I know I have been brief the past week, but it is because I have been spending time just hanging out with this incredible group of people in the Basecamp Nepal Volunteer house. There were six of them to start off with, then we – being David the Couchsurfer from South Africa, Brandon from California, Grant from Colorado/Hawaii, and myself – showed up. Ronnie, the one guy in the house, was definitely happy to have us around, and he was fun as well. The girls were great, and Jesi came with us to do the bungee jump even though she has already done it twice – it gets cheaper as you go.
On Saturday when Grant and Brandon flew back to Bangkok, the rest of the group went across town to paint a room and a playground, but I stayed around the house to work on some web stuff while I had an open internet connection.
On Saturday night David, a Polish Couchsurfer whose name I failed to remember, and myself took Arjun and his family out to dinner. His two cousins, who are both about 22 and pretty cute, came with us. One of the girls is studying English in school, but didn’t let on how much she could understand until halfway through dinner. We had told them to choose any restaurant they wanted, as long as we did not have dal baht. They choose Indian food, so we went to Zaickas which has been my default restaurant of choice since Tommy and Chris introduced me to it. It is cheap, good, and fast. We ordered a tableful of food. So much that we didn’t room for all the plates and dishes and bowls of curry and naan. We gorged ourselves for the better part of two hours. Seven people with momo appetizers, tandori chicken, keema nan –which are like really good soft tacos that you dip in cheesy curry – spring rolls, fried rice, and sodas. Total bill: about $18 USD.
I said farewell to Arjun’s family, knowing I would see him again when I went back to work on his site the next day.
The next day turned out to be one of the best in Kathmandu. We had eight or nine of the kids from one of the volunteer homes over to have them make prayer flags. These children had a blast, and so did we. Sadly, I have to admit that my drawing skills are miserable. On a computer, great, fine, I can do what I want to. On construction paper with markers and Crayola knockoffs, I pale in comparison to even a seven-year-old. They stayed for a few hours then left, and we went into Thamel, the tourist section, to get some shopping done. I needed some gear and Jesi needed a water bottle. We had dinner at the house, and I left to help Arjun for the last time in person. I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, but I will be able to upload everything from Bangkok with a good Internet connection.
