A day in Dhading

Not sure if I'll be glad I did this or not, but I ducked out of school early today to catch a bus and come to Dhading, the district center, so I could stay in a hotel tonight just so that I can get up tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. to watch the Monday Night Football television in my room. I know the Packers are bad, but I want to see why. Besides, two bus rides for a total of 100 rupees plus a hotel room for 300 equals a grand total of $5 US. So it's a Christmas present to myself.

Wednesday we take off to Chitwan for a few days for Christmas. We're riding elephants. The rest, as far as I'm concerned, is just details.

Today's bus ride was nice, but not nearly as nice as my last two. We came up to Dhading last Saturday, and we went to and from on the bus. On top of the bus. The first time was just Saroj, Rajesh and I on top of a full size bus, but on the way back it was the three of us plus Andy and Ashish who were coming to visit. This time, though, we were on the roofrack of a smaller bus, and we were joined by two goats, one of whom hid his head under my leg, which was fine, except when he decided to lift his head. At that time I'd get the horn. I remember hearing about riding on the top of buses and thought it sounded pretty cool, but damn, some of those roads get pretty high. The first ride I was on the outside, and I'm not huge on heights, so I threw my earphones on, turned Bloc Party all the way up, and just looked forward. I'd lean in when we were going around corners, like I would on a roller coaster or something. It turned out to be a pretty good time, and it was a beautiful day, so it was worth it.

In other news, I've been sick twice more. The most recent was easy, but the time before was terrible. I couldn't keep anything down at all, and the cramps were brutal, so I ended up taking a nice ambulance ride to a nearby hospital-type thing (I'm not quite prepared to call it a proper hospital). They gave me some good stuff, though, so I felt alright after a few hours, but the doctor had me stay overnight, with an IV in the entire time. Saroj or Rajesh would follow me around holding the IV if I had to hit the bathroom, and one time they both came with me, as we were talking and whatnot. Seemed like a good idea until we couldn't get the door open to get back out. Fortunately we were on the ground floor, so out we went through the window, IV and all.

This week our school had their anniversary where parents and other locals came, and we made a 10,000 rupees donation to a kid in our Green Club who was recently diagnosed with cancer. It worked out nicely, because the crowd donated 27,000 more. I'll try to write more about him (Namarach) soon, he's a great kid.

Anyway, the hotel I'm staying at serves french fries (or finger potatoes, if you will), and the little kids playing GTA behind me keep bumping in to me, so I'm getting out of here. Daal bhat is tasting good again after a few rough days post-sickness, but I love getting some different food. I just finished 'The Odyssey', which I picked up for 25 cents, and the book drove me crazy. They feast every two pages in that book.

Sorry there are no pictures this time, as this computer is a joke, but I may have a chance later this week. There's plenty more to hit on, as well. Hope everyone has a great holiday.