Day 24: Masala Tea, Last Hike and CRAZY Hailstorm

Lazy morning watching life unfold on the farms below - old folks gathering wheat, children off to school, goats and cows bleating and mooing, fires burning. Ten year old Getta brings us lovely cups of Masala tea, Sunita fixes a delicious lunch of french fries (with ketchup), cornbread, and veggies, and Dil takes us on one last hike. It's a doozey! We scamper up a steep mountain goat trail behind his home for an hour, then we bushwack straight down the mountain and over deep ravines!?! Starts to rain pretty hard as we sprint (haha) the last hundred yards home. Lage, Guro, Vern and I huddle under a big blanket together on our balcony as we watch an amazing rain/hailstorm sweep over us for an hour. What a memory I will cherish with these two new, good friends from Norway. :) We cannot imagine how the taxi will possibly make it up Dil's road and worry flights will be cancelled...but the rain clears, we slip and slide down the path to the taxi which slips and slides on the road through washed out gullys and potholes. Snapped some last photos of the storefronts and only wish I could have captured the bus the two goats were standing on TOP of. We rendezvous with Pinkey and Binod handing over necklaces to sell at the HealthEd Connect gathering in Missouri in May, and end up at the Kathmandu airport where the 6 pm flight to Dubai is cancelled...uh oh! But our 7 pm one is a go.  Yes, friend Babs, things DID work out this time! :) Now, just 23 hours till we're home...