At the conclusion of the epic bus journey I arrived safely and intact at the home of Shamser, the volunteer host. When I arrived, around 5 pm I found 11 other people already present and a pizza party in full swing. Shamser, however, was not home, being down in Kathmandu for a few days. His wife welcomed me warmly and showed me the room I would be staying in. I got settled, which mainly meant pulling out my sleeping bag and placing my duffel and backpack on the floor next to my bed, and went out to meet the crowd.

A view down the mountain to BesiShahar.

Similar to my previous volunteer experiences, the group was highly diverse and had been in residence for different amounts of time. As I talked to everyone, though, the common thread was the fact that we had all found this particular volunteer opportunity through the “Workaway” website. I met a family of four from Belgium – a couple with their two sons, 8 and 10. They had been traveling for six months and Nepal was their last stop before returning home. They arrived at the house three weeks ago and were staying for two more. There was a young couple from Germany who had been there only a short time. Another girl from Germany, present, had been traveling for several months and was headed home after Nepal. I was sharing a room with two young women from England but not traveling together. One had arrived the day before me and the other had joined the group a week ago. There was a guy from Indonesia, although living in Australia. He had been at the house for four days and was at the beginning of what he hoped was going to be three to four years of travel. The final member of the group was a young Spanish woman, living in Scotland, traveling for a couple of months. Without surprise I confirmed I was the oldest member of the group, the others’ ages ranging from (not counting the two kids) 19 to 36. Overall it was a super nice group of people and they welcomed me immediately, inviting me to join the pizza party, which is how I met everyone so quickly.

The pizza party, it turns out, was a traditional Friday night activity; Saturday being the one day of the week the kids are not in school. The knowledge about how to make the dough, where to get the supplies, how to cook the pizzas over the outdoor wood burning stove, etc, had been handed over from volunteer to volunteer as people transitioned through. I will be interested in learning the process next week because the dough was really good. Over the course of the evening a huge number of plate sized pizzas were produced, one at a time in a continuous stream. I made a comment about the quantity of dough that they had to make and was told they used 2 kilos of flour- no wonder there seemed to be an endless stream of food!

The table in the courtyard where we gather. It’s wet because it rained all night.

My indoctrination into the flow of life here is slow as the next day, Saturday, so no school. Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and I got outside early enough to see the Annapurna range towering over the hills across the valley. The view was spectacular. The boys wanted to go the river, where there was a swimming hole, so after breakfast most of us headed out. I went along, because, well, why not. Of course the river was down in the valley and we headed more or less straight down the mountain on one of the local paths. At least at first. Note: don’t follow an eight year old boy down a mountain. He soon had us bush-whacking our way through the jungle and I was thankful that I had worn my boots and also that I had 19 days of trekking behind me!

Down at the river. The swimming hole is on the right out of the picture frame.

We made it to the swimming hole without anyone falling off the mountain to find some of the local boys there before us. It was a nice peaceful spot and we all spread out on the rocks to relax, read, dip our toes in the water, have some fruit, or just snooze. A few brave adults jumped off the rocks into the pool, but I was content with merely immersing my feet (the water was cold!). We stayed at the river for a couple of hours but as the sun became more and more obscured by clouds finally decided it was time to head up to the house. After putting shoes back on and gathering our stuff we started the long climb up, this time led by some of the local boys, familiar with the best path. When the path intersected the road, we joined it instead of continuing straight up the side of the mountain. It was a more leisurely but longer easier path.

The whole trip was actually good for me as the excursion helped me to start getting my bearings on how to get around. The road, of course, is the same one that the bus had traversed (there is only one road!) but I discovered that there is a footpath to the Besishahar that cuts straight down the mountain, requiring only about 45 minutes to descend to the town. This makes going to get supplies and produce much more straightforward than getting wedged into the bus again. The downside, of course, is that you have to climb the mountain on the return, which takes about twice as long. So going to the store is a whole afternoon affair, apparently.

Breakfast and dinner theoretically, but I have plans….

Lunch is on our own, but amazingly enough there is a small, as in two tables, café about 100 meters away from the house, so four of us went there. The rest made pancakes on the wood burning stove. The menu at the cafe is limited. We had a choice between two things, however regardless of what is ordered the food is good. Like everywhere else it is home made on ordering. We got back to the house from lunch just in time as it started to rain. The rest of the afternoon was spent inside and I caught up on some of my (non-blog) writing. Dinner came and went and then after some reading, it was lights out for my roommates and I. Unfortunately it was still raining, sometimes rather torrential. I’ll describe the rhythm of life and living conditions in a subsequent post.

The outdoor cooking area.

Sunday will be my first introduction to the volunteer work.

A few things are already apparent:

I am going to learn to cook on the wood burning stove. I definitely want to learn how to do the pizza but also may take a stab at doing something for lunches too.

I cannot eat Dahl Bhat for breakfast and dinner for three weeks, which is what I will be served. It will make me crazy, even though it is tasty and slightly different each time. This means a trip into town one afternoon sooner, rather than later, is the plan. I am going to figure out what to stock up for breakfast, and perhaps lunch.

I am glad I have my boots as I will still be doing a lot of walking, which I enjoy, so that is awesome. The trekking I have completed is going to turn out to be good conditioning for this lifestyle.

It will be necessary, at some point, to wash my hair in a cold shower. Bummer! The shower, no hot water, is located down the hill in a separate small building. However there is a western style toilet and it is indoors, near my room, so that is a plus.

I am going to have a pretty authentic “Nepal mountain life” experience.

The view after the rain. It was beautiful to watch the low clouds drifting around.