An Inspiring Day

I was sick last night…not sure what happened, so I did not get up until late; in fact, my hotel had to wake me for breakfast. As I mentioned, it is a national holiday so no work at Tewa. I attended a Federation of Women Entrepreneurs event, but it was totally in Nepali. It was all in Nepali but the women speaker seemed to be a real pioneer in the movement to help women all over the world.

Afterwards, I went to see a film on Liberia. It was so inspiring. It was about how the women of Liberia forced the government and the terrorist groups to come together to sign a peace treaty. Both the terrorists and the government were vandalizing, killing, and raping the citizens of Liberia. It is part of a series of films on human rights.

Most of the women at the event the night before attended this event. I was introducing people; just like I had been in Nepal for years. What a laugh.

It is really a strong group of women, many from the US. There was an elderly woman who was from the US State Department assigned to Nepal years ago. When she retired, she moved back to Nepal and is one of only three that has been given a retirement visa. She loves Nepal and the people of Nepal and has been very active in promoting women’s rights in Nepal. She believes with $5M she can buy back all the women sold into prostitution (eliminate trafficking) and has a movement to raise the money.

It has been an inspiring day and I am anxious to get back to work at Tewa tomorrow.

Namaste

Great Events for International Women's Day

I want to say immediately that I looked great in my Very Orange Kurta. I wish I would have had someone take a picture. Yesterday was Tewa’s donor event in Patan. There were over 50 people there and I would say that at least 25% were from the US. The event was held in honor of Louise Forest, a major donor out of Bozeman, Montana. A major donor is around $5K to $10K.

Most of the US people were living for a period of time in Nepal in some type of NGO or organization to help the Nepali people. One lady was a Fulbright Scholar in Theater and her husband was working with an organization on Human Rights. Another man is working with over 50,000 volunteer women training them on nursing the poor; interesting that most are from California and Montana. They were all very nice and I made a few friends. I believe that if I stayed in Nepal, I would be able to make friends faster than in California or Montana.

All the US people except Maggie, who has been in Nepal for over 30 years, wore regular pants and sweater. They thought I dressed in my Kurta every day. Little did they know that my jeans are wearing out from overuse.

I was invited to the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ International Women’s Day National Holiday event today and tonight I am going to a special film in honor of this national holiday. Interesting that Nepal treats International Women's Day as a national holiday... I bet you guys don't even know that it is International Women's Day... sure not a national holiday in US.

My calendar is getting very full and I really am trying to make sure I get all the marketing material done before I leave.

Namaste

Fighting the Water Balloons

I definitely did my 10000 steps today. To get to the monkey temple I had to walk about 3 miles from the bus stop and then go up many steps… I was too tired to count. I decided to catch a micro bus to get back to Thamel from the temple. That was my first mistake of the day. They kept on putting people in the van, even when there was no room and people were hanging out. I was fighting to keep a couple guys from ending up on my lap. I finally said “that’s it” and got out. Everyone laughed. I bet they were taking wagers to see how long I lasted. So I ended up walking back.

One of the reasons I did not want to walk back is because of the holiday, where the kids throw water balloons at you, especially tourists. I got it once on the way to the temple and the water was out of this filthy river… the river stunk. I was using my wipes to get the water off as best I could. I had to tell the kids a very strong NO, when they kept doing it. I was keeping my eyes out for all the kids with water balloons and going from one side of the street to the other.

I am on a NO taxi kick to save money. Not sure how long I will last. It is really easy to just get in a taxi, rather than fighting the crowds and get lost. All in all I think I walked about 8 miles today.

Tonight was the night to color my hair and I wanted to get home before dark (remember there is no electricity except a very little light in the room). I didn’t make it, so I was putting color on my hair with a flashlight and a little mirror from my powder. I am sharing a bathroom and there is no light in the bathroom, so I had to improvise. I wanted to color it so it would look nice for the dinner tomorrow night. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the light.

