Three Lovely Ladies

After a wonderful 12 days working on the Navdanya farm, I took an overnight bus on Thursday from Dehradun to Delhi. Spending Friday relaxing with Bhai Ji A. Kumar and his wife Behen Ji (an elderly couple connected with GRAVIS who have been doing social work all there lives), I made full use of their wondeful hospitality: catching up on sleep, having some clothes washed, and eating mangoes.

Friday night Bhai Ji and I headed to the airport together through locked-up Delhi traffic to pick up Emily and Kirstin. Seeing each of them stroll out of Arrivals, looking expectantly for me, heavy bags slung over shoulders, my heart lept up! Oh my friends! My friends are finally here!

We grabbed eachother in bear hugs, kissed cheeks and stood astounded that we were all actually here in India together. We'll form a strong band of three lovely ladies.

Saturday, today, we spent the whole day being overloaded with all that is the city of Delhi! Emily was delighted, she said this was her day of "Monkeys and Mangoes", for she saw a baby monkey in the park and we bought fresh golden mangoes on the street. Being with two Indian newbies, I'm reminded of extradorinary things about India that I now take for granted.

It was Kirstin and Emily's first day in India- in crazy New Delhi for that matter- and they handled it with incredible grace. These ladies will be lovely to travel with. Kirstin's already picking up some Hindi phrases and bargaining with shopkeepers!

With the assistance of a very helpful ticket master we got our train tickets for tomorrow afternoon. We're heading from Delhi to Lucknow to Gorkhapur and then taking a bus into nepal to Pokhara. From Pokhara we will spend a day or two getting all of our gear and guiding organized.

As of now we're planning on doing the whole Annapurna Circuit, which is 20 days long and hikes in a loop around all of the annapurna mtns!!!!!! Very exciting stuff!

Oh I can't wait to get out of the cities of india and finally head into the highest mountains of the world. I just hope we can see them despite the clouds and potential rain!!

After Nepal we may head back to the Navdanya farm in Dehradun for a couple days.

Today, after searching all over Delhi we finally found the organic food shop owned by Navdanya in the area of Hauz Khas. The same seeds and grains that I had been threshing and planting on the farm were now here neatly bagged and labeled on the shelves. I eagerly told the Navdanya staff that I had just come from the farm in Dehradun and that the three of us planned on going back!
They likewise excitedly invited us to a dinner party that Navdanya is throwing on June 5 in celebration of the mango! Too bad, we'll probably miss it while we're in Nepal.

After visiting the small outlet store, we took a rickshaw to another part of the city, Dilli Hat, to eat lunch at the Navdanya organic cafe. Knowing the whole story of the food I was eating, where it had come from, who had grown it, why the seed varities were being preserved, etc. made the whole dining experience come to life for me.

I eagerly open the final section of my travels in India and Nepal with two amazing friends.
In general, there have been four distinct episodes of my time here:

1. Travelling with Dad to South India for 3 weeks
2. Volunteering with GRAVIS in Rajasthan for 3 months
3. Travelling by myself to Dehradun for 2 weeks
4. Adventuring with Kirstin and Emily into Nepal for 1 month

I have soaring hopes for the coming month!