Tiny steps - big achievements!

It is crazy how when you are in new lands, the smallest things can seem like the biggest achievements! Far the past wee while, I have been under the careful and considered tutelage of one Upendra-Gurubaa*, who has been showing me how to navigate the streets and buses and tempo's (three wheeler tin can) of Kathmandu. Each morning and evening we would take a different form of transport to and from the office, Upendra explaining excitedly (because whenever Upendra talks it is always excited) where we were going, what we were passing, the places I could get off / on, should get off /on, might get off / on and should definately avoid! We took foot bridges and underpasses, waited on sides of roads (no sign of a bus stop), flagged things down, queued up, skipped queues, leapt on moving buses, leapt off moving mini vans. I learnt hand signals, facial expressions, landmarks, backroads, sideroads, mainroads...

And then finally the day came. Upendra had a morning meeting and wouldn't be at the office til late, I was on my own. Just like Daniel-san in his first fight without mister miaggi, I was nervous - was it wipe off / wipe on? Take the number 17 , which in nepali looks like 98 or the 98 which looks like 17? Could I remember how the route passed the fruit sellers and mini shrines to the bus area? Was it best to get in a full or an empty mini van?

ButI did it! In record time. I jumped on without hitting my head and got off without loosing my feet, I remembered the route and they understood my hand signals. To say I got in to work and home again, on my own, on public transport, does not seem that big a deal, but man, the feeling, that first morning when I realised I could do it and I had done it and it was ok...that was just perfect...

*Upendra is my colleague, who lives near me and whose office I share. Gurubaa literally means guru-father and I think means wise male teacher type.