Annapurna Journals

We've been back in Kathmandu for nearly a week now (time flies!!) and we've been busy busy busy!

Amongst other things, I've been preparing the hundreds of photos I took on the trek and cherry-picking the best ones to post in the Gallery section of nepal.ethanfsmith.com. In lieu of writing a lot about the experience here, I decided to try writing a photo-journal on this trip, and wrote captions for just about every photo while we were on the trail. At the moment the photos haven't all been uploaded, but you can explore our first few days here.

Coming back into the chaos that is Kathmandu was surprisingly pain-free after our 19 fantastic days on the trail and an uber-relaxing 18 hours in Pokhara. After unpacking a bit at the boy's home and recovering from an exceptionally long bus ride, we celebrated Christmas eve by grabbing yummy coffee, cinnamon rolls, and chocolate croissants in Thamel (Kathmandu's touristy district -- and home to many yummy bakeries, including our favorite: The Pumpernickle Bakery), and then splitting up for a few hours to do a little Christmas shopping for eachother. We even bought knit stockings ahead of time so Santa would have something to fill :)

This was our first Christmas away from our families, and we are very thankful that we had the opportunity to have multiple video-conferences with loved ones during their holiday festivities and our own. Still -- we missed being around friends, family, and egg nog, and made us excited to be around for the holidaze next year...

Only 5% of Nepalese are Christian, and in Kathmandu Christmas is acknowledged, but not heavily celebrated. At Papa's House, on the other hand, Christmas is a much anticipated event, and the boys here were treated to presents galore under a small tree (at 5am no less), hot chocolate, Christmas movies, and a very festive spirit. The star of this Christmas was a new puppy, a very cute, very soft, very small female mutt the boys decided to name Snowball (picture to come). While we (and the other volunteers) were a bit dubious of this idea at first, Snowball is acclimating to this place very well, and has been under the very good care of Vinod, the 20-something Nepali man-cub who looks after the boys here.

In the days since, Ashley has been researching and visiting a nearby Ayurvedic clinic that she hopes to take a comprehensive course from, and has spent a few days playing with the babies at a government-sponsored orphanage here in Kathmandu (I visited for a bit today -- the babies are so responsive to any attention that is given them that even spending a few hours there was a very rewarding experience).

Meanwhile, I've been compiling photos, piecing together data from research I did on the trek for a pending report, conceptualizing new ideas with Sanu at FoST, and laying the groundwork for the next four months we have to play with here in Nepal (where time is already flying).

We'll reside primarily in Kathmandu for at least the next few weeks while I work closely with FoST and Ashley (hopefully) takes courses at the Ayurvedic clinic. Then we're off to Narti and Trisuli Bazaar to implement FoST products, help with basic health care, and teach what we can about basic resource conservation.