Niru's house!

Tonight we went to our friend, Niru's, house for dinner.  

The saving frog meets "Smitty" (6)

Smitty liked him!

Niru's family!

Mick, Wanna (Niru's daughter 15), Shova (her younger sister), Shova's husband (? I forgot!), Michael, Durga, Niru, & Sumpurna (13), and Smitty (standing in front of her mom) ... a beautiful family

teaching & cake!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of teaching at a Communications Workshop just outside of Kathmandu.  Communicators from all over the region came for a week of learning about blogs, graphics, public speaking, email etiquette, newsletters, photography, etc!  What a joy to meet everyone and see their eagerness to learn!  

The saving frog wanted to watch from the podium during an activity in my workshop session:

(yes, he came with me!)

closeup!

One of the participants from Darjeeling exclaiming, "oh my!  it's a saving frog!"

"Can I eat him?"  

"NO!"

I made a cake (first one here)!  We're going over to a Nepalese friend's house tonight for dinner 

and cake is dessert!

 The saving frog cheated by taking the first bite...  maybe no one will notice?

adventures!

Yesterday, Michael & I went to the King's Palace Museum (we wanted to check it out for friends who will come and visit!)  It was an amazing peek into the lives of former kings, the traditions of Nepal, and the life and death of the beloved, King Birendra... (murdered in June 2001)  alas, camera's were NOT allowed inside the palace... :-(

The saving frog went with us!  Here he is riding in the taxi on Michael's knee!

but the saving frog REALLY wanted to ride in a bicycle rickshaw...

We went to "Fire and Ice" (a restaurant) for lunch.  They had a poster of coca cola products in Kathmandu.  Yep, you can find coke here!

 The saving frog watched over Michael' Itouch while he ran to the restroom!

My friend "S" at "Higher Ground",  after we worked on projects, the saving frog wanted to meet her!

Obviously, they were quite smitten with each other!

Our friend's orphanage... This is one of the boy's dorms

 And then... the girl's dorms!

Notice any difference?  Don't you just love WOMEN!?

One of the girls

Talking with my friend who runs the orphanage

My husband ordered a mattress today (not quite the same as going to American Family Warehouse)!

The mattress maker CAME to our house to make it!  (bringing his cotton with him!)

His name is Ali Makhmed.  The saving frog was curious.

He checked it out...

Then, he wanted to help SEW the mattress!

Michael plays on a British (??!!) soccer team.  Here he is getting ready for a match...

Michael... and the team... in action!

The Kathmandu valley struggles with having enough water in the lines for all the residents.  So, every two weeks or so, in the dry season (now!), we have to purchase a TRUCKLOAD of water.  

Yay, our water truck arrives!

Our neighbor "dai" makes sure everything goes right!

They pull in a long hose and fill up our bottom tank

(we then pump it up to our upstairs tank to have "running water"! 

the saving frog wanted in on the action!

he "rode" the water hose!

A few things make our life WAY easier here.  

Like our coffee press - where would we be without it in the mornings?

(coffee grinder is to the right... we need that FIRST!)

our wireless router... which makes communicating with YOU, so much easier!  

so, those were our "adventures" yesterday and today!  

I know what I know...

Our family has listened to Paul Simon's music for as long as we can remember!  There's this one song when he sings, "Why, why, why?" and my kids (living in Nepal at the time),  thought that he was singing about "wai wai" -- the name of a Nepali snack we all love to eat here!  uhhh... not exactly!

We've listened to his music on road trips, late nights, birthdays, Christmas, you name it, Paul Simon's music is a part of our lives!

Well, today was a Paul Simon - Graceland - day!  ALL day!  His song, "I know what I know", has a line in it that goes like this:  "she moved so easily, all I could think of was sunlight.  I said, 'aren't you the woman who was recently given the Fulbright?'  she said, 'don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?' I said, 'who am I to blow against the wind?'  ... I know what I know..."

one has to hear it to appreciate it!  (from the Graceland album)

Anyway, today, we were all singing and dancing to this song,  because our Hannah Elizabeth... IS... "the woman who was recently given the Fulbright"!  Yep, Hannah was awarded a Fulbright grant to work in Nepal for a year!!!  and we're so happy!  a whole YEAR in Nepal with Hannah Liz!?!  Joy!

thanks for decades of entertainment, Mr. Simon!

Batti Gayo!

(translation:  “the lights are gone!”)

Tonight, as I was finishing up a budget for some friends who are coming to Nepal for a month, the lights went out!  

I knew that the city’s electric was not coming on for hours, but what surprised me was that our back up, (expensive!) electric system, (batteries), failed... I guess the charge ran out.  We’ll know more in the morning. 

So, as I sat in the dark with a candle, I wanted to write about it.  Ah!  Get the computer!  (it’s at least, 70% charged, yay!) ... Then I thought, “but, what if I didn’t HAVE a computer?”  

Well, then, I would write with pen and paper!  

But then, “what if I didn’t HAVE pen and paper?”...  

Then, I’d go outside and look at the stars!  Which I did! (and in the absolute DARKNESS.. they are beautiful!)...  

But,.. “what if... I didn’t HAVE the FREEDOM to go outside and look at the stars?”  hmmm... a serious end to a train of thought about electricity shortages...

