winding down, but not slowing down.

10 days left here. Not ok with me. I don't want to talk about it.

Instead...Nepal! Yall, this weekend was unreal. Kathmandu is the most gorgeous place I’ve seen – it’s this beautiful green valley, completely surrounded by the Himalayan mountains.

To summarize: I hiked to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery that is tucked away in the Himalayan foothills (and returned via a terrifying motorcycle ride with a generous Nepalese man who refused to accept any payment...the good karma was all he wanted!).

I rode a bitty airplane that flies around Mount Everest (especially loved chilling with the pilot in the cockpit - I asked if I could give the controls a go. He laughed right in my face.). I went to this temple called Swayambunath where there are monkeys EVERYWHERE. The temple is on top of a tall foothill, and you climb a million stairs to get there, and the monkeys just slide down the stair railings, and climb all over the various statues of gods. The mini babies, clinging to their momma monkeys, were precious.

At the top, there are all these pilgrims spinning prayer wheels and hanging prayer flags…and the views are breathtaking.

I drank delicious Nepali tea with mountain honey and ate a million veg momos (dumplings). I bought a tiny yak wool winter coat (don't tell my 6 month old niece!), and met the Sherpa who makes the yak wool.

All those things were extraordinary in Nepal, but my favorite part: I was able to visit 15 girls that IJM rescued 2 years ago and repatriated to Nepal in June. (Media coverage here) These girls had been kidnapped, trafficked to India, and forced into prostitution. They were raped, over and over, night after night, for months before they were rescued. Then they were in Indian aftercare for almost 2 years before they were finally able to return to their home country – I visited while they were at school – the girls are COMPLETELY transformed – the principal says she has a hard time getting the girls to go to their doctor appointments because they don't want to stop studying! And they were laughing and smiling and we hugged and hugged – I brought them some Bollywood movies and notes from IJM staffers, and they beamed with excitement about the gifts, and about their studies, and their restored lives in Nepal. There are still tough battles in their lives, for sure – psychological and emotional scarring, some battle disease and other physical consequences of being serially raped, and many long for their families (they live in a wonderful aftercare facility – often, in this culture, the family will not accept a girl back who has been a prostitute, even if it was so obviously against her will) – but even despite all that, the girls are THRIVING. They told me about a million times that they pray every day for other girls who are still trapped, and they pray for IJM. One of the girls gave me a bracelet off her wrist - she told me she made it and said "for you, auntie. thank you for coming to love us." Another wrote a note in Hindi for me to take back when I left Nepal. When the note was translated, part of it said, "This is Sushila. I hope that you all are doing well. Your love is always with me and I am also happy. We had never met Laura Aunty before and didn’t recognize her but aunty came to meet us, that’s why we are very happy."

I don't know if I've mentioned, maybe once or twice, how much I love this work, how transformative the fight against injustice is - for the rescued victims, certainly. But also for the people who commit to the fight. Remember when it was ok that women couldn't vote? Remember when the status quo in America was segregation? Remember how individuals across generations have confronted injustice head on and fought? The status quo doesn't change in a day, but it can certainly change. When you see fundamental unfairness, don't accept it as "the way the world works." Make the world work better.