Changings

I have to find a rest place soon. But until he is not there, I decide to have smaller distances. I did that earlier in Israel/Palestine, at the Sea of Galilee, where I was so exhausted, and no-one to find, to gave me a place to rest. But luckily I am not that exhausted. 11 km after Kargil, in Pashkum I want to stay. I meet a boy on the road who comes from this village. He just turns left down the hill before a real street apears.  I just follow the pass, have to ask some people and they sent me to the other side of the valley. After the bridge I don’t have a clue where to go. Finally I end up at some houses who have a buddhist style. Because this is still Muslim area I know I can’t just speak to the women in one of the houses. I have to wait for some male person. Patiently giving signs from the distance and turning around the house Zakir, 25, one of the sons of the house appears. Here I would be the first foreign guest, too. But we have to get permission from the father. After a while all the obstacles overtaken.  I am invited to sleep in the ‚hall‘. For me it’s a kind of Meditation or even seminar room and I feel immediately home. Here is real space and even a hot shower. We have a good time together. I learn, that it could have been possible, that there ancestors have been Buddhists before they converted to Islam, but it’s also possible that they are Persian origins. They like the tibetan buddhist architecture. I report about my little illnesses or better issues, and I really have to take care more. There is my cold, but the coughing is not so strong anymore. I found some herbs close to the street and they made me a tea from it. Also the nose is still running. The maxillarus sinusis starting to get involved. Then there is the herpes. On my lower back, there where my backpack touches my back, there is also a irritation. This I never had before. Then there are the flea bites around the belt area. The feet are totally fine. But this is a bit to much of ‚little things‘.

Such a warm welcoming athmosphere. And so much space, the people have outside and inside. Apricot harvest is now, so all the family selects the good ones from the bad once, to dry it with stone, without stone or for the animals. Apricot is growing here on 3000m high. Zakir has some more paper for me, so I can make more peace birds or write something down. But I forget, because just in the moment when I shaked the hands to say goodbye, the father of the house, just says, oh I thought you are staying longer…. Even though I promised to myself, if this family invites me to stay longer, even in the last moment, I will. But I am just not sure, if they really mean it, or if this is just a set phrase? So, I just leave.

Workers with showel and pickaxe digging a shaft beside the street. Later I learn, its for a better internet connection. Stone by stone they have to digg out, and this for more than 400km. And mostly it is without mashine help.

Vegetation is mainly in whole Ladakh willow, poplar, both used for house construction (roof) and apricots. That’s it. Everything else superrare.

My next host, a earlier forest ranger in pension, why they are not planting walnuts, answered, ‚because we don’t have enough water‘. All this rivers here…..?????