namaste

(written April 20, 2010) A little over a week ago, I left the polluted air of Kathmandu and took a tourist bus to the smaller town of Pokhara which is a gateway to the Himalayas. The bus was a few hours delayed because of a break down and a small roadblock protest due to electricity outages (almost an every day occurrence here). I had heard that there was a women's empowerment program there that employed women to guide and support the treks into the Himalayas. I had a limited time to do my trek, and I didn't want to do it on my own, so I went to the Three Sisters Adventure Trekking and hired a guide. I thought it was a great idea to support a woman, especially because I've heard that sex trafficking and prostitution is still common in Nepal when women can't make a good living in other fields.

When a short Nepali girl named Muna greeted me with a warm smile, I had a feeling I was in for a treat. She had a soft, sweet voice, and though her English was broken, I could tell she had a good heart. So we packed up and headed up into the mountains for a week-long trek. As much as I wanted to get up past the tree line, and close to those beautiful peaks, I decided to take it easy as I didn't have enough time to get there with a moderate pace, plus, I heard about villages, hot springs, waterfalls, beautiful views and rhododendron forests. There was no need for a tent, a stove, or even a sleeping bag because we would be staying at friendly lodges and tea houses along the way. It was quite warm the first couple days, so I wasn't shy about jumping into the river to cool off once in a while. The area was full of rice fields, waterfalls, cornfields, orchids, butterflies, and beautiful Nepalese people who greeted me with "Namaste!" and usually a smile. It wasn't until the middle of the second day that we got a glimpse of the legendary peaks.

When I wasn't completely out of breath from climbing up the steep stone stairs and trails, I got to talk with Muna about her life. She grew up in a small mountain town, a few hours from the trek around the Annapurna Circuit. Her father died when she was only seven, and she is the oldest of three kids. Women are not allowed to re-marry in Nepal, so Muna's mother continued her farming work and raised her children with love and faith. Muna only went to school through the eight grade, when she came home and started working to support her family. She wanted to make more money for her family, so when she was 20, she was accepted into a scholarship program at Three Sisters, where they taught her English, ecology, trekking, and climbing. She had to start as a porter, carrying sometimes up to 50kg of tourist's gear on her back. She had some amazing stories, of getting stuck in hail storms, getting lost, and having to sleep in the dining halls of crowded lodges. But she is learning more English and hopes to become a full fledged guide, leading groups on treks into the mountains.

The trail followed a beautiful river valley, up into the hills and through beautiful woods and little villages. The morning we were in Ghorepani, we woke up at 4am for a heart-pounding hike up to Poon hill (10,561 feet, 3,219 meters) in the cold, in order to watch the sun rise over the Annapurna and Dauliguri mountains. It was a spectacular sight, watching the light hit those gorgeous snow-capped mountains, and the camera shutters were going off like crazy! Every night, we would stay at a simple lodge where we would have a hot shower and a warm dinner (very luxurious for trekking!) And we would be up early the next morning to get some miles in before it got really hot. I loved being up in these villages, which were far away from roads and cars. Anything that the villagers or trekkers needed that couldn't be grown on the terraced fields was carried to the villages by mules and people carrying heavy loads with a strap on their head. My neck ached every time one of them walked by me (usually carrying twice more than I was, and walking twice as fast as me!) Muna was wonderful company, and we grew quite close through the week. One day, we decided to take it easy and enjoy a day resting and going to a hot spring. I was able to give her a massage and was thrilled when she was snoring away. I could feel the tension from carrying all the weight all those years, as well as the weight of the responsibility of taking care of her family, and was glad I could do a little something in return for all the support she was giving me. In Chomrong, I had a massage from a local Tibetan man who was offering massages to the trekkers because I was having some pain in my foot and ankle. My “flat-lander” legs were pretty tender from covering all those mountain miles, and it was a good learning experience of what NOT to do when someone is so tender. But I still appreciated being able to receive a massage while out on a trek! And later that night, the locals were celebrating their New Year with dancing and singing and drumming! It was so beautiful... and fun to watch the porters dance their hearts out despite the heavy loads they had carried that day.

I was hoping to go to a meditation course while I was traveling, but my time was running out, and I wanted to see more of the country and experience the culture. So, I brought along a book about walking meditation by Tich Nhat Hanh and practiced the techniques as I was hiking along. It was a good challenge to watch my breath, especially as the stone steps got steeper, and the sun got more intense. I could observe the thoughts in my mind that were saying “this is ridiculous… I am so hot and tired… I can’t wait for the next shady spot!” and I would return my awareness to my breathing and do my best to enjoy the present moment. I also noticed when my mind was saying “I love this view… I am going to miss this when I am back in the big city” and realize that I wasn’t fully in the present. I would bring my awareness to each step I was taking, and visualize a lotus flower blossoming under each step I took, planting seeds of joy and happiness. I also liked Tich Nhat Hahn’s idea of focusing on gratitude, and would say to myself “yes, yes, yes” (with my inhale) and “thanks, thanks, thanks” with my exhale. Or, if I was hiking up a steep part and my breath was as short as my step, I would say “yes, thanks, yes, thanks.” And once in a while, I would get a flash of one of the disfigured people I saw in India and a wave of gratitude would wash over me.


After trekking my week of trekking, I returned to the town of Pokhara, where I connected with a 26 year old Tibetan woman named Tsering who a friend in Chicago had connected me with. In 1959, her grandparents fled their homeland in Togpa, Tibet and walked for two weeks with their two young children in order to flee their home in Tibet with hopes of a better life in Nepal. They live in a refugee camp just outside of town, where Tibetan people live in a community, trying to carry on their traditional ways of living, far from their homeland. The Nepalese government still doesn’t issue residence cards for them, or even their children who were born in Nepal. So, they can’t get official jobs, and they are continually denied the opportunity to leave the country. Tsering is a single mother, and her parents both have serious health problems, and the only way their family makes money is by selling souvenirs to tourists. So she spoke to me of her dream to come to America, where she can hopefully make more money and take care of her parents and give her son a better life. She thinks of this dream many times everyday, and it stresses her out that she is not able to go. In fact, she is not able to leave her country except to go to India for a spiritual pilgrimage. This made me feel extremely grateful for the freedom that I have to travel, and work almost anywhere. I tried to tell her that it is not always so easy to make good money in America, even for American citizens, and pointed out to her how beautiful her life is in Nepal, with her parents close by, and the beautiful temples and natural wonders that she can visit easily, and the amount of time she can spend with her son. I gave her her first massage, and she loved it, and had many questions. She is interested in learning massage therapy, and I am considering returning to Nepal to teach a group of Tibetans massage so that they have another way to make money. Of course I envy her life a bit, because she gets to live near the most beautiful mountains in the world, and has a beautiful son, and a supportive community. But, the grass is always greener, and I am doing my best to be grateful for every moment, wherever my feet are landing.

Namaste