Flip Flops.

Kholaghari.

The kind of place where you wouldn't be surprised to see pterodactyls fly out of the jungle canopy towards the mountain peaks above.

No roads run here. The only way to get here is to trek the steep climb down from Samthar into the valley below. It took our team several hourswearing hiking gear and with guides. The local kids can do it in a fraction of that time while wearing flip flops.

These kids must have some genetic advantage that predisposes them to mountain life.

There's a clearing in frontof our roadshow medical clinic. The kids from the village are kicking a soccer ball around as they wait to see the doctors. Every once in a while the ball goes over the edge... of the mountain. With no reservation whatsoever, the kids effortlessly chase the ball and literally FLY off the field to get the ball. In flip flops.

I'm winded just watching them.

We're set up in front of a horrific one-room government schoolhouse who's existence exposes the massive corruption in this part of India. The building is falling apart. There are splintered chairs and rusty nails.The floor feels like it's about to give way. There are no books, no blackboards and no shelves. If this was in America, the building would be condemned.

In the English language national newspaper, there are government ads talking about the massive advances in education in this state. This possibly fictitious great-leap has clearly not helped the poor children of Kholaghari. Our Nepali guides tell us that there's massive amounts of corruption here. Promises are not kept. People are not helped. Photo-ops are merely that. And politicians become very, very wealthy.

People here are not sad or upset. They're proud of who they are and where they live. The General, who's serving as our host, expressed his opinion that the reason that people are so happy is because they brew their own unregulated alcohol, a millet-based brew that they call "Chong".

They've set up our tent literally four precarious steps away from the edge of the mountain. Generally this would be of great concern to us, but we don't want to appear to be total pussies in front of the flip flop climbing villagers.

It's not working.

If not for our physical prowess, at least they respect us for the massive amounts of help we're bringing their community. So much so that they even threw a bonfire in our honor tonight. The whole village gathered around to sing us Nepali songs and dance. A special evening. Apparently we were the first foreigners to EVER spend the night in their village.

After their song-and-dance show, which I saw as somewhat of a "Gorkaland Idol" smorgasbord of a showcase, they motioned for us to sing a song of our own. We had absolutely no idea what do. We broke into an impromtu rendition of "O Canada" over the tabla beat. It was the only song which we all knew the words to.

They clapped along, smiled and danced.