This was our last day in Duradanda and all we had on tap for the day was packing up, eating breakfast, having yet ANOTHER ceremony, and then drive to the Riverside Springs Resort.
This is one of the little girls in the village who would always come play with us. She kept me company the night before while I was sitting on the edge of the hill ready to throw up.
And another villager, one of the many goats.
Breakfast. The Room in back of the tables was used as the kitchen. It's a good thing they put curtains up so we couldn't see in or most people wouldn't have eaten much.
The water tap down the hill by the row of toilets that we used for washing hands, filling water bottles, and chatting by the water cooler. The row of bathrooms (the school toilets) are on the left.
And the squaty-potties we got to use every day. Americans don't have very good squat aim. I'm sure the kids were glad when we weren't using their toilets anymore.
Our showers. They don't have showers except to use community taps like the one above so they built us rooms to bucket shower.
In our ceremony, we got prayer scarfs, tikkas, garlands... AND badges that no one in our group could read but I'm sure it said we were pretty cool.
In the ceremony they lit this lamp that used something that looked like spaghetti
And of course we had LOTS of performances by the villagers
After it was done the older school kids gave us more garlands, leaves, fruit, and blessings.
Claire, me, and Danalee outside of the school with the Himalayas in the background.
Me getting ANOTHER tikka and garland while headed to the bus. With all the blessings I got, I may just be headed straight to heaven, or we might have needed that many to get down off the mountain without the bus heading off a cliff.
My permanent red mark tikka. They got a little rambunctious with the tikka powder that fave me a Rudolph nose.
This is how we got our gear off the mountain - a tractor and trailer
And... one of the buses we rode down to the trade-off point where we got bigger buses. These are the only ones that make the bumpy journey up to Duradanda, once a day. Miss the bus in the morning, wait till the next day or hike a few hours down.
We got to our new bus junction and spent some time eating lunch and seeing the small cross-roads town, complete with a rainbow tikka powder selling man.
And another villager, one of the many goats.
Breakfast. The Room in back of the tables was used as the kitchen. It's a good thing they put curtains up so we couldn't see in or most people wouldn't have eaten much.
The water tap down the hill by the row of toilets that we used for washing hands, filling water bottles, and chatting by the water cooler. The row of bathrooms (the school toilets) are on the left.
And the squaty-potties we got to use every day. Americans don't have very good squat aim. I'm sure the kids were glad when we weren't using their toilets anymore.
Our showers. They don't have showers except to use community taps like the one above so they built us rooms to bucket shower.
In our ceremony, we got prayer scarfs, tikkas, garlands... AND badges that no one in our group could read but I'm sure it said we were pretty cool.
In the ceremony they lit this lamp that used something that looked like spaghetti
And of course we had LOTS of performances by the villagers
After it was done the older school kids gave us more garlands, leaves, fruit, and blessings.
Claire, me, and Danalee outside of the school with the Himalayas in the background.
Me getting ANOTHER tikka and garland while headed to the bus. With all the blessings I got, I may just be headed straight to heaven, or we might have needed that many to get down off the mountain without the bus heading off a cliff.
My permanent red mark tikka. They got a little rambunctious with the tikka powder that fave me a Rudolph nose.
This is how we got our gear off the mountain - a tractor and trailer
And... one of the buses we rode down to the trade-off point where we got bigger buses. These are the only ones that make the bumpy journey up to Duradanda, once a day. Miss the bus in the morning, wait till the next day or hike a few hours down.
We got to our new bus junction and spent some time eating lunch and seeing the small cross-roads town, complete with a rainbow tikka powder selling man.
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