Meeting with Swiss Ambassador Thomas Gass
Jiri Technical School founded by Switzerland 1984
Dario taking to students in the foothills of Everest
Matteo’s, Francesco’s and Vittorano’s goal was to get to Kathmandu. Matteo has a problem with his knee. So I continued myself 190 km up and down to Jiri. Kathmandu to Jiri means two very long days with some high passes in between:
Deep down to cross the rivers where you find always a market…

… and high up again to pass the next mountain ridge.
Since Kolkata I started always about two hours before sunrise to avoid the heat.
Finally arrived in Jiri the end of the “official” road and the closest you get cycling to Everest.

On the 3rd day I continued towards Bhandar, but had to stop after some hours because the road was too bad and made it back to Jiri to do a TOPtoTOP event in the Primary School and Technical School, both supported by Switzerland.

Outdoor presentation in the “Shree Saraswoti Community School” with 320 students, 13 teachers. They have not enough class rooms…

Presentation at the Jiri Technical School
The Jiri Technical School was established in 1984 by the Swiss Government. It provides training in the field of agriculture, construction and health. In agriculture trade they produce “Junior Technical Assistant” (both agriculture and animal health); in construction trade they produce “Junior Engineer” and in health trade the school produces “Auxiliary Nurse Midwife”. The students are from poor families and so the monthly fee per student is only about CHF 4.-. The program goes 29 month; 24 month in the school and 5 months in the field.
Old educational equipment
They urgently need new educational equipment, especially for the nursery students. It would be perfect to build up relationships with Swiss agriculture and nursery schools. If you have a contact or solution please email to the principal Mr. Ramthari Khanal (ramkhanal2000@yahoomail.com, phone: ++977 98 41 31 26 08).
On the 16th of March the Swiss Ambassador Thomas Gass and his wife Nathalie invited me on the Embassy. They organized a press conference and offered to leave my bike and cycling equipment at their house. So I started in Jiri at 3 a.m. and made the 190 km back to KTM in 15 hours. I only stopped to get some energy in the many small “bistros” on the way.

Finally I made it to Kathmandu exhausted and just in time before getting dark. The traffic and pollution was incredible, but I was excited to meet the Ambassador and his wife the next day. I already heard so many good things about him…
Traffic in KTM
AGAIN:
Many thanks to Santosh Kumar (www.getoffurass.com), Neethi Mahesh, Thomas Schmocker, Anurag Verma, Cherish Tota to make the trip from Kolkata to Nepal a success … and finally many thanks to my friend Matteo with his companions Francesco and Vittoriano to join this endeavor to KTM.