Nathaniel Merriam Saturday, May 29 Katmandu, Nepal

As Scott has no doubt informed, we are safely in Katmandu, which is nothing short of amazing. For the past week we've been hearing nothing on the trail but how many people were stuck in Lukla, unable to fly out due to bad weather. We had been prepared for the worst, but Americans are renowned around the world for solving problems in "unconventional" ways, so we set to the task wholeheartedly.

Without going into the gory details (since we could conceivably get in trouble if I did), we showed up in Lukla one night, stayed in a hotel that didn't have any rooms left (we got six rooms) and flew out all of our people and gear the next morning on flights that shouldn't have been there. There are still an unbelievable number of people stuck in Lukla, but we're not among them. Score one for the good guys

I arrived in Katmandu on the first flight out (which was actually the second flight out, but our real first flight was delayed) with Ken, Jenny, and Robert. After spending an hour with bags and getting to the hotel, we parted ways in the lobby with the promise of getting some food together in an hour and a half.

So what does one do for the first hour and a half back in the land of free-flowing water (even if the water is a little brown)? You take a shower! So I took a shower. Then I took a bath (in brown water, but it was great). Then I took another shower. Then, while I was drying off I noticed there was conditioner hidden in the corner of the bathroom, so I took another shower to condition my hair (what little of it there is).

Three showers and a bath was enough to satisfy me that I was clean, so we descended on the restaurant like vultures. We stayed simple, just getting some sandwiches, but it was an amazing thrill to have options other than porridge and potatoes and we were more than enthusiastic in eating.

Did I mention the Shiatsu massages? No? Good. I don't want people to think we're being decadent or anything. The Swedish massage today was better, though.

Now its a matter of reorganizing crates of supplies and equipment to be taken back with us, donating many things to local hospitals and health care organization, and divvying up responsibility for transport. As I type this, we've just returned from a breakfast meeting with the US Ambassador to Nepal, Ralph Frank. "Ambassador Ralph" donated some of the Olympus digital microscopes we brought with us to needy organizations, and generally congratulated us on the success of our mission. It wasn't a big pomp and circumstance champagne affair, more like a bunch of guys (and two girls) sitting around in Polos and hanging out, but it sounds pretty impressive.

We leave tomorrow in the early afternoon, go to Singapore where we will hopefully have enough time to leave the airport and see the city, and then back to our individual destinations (most of us come back to JFK). I'm looking forward to it, but we're fairly happy to simply be out of Lukla, the black hole of trekkers.

No cute taglines on the end here, just another thanks to all those who've taken the time to congratulate and motivate and ask questions through email. We've really appreciated the feedback and knowing that people are out there, genuinely interested in what we're doing. A big thanks goes to the students who participated in our videoconferences and hopefully learned a lot from it! Feel free to keep writing to NMerriam@ArtBoy.org, and thanks for your patronage...

Nathaniel