Everest Picture Timeline Part 2

Ok So this is a baby yak on the trail .....how cute!!


This is the top of the Cho La. We had great weather...well for half of it anyway. The pass is 5,300 meters which is like 17,500 ft or soomething..


Me in the snow at the top of the pass....


Fun little mtn peaking out!


Now to Everest Base Camp. This is the Super Sherpa food tent. Quite nice eh?



This is the outside of the communications tent. Set up with internet. Radios to communicate on the mtn etc.


Here are two of my Sherpa friends! Apa Sherpa is on the left and Lakpa on the right. They are both world record holders for summiting Everest. It was amazing to see them at Base Camp. They left the next day and summited two days later. Amazing!!!



This is the start of the climb. Through this massive maze of ice!

After I left Base Camp I finally got my first little view of Everest. That black peak with the snow blowing off the top. That my friends is the tallest point on the Earth!

This is the view away from Everest from on top of a peak called Kala Patar. It means black rock in tibetan and is the best close view point of Everest..

This is the elevation of the Kala Patar


Everest from the KP.

The next day we went back to Base Camp. And this helicopter was taking a load of a crashed copter right where we happened to be walking....cool...

View of Base Camp....a maze of tents, ice, and disease...

Everest Picture Timeline

Just got back from my 19 day trek in the Solukumbu and it was amazing!!! Words cannot describe. I loved and would do it again in a heartbeat. (although I was ready to get back to Kathmandu and my computer!)

I'm not really sure how to proceed. I took about 300 pictures on the trek. I am going to just put up a bunch in time line order and then give a little blurb about each. My thoughts etc will have to come later. I also made the pictures pretty small and not the best quality so I could put up more than usual....sorry.


This is the lowest part of the trek. Just after the Airport.

There were quite a few suspension bridges lower down in the canyons to cross. Oh yeah and fun Yaks to share the trail with!

This is Namche which is the main "town" in the Kumbu region. Email, international calls, laundry, shopping, a bakery! It is quite luxurious. And it is has fantastic views!

The people carve and paint rocks with Buddhist's mantras...

View of Namche from the top...


Just above Namche is a village called Kunde. There they have to nicest hospital that I have seen in Nepal. It is amazing. They are support by Canadians and see patients from all over the Everest region. I had a great time taking a tour there and meeting the doctors and health workers. They loved that I could speak some Nepali. Maybe next year I can do an elective there....



There are two main directions out of Namche. One leads to Everest and the other up a canyon called Gokyo canyon. We went up the Gokyo area first and then over a pass to Everest....but that is getting ahead! At the top of that canyon is Cho Oyu, which is the sixth highest mountain in the world. Ain't it a beauty!! This was my first view.


Cho Oyu!!!


Gokyo is famous for the Six Sacred Lakes. This is number 2.

Lake 2


The valleys are made by cool glaciers...and they are beautiful!


This is lake three..at sunrise...right out of the door where we stayed!

Glacier again this time from above the 5th lake looking down the canyon...

Me and the Glacier. This point is called the Scoundrel's view of Everest, but it was cloudy and we couldn't see much of it. Actually from here you can see four of the tallest mountains. We only saw the glacier.


This is the Cho Oyu base camp that is no longer used. This is above the Sixth lake that hardly anyone goes to, but of course we did!


This picture was taken the first time I was at 17,000 ft!

We met some wonderful friends from Holland. Flor and Tim we traveled together for about three days!


There is a peak called Gokyo Ri (Ri means peak) that is one of the best places to see Everest etc, but of course even with waiting an extra day we only saw fog. Oh and this cool Yak chillin'.


Frozen prayer flags at the top of Gokyo Ri...


Liz looking at the wonderful view!!

So we left Gokyo and went to the Cho La (La means pass). And on the way we had to cross the glacier. This is a glacial lake. Brrr..


Some days the mountains would just pop out like this!!



Well that is all for now folks!! To the bottom of the pass....

Rick

VSN's Own Clinic

hello friends-

My Nepal adventure is about to change tomorrow as I am going to head into the Everest Region!! I am extremely exciting about the whole thing! In a few weeks I will load up some beautiful pictures upon which all can feast!

