Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06friendly face, and persistent, so eventually we decided to accept tea andsee what we thought then; after all his father might not be quite so keento have two such unusual guests for the night.We need not have worried: the father turned out to be just as friendlyas his son. We were made at home on the veranda of a big brick housein the centre of the village, served with tea and again pressed to stay.They wanted to feed us too, and, when we explained we could not eatafter noon, we had to agree to breakfast. We spent the evening on theveranda talking to the men of the family and others from the village,now wearing the more comfortable clothes of village life, sarongs ofsimplecheckedclothtoppedwithawhiteT-shirtorvest.Ayoungdaughterpeeked at us from around the door to the house, ducking inside if welooked her way; the other women made do with furtive looks from thesafety of the kitchen. We sat and talked late and then slept the night ontheir veranda on bedding made up by the son and his younger brothers.In the morning we woke before first light to the sound of activity inthe house. We sat in meditation until dawn when tea arrived—but nobreakfast. It would be here soon, perhaps we would like to wash at thevillage pump first? But when we returned there still was no breakfast. Itwas getting late, and I was fretting for the loss of the cool morning’swalking, but it did no good—they were determined to do us proud.When eventually it did come, it was better and more elaborate than anyof our midday meals.It was an open road that day with few trees to shade us, and the walkthrough the heat, laden with a heavy meal, was taxing. The road lednorth to Tamkuhi Station, the local railway station, where we turnedeast onto a smaller road. It was all very open country with nowhere suitableto rest or to sleep the night, so we pressed on in the hope that theother side of the river would be better, both of us getting more and moreweary. By late afternoon we knew we were getting near to the GreatGandak by the way the road was changing. First the quality of the tarmachad deteriorated, then potholes appeared and then the tarmac1 0 8