I am really done with the sightseeing in Kathmandu, Nepal. I have two weeks to get the marketing plan done and all the other deliverables: a power point sales presentation, a template newsletter, and a database of prospective customers. There’s a lot to do.

Namaste

Beautiful Temples

I started out early today so I could see all the sights on my list. First I had to figure out the bus system. I was able to get to my first stop, Boudna, in record time.

Boudna is a very famous and unusual temple. It was really amazing to see a huge white dome stupa and tower painted with the eyes of budha and gompas (temples) surrounding it. There was a “service” (not sure that is what it is called) going on in one of the gompas. All the monks were chanting and they had two very long horns that would sound every five minutes. I happen to be inside when they went off and it was verrrry loud. It really is amazing to see.

I walked around the white dome and did some shopping. This stupa was built by Tibetan refugees, so the shops are filled with Tibetan goods . It was pretty exhausting and, thanks to lonely planet, was able to find a great coffee shop. Yes, even in Nepal there are coffee shops.

After seeing all the sights, I decided to walk to my next temple, Pashupatinath, which is the most sacred temple in Kathmandu. As I walked, I noticed a little friend, a boy in first grade, walking with me. It was really a great walk… made sure I had well over 10000 steps in for the day…. and the little boy stayed with me until we reached our destination. I bought him an ice cream cone.

Now, I know I do not do a great job of reading signs, but I really messed up this time. Apparently no one but Hindus are allowed to enter temple and definitely not cameras. I walked right in like I owned the place and was in the middle of taking a picture when a holy man and police officer started yelling at me. I was asked, no forced, to leave the temple quickly. Wow was that holy man mad… he wasn’t acting so holy. I guess I was lucky in that I got to see inside, where all the tourists were forced to stay outside.

I was allowed to enter the sacred river and watch the cremations (paid 500 rupees that only the tourists were charged). Apparently as soon as someone dies, they are immediately cremated in a ceremony at the river. The Brahmans (priest class) and monarchy are treated differently than the other classes, but all are cremated at the river. I watched a couple bodies being burned and one that the family was preparing to cremate. It was amazing. They believe that everyone dies (we believe this also) and that it is a very public ceremony, because the person will be reincarnated in another life. The river, although polluted, is considered very sacred. It actually joins a sacred river in India.

After I finished at the temple, I met Razeena and we shopped for over three hours trying to find an appropriate outfit for me to wear to dinner on Monday night. I am going to a special dinner with the donors and board members of Tewa. I found a Kurte and shoes and earrings… I probably will never wear it again, but I will really look Nepalese on Monday night. I am also going out on Tuesday and found a Kurta for that evening to wear with jeans. The difference between Kurte and Kurta is whether the outfit has matching pants.

After shopping until I was exhausted, we went to Razeena’s hotel and ate dinner. I was home by 9am and ready for a good night’s sleep… tomorrow is another sightseeing day.

Namaste

Trip to Nargarkot

It was a windy trip up and up to Nagarkot. Since I did not have a room in my hotel on the 3rd, I decided to take a trip for the night to Nagarkot. I stayed at the Farmhouse Resort. It was a lovely, quiet place. So quiet, I couldn’t sleep (where were the motorcycles and honking like my other hotel).

Nagarkot is known for its sunsets and sunrises, but timing is important. Unfortunately it was foggy and it was not as magnificent as in October/November time frame. But the place was very peaceful and I met some really nice people from Australia and UK. Since meals were included in this hotel because it was so remote, we had some lively discussions at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At dinner I split a bottle of wine with a French couple that was also there. Wouldn’t you know they stiffed me for the bill (nothing against the French Cathy).

The next day I set out to walk back to Kathmandu through a village called Sankhu. The walk was wonderful. The hillsides were green and beautifully terraced. They were filming a Nepali movie. Apparently the guy we were watching is a very popular movie star. Now I live in California and never see movie stars and come to Nepal and see a movie star (or I think he was a movie star, since I haven’t the slightest whether he is. I have to take their word).

