Chapter 2: EVEREST BUILD 2010!!!!!

---

The reason we are here......
We returned again yesterday to Kathmandu via flight on Buddha Air from Chitwan and were taken to the Habitat hotel, Park Village Resort. This was our first opportunity to begin meeting up with other Habitat volunteers and WOW the excitement!!! About 200 of the 480 volunteers are staying here, as we are spread out through several different hotels in Kathmandu. After a night in the Park Village, all 480 volunteers hopped on 35 minutes flights to our final destination, Pokhara. Yeti Airlines this time, still a very tiny airplane. Our 4th time in the Kathmandu airport in 5 days. We initially were scheduled to take a bus to Pokhara but with recent mudslides, Habitat chose to have us all fly. We were taken directly from the airport to the Opening Ceremonies which were held at the International Mountain Museum, a museum dedicated to mountains and climbing with many vintage photographs and stories of the mountains. The ceremonies were overwhelming...we were met at the entrance by Nepali children giving us the "Namaste" and placing scarves around our necks. After a tour of the museum, we were fed more food and entertained by numerous groups singing and dancing traditional Nepali dances. We are having fun meeting people from the other countries. Most impressed by the New Zealanders who look impressive with matching Everest Build poloshirts and backpacks. Mike and I have been assigned to House #38 and are glad to find out there are Kiwi's working on our house with us as they seem to be totally together 😊. We have also been given information on the family whose house we will be building (they will be helping to build also), and some of the families were at the ceremonies trying to locate the people who would build their house.

---