Breaking News!

This morning, we decided to tune into KTTS for a little bit of home! About the time that things got loaded up and we got a good strong signal, a familiar voice came on and said "breaking news". We leaned in as we thought something major was going on back home. They went on to say that there was problems at James River and 65. At this point we were listening intently....what was it, a dump truck turned over, a pile up, what? Then he said, that the train crossing bars were down, and the lights were flashing, but so far....no train, but they would keep us informed as the "situation" progressed. Staci and I just rolled laughing about that. And then, we both agreed that we long for that dossile environment. They came back on about a half an hour later and said that the problem still wasn't fixed but that local police and someone from the railroad were looking into the problem. He said that the problem was being further complicated by people trying to drive through the crossing and then cautioned that was probably "not a good idea". It kept us entertained for about 45 minutes with update break ins about every 10 minutes or so.
Here, the headlines lately have been about political activity. One of the political parties here blocked every road into and out of the Kathmandu Valley yesterday from 6am until 5pm. No one could get in or out of the valley. Since it was a "peacful" political demonstration, the authorities did nothing to stop it. Traffic jams here are a normal part of everyday life, but this made a collosal mess of things. The party is in line to increase the intensity of their "peaceful" demonstrations until the government pays attention to their demands. Part of the plans at one time included blockading any flights from leaving the airport here! So far, they have yet to act on that one, but hold it in their back pocket as a possibility. We will be glad to here from our embassy tomorrow morning, go pick up Maya's travel paperwork and then get out of here and head back home on Friday. We are ready to come home and sit in one of OUR traffic jams created by a "ghost train"! We welcome that kind of breaking news.