The Lonely Planet said this was a short walk… yea… they really got this wrong. It turns out that it would be a six hour or seven hour walk; so I walked around 2 ½ hours to Sankhu and took a bus from there. Again, I really hate buses, just like Italy. There are no signs in English and you just have to rely on a conversion, where you are not sure they understand you.

The bus was very crowded. There was a woman next to me that kept tossing her hair. Now I am really paranoid that I am going to get lice. I won’t put my head back on the seat and I tried to keep my head away from this woman. I think lice can jump from head to head….just kidding. Buses in Nepal are very bumpy and loud and the windows are open with the dust flying in. It was a long ride.

Finally the bus was empty but I was still riding in it…. I kept on asking if I should get off and he kept saying no. He was right because after about 1 ½ hours we pulled into a bus park that I am familiar with and I could jump a bus to Patan. Needless to say I took a nap when I was back safe and sound in my hotel.

Last night I had a BBQ with the National Democracy Foundation folks at a very beautiful Newari Hotel. It was a really beautiful large hotel and good to see how the other people live.
It was really nice to get to know all the NDF folks. There are four people from the Washington DC doing an audit of the programs, so it was nice to be with fellow Americans. I hope I will get to work with them in the future.

It was a very wonderful few days and glad I took the trip.

Namaste

The Holiday Spirit

Walking to work today was interesting. It is a holiday in Nepal. All the children are out with ropes stopping the traffic and walkers. You have to pay them money to pass thru. I didn’t quite get it at the first stop and passed without paying (not good). The second one I gave the kids some rupees. Apparently, everyone knows about this and makes sure they have small change to pay the kids. They are having so much fun. It is almost like Halloween, but these kids are smart and ask for money.

I almost feel like a local walking to work every day. The people are getting used to seeing me. As I was walking to work yesterday, I passed a bunch of tourist looking at all the sights. It made me laugh… I guess I looked like them the first time I walked down this road. It is definitely a colorful, local path to the bus.

This weekend is going to be interesting because many people paint their faces and throw powder and water balloons at other people, especially tourists, for the holiday. Apparently the water in the balloons is not “clean”. It probably comes from the polluted river. I will definitely be on guard.

It was difficult to work today. Between the cold, poor internet, and excitement about my trip tomorrow, I could not get anything done. The internet in Nepal is sporadic, just like the electricity. So Razeena and I took off early and she showed me all the cool places around Thamel. I bought five shawls for gifts (or myself…).

We stopped and had some coffee… real coffee. Not Nescafe! It tasted so good. I am starting to find some of the good coffee shops. Only bad thing is that none of them are close to my hotel.

It is really amazing to see that there are beautiful gardens and buildings behind plain walls. When you are walking or riding a bus you would never know they existed. Thanks to Razeena, I was able to see a little of the real beauty of Thamel, rather than a tourist shopping area. The more I see the real Nepal; I am really enjoying it and can understand why so many Americans love living here.

Namaste

A "Cold" Day

Well I did get the cold I was worried about. I went to the pharmacy… now Nepali pharmacies are like any other shop on the road, but it has drugs!!. I bought something (not sure what it is but it is working). I still went to work at Tewa, because I will be in Nagarkot on Thursday and Friday and will not be working. I am going to see the sunset and sunrise. It is suppose to be spectacular. Not sure if it can beat the sunsets from my home in CDM, but I will let you know.

Another woman, Louise Forrest, arrives next week from Bozeman, MT. Apparently she is a donor and wants to see Tewa. I am anxious to meet her, since Eric and I have a home in Bozeman also. I know she is planning on a trek, so perhaps she is joining the same one I am.

Work is slow, but I think I finally have the right info… really depends on who you talk to. I have completed the marketing plan and action plan. I now need to do my assigned tasks on the marketing plan. It probably will take most of the time in Nepal to complete. I don’t want to leave until I finish my project.

Namaste