Rocky Road to Ramechhap - Chapter 4
We started up the trail back to Rampur accompanied by four of the village elders. It was hot, steep, dusty and tiring. The sun beat down and we lost a lot of fluids. Every so often we would stop at whatever shade tree presented itself. At the top, I was absolutely spent. I can't remember being completely out of gas before. (Short and selective memory no doubt) The locals however, made it look easy with their thongs on their feet.
Back in Rampur we were to sit down to a meal of dahl bhat. Neither Lib nor I could face it. Unfortunately our guides had ordered it before heading down the track, not knowing that the villagers were going to feed us. Lib and I settled for black tea with lemon, but the TSS people all had to eat it out of politeness. It's eaten traditionally with the fingers of the right hand. (Tough for a lefty like me)
When the time came to get back in the truck, the whole village again came out to watch the departure. I took some pictures and again this had a positive effect on the kids in particular. Instead of blank stares, wide grins. It was now late in the day and we had not been to Salleni, the village we are supporting. So, Suresh decided we could at least try to go down the track a bit to see if we could get a glimpse of it. This was not a road at all but we pushed on. After about a half hour, the "road" just ended. Out we got, and in the distance we could see some buildings that were determined to be Salleni. It would have taken a further hour to hike in, and it was now about 5:00. It gets dark here at about 5:30. So, that was as close as we could get.
Luckily one of the villagers from Salleni happened to be at the end of the road where we stopped. Why he was there is anybody's guess. Maybe he was looking out for us. Pictures were taken so we have a record of that meeting. Suresh explained to the gentleman that we would try to come back sometime soon. Sadly, we turned around and headed back to Manthali. I won't bore you with the details of the road back in the dark. Except at one point we stopped to take pictures as a gorgeous sunset presented itself on the snow capped Himalayan mountains. Wow.
One more stop for tea in the village of Ramechhap on the way down and away we went. Dinner that night was even more special because the administrator of the district was invited to eat with us. So the three of us were at the head of the table. Lib and I had beer, but all the Nepalis passed around a bottle of whiskey. As time passed many stories were told, jokes shared and a good time was had by all. Two of the men, Govinder, and Himal, were obviously very funny people. Even Lib and I were in stitches, and we couldn't understand a word they were saying.
It was a very long and momentous day. We did not get to see our village, but it takes so darn long to do anything here that we just ran out of time.
In retrospect we were both in agreement we saw the right village, the one already complete. We can return another time to see Salleni. On another note, Suresh did say that when the time comes and Salleni's water system is up and running, he will contact us about putting up some kind of memorial plaque in Rachel's name. We don't know what form this will take yet, but it will be there. It is quite incredible that we got to where we did. We are likely the only white people Thingre has ever seen in the village. Why anyone other than villagers would go there is unimaginable. It is so remote, it just doesn't seem likely.
Namaste
Dave
Stay tuned for Chapter Five.