Day 9: Ancient Rites and the Darker Side of Kathmandu...

The day started out with two smiling kids, Joel Hawkins and Emily Shields, announcing their engagement as Vern and I headed down five flights of steps (the elevator rarely worked). They had JUST become engaged on the top floor of Hotel Manang in Kathmandu! Congratulations you two – your joy helped get us through the sorrow we would see during the day.

Usho and Deepo Lamo, two sisters from the HealthEd Connect training, took us to the cancer ward at the Children’s Hospital where they volunteer.  We visited several families, handed out snacks, and watched a grandma cooking meals for her large family in the hallway. Such trauma, yet still we saw thankful, smiling parents. Following this, we took a sobering smoky walk along the Pashupatinath Temple to view the cremation sites. This was the hardest place for me to visit. Those involved in cremations are honoring their beloved in this sacred, ancient ritual of burning the body on the banks of the river, but there are also buildings where those who have no family just wait to die. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…as the remains are then swept into the river. We then followed the river far above the cremation site, up steep trails to areas where drugs and homeless are the norm, all the way to a hidden little temple where Usho works with homeless girls and also occasionally drops in on a disabled old woman and man who watch over the temple. There seemed to be many who just wander through dropping off food, checking in, and randomly caring for these souls. And then there was this smiling old woman with the bighorn sheep. What a look at the inner heartbeat of a third world city…