The Hike

Let me paint you a picture of a waterfall. It's like no waterfall you've ever seen but at the same time just like all the ones you've seen before. The blue water that flows from it splashes from rock to rock, the noise is thundering music to your ears, and the sight of it is breath taking. It's surrounded by the green of shrubs well feed by rain and cow manure. Stones of red, brown, grey, and green line it and the water that flows from it hurtles out of the mist far above. A pretty picture no? A master piece.

Sadly this master piece is covered in the fog of a grey and rainy day. The blue water was turned a milk white as it goes speeding by, the grass and dung are turned into mud, and you can hardly see the veiw do to the rain, clouds, and cold. This was the waterfall as I saw it.

The plan was to cross the waterfall on day seven of the trek and continue on to cross Rupen Pass and then walk to the closest town and catch a ride to Kaza. But, as I have learned in life not all things go according to plan, especially in the wilderness, after all our plan did not. The beautiful waterfall was not so beautiful the day we tried to cross it. In fact it was in a rotten mood. The current was too strong and the river too swollen from the rain to cross with the equipment our group had so we were forced to turn back. We hiked back three days worth of trail to reach the nearest road head and the caught a ride from there. Everyone was disappointed. The porters, the leader, my two companions and of course me. It was a bummer to hike all that way in the rain and cold and then not be able to reach our goal and finish our hike. I am however thankful for the chance to test my body and my patience. I am thankful for the chance to evolve as a person.

I am now in Kaza and am starting the next leg in the semester. I will be going to a local town tomorrow morning and staying there for about two weeks. I will be building a green house for a family there so that they can have fresh vegetables in the winters. I will also be learning about the lives of the people we will be staying with, about rural life in the mountains, and cooking! Also somewhere in that fourteen days I will be going on a yak safari! However, this does mean that again I will not be able to write to all of you. So, I am making the same promise as before: I will try to make the story well worth the wait.

Stay classy!