So. We first arrived at Kokhana. This small village is unknown to tourists, nestled at the foot of green mountains and rice fields. It is GREEN. I'm not going to say that the air is fresh, but it's awfully quiet compared to KTM.

We walk the streets to discover local life on a Saturday their weekend day: women doing the laundry by hand kneeling on the sidewalk, or washing their children in basins. The men leave the chili and the garlic they have dried on the facades of their homes and put them on the sidewalk for sale. There are dogs, cows, goats, chickens. Temples, smiles, smells everywhere. It's beautiful! The grandpa is the typical happy life spreader who loves children. He speaks to everyone, asking for their picture and playing with them ...

We learned during the walk that he came here as a result of his cancer to volunteer and teach English in a school (it's his third time here). It is true that children, even here in a village a little down, are able to utter some English from the age of 5. Impressive ☺

Then we stopped at a workshop, open on to the street (type dollhouse where it lacks a wall on one side), where three women are in the process of hand weaving a beautiful sari (Indian dress). They're selling their saris at cheaper than bargain prices and I wonder how they even manage to live with it. Then we continue on a country road until Bungamati, again very pretty village, where men carving exquisite pieces of wood into Buddhist and Hindu statues, sculptures of animals and everything imaginable ... Really beautiful!

We visit a fantastic temple, very important in the region apparently. Then we turn our feet towards a small restaurant roadside, where the meal (the traditional dal bhat, consisting of rice, lentils sauces and curried vegetables) was freshly cooked just before our arrival. Delicious! During our meal, our English grandfather and the New Zealander tells us about life, what seems significant to them, now in hindsight. Strong lessons for life ☺

Then we go back on the road to visit a home for disabled children. And there came the highlight of the day. The bus stops on the low side of a single and isolated road, somewhere between Kokhana and Bungamati. We first met children whose disability reminded us of Tiphaine's work back in Norway. Except that they have flies flying all around them.

They smile and seem very happy to see us. A little boy shows us his beautiful little red car, and then shows his mini-bus parked in front: yes, it's the same thing! Another wants to show me he knows how to play a melodica, a sort of handheld mini piano you blow inside to make it work. Except that there is no batteries in it, but that doesn't stop him playing and smiling and laughing when I clap and watch.

The head of the house then come to see us: the guy seems to have a sun placed in his face. He seems to be one of those people to whom you entrust your life without any hesitation. He takes us into his small office, and tells the story of this house. There are 37 kids here, boys and girls mixed, aged between 3 and 20 years. The manager decided to rent this house and make it into a refuge for disabled children in this part of the valley 24 years ago. He knew nothing. At first, he welcomed the blind, and took courses to learn Braille, to improve their lives. Then came the deaf: Again taking course he learned the Nepalese sign language. And in the end came children with physical disabilities. The concern is that the owner of the house refuses categorically for alterations to be made. After taking in new groups of disabled the house is no longer suitable for their special needs, and he explained there was a lot of work to make sure everyone had their time in the toilets and got their shower time etc ... Recently he got in touch with deaf-blind children and adults. He explained about a sibling pair that had grown up both deaf-blind and together communicated in their own language.

But, he doesn't know how. So Tiphaine explained how we did it in Norway, showing a few examples of haptic communication. Tiphaine promised to send the information she had in hopes he would be able to learn a way to communicate with them.

We must do something. We cannot allow him, these children, all alone on a country road with no resources. We discuss together, what happens if this guy comes to stop, if he disappears, what will become of these children?

I leave the house alone and outside find four beautiful teenage girls, all deaf. They've made a small coffee stand on the edge of the road called "Dharma Coffee", serving drinks and making pancakes for anyone going this way and will want to stop (will never be crowded in this remote area). One of the girls comes over to me smiling and holding out a notebook with drinks written in English. The drinks don’t have a fixed price, so each can choose to make a donation if they want instead. I choose a milk tea and watch her sign tea over to another who instantly starts cleaning cups and heating up milk. All 4 are smiling towards me, happy to be working. It's completely quiet and only the wind makes any noise. On the small table in front of me stands a small woolen chicken, the Dharma chicken. I chose to fill the chicken up with 100 times the price of my tea, well worth the money if it can help even in the slightest. Soon the rest of the group comes out and joins me, by chance Tiphaine has decided the exact same amount to donate and we hope it will be the same for anyone stopping here to help.

Together we think of how much help we have in Norway, the difference in monetary values so staggering that it churns our stomachs.

The girls tried to teach us small signs for tea, black coffee, thank you ... They are delighted to have guests and radiates happiness of our small attempt at communication.

We leave the house behind by bus and journey back towards Kathmandu, stopping at a coffee shop selling organic coffee products from Nepal.

Because yes, fun facts: Nepalese have always loved coffee. But until recently there was little (very little) locally made. They drank only Western brands, Nescafe.

Now the Nepalese coffee beans are very fashionable.

End of the trip, returning too KTM. Beautiful day, powerful and strong. The English New Zealander told Tiphaine that this day showed him how to breathe and it was scary, beautiful and sad at the same time. I can only agree ...