We woke up bright and early this morning to roosters and birds outside. We enjoyed eggs and toast with peanut butter or guava jam for breakfast! After breakfast, we headed out on our first trek. We had about an hour long bus ride to the starting point of our trek.

Tyler and Jon did a lot of exploring on the trek! Can you spot them?

Amelia and Renee looking cute

Our guide picked up one of the goats on the trail for Ella to hold! We were able to pet it, the hooves were soft.

View towards the end of the trek

After the trek, we had the opportunity to visit Changu Narayan, a Hindu monument. We learned about it’s significance to the Hindu people and their worship of their god Vishnu. We learned about small areas of worship to the gods on the ground in in the form of rice and flowers as a way of gaining good karma by feeding the birds.

After our trek, we went to Higher Grounds. Higher Grounds is a coffee and craft shop owned by a Calvin grad, Bimala Pokharel. She shared with us about her work in Kathmandu helping at-risk women learn valuable trade skills to be able to provide for themselves. We ate lunch there, and it was very good. We tried banana lassies which tasted like banana shakes.

After lunch, it was recommended that we take some “alone time” but some of us students decided to explore Kathmandu, our goal was to find a ball to play a game with. We ended up at a junior volleyball training center where we were invited in to watch. We were excited to watch, but it turns out they were only stretching and doing some drills. It was still cool to watch.

Jon, Katelyn, and Tyler playing basketball! I think they lost…

We ended our day with dinner from a Turkish restaurant. It was so delicious!! We ate at the Goshen house with a current Calvin student’s parents and sister. They brought us ice cream, Coke, and apples!!!! Now time for bed, making sure to lock our doors.