Villages.

My home for two months.  Temple on left.  Clinic and and living quarters on right.

Saturdays are much anticipated days off.  After six straight days of treating patients at the clinic a refreshing day to relax, explore and re-engergize is welcomed.  Instead of traveling back into Katmandu, a few of the practitioners and videographer decided to spend this last saturday trekking across the countryside outside of Chapagoan to visit some quieter and more remote villages.  Along the way we encountered curious locals who were quick to welcome us for tea and conversation.  Children followed us at various points along the dirt roads wondering about our cameras and were easily entertained by seeing pictures of themselves.  One family invited us to join them on their porch for milk, a Nepali language lesson as well as a mustard oil harvesting demonstration.  The landscape was scattered with terraced agriculture fields and steep foothills of the Himal.  Many locals were cleaning laundry or themselves at the community water sources or out tending to the fields.  On our way back to Chapagoan a generous driver offered us a ride in the back of his dumptruck for the remainder of the journey.  After six hours of trekking we graciously accepted his offer and rode the rest of the way over the mountain pass back to town in style.......on the top of several tons of crushed rock!

Street in Chapagoan near the clinic.

Corn and laundry drying as families socialize in front of their houses.

Workers taking a break from the rice terraces.

Woman cleaning at the community water source while a goat watches from the first floor of her house.

"Little monks" watch the camera in amazement as Tristan films another monk caring for a injured bird.  

Road leading out of Chapagoan toward the smaller villages.

Typical scene during the trek from village to village.

Suspension bridge over deep canyon leading to one of the small villages.

Village street where we stopped for curry potato pastries and a beer.

The landscape with small villages in the background.