Namaste Kathmandu

Jai Ho! Party for Namaste Kathmandu

2012-01-13T20:20:00.000-08:00

Namaste NK Family,

Tomorrow's your chance to party AND support Namaste Kathmandu (www.namastekathmandu.org). This Saturday, 01/14/12 at 9pm, come enjoy DJ Prashant's Bollywood and American tunes at the Crystal Ballroom (Lola's Room). So much fun, your mouth will hurt from smiling. Free Chi-Tinis before 10! I will be on stage!

Put your dancing shoes on and start smiling now (please) !

*****
Saturday, 01/14/12
$10
Lola's Room (Located one floor below the Crystal Ballroom)
*****

Shanti (Peace),

Erica Boulay

2012 Fundraising Drive off to Great Start! Save the Date: 01 - 14 -12

2011-12-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you for supporting Namaste Kathmandu!

You are invited to an all-ages Bollywood dance party at Lola's Room, below the Crystal Ballroom. No experience is required; all you need is the desire to have FUN. DJ's Prashant and Armaan are generously donating a portion of every ticket to Namaste Kathmandu and Portland non-profit Central City Concern. What better way to bring in the new year than by supporting the work we do for the kids in Kathmandu, laughing all night, and dancing with friendly people? You will not be disappointed!

PLEASE PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS AHEAD OF TIME! If 500 people buy tickets before December 31st, 2011, we will move the event to the 1,500 person capacity Crystal Ballroom! 1,500 people means $1,500 for Namaste Kathmandu! Please purchase your $10 ticket here.

DJ Prashant will give a short lesson on how to dance the "Jai Ho!" dance from the popular "Slumdog Millionaire" movie, and more experienced dancers will give a short performance.

Last night's fundraiser raised $5,353.26 for the kids at Mechi Mahakali School, placing us more than halfway to our 2012 goal o $10,000! Dhanyabad and Thanks from the bottom of our hearts!

For those of you who haven't received the NK News Winter 2011 Edition and would like to receive an electronic or physical copy, please email NK at: erica.boulay@gmail.com.

Erica Boulay (me) presents "NK Moves Beyond Basic Need in 2012"
at Eastmoreland Racquet Club

In the meantime, I will leave you with photos of the new three-room building built this summer with the help of South Korean service organization KOPIAN. None of this would be possible without your dedication to NK and your belief in the power of education to transform lives.

Winter 2011 updates from Kathmandu

2011-11-28T00:24:00.000-08:00

It is a warm and sunny morning at Paurakhi Gaun. Most of the village adults are away working. There are some who stay behind, however. Pregnant or nursing mothers, