The mystery of the effed up back/neck...solved. Followed by self-medication

I woke up the day after Christmas with what I believe is a pulled muscle  in my back somewhere between my neck and left shoulder. I've had this injury before and it's usually  aggravated from working out or playing golf. It usually lasts about a week. It always hurts like crazy and causes me to turn my entire body if I want to look to the left or right. This cause this time, I believe, was the "massage" that barbers give you after a haircut. The scalp/neck massages are always rough and they seem to spend a lot of time on my rather bushy eyebrows. I think this particular barber may have moved my neck in a way that caused me to re-injure that area. A picture of him is below, but I'll still go back, because mid way through the shave I was offered an excellent cup of tea. Next time, however, sans massage! A good thing about Nepal, in my particular case, is that codeine is available over-the-counter in 15mg phosphate tabs. After some brief internet research I was able to discern that a dose of 60mg of codeine along with 400 mg of ibuprophen would alleviate some of the pain. I followed this up with a healthy dose of tiger balm, which is readily available everywhere from street vendors to the most basic shop, and a hot shower. I then spent the next five hours in bed reading American Tabloid. Again, not heavy reading, but I took time out every hundred pages or so to study for my next Nepali lesson. I believe I can reasonably spit out thirty different phrases or questions that have already proved helpful, especially in my injured state. I was able to locate a pharmacy using only Nepali. Talk about a mix of good and bad.

As I was waiting to have my hair cut, I got to watch someone with a full head of hair get his done. That must feel great

My day ended up being way more hardcore than I anticipated. Actually, this whole trip has been that way.

A Christmas fire along with some falafel for dinner

Was it worth it? Probably not.

The progress on my junior program is going slowly, as expected, but I have hope that within a couple weeks, we'll have more equipment, be in the elementary schools, and I may be in an apartment. Again, this is all hope, not fact. The only thing I can do is just keep going forward, keep making contacts, and keep pushing for the kids over here to get a shot at golf. Now some pictures for the people...