5 August (Sat): Settling in

We spent most of the day trying to move into the guest house. We have so many things to learn and to work out. Who knew there were so many different kinds of hangers, for instance?

Thinley stopped by in the morning to see how we were doing. When we said it was hard to organize things without any storage, he said he would bring us a bookshelf and a cabinet in the evening.

In the meantime, this is our larger world:

The main entry to Sherubtse College:

James, Jeremy, and I also went to the Lower Market and met Pema’s brother Sonam. He promptly invited us into his house (an apartment above his shop) where he served us mango juice (much to James’s dismay). Jeremy and I drank ours, and then Jeremy, who had been antsy to start with, turned white and insisted he was about to throw up. I told Sonam we had to start home: Sonam wanted to give us a ride the short distance back to the guesthouse, but Jeremy had actually persuaded me that he might throw up, and I thought that would be awkward in Sonam’s gleaming truck, so we declined, walking home in the rain. (No stomach upset in the end.)

Layla came to dinner, bringing us some supplies: actual Italian style pasta was greeted with cries of joy. Our neighbor Mr. Pant came over and sat with us for a while as well. In the middle of all of this, Thinley arrived with another three men to deliver book shelf and cabinet. Unfortunately, the cabinet was locked, and we couldn’t find the key. (Several days later, a man would come up to me in the lower market, and tell me that he had helped bring the cabinet and then hand me the key.)