The Last Day

On this, the last day of the program, I find myself thinking about anything but the end of the program: finishing my papers, buying gifts for everyone, both here and back home and preparing to go trekking.It's natural, of course, to be caught up in the day-to-day details and only think about the experience as a whole when you are out of that environment. But, considering all the things that made life so difficult in this country, I have been struck by the fact that we are leaving, leaving all of it behind and all the people we have met here will continue their lives, with all the frustrations and obstacles that we all complained about for two months. This is by no means a novel observation: observant travellers always remember how lucky they are to have the option to move away from a life that is difficult. Even when experiencing all the traffic and pollution and trash and bandhs here, we always kept in mind that we were leaving on a certain date and would never have to deal with it all again. This will be foremost on my mind as I take off from Tribhuvan and look at KTM one last time.