We Got to the End of the Road...So we put our hiking boots on and kept going.

The view from the guest room.
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From Leah: After our one glorious night of actual sleep in Darjeeling, we head out into the city in search of a Jeep to a small town called Rimbick; about four hours of mind jarring roads away. Normally, with only three of us, we could get a shared "bus" jeep into Rimbick for about 90rs a piece (exchange rate is roughly 40 Indian Rupees to the dollar). However, we have the equivalent of about 300lbs of luggage- 150lbs of that being medical supplies in three very large boxes. Needless to say, we cannot travel very easily or lightly. We end up asking about every jeep driver at the jeep stand to be a private jeep rental. After about a half an hour of asking each person, we are finally blessed with someone who is willing to make the journey, and take all of our luggage as well. At this point, we are willing to spend a bit more just to get on our way, and finally get these supplies to the village! We pay 1,400rs for the private vehicle (which, is not a bad price at all to save ourselves the hassle). Four hours, one cup of tea, and two carsick pukes later, we arrive at Hotel Sherpa where we relax for the evening and get ready to hike out the next day.

The class IV kids working on their social studies.
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Our destination is a village called Daragaon. Rimbick, which is not always on a map, is the closest "town". You walk along the road about a mile and half where it abruptly ends, and a trail emerges to becomes the major highway of traffic from all of the surrounding villages on the remote mountainsides. Daragaon is a four hour trek up steep mountainsides from Rimbick. Yvonne and Elizabeth have both visited Daragaon before (3 years ago with a CCU mission trip where they worked alongside the local villagers to repair and build trails to and from the village) and were going completely on memory as to where to find the village (we had no map). A couple from America named Ryan and Amanda have lived in Daragaon for about 4 years, and have worked to help build a school and a medical clinic in the area. We want to volunteer at that school and medical clinic while learning about the culture and people during our brief stay. In addition, we are bringing the medical supplies from the project CURE KIT to help stock the medical clinic.

The people have taught me more about kindness than I can ever imagine possible.

Kids eating at the health clinic's meal program.
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Once we arrive in the village, we are greeted with amazing Nepali Hospitality. (While Daragaon is in India, they are located about 8 miles from the Nepal border- so the people that inhabit this area are of the Rai and Sherpa tribes of the Nepali Himalayas- they speak Nepali and adhere more to the Nepali culture than Hindi culture). We are ushered into a house of a local family where we will stay as guests, drink cup after cup of the most amazing chia (Nepali milk tea- made with darjeeling black tea they grow in their yards), and start asking Ryan and Ian (the one other American who is living in Daragaon and teaching at the school) a million questions about the culture and people of Daragaon.

The three of us with Selena and Jyoti before they head off to school.
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Our days begin moving at a different pace. There is no running water or electricity in the village, so we go to bed shortly after dark, and rise in the morning with the "sun". It's monsoon season, and so we are living in clouds and rain. (I really need to learn to come to the Himalayas when its not raining!!!) We wake up- have tea with the three girls who live in the house (there are 12 total family members living in the house that we are staying at) including the kids, Selena13, Silma 8, and Jyoti 15. We slowly make our way to breakfast, which is cooked over fireplace stoves, and eat AMAZING Indian and Nepali food. In the 2+ weeks I have been in India, I have not had a meal that I dislike yet! Because we are guests, we are served away from the kitchen in the family's "nicest" room, and are not joined by our hosts. Despite the fact that we begged the women to let us into their kitchen and teach us how to cook- they would not let us! I am still getting used to not eating or conversing with my host.

We then make our way up the steep hillside trail (slippery from the rain, and cautious of leeches- although not as bad as Annapurna!) to the local school. There are seven rooms, five classes total. We split up and each teach a section of the class each day. Only a year or two ago no one knew English, now the class four kids are writing us notes and conversing with us in English! This is dramatic improvement. The children need education in order to go out and get jobs and livlihoods away from the village. While it may seem that it is "destroying" the local culture, it is, in fact, saving them. One family owns and farms about a 1/2 acre of land (agriculture is the main, if only source of economy for these people). After so many generations, and so many children, that 1/2 acre is all that is left to survive on. With five more children in the household that will need to generate income in the future, a 1/2 acre cannot sustain it.

After a day full of dancing, playing, teaching, and singing, we head down to the local health clinic. There is a feeding program that feeds roughly 27 malnourished children in the area, and we head down to try and help out with dishes or clinic work. During our stay- we became incredibly close to the children we spent most of our time with. It was heartbreaking to leave them all!

There are so many stories that I have come away with from this village, but not enough time to type them all. The people have taught me more about kindness than I can ever imagine possible. This is just a tiny sample of what we did and what we experienced from this amazing village.

Back in the city of Darjeeling, we settle back into the routine of traveling. This weekend we will visit the zoo, mountaineering museum and, of course, drink the best tea in the world. Monday morning we head off to the next stage of our journey... KTM Nepal.

From Loy: Leah had a trouble uploading pictures, but stay tuned and hopefully she'll be able to get some uploaded soon. Also, what she said about Rimbick not being on a map is true, as this blog website had a bit of trouble figuring out the places Leah was talking about! It makes me happy to have a best friend who travels to places that aren't on the map.