The Next Adventure: Nepal

It seems like years since my Italy adventure, although it has only been 9 months. For those that followed my blog through the organic farms of Italy, welcome back! The last nine months of retirement have been interesting with trips to Esalen to be certified in Tai Chi, Pennsylvania to visit my parents, a trip to my second home in Bozeman, Montana, and just everyday life in California.

Retirement has not been dull, but I really believe that without looking forward to my 3 month adventures, I would be easily bored. I guess I just haven’t decided what I want to be when I grow up yet….

It took some time for me to decide what I wanted to do during my next trip. I believe that by putting it out to the universe, my direction would magically appear and it did. I started reading articles on violence against women in the newspapers and books. I had no idea that such abuse was happening around the world. When I was reading “Half the Sky” on one of my plane trips, a professor sat down next to me and I found out he was publishing a similar book and his stories were amazing.

So I made a decision to go to Asia to work with non-profits that are trying to help abused women and girls. I started networking (many thanks to my friends) and doing internet searches. I finally narrowed it down to two nonprofit organizations in Nepal: TEWA and ABC. I will be helping TEWA write a business plan and I will be working with ABC to teach English to the women in transit.

It will be interesting to teach English, since I cannot speak a work of Nepali. And I thought Italian was a challenge!! I am not sure a business plan in Nepal is similar to a business plan in the US, but I am confident that I will at least give them something to talk about (or is it laugh about).

I also will be meeting with Madeleine Albright’s organizations, the National Democratic Institute, to see if I can be of assistance, but my main focus is helping abused women and girls.

I believe that I am a more knowledgeable planner for this trip. I will be going from very cold to very hot temperatures with a vacation in Cambodia at the tail end of the trip. Unlike Italy, I can buy inexpensive clothes in Nepal. My suitcase is half full with 3 pairs of pants and 5 long sleeve shirts and a couple light sweaters. The rest of the suitcase is filled with shoes: hiking boots, winter boots, sandals, hiking sandals, and everyday shoes. It is obvious I have a shoe fetish.

As for my hair, I have definitely abandoned the idea of going grey; I am just not ready. I am trying to bring the hair color my hairdresser uses and do it myself. It will be interesting. I doubt that there are beauty parlors in a third world country. But I am hopeful that I will have a massage once a week.

I will be staying at a women’s hostel in Kathmandu, Nepal, which ABC suggested. It is $10 per night (in my budget) and only 25 minute walk to the ABC offices. I believe my exercise will consist of walking, since Nepal has beautiful trekking routes and most mode of transportation is by foot.

Although this adventure is very different from my trip to Italy, I am confident that it will offer an experience of a lifetime.

Namaste