This morning I went out on a walk with another volunteer and some kids from the kids home by Kathmandu. We ventured out to the BIG golden Buddha in one of the mountains, well its really a foot hill compared to the Himalayas in the background beyond Kathmandu.
It took about 45 minutes to reach the Buddha and wow was it big, it only looked like a little golden speck from the room where I had been sleeping. But upon reaching the Buddha in all its majestic glory, we discovered from a local man that it is in-fact 27 feet tall or higher. This was a holy site so we had to take our shoes off.
It was a good experience and I was able to see Kathmandu in the distance. You cant really get a good idea of just how big the city is until you look at if from a mountain, or in my case Buddhas perch. Kathmandu is a huge city which appears to occupy the entire valley, and is hemmed in on all sides by mountains.
Flollowing my meeting with the golden Buddha (which isn't really gold, I think its concrete with golden paint, as it is starting to bubble in some areas; but none the less amazing to look at) we continued to a botanical garden. On the way, we went through some smaller villages and I saw something pretty amazing. A countryside rife with pot plants, in some areas it reeked of Mary Jane. Around that area its like, well, a weed...ha, ha, ha, ok bad joke. I got some good pictures of some pretty large plants. I had to pick a leaf and pose with it just for fun.
The Botanical garden was nice, and I was able to get back to the house and do my final packing for my return trip. Which brings me to my next point, right now I am in Doha, Qatar. I have about a ten hour lay over, so I will have to bide my time somehow. I have one MRE (Meal Ready to Eat- military food ration) left and plan to eat that sometime soon.
The flight went well though, and now I cant wait to get back in the states, although it was a bitter sweet exodus. I love Nepal, its a beautiful country and I worked with alot of great people, and the kids both young and older were great. The people of Nepal are really nice and very helpful.
Infact when I and another volunteer arrived back outside of Kathmandu at night, we were helped by some local people who showed us where the kids house was. They were just nice enough to help us when our bearings were lost and we clearly needed the help. Great people.
Well its time to sign off, hopefully I can write again when I get to Washington DC. LATER.
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