A Nepalese Tour
I left at the beginning of September and started with 6 days in the mountains of Greece – which is one of my old stomping grounds – staying with friends and my adopted greek family.
Ate more food that you can imagine. Trying to get the language thru the food! HAHA!
Then having collected my god daughter we headed to Nepal for the adventure of a lifetime. 3 weeks of the most amazing experiences and displays of unconditional love, warmth, gratitude and generosity of spirit. I love the Nepalese people – they are a kind and generous race who would give you the shirt of their backs – which is amazing given they are mostly poor.
Our weather was generally very good and the group of 10 which I took were well behaved and fun. We were women from Kuwait, Guangzhou,Greece,Australia and USA and one brave man from America Talk about multi cultural.
We attended 3 major events –
1. The Sapana Orphanage 10 year celebration which was quite official and I even gave a speech in Nepalese – that just about brought the house down – well the tent – everyone was laughing so hard and I am not talking about the white people – lovely to see the Nepalese belly laugh. After realising that my phonetically prepared speech was not going to come out quite as I intended – I decided to play it up! Anyhoo we were entertained all day by performances from the children. The weather held out beautifully and everyone was happy sitting in the lush green mountain region of Gokarne.
2. The Phoolbari Village celebration where we have recently installed 65 solar panels – thanks in part to the Queens Club – YEAH- Only 27 Miles away from Kathmandu – The weather was a bit miserable, drizzling and grey, misty but still warm.
At one point we were not sure if the bus was going to make it and are non Indiana Jones memebers were getting nervous as the bus would slip and slide on the climb up to the village. We then had to walk 1 hour into the village on the muddy rocky road past humble mud homes, chickens,goats and the biggest PIG I have ever seen.YEAH!
We were greeted by a honour guard of musicians, flower lays and soooo many children – the rain had stopped and it all looked like it was going to come together beautifully – and it did. We vivisted a few homes which had received a solar panel – mud floors – pitch black inside with pigeons lining the wall sitting in baskets – don’t ask me why they had pigeons – note to self – must ask someone! – anyhoo it took forever for my eyes to adjust just to see them- and I am talking faintly at best. Then we turned on the bulb which was supplied from the solar panel – yeah – let there be light!! and there was. I mean we are not talking football field of light but still – they could see and relief so could I.
Onto a few more homes ever being entertained by the 75 year old dancing minstrel in front of us, the musicians and the children. We visited a 90 year old man who has light for the first time – incredible – can you imagine – these people never leave their homes after dark and sit in the dark when they are there unless they are burning some toxic whatever – like kerosene which turns there noses black – amazing to think anyone can live that long – eventually we were led to the most beautiful home owned by my friend (who is an architect and was originally sent to volunteer in this village when he was a teenager – now he is one of the top traditional architects in Nepal and has built 5 schools including the one in this village. Such a generous soul, incredibly talented and good looking to boot – how does it get better than this?)
Here we all danced like Bollywood movie stars in the garden with the heavens as our back drop high in the mountains – I think the Gods would have been pleased with this spectacle Rabindra has the most fantastic cook who made all of us – about 20 – the scrummiest (technical term) lunch – wow and yum. Then we were off to the offcial presentation ceremony only 4 hours late but hey what else are they doing in the mountains besides attending buffalo and crops or walking 45 minutes one way to get water. Yikes – can you imagine!
The whole village turned out for the all the pomp and ceremony – we were all issued – photo frames, blessing scarves,programmes, gifts and of course don’t forget the papparazzi and the film crew – what a hoot! Oh and everyone was gifted each of these things individually with clapping in between each one -(Are you getting how long that takes just to welcome 14 people) Taditional shaman danced and chanted and one incredibly old, wrinkled and beautiful small woman stood in front of me just looking at me!!! I took her photo – this apparently indicated permission and so she stepped forward pulling from under her pashmina wrap a beautiful flowered garland.
OMG – she was soooo happy and so was I. It was placed over my head and we hugged – towering over her by a foot. Sisters from 2 different worlds grateful for each others presence. So humbling. Rabindra went on to tell me that she has not been able to leave home at night and would just sit in the dark – that I did not realise how much this panel has changed her life.
For only $125USD her life was changed = one Tire if your lucky!
I found out later as we walked back out that she is 80. I couldn’t keep up with her…. I think she was rushing a little because she wanted me to come a stay at her house.
Another perfect day -we made our way back to the bus picking our way over the country road. The sun had come out over our ceremony and the majestic breathtaking mountains were revealed by the clouds, the villagers were happy, my group were happy and we were all happily exhausted ready for the 2 hour bus trip home.
3. We went to the Sapana Dreaming Childrens Home which I am the Patron of – to visit and play with the Orphans. As with all children – they were shy to start out with – 33 of them aging between 3 and 16. The 3 year old had arrived 3 hours earlier and was an incredible child- She had come from the other end of nepal and was extremely tough and independant. Surprising us with the fact she could copy writing and spell her own name – I think she will have everone sorted in the home within days. Its only $1800 for the year to educate and home a child at Sapana. We brought in paints and pressies but ended up doing bubble blowers with the children and playing Duck Duck Goose – which for those of you who don’t know – You sit in a circle and someone is nominated to be the Goose – you walk around tapping each child on the head duck duck duck etc…..and then you tap Goose and run for your life (missing the wall, the cupboard, legs and anything else that may mar your path to successfully make it back to the place that the said Goose has come from – Needless to say they picked on all the adults as watching us attempt to get upquickly – let alone run was hysterical at best. Resulting in side splitting laughter and the ice officially broken. After which we were entertained with martial arts and songs….leaving them with our own rendition of Farewell adieu from The Sound of Music. Another totally beautiful experience.
– We also visited a Baby day care center that a now friend of mine runs – most people if they are lucky to have a job – say a teacher – only earn $40 a month – so its very expensive for them to put there children into Day care taking out at least half there wage – but what do you do if the husband has left or the wife has died and you are the only one left to support a child? So if anyone is interested in sponsoring a babe in day care that would be $120 per year. = 2 Dinners at a nice restaurant and a bottle of wine.
– Mrs Satyals school – is a pre school for children from very poor families who cannot afford to send their children to school. The children range from 4 to10.Currently they have about 20 children – last year there were 45. Mrs Satyal was the first woman to be receive a university degree in Nepal – She is now 80 and had colon cancer – she is the equivalent of my Mother Theresa so HOG Heaven is always happy to help her with anything we can.
You should have seen us blowing up balloons in the bus so we could arrive as a total celebration of colour and joy.
We decided to have a birthday party with the children and a group that had graduated came back to visit too. we had balloons and cake, gifts in the form of back packs,toy cars, school supplies and hair ribbons etc… but nothing surpassed the water ballon fight between the children and the foreigners – needless to say we were saturated in minutes – too much fun and too much laughter – I love nothing more than behaving like a complete rat bag when your expected to be a grown up – the kids loved it and so did we. Its $275 to sponsor a child to pre – school – What would it take to grab a friend a sponsor a child?
BLESSED –
How did we get so lucky? I mean really – to live where we do, to have what we have and to have the ability to change our circumstances.
We are truly blessed – with immense gratitude for EVERYONE who has contributed in whatever way to my life, this journey or changing the lives of those touched in Nepal.
Immense Gratitude for your Being
Love and Namaste
Joanna