One thing that I forgot to mention as I rode up to Kopan was the truck in the ditch on the side of the road. As I rode back down, there were about 50 men with ropes preparing to pull it out. I slowed to enter the crowd and as I passed through a gentleman looked up at me, smiled and said "This is Nepal." I smiled, and said "Ho, chha." Yes, it is. The meaning of his statement had an immediate application to the work they were doing right there, but as I think about it, that statement could be applied to many situations faced on a daily basis by the people of Nepal. They have very little in the way of mechanical resources, so farming and other labour that we do by machine, and don't consider it being done another way, is all done by hand. Imagine pulling a 20 foot truck out of the ditch with thin nylon cord, or hauling 43 1kg bricks on your back in a basket all day (i have watched this being done regularly), this type of wear and tear on the human spirit at some point has to be debilitating. And through it all, a Nepali will help you find your way when you are lost, take you into his home and introduce you to their family, want to share their piece of Nepal with you. They will smile, laugh and share whatever they have, be it a meal or simply a cup of tea. The presence of perserverence is strong in this country, but I think that it is the ability of the people to endure that will likely remain with me for the rest of my life. The baskets of sand on the backs, a man carrying an armour the size of a couch, 40 people in a bus with 20 seats, 20 people in a house with 4 bedrooms and one toilet. It boggles the mind and diminshs every problem I have faced, forced me to look at them in the context of another life. And while they were problems for me, in the bigger picture, the broader view, my life is simple and has been easy.