Thursday morning

Wednesday's journey from Kathmandu took us first to the west of the city and then south directly thwart the terai.  We then drove to Hetauda but. it without the detour(s).  It is still the monsoon season, but nearly at the very end, so there is still rain.  It is not a constant rain, but it happens and there are scattered showers and thunderstorms.  It is the rain either the suddenness of it or the amount that causes the roads to be a slippery muddy mess, or wash out or have a slide of rocks hit it.  These messes are sometimes cleaned up with equipment and other times it is done by hand.  Either way roads get closed and our end up seeing parts of the country you didn't expect to see.  

Because of Teej the first cool we visited was not open, however, we did meet with three students and two of the parents.  The students were very good ones being in the top four of their respective classes.  We visited the Reliance English Secondary Boarding School.  Students do not board here though, this is just the name.  The school is in the city of Hetauda, which the Lonely Planet describes as having no interest other than being a place to change busses.

One of our Answer students, a young boy, said he wanted to be a hydroelectric engineer so he could eliminate the load-shedding problems in the country.  When questioned, though, he wasn't quite sure what load-shedding was.

From Hetauda we continued  southerly for a few miles until we picked up the main east-west highway and headed east.  Suddenly we were altogether out of the hills and were seeing  a flat wooded plain.  We have spent our first night on the road in Chandranigahapur (Chandra for short). Our hotel is the Sudarshan, a marvel indeed with AC in some rooms.  The beds are wooden platforms with thin, and we mean thin, cotton pads which do little to soften the hardness of it all.  Our bathroom did have a shower and to bathe you just stand between the toilet and the sink and turn on the water making sure that you have latched the door so the water doesn't spill out into the sleeping area.

We had dinner of dal bat last evening, this is traditional Napelese fare of rice, lentils, and veggies which you might eat with your right hand, but we have been using spoons.  It is what the Nepalese miss when they leave their country.  

We have been awake since before 5:00 with the sounds of the trucks and their horns.  Horn blowing seems to be national art.  One blows it to get cattle and goats out of the road as well as to tell bicyclists, moped riders, and huge trucks that you want to pass.  Driving in this country is not for the faint of heart to be sure.

Two side notes...without photos at this time.  We stopped in a village yesterday where the houses were lined up on either side of a narrow car/critter path.  The buildings were all wooden two-storied affairs with the family in the upstairs and the critters living below.  All had corn drying from railings and the effect was really delightful.  The other side note relates to visiting a student who lives in a mud house.  Little children scampered about and the mother or one of the females in the house was grinding spices on a flat stone about 10 x 12" using another stone with a rounded top.  I could smell the blending of these spices into something I recognized from being here in this place.  

So now it is Thursday and we are headed to more schools and more students.  The air is heavy with humidity, not like anything we usually get to experience in Maine or New England.