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Friday 10/30
We hiked for four hours.
We are heading back the way we came, but on the other side of the
valley.
Not to far down the trail, standing side by side in front of their
hut, was a man and his wife, watching us as we came down the
trail. She was nursing her child. He was holding a hoe. The
immediate image that came to mind was the great American painting
by Norman Rockwell of the |
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| farmer and his wife. This certainly
was the Sherpa equivalent. I wanted to take a picture and
asked Dawa. He said that perhaps if we stopped and we got
to know them it would then be all right. But of course the
spontaneity would be lost and anyway I had another agenda.
Mona had gotten an early start, and was somewhere up ahead. Mona’s company was
preferable to Dawa’s at the moment, and in any case he had found a friend.
Feeling particularly strong and highly motivated, I
started off jogging. With other trekkers staring, I
rambled down the trail at 14,000' with
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my pack, heavy boots pounding the stony trail.
A half hour past before I finally caught up with her. We spent the
rest of the time walking and talking. It
is now late in the evening and I am writing this by lantern. Just
Mona and I. It is too bad we are not a couple. It would be perfect.
Everyone is sleeping upstairs and perhaps she may decide to go
there also, it’s warmer. |
| I chastised Dawa today for being drunk.
It is the first time that I have done so. He is so
friendly and out going that people give him "pop" and, of
course, he cannot refuse. I had to remind him that he is
on a job and that the job comes first. It is not so much
that his drinking has interfered, he just becomes
friendlier and sometimes forgets about the time. It
is the fact that I have to deal with someone who has had
too much to drink and also has all my money. This is a worry
that I do not want or need. He listened politely and said he
understood and that I should not worry. We shall see. |
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