The first light of the day shines through the window driving my sight towards the Namche Bazaar landscape.
I have some muesli with milk and the now traditional for me: Black coffee. X. is having spaghetti.
I see I have some messages on the mobile from the flaky wifi link, that warms my heart and I take the opportunity to say that I won be having a connection on the phone for a while.
It’s 8 am when I take a picture from the height capturing the beauty of Namche. From my point of view I can see the buildings arranged in a semicircle looking towards the valley, and there, below, the fountain.
This reminds me of tales of legendary cities like the ones from the Aiel in The Wheel of Time.
I receive a surprise when viewing the picture there are several rainbows springing from the fountain to the sky.
We start the ascension and cross ways with a woman and two small children: a little girl and a little boy of no more than 4 years old. the boy starts saluting everybody with Namasté, each time gaining in intensity. That makes us laugh.
When reaching the first monastery, Tundu offers himself to take some pictures of me in the Gompa.
Afterwards, the usual processing starts with Jetta at the front, while Mónica and me try to remember the nepalí we learnt. Soon enough, we are having some laughs with Jetta, Tundu and Sonam when we are capable of forming the first phrases.
Tundu’s book for quickly translating english to nepalese makes me learn new things:
hakena – I am not tired.
hakio – estoy cansado
ma – yo
hami – nosotros
hami lai hakena – no estamos cansados
Also in sherpa, different than nepalese:
tasidele (hi, like namasté)
When we reach the top of the hills we see another helipad and some steps ahead, our first view of the highest mountains of the Himalayas:
Sagarmatha (Everest), Amadablan, and the giants peaks that accompany him.
Very near is the Khumbila, or Khumbi(yu)la, the Mountain or Country God, as Sonam explains to me.
X. wants to have a better view in the nearby hill and Tundu invites me to follow them. I happily jump and race towards them to soon discover that I am breathing heavily like during a cross-training session.
From here, we can see Sonam’s mother village: Khumjung, where there is a Hillary’s founded high school, a monastery, and in the nearby Khunde, a hospital.
After some relax here, and always followed by a escort of two carefree dogs that follow us since Namche, we start to descend and in the arch that welcomes us to the town, we take some group pictures.
Sonam tells Jetta to guide us towards his mother house where we are lovingly received by this kind woman and her granddaughter of 3: Chumji.
All the guides help with the cooking, bringing boiled potatoes as a starter.
The woman in traditional nepalese clothes kindly ushers us towards drinking more strawberry tea, refilling our cups at every change while saying: “xié xié” (please, drink).
When someone asks her about her age, Sonam says: 89 and she starts to laugh while pointing to her last standing tooth.
The main dish is a soup with noodles, egg and some vegetables. Chumji is all the time wandering around looking at us with curiosity.
When I speak her name, and in an asking tone, she nods, and later on when X. maybe mispronounce it she negates seriously with her head.
So, enjoying the hospitality, Luis asks about visiting the Hillary’s hospital that is at 15 minutes walk to the nearby Khunde.
We make a small donation at the hospital and when we are back in Sonam’s home to get our backpacks, her mother had prepared for us several blessing light white scarfs that she puts over our heads while smiling.
Before waving us goodbye, Monica have a picture with Chumji. I say bye bye and she responds: “pie, pie!”.
Amazed at their hospitality and kindness, this bring to my memory Tundun’s words of how the sherpa are good people that live in this beautiful valley in peace and that they are honest, brave and kind. The words stuck with me.
We visit Khunjung’s monastery where a Yeti’s scalp is on display. All the monastery seems to be under a heavy process of reconstruction and lifting.
In our way to our next place to stay we find the first row of hairy yaks that we see.
And no more than one hour later w arrive to the Amadablam Lodge Kyangjuma (1) where we have our dinner, the usual masala tea with milk and no later than 7pm I am back to my room that today I share with Luis to meditate and write.
