Well, it's now 2008 and one week until we leave for India!
I've sorta retreated into my "get ready for India" mode, head down, trying to get everything together--passports, tickets, reservations, malaria pills.....not to mention sleeping bags, water purification systems, Nalgene drinking bottles, my stethoscope....all that necessary stuff to camp out in the Himalayas! Plus lots of time talking to the Lord, praying for our group, the supplies, the missionaries in India, the people we will meet, the spiritual warfare we will encounter.
So please pray for us as we all prepare for this, our sixth trip to the beautiful Ladakh. Pray for the Ladakhi people we will meet, and for those who minister to them year round.
And please pray for our sons, who, for the first time, will not be accompanying us to Ladakh. We will not be able to communicate with them for the week we are out having medical clinics in the small villages. It's hard to leave them--for one, they are a great help! and two, it's just being a mom and not being able to pick up the phone and call and check--you other moms know what I'm talking about!
And now, back to sewing.....paying bills.....and finding that stethoscope.....now where are those stethoscope earpieces I really like? The soft ones that don't hurt my ears......

More of the story!
Monday, August 6th--
We awaken to sleet tapping lightly on the tents. I don't want to get out of my sleeping bag!
As we gaze up into the mountains, we can see snow swirling and coating the upper reaches with a frosting of white. As we talk over the question of whether we should return to Leh today or tomorrow, we pack up camp and load the jeeps. We are still debating as we travel to Karnok, the nomad camp of another family of shepherds. It's amazing how the moonscape of the high desert changes to green meadows with the addition of a mountain stream! No trees, of course--we are above the tree line.
We set up clinic outside a government building of some sort. Dr. W and Dr. C, along with our missionary friend to translate, begin seeing patients. I'm declared to have a fever, and retreat to sit in a jeep and rest a bit, not feeling too well. Our sons, along with Fr. T, hand out toothbrushes and man the pharmacy. Soon, we are running out of antibiotics and acetominiphen. This fact, plus my fever, swing the decision in favor of going back to Leh today. The biggest question is whether the pass, Taglangla, will be open with all the rain and snow. A little snow, a little rain, and all that dirt and rock makes for mudslides!
The people are soooo friendly and so curious. They crowd around, making it very difficult at times to conduct the clinic and to hand out the toothbrushes. Two ladies come and offer yak-butter tea to everyone. I, not feeling too well, manage to convey that I am feeling ill. From experience, I know that the tea is an acquired taste (think warm, oily slightly bitter salt water) and don't feel up to it. Besides, I saw the ladies rinsing out the cups in the stream that runs through the middle of the camp--the stream that is used for everything by both men and animals. I just don't feel like risking giardia or worse!
Several Buddhist monks and nuns come to the clinic. One of the monks asks about our traveling to India to hold medical clinics. "Do you do these good works to make merit and earn your salvation?" he asked. Our missionary friend explains that, in fact, we are Christians and are already saved through Jesus, and that we come out of Jesus' love to serve others, not to earn our way to salvation. The monks and the people ask us to stay and explain more. Our missionary friend promises to return in another week and spend some time with this village.
I talk to a couple of young girls, 14 and 16, who have gone to school a bit and have a smattering of English. It's amazing how much you can communicate with a few words of English and Ladakhi, and some goodwill! They tell me a bit about their families (one has 3 siblings, and the other 4) and how they spend their time shepherding the goats. They are wonderfully good hearted.
So, now it's back to Leh.

Sunday, August 5th
We awake to breakfast and a flock of goats "baa-ing" their way through camp, and then hold a quick clinic for the few nomad people that remain in the winter home during the summer months. Then we quickly take down the tents and we're off again!
We travel westward through the Puga Valley, a veritable study in contrasts. There are salt and sulfur mines, abandoned, the equipment looking like something out of Star Wars (think Jawas), and then lush meadows filled with alpine flowers and rivulets. We stop at the village at Tso Kar(literally "Salt Lake") for tea, almost get stuck in the sand (where's the road?) and finally make it out to the highway (sorta--it's about a lane and 1/2, and in dreadful shape from the mudslides a year ago), turning off to a valley in the Rupshu area, a place where we have been before. The people actually recognize Dr. W from two years ago.
There are several men breaking horses next to us, and a "tent meeting" of traveling Buddhist monks across the way as we set up the clinic tent and begin to see the nomads. A quirky rain shower comes through, soaking the trek members who are helping out with the medications. Up a few hundred feet, in the mountains, it's snowing. Brrr, I'm cold!

