HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN FIT INTO ONE SQUARE METER? - Revised

Buses always crowded. Many people can fit into a square meter.

Shopping area of Durbar Square Temple area of Kathmandu

The word CROWDED has new meaning. People everywhere in shops, buses, streets, and the airport. What a wonderful sense of excitement.

Sunday I walked all over the city of Kathmandu. I tried to shop at Fair Trade stores and found one of the best ones:  Namaste Fair Trade in Thamel area.

Narayan Adlikari, Khadananda Silwal, Ramesh Tripathi, Sailendra Khatiwada

Subi & Priscalla at the airport

I am sitting here with Priscalla, age 7, and her friend Subi, age 12. What a wonderful way to wait for the airplane. These lovely girls are on their way to Hong Kong to meet their mother and sister during the school holiday. The Dashain Festival in Nepal means that school is closed for one month. Five more of their young friends are also traveling with them to Hong Kong. There is one adult “auntie” watching over all these rather well-behaved English speaking Nepalese children.

The kids are reading as I write this blog. When I asked them one of the most important things I should tell people, they want me to be sure I tell folks in America that in “Nepal we do different kind of places, eat different foods such as dal, mo mo, rice ice cream”. Adorable! Mo Mo is battered, fried chicken or vegetable, a very popular, easy to prepare food.

Another emotional experience at this airport in Katmandu was watching a few hundred men rush to line up for their flight to Daqar (spell?). They are Nepali men who travel to the middle East for work. They appeared young and fit but looked anxious and serious while awaiting their turns for final security checks. Often they are gone for 1-2- years captive to their “employers” on oil rigs & such, sometimes not paid until their duration is up. One of our Habitat Families' father was in Daqar & not expected home for another 10 month.

Today is a good day as I am going to meet my husband tomorrow, which is really today here. Tom is already in Hong Kong with my cousins. We go through 3 time zones between Nepal and Hong Kong, one of which is a 15 minute change.

I will write tomorrow which may end up being Tuesday here. Not sure when as this flight is overnight about 4 ½ hours so I plan to catch up on some rest when I get to Hong Kong.

The manager of restaurant said the name Jesse James was used because he was famous.