Gourmet ketchup anyone?

The Sunrise Tea House serves the best French fries I’ve had. Real potatoes fried and sprinkled with Himalayan salt and gourmet ketchup. The thick dark kind made of real tomatoes with a hint of plums (I am making up the plums, but it sure tasted delicious).

I ask for Wifi. The owner summons her teenage son (some things are universal). He appears from nowhere within seconds. He tells me in a super polite non teenage way that he needs to take my phone and go outside to get the signal. I give it to him without hesitation. Moments later he has me hooked up, with one caveat. I have to stand outside in the corner of the courtyard to get the best signal. Actually the only signal which comes with one bar if I turn just so. I don’t complain and besides I didn’t want to make him look bad in front of his mom, so I thank him and pay him 500 Rupees, about $4.50.
I am in bed by 8:30 pm. My plan tonight is to get at least 4 hours of real sleep. By morning I wake up refreshed having seemingly slept the requisite hours albeit intermittently. I am making progress. Yay! I pack quickly and head to the dining room. Dawa and Ngima are already there. It is 7 am. I order Muesli with hot milk and its prefect for what’s ahead. I devour it like a starved warrior on leave.

We are on the trail by 8:15. Today is the day I was promised that my ass gets handed to me. And boy does it ever. We leave the picturesque tea house and walk past a few more tea houses and cafes with names like Mustang Inn, The Irish Pub and Sam’s. There are prayer wheels at every corner. Which I turn for good luck. I will need it. There are stupas (Buddhist shrines), prayer flags galore, prayer shawls and a smiling Dali Lama anywhere you stop.

No sooner we leave the tiny town of Phakting the ass handing begins. The path is narrow with high cliffs and sharp turns. It is a scramble. It is giant 2 foot high steps that never end and make your knees swear like sailors. It is dirt and rocks and stones that slip and slide. It is boulders the size of refrigerators. And it’s a relentless straight up into the heavens. And it is magnificently, stunningly gorgeous, hugging that Milky River almost the entire way.

We are climbing to 11,300 feet today and it’s taking its toll on my body and my mind. Along the way we stop by for lunch at The Jarsale Tea House in Moju overlooking, what else, Milky River. This stop came in the nick of time. Just moments before I was ready to turn around and lose Dawa. There, I drink lots of tea and milk. Recharge my phone. I wolf down some Dal Bhat and drink lots of hot water. I’ll need it for the altitude change. Before leaving I ask the owner if I could buy water and he apologizes that government officials have banned the selling of expired bottled water and that they have yet to get the newest shipment. What the hell?!! First of all I was impressed by his honesty. Second, government officials actually check expired water bottles in these remote villages? That was impressive too. But then it begged the third and most important question, if these said officials have time to check expired water in the remotest of villages, which probably won’t kill you, how is it that they let a leaky plane with duct tape fly next to mountains day in and day out?

The owner of Jarsale offers to boil water for me. I accept. He then sets it on the patio to cool off and seeing that it may take time, he gets another pot to pour it back and forth to cool it faster. What a prince. I fill my water camel-back and reluctantly sling on my backpack which now weighs even more and we are on our way to Namche Bazzar. A mere 4 hours of constant grueling climbing. Along the way, I develop a relationship with the crows, I learn a lesson from a donkey and I let myself dissolve into the mountains surrounding me.

Namaste!

PHOTO 2024 02 01 07 10 14

For Langston Hughes on His 123 Birthday

Speech given on February 1, 2024 in Havana, Cuba In 1927 Langston Hughes walked into a Cuba amid an emerging community of artists, intellectuals, and radicals.  He saw a “sunrise in a new land [– a day – in his words]sic – full of brownskin surprises, and hitherto unknown contacts in a world of color.”  … Continued

PALESTINE WEEK 1920 x 1080 px 2

Palestine Week 2024

January 18, 2024 – January 25, 2024 In keeping with our ongoing mission of uplifting racial and cultural connections, Busboys and Poets is hosting Palestine Week (January 18 through January 25, 2024). This week-long series of events will offer a diverse range of programming featuring Palestinian food, music, dance, poetry, discussions, and other enriching events. … Continued

574620 10151454239376538 776542629 n

Alice Walker in Conversation with Andy Shallal at National Museum of African American History and Culture

When: Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 7-9pm Details: Busboys and Poets and The National Museum of African American History and Culture present an evening with renowned author, Alice Walker.  An internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose works include short fiction, children’s books, volumes of essays and novels, among them The Color Purple for which she … Continued

STOP web

State of the People at Busboys and Poets

We’re 30+ days into the longest federal government shutdown in history with no sure sign of when it’ll actually end (reopening for three weeks does not count, Mr. President.) The State of the Union address was scheduled to take place on January 29, 2019, but has never been given during a government shutdown. What should … Continued

AndyShallal PeaceandStruggle

The Nepal Chronicles #1

March 2, 2021… For the next couple of weeks I will be blogging on Facebook about a trip that I have been planning the day I turned 65, which was about a year ago. I am heading to Everest Base Camp and hoping to celebrate my 66th there. I got the all clear from my … Continued