Quiet

The world seems to have gone uneerily quiet. MH17, rescuing Iraqi people off a mountain, Syria, Ebola; is it just the New Zealand press who seem to be fixated on the book Dirty Politics,  or has the world really disappeared into a vortex of silence. While news of Julian Assange leaving the embassy and his Vitamin D deficiency is news of sorts there are far more interesting and dramatic events occurring worldwide.

I am reading a talking book about Nepal. 

Dervula Murphy is a travel writer who visited Nepal as a volunteer and seems almost surprised by the depth of courage and culture in this country which is so attached to New Zealand due to the exploits of Sir Edmund Hillary. Although this seems to be quite an old book, 1963 I think, her stories of day to day life in this tiny Himalayan nation are very interesting. She must have been very fit because her descriptions of cycling all over the area, which is very hilly, add to the mystery of her travel adventure.
 



I met Sir Edmund Hillary once, I have never forgotten sitting on a stage with him when he came to speak at my secondary school, a real honour. This small yet strong nation remains in our thoughts.