Hiking with Parasols

Last week, another staff member's mother died, and so we all went for visitation. This time however, getting to his house required hiking down into the river valley, going across the river on a suspension bridge, and up the other side. Which all the Nepali nurses did in nice clothes and shoes, with umbrellas to keep off the sun. It reminded me of pictures you see of people hiking in the rockies 100 years ago, all dressed up.

As I had seen before at a visitation, the sons were sitting on the ground, dressed in white shorts and an un-dyed blanket. However, since it's colder now, they were also wearing white kerchiefs wrapped around their heads. I thought it made them look like old women, except for the one brother who had his tied on the side, and it looked like he had a toothache instead.

We passed these women carrying firewood on our hike back. Quite a contrast in way of life, even among Nepali's.

I'm off to do some proper trekking with some good friends from Canada. I'll be out of email (and blog) contact for the next couple of weeks. I'll be back with some great pics of our trek in the Annapurna Sanctuary. See you then.