But today was also a very important day in VSN's history! Today we opened the Manahara Health Clinic. The clinic is two small rooms with very basic supplies, and a limited supply of some basic free meds. The most exciting thing though is that it is located amongst a large community of internally displaced persons who basically squatting on some government land about 10 minutes from where I live. This group of people have come from all over Nepal either to find work, or more likely from the Maoist insurgency or natural disasters. These people are very poor and live in small shacks. There is one “street” that has the sewer running through the middle of it.

Here are some pictures from the ribbon cutting!

Have a great day!!

Rick

Pictures

Here are some my mothers from the mother's group. The mother's group movement started about 10 years ago as a way to give women in the village move power and control about what happens. They raise money, pay for temple projects, and learn about health care!






This is Liz teaching her income generation class how to knit!!


This is at a little dessert party with some the young singles in the Branch. (not sure how to stop the underlining??


This is Iris one of the volunteers showing off her VSN T-shirt!!


This grandmother came to one of my classes about TB. She is amazing!


This is with Swastika, one of the members of the branch. She is 22 and goes to an Engineering School. She is in the Primary Presidency in the Branch.

This is Rashmi in her beautiful smile and beautiful green kurta.


Hanging out at Swastika's house. They are a very well off family...


This is disease.....kids swimming with water buffaloes!!

Thats all for now folks...

US Politics

On a side note...I am a huge Barrack Obama fan and have been for about 8 months now. I have read both of his books and I highly recommend reading them. Anyone who really cares about the candidates will actually read what that candidate has to say for himself or herself, and I am making the rounds through their works. The best way to learn about Obama is his books. He puts it all out on the line in all its glory and well at times not so glorious. His website is a pretty great resources, and if interested you could join our group Mormons for Obama!

One of my favorite things about Obama is how well he incorporates the progressive/liberal/democrat agenda with religion and faith. It is such a breath of fresh air to finally find some one working for expanded health care for all, public education, and other social welfare programs, who is also committed to God and speaking my similar language when it comes to faith and religion. Of course, our faith and belief system is different, but at least he gets it. The thing that has really irked me that last few years is how lost the democratic party has been when trying to speak about faith. I feel like Obama just knows how to do it, because he actually feels it. You might say he is just being a good politician, but read for your self and then decide. This link is to a speech he gave about politics and faith.

Link to Speech

And I guess while I am spouting off about politics, let me just say that I am really excited about all of the potential presidential candidates. Never before have I felt that any of the five or six leading candidates would all be pretty good presidents. From McCain, Giuliani, Edwards, Romney, Clinton, and of course Obama...I think any of them would be a pretty good president. And I am leaving off the other 10 or so that have thrown...This election will be such a fresh breath of air from last election when I didn't really care for either of the two finalists.

One more thing...I have been asking around for a while, because I am still having trouble understanding another phenomenon in American Politics. I was on my mission and out of the country during the Bill Clinton scandal, which might have something to do with it. I can't understand the complete hatred towards Hillary Clinton. Why such the malice? When you say her name in most Utah homes, you see Brother and Sister Johnson turn into angry ogres. I mean what exactly has she done that requires the amount of hatred that people feel? I mean aren't there quite a few other people that you don't agree with, but none of them bring out the hate.

Perhaps Hillary-hate originates from the same place as the hate directed to President Bush. I mean, really, these are people, they aren't perfect. I honestly feel that they are doing what they think is best for the country. Why can't we disagree with their politics without all of the anger, malice, and hate??

I don't really want to turn my nice happy blog about mountains and Nepal into a political forum, but any comments would be appreciated.

Bleeding Mountains

I have just finished reading two really great books about the political history of Nepal and then last night I picked up a book called Bleeding Mountains of Nepal. These books have been a great way for me to get to know my Nepali friends much better. Both books are written by a Nepali author named Manjushree Thapa, and were written originally in English. Their titles are “Tutor of History” and “Forget Kathmandu.” If you're interested, I think you can get them in the States. I have also spent quite a while the last few weeks just talking and asking them hard questions about caste, marriage, education, revolution, etc.

This county has a pretty crazy history with democracy in the past 50 years. There have been three major People's movements that created new democratic systems. Each of these though lasted for only a few years, mainly because the political parties could never even talk to each other. It got so bad at points with party fighting, that there would be brawls in the parliament building.

The people of Nepal have lived through also a recent Maoist revolt. And the revolt took places in most part because these democratic parties could not govern. Reading these histories and talking to these people, is really quite sad. They all want democracy and when they get...well, they just squander their opportunities.

