The Long and Winding Road

Today we headed off Kalimpong (Another town somewhere in the mountains) to visit the Gandhi Ashram school.

First, the trip itself. We left at 7:00 am this morning for what would be a 3 hour journey that rivals the Grand Prix...literally. We never went more than 30 km/hr but you would swear that the driver had the pedal to the metal (Gravity is a pretty crazy thing) Nausea quickly ensued as we twisted and turned down the mountain side. Luckily the guard rails were in existence, unfortunately they seemed to be in all the wrong places (around the hairpin turns). We rose and fell at inclines of 45 degree angles with a tinge of panic every time the driver reached to answer the ringing cell phone. The mountainsides were plastered with witty sayings such as "It's not a race nor a rally, please slow down, enjoy the valley." or "Drive slow and arrive in peace, not in pieces." Around the many blind corners our driver would sound one of his 8 horn which was reminiscent of a religious battle cry.


INTERJECTION from Jeffrey: Today was an absolutely fantastic and beautiful day - it makes my deep and brooding pensiveness of yesterday seem so far away. I think that my major thought yesterday can be encapsulated with recognition that I neither want to ignore the painful and hard parts of our trip (beggars, hawkers, the poor, the sick) nor pretend that India is a perfect shangrila in every way. I just want to have an authentic (whatever that is) experience. In any how, today was a really nice and peaceful day - we traveled through beauty and joy that I find hard to relay. I trust the others have done a better job of it than me. But, I am grateful for today - it was a long and winding road to get to this point, but the trip has been worth it.

Gandhi Ashram is a school where only the poorest children are accepted to attend. They often walk up to 2 hours to get to school each way.(Not the way your parents used to tell you) They all learn to play the violin as part of the school's programming and have ended up playing in different festivals around the world. Never again will we tolerate the cry of "I can't do it, it's too hard." Sorry, Try again. Even with nothing, the students used their imaginations and those things at their disposal to play recess games. Andrea lost brutally in a game of stones, and has yet to master badminton with a sandal and a bundle of elastic bands. Nadia 's Canada tattoos were a hit, and kept the kids counting to 30 to see magic before their eyes.

Needless to say, after a long and winding road home, we are still weaving back and forth in our seats. (Reminiscent of Nadia's days in the navy) Tomorrow morning it's an early start to Tiger Hill to see if we can catch a glimpse of Mount Everest (We'll see...alarm goes off at 3:00 am)

Aye, aye Captain!
Nadia and Andrea