This -- is a teensy, tiny...taste -- of what “life” is like for people all over Nepal who have had their freedom (and consequently, their life), taken from them.  (not to mention, inhumane atrocities done to them)... So ... THAT is what has filled my thoughts and prayers tonight.  

Strange, how we only consider (with any seriousness) those who ‘have not’ until WE... “have not”...

brief explanation

So, my last post was a serious one.  I figure that, here is where I will be freer to write things that I won't write on FB or other networking sites, simply because it's not a good forum for it.  FB, at least for me and my friends, tends to be a bit lighter.. like meeting friends for coffee and showing photos of the kids and their latest play date.  Not to mention FB includes a younger (and more vulnerable) group of people.  Definitely not the place to talk about the things that are unfolding in the area of human trafficking for me, here.

Did I know TIP (trafficking in persons) was a problem here in Nepal before?  Of course I did.  I knew that Nepal is one of the major "source" nations for trafficking children and women into countries in Asia... India, Thailand, etc.. as well as to some middle east, Arab countries.  Trafficking includes forced labor, sex slavery and child soldiers -- basically any situation where the person is not free to leave or make other choices.  And Nepal is one place that they are taken from.  Yes, that is known about Nepal.  It is something I've wanted to see change.

What is becoming clearer to me as I've returned here after 20 years, is how much the landscape of Nepal itself, has changed to include trafficking and slavery domestically.  I'm learning that what was once an area for "sex workers" who, because of a lack of other options, chose to go in this direction, finding people who would pay them for sex, (basically prostitution), has now changed -- to an entire sex slavery and trafficking "industry" -- where there are people organizing it, hierarchies, collaboration, and "normal" people knowing it is happening and looking the other way.   Also, the sheer volume of it -- it is ubiquitous and growing -- fast.

There are New Venues... for sexual slavery

Cabin Restaurants -  small, little hole in the walls, that you would miss if you didn't know where to look.  They do not have kitchens (eg, they are not "restaurants").  Customers can buy alcohol and food, but that is procured from other places with kitchens -- who collaborate with the cabin restaurant owners (part of the industry).  Also, there are not real "cabins" to speak of.  There are curtains, maybe plywood, separating customers from other customers.  The "waitresses" are there to provide sexual favors, and they cannot leave.  If customers want to go someplace else, this is also arranged.

Massage Parlors - basically for sexual massage -- primarily not for Westerners, although this may change if Nepal becomes known for this as places in Thailand have become known.

Dance Bars - these places offer entertainment as well

And then, there's the bus park brothels...

None of these are consensual.  The women (primarily) and girls are not there because they choose to be.

These did not exist (except maybe the bus park brothels) in an "industry" form when we lived here long ago.  We knew then, about prostitution in Nepal; but this is different.  This is slavery.  Forced.  And it is happening in our back yard, and people who could change it are not.  For whatever reason.  Perhaps no one knows what to do.    ke gar ne?  This is a priority -- identifying what to do -- for the average person.

to be continued...

Breathe Deep...

So, today, the door (or maybe a window) was open and I walked through it... ignorant.

The door was a glimpse into the everyday realities of Human Trafficking in Nepal - even in my beloved Pokhara... and in Thamel, just 20 minutes away... and at the bus park...

I tried hard to comprehend the situation and make sense of it with some kind of action steps.. (what I do in the best of situations!) -- but, I was overwhelmed by the sheer, stark facts.  Here, in Nepal?  my Nepal...?

I started writing (what I do when I don't know what to do) --

seeing my absolute lostness for a solution, my husband turned on the stereo and played a song by the Lost Dogs.. "Breathe Deep".  Breathe Deep the breath of God...

yeah, that's what it will take to enter and affect any kind of change for the tens of thousands of people effected by human trafficking in Nepal alone.  Some kind of breath from a living God...

to be continued....

A few days alone

Mick leaves for Surkhet tomorrow (in the west) - on a 12 hour motorbike ride through the beautiful land of Nepal...

Michael and I will be here, visiting refugees, shopping, meetings, homeschool, soccer, basketball and riding our bicycles throughout the city.  Fun!

Wi-fi arrives!

Hello world!  We now have wi-fi in the flat, so I'm gonna become a blog maniac from here on out...

Some new photos from the last couple weeks:

Michael in his bed... eating snacks and playing video games!

Mick playing his new Takamini guitar.  A friend gave it to him before leaving the country!

Some pics of the living room...

Our "shelf" - photos of our kids and grandkids are everywhere!

Our favorite corner to play music, read, or just look out the window...

I went shopping with a friend on "Women's Day" here.  We drove around picking up all the things one can't carry when walking!  (a friend had loaned my friend a CAR.  what a difference that makes.. we loaded it up!)  We were walking by the old school where my girls attended Kathmandu Tutorial Group and I snapped this pic - they were building and tearing down stuff.  Looks like yet another restaurant going in.  Our daughters learned to play recorder here, climbed trees, and did outdoor plays.  Times are changing.  

My friend, Sal and I at a Nepali wedding.  She's wearing a Tibetan dress, and I'm wearing a Chinese top she loaned me for the day.  Fun!