Leaving for the Solu Khumbu

This will probably be my last post until the end of March. This week, I will be taking a bus to Jiri, and walking through Solu to Khumbu, the Everest region. I will be traveling with Tendi, a deaf Sherpa guide, one of four deaf guides in Nepal. He is a graduate of the Naxal School, and apparently, I am the first deaf person he has ever led into the mountains. Usually, he communicates with trekkers through written notes in English, but I am looking forward to a month of focusing on Nepali Sign Language. The route from Jiri was used by the old Everest explorers, such as Edmund Hillary, and is rarely used anymore. As a result, it hasn't been as profoundly impacted as Khumbu, and there are more opportunities to see "traditional" village life. Tens of thousands of trekkers fly into Lukla each year, bypassing the Jiri section of the trail (Jiri is about a week's walk from Lukla). Tendi Sherpa will be introducing me to other deaf people in the area, and I look forward to visiting his village, Chaurikharka, which is near Lukla. From there, we will be doing excursions into Khumbu. I plan to fly from Lukla back to Kathmandu at the end of March.