Shake and bake to Sermathang!

Shakin' bakin' and done... we fell into bed and were asleep by 8:00! Big storm overnight - lightning, thunder, rain and hail and woke to a layer of ice on the picnic table outside our room. After a lovely pancake breakfast we began our village tour. Visited the Gompa, the Danish friendship house, and then off to school! It was Saturday so there were no classes and we specifically asked that there not be any special "program" planned... so we had a beautiful non-program complete with performances and speeches! Madelaine's first public speech by the way... Tanya had a local dance lesson... Jude managed not to cry - even though she had to do yet another speech!

The school is doing very well. From Mads and Tanya's perspective they were amazed to see the changes and progress that had taken place since the opening in 2009. Now, 172 students (give or take) and 40 boarding students strong the school is once again thriving. Families have returned to the village and the place is growing quickly. There are plans for new lodges, restaurants and even a resort.

The afternoon was spent visiting, eating boiled potatoes and drinking lots more tea. We skipped dinner and instead had another plate of potatoes at Tashi's mother's place. We washed it down with a local brew called mustang coffee... we were not quite sure what all was in it but we were assured that it was all organic!

We managed to stay awake until 10, already anticipating the next bus trip back to Kathmandu. We started our journey at 8:15 in an obsessively freshly washed bus and shaked and baked our way back in only 7 hours.