Baboo still going strong.

Yesterday I was a little out of it, my appetite small and my body (and especially my back) fatigued from the last couple days of pushing it (the bikes up the mountain, and from Day 1 of farm labor.) Surya and Ama were a both a bit concerned about me, but sometimes you just need a day to recuperate, and they understood. I took a nap mid-afternoon and spent numerous parts of the day lying on my back. Today I felt 100% again and had a blast. Even washing the beans was fun. This chore involves carrying buckets of slimy, semi-fermented beans Nepali-style on our backs to the well (on foot, down and up a hill, using baskets supported by your head) to be washed. I was dreading doing this again, as my first day I had tired back and legs. It's brilliant that the chores rotate from day to day, keeping things interesting and giving your body a break. But I definitely do like the hard work, and pushing myself. Like with the biking, it's a beautiful thing to find peace in potentially grueling work, by just accepting it, letting-go of any negative thoughts, and thinking nice things.

After washing the beans and tea time, all of us 'guests' took a walk to hang out by the big tree on the hill. We hung out and climbed the tree for a long while, while the light changed form daytime to dusk, then came home for dinner. After our meal a ghost seized us! It came out from the dark bushes a screaming, lunging specter covered in straw, with a gas mask and gargantuan radish penis. In a creepy voice it asked for food and he also said "give me pen", a joke as all the kids in these parts ask you for a pen (because it's easy to say). I found out later that the ghost was none other than our friend Gary, acting out an elaborate idea thought up by the women juicing lemons this afternoon. Ama had been feeling sick for the last few days and was walking with Gary down the road when a man felt her pulse and told her that she'd be well off making a food offering. Whether of not the show did the trick, it was hilarious, so moving, in-fact, that Cara peed herself! LOL.

One more day here at Surya Presad Adikari House will make five, and then we are bound for Royal Chitwan. It's gonna be a lot of biking from here on out, with a week or two in-between to enjoy the sights of Agra, Rajasthan, and who knows where else our Indian friends will take us on our Jeep journey to Goa. Funny, though, with all the biking we're still looking at another whole month in Nepal before we even set foot in crazy India.

I can't believe how fast time is going-by. Happy December, everyone!