Last year was the third major movement to democracy. This time completely getting rid of the monarchy and establishing a republic. In the past they have kept the king along in a parliamentary system, that really just didn't work too well. Currently, the parties are talking with the Maoist Party this time, and lets hope that this time things really work out. This June they are having national elections.

Money, greed, family, pride. Those four things have really done a number on this country. Crazy that I add family in well, let me explain! As in many societies in the world including our own, your family relations really are what get you jobs, marriages etc. In fact, one of the major parties was run by some brothers for the better part of the last 20 years. One taking over for the other and back etc.

I am just starting to read a book also written in English originally by a Nepali named Aditya Shrestha. It is called “Bleeding Mountains of Nepal” with the subtitle “corruption, greed, misuse of power and resources.” I'm really pretty excited to get into it. The country is so completely amazing and fascinating, and I haven't even step foot above 7,ooo ft!!!

Another topic that I couldn't even begin to scratch the surface with is how this country is a soup of so many different ethnic cultures, and religions all mix-up together, but not mix-in to each other. With the caste system here for the past thousand years there have been these ethnic groups living side by side, but hardly mixing at all. It has created this diverse beautiful group of people. The Hamung, Newars, North Indian Bhramans, and of course the Sherpas. I'm getting to point in which I have a basic idea for about half the people which caste or ethnic group they are from just by meeting them once. Of course we have our separate groups in the States, but its nothing like here.

And by the way, take all of the commentary above as straight from me. With, I would guess, at least a quarter of it wrong in some way...

Volunteer Society Nepal (vsnnepal@ntc.net.np)

As I alluded to in my last post, I have been working more and more with the management side of VSN, than with actual Health Care. This basically means that I have spending about half of my day working in the clinic or teaching mother's groups and then on different projects here at VSN. VSN is an amazing organization that was started about 4 years ago, by a few really committed and sincere Nepalis. They had this idea, that they could do it all better, help more people, give volunteers a better experience, all for doing it for much less money. And I totally agree that they have succeeded. Most international groups that work here, would charge several thousand dollars for volunteers to get less training, and similar experiences.

After seeing the Nepal political and business culture described above, it has been wonderful to find a few people who are really working to change things for the better. Now are some things still problems? Yes. But at least they are really trying to change things.


Anyway, VSN is great, but they need help. Mainly with managing possible volunteers through email, the finances, and also the website has major problems. So, I have been emailing all of the potential volunteers, and also those who will be showing up in the next month. We are working on correcting some of the content and look of the website, but it really needs someone with more knowledge than me.

Any budding web designers out there who want to donate some time??? Also, I have been trying to set up a tracking system to actually see how many people are coming to the VSN website, and if some new marketing techniques are really worth the money. It has been really fun to work with it, and I feel I can make the organization better off overall with some help.

VSN would really like to get some other donors from the States, but VSN needs to get their house in order first to be able to approach people with good data to support what they are doing. I have been working with them to be more open with their income and experines and making budgets etc. Liz, who has worked for a few non-profits has pretty good grasp and doing these finance types of things, and so she will be spending some time working with them on this stuff. She will also be starting to encourage a little more organization of personnel responsibilities and duties. Getting lists of what staff members actually do, and what they should be doing etc. Hopefully, we can add some of our skills to make VSN a better place for all, and a by product will be to have a better picture to show people wanting to donate money.

liz is here

My friend Liz Lamphere, who I knew as Sister Lamphere when we served Hungary together, arrived about 10 days ago. She has been wonderful and has really jumped into things here in Nepal. It has been so much fun just chatting about life, Nepal, Hungary, politics, and crazy Americans. Her blog is at Here , and you all should go check it out!! She has been working with women to teach income generation, as well as teach a couple of groups of kids English.

Busy Busy

So, things got very busy here in Nepal. Mother's Groups, volunteer meetings, becoming a web designer, becoming a marketing and advertising specialist, and the computer handy-man.....life is great.

This past week I added some links to my page from my friends sites as well as sites I got to just about everyday. Please check them out...especially the blogs!

Happy East last weekend. My friend who arrived last week brought plastic eggs and we had a grand egg hunt. It was awesome!!!

I'll write more in a bit..

Namaste