More of our saga!
Saturday, August 4th
We awake to a cool (about 45F) and beautiful day with the blessing of having our missionary friend in camp with a repaired jeep! Plus two more wonderful brothers in Christ to help us on our trek!
We are HUNGRY after no supper the night before, so we have a wonderful breakfast and a short walk (still huffing and puffing) to see the hot springs down by the Indus River. You can see the steam rising from the springs as the boiling water bubbles up from the rocks on the edge of the river. Fr T washes out some clothes in the made-to-order washing machine, just being careful that the pants don't sneak over into the river and down the rapids.
We pack up camp and continue southeasterly to Rebe Sumdo. I think that is the right name for where we were! This is the lower altitude winter camp for a nomad group. During the summer, most of the nomads take the flocks of sheep, goats and yak to higher pastures, but this is a sort of "base camp" for wintertime. A lovely rushing stream winds down through the valley, making this a very pleasant green meadow. The ground, however, is "humpy" from the permafrost, making it hard to set up tents! The small one-room homes are built of rock, and are lined--floor, wall and ceilings--with wool blankets and rugs to keep out the cold. A stove, a few low wooden tables, and shelves for possessions complete the homes. And believe me, it gets cold. Our Ladakhi friends told us a very heart-breaking story of a nomad family that placed the baby and three lambs together (for warmth) near the stove for the night. In the morning, the baby and the lambs had frozen.
We then continue on down the road to visit Tso Moriri, a breathtakingly beautiful lake near the border of India and China. We hope to see the extremely rare black-necked cranes that are found at Tso Moriri, but do see lots of marmots and wild asses. Unfortunately, we aren't able to go into the village of Korzak on the edge of the lake--there is unrest because the Buddhist monks at the local gompa are very upset at a brother and sister who have converted to Christianity. Apparently, the monks have threatened some violence. We can see the Buddhist monks gathered on the hillside right outside of the town. Oh, well, the lake is awesome and it's well worth the trip!
We decide that baby marmots are "marmlets" and lady marmots are "marmalades". It was a long day!

Whew! This jet lag is pretty bad! My body is convinced that the current time is midnight and I need to be in bed!
But first, how about a little more about our trek? I'll try to be coherent!
Thursday, August 2nd--A day to sleep and pack. Fr T is a bit overwhelmed just trying to breathe. I guess the rest of us, having been to Leh before, are used to that almost otherworldly sense of oxygen deprivation that occurs at 11,500 feet. Despite taking Diamox, you will still find yourself gasping for breath and feeling a bit woozy and confused.
We sort through the medications and medical equipment, and get together tents, sleeping bags, and all that good stuff. Our Ladakhi friends arrange for jeeps, food, drivers and cooks.
Then, finally, on Friday (August 3rd) we pack up the jeeps and leave! Yeah!
And what an eventful day. Not just because we left on our trek--because we almost didn't get started! First of all, the cooks had packed for too many days, so one jeep turned back to Leh to unload half the food and supplies. Then, when the whole group met up at Upshi (a small by-way on the Indus River), we discovered one jeep had broken a spring in an encounter with a pothole. (The roads were in terrible shape from the mudslides that occurred a year ago.) There was nothing to do but return the jeep to Leh for repair or replacement.
We eat a bowl of soup and noodles at a roadside "restaurant", haul out the Alinia (an antibiotic for diarrheal diseases) for those already encountering the local germs, and searched for the public toilet--a hole elevated over the river.
While our Ladakhi friend returned to Leh, the rest of us soldiered on to a campsite at Chaumataung. We set up camp there along the Indus River, and, too tired to find or fix any dinner, crawled into our tents. We were soon awakened by a group of giggling children peeking into our tents! With a cheerful "Juuley", they scattered like chicks, laughing and screaming. We just fell back asleep.

Sorry to all--it's been quite a few days since I've been on the Internet!
Of course, there is no internet on the trek--in fact, there is no means of communication at all on the trail--not too many cell towers in the middle of the Himalayas! And after coming back to Leh, I could not get a good connection that would allow me to post.
Right now, it is Friday morning, 9:30 am Agra time. Yes, we're in Agra, having flown from Leh to Dehli yesterday and then bussed to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world.
I only have a few moments before we head back to Dehli and then fly off back to the US, so this is just a note to say "hi" and to say I'll post more about our trek later.
In short, tho', we had a wonderful time, holding three clinics among the nomad peoples of the Ladakh, enjoying our visit with them and with friends in Leh, and everyone is well.
Juuley (Ladakhi for hello and goodbye) for now!

We're here! Back in Ladakh. To the newcomers in the group, it feels very foreign (no pun intended!). For me, it's very much a second home.
Sorry, didn't get to post yesterday when we got here--couldn't get the internet connection to work. Tonight there is no electricity in Leh (a pretty common occurance) but most shops, and the internet cafe, have generators.
I've forgotten how noisy it is here--honking horns (there's a certain "horn etiquette" here), the muzzeins' calls to prayer (starting at 4 am, I've learned to place earplugs firmly in the ear canal upon retiring), and the in afternoon, Tibetan drumming and chanting from the monastery nearby. Then the "bungboo" (donkeys) braying and dogs barking and cows mooing--quite a hullabaloo!
Today we packed for the trek, read for awhile, and mostly tried to breathe. Tomorrow we load up and leave!