Full Circle

Hello and Namaste! We are finally back in Kathmandu! After our amazing (and amazingly short) stay in Lumbini, we spent a night in Butwal (not too much to write home about...hot, muggy, and Rotary meetings), followed by 3 nights in Chitwan. We had several project site vists in Chitwan but two stand out as being particularly inspirational. First was a visit to an aged persons home. When we arrived, the old folks were eating so we walked around a bit. The home is on a river and we noticed that many people were down by the river bathing and celebrating. Our host explained to us that this day was a Hindu holiday, Ram Navami (they have a lot of holidays). Then he asked us if we would like to go down to the river. Becky, Michelle and I went down to the river with him and he told us that they bathed in the river to obtain some of the power of the god, Ram. They were bathing right at the merging of two rivers which, our guide told us, was one of the holiest places in Nepal. Then he invited us to wash our arms and faces in the water and when we came out an old man stood by us and chanted prayers to us and our guide told us that the man was blessing us (and no, he didn't ask for money). Maybe we were just being humored. Maybe I didn't notice. But it really seemed like we were just so easily included. Nobody asked us what we were doing there or what our religion was. They just peacefully welcomed us in.

When we got back to the old folks home, we all gathered in a meeting room to talk...but we don't speak Nepali and the old folks don't speak English. Michelle starts to tell (or more exactly show) the group that we have been learning Nepali dance and then, all of a sudden, someone has passed out instruments and the old folks start singing and clapping and then someone gets up to dance and soon we are all dancing again! Thanks to Michelle, we have been dancing our way across Nepal! When there's a language barrier that makes conversation difficult, and when the dozens of projects you've toured all start to blend together, the things that stand out are these extraordinary human interactions that make us laugh and move our bodies and leave a happy glow.

The other project that was particularly memorable was visiting a school that had been built completely out of pocket (but was only 2 rooms!) and had 2 local teachers who were completely volunteer. It was very inspirational and also quite moving to see how much work they still had ahead of them.

The last "highlight" of Chitwan was a jungle safari on elephants. However, I regret to tell you all that I did not partake. Well, I don't regret...but it was a little strange how, after seeing children in broken schools, villagers with meager water rations, and poverty in the streets, the thing that finally broke me was the damn elephants. Ridiculous. But I gave my camera to Michelle and she snapped a picture of the one horned rino that they saw! Very cool!

After Chitwan we had a long bus ride to Duhlikel (we saw 2 bus accidents along the way), where we stayed one night. Yesterday, we returned to Kathmandu, where we will be for the remainder of the exchange.

Today we had 2 rotary meetings and saw a beautiful Buddhist stupa. I'm really enjoying learning about the Buddhist and Hindu religions. My current host family is Jain (I'm not sure if that's correct spelling...but it's late and I'm too lazy to look it up), which is a sect of Buddhism. They are totally vegetarian, don't drink and they live as a "joint family," which means that the whole extended family lives together - grandma, brothers, brothers' wives, children - all under the same roof! Well, these guys have 2 roofs. It's very cool and an incredibly comfortable environment to be in.

I've met the GSE Nepal team that will be traveling to California next month! They are a great group and I'm really excited to see them in Mammoth!

Thanks for checking in!