Thuloswara

Part of what we were doing for the business development group was taking part in a trekking route that some of the local villages are putting together and than rating it based on our experiences. We spent the morning hiking part of the trekking route from Duradanda to Thuloswara where we would be staying for the night. Once again the views were breath taking. I would consider moving to Nepal just for the views (although the lack of modern conveniences will keep me from doing that for a while). When we got to all of the kids from the school were waiting to welcome us. The welcomed us with prayer scarfs, tikkas, and a procession singing "Resham Firiri". We heard the song so much that I think if I hear it again I will always think of Nepal. We were lead down the hill by a group of girls in some traditional clothing. We followed the procession and the school students down to where the rest of the community was waiting for us. Most of the women were even dressed up in some of their best clothes. The community had organized a welcome ceremony that involved dancing and music. Most of the dancers were dressed up in their traditional clothes. I think that the traditional clothing is beautiful with all the bright bold colors. They even dragged us into the dancing at the end of the night. Once again they made us feel super welcome. At the end of the night we were divided up into groups of two or four people to spend the night at a villagers home. It was a little hectic at first trying to find where our luggage was, get the the homes in the dark and get over the language barrier. Our host families fed us food. It was a traditional Nepali meal: dal, chicken curry, cooked spinach and a ton of rice. In Nepali culture it's proper to finish all the food that is left on your plate. Because of the mass quantity of food that we received none of the four girls that stayed with our host family were able to finish it. I felt bad, because with the language barrier we wanted to make sure that the host family realized that the food was delicious, but just too much to eat. The accommodations that we had for the night weren't too bad. It was a small room with two beds. It even came decorated with some fabulous posters. The next morning when we got up our host family once again blessed us with prayer scarfs and rice tikkas. They even had lemon tea and "smiley face" cook. (They were little cream filled cookies with smiley faces on them.) Then the whole group got back together at the village square for breakfast. The view from the town square is amazing (like everywhere else in Nepal). It was kind of fun to hear about everyone else's experiences. Some where better than ours and others where worse. After breakfast we were on our way. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to get to know other Nepali people. They were so gracious and I felt like I was leaving friends that I have had for a long time.