Today is Day 5 of this trip! Today has been a busy, but fun day. Just like on Day 3, we have only driven 140 miles or so. But today was primarily a day of preparation for the long-haul return trip coming up tomorrow. We have had to pack up a number of personal things that we need to transport from our base in this region to our other base about 700 miles from here.
The highlight of the day was the trip itself. About half way to our destination town, we were flagged down by a Tibetan monk wanting a ride to the next city. We made room and he got in, as we cranked up a cd of praise songs in the Tibetan language. The monk took turns listening, sleeping, and reading some Tibetan tracts that were sitting in the seat pocket in front of him.
As we got closer to our destination, we were driving through a wide-open alpine valley, and we decided to stop for a while and take advantage of the beautiful weather (sunny, in the 60s), and the beautiful green grass. I told the guys to hop out (there are currently 5 of us travelling together) and that we were going to play some soccer. As we all got out and starting preparing the playing field, the monk went and stood in one of the goals (2 rocks about 10 feet apart). It looked like he was ready to play! And so he was. With the monk on one team, we were able to play a 3 on 3 game of soccer! I do not play soccer very much (maybe a total of 15 hours in my entire life), and the monk (who was not on my team) turned out to be a great goalie, so my team lost 7-3.
But here is what you guys don’t realize. We were playing soccer at 13,500 feet above sea level!!! It probably looked like the laziest game of soccer you have ever seen. We would play for 5 minutes, and then half of us would be layed out on the ground panting for lack of oxygen. Jimmy, our brother from Haiti (sea level), kept saying in Spanish, “No hay vida aca” (there is no life here) as he gasped for air. Now just so you know, we were not suffering in pain. We laughed almost constantly, but it really was quite an experience to try and run and play at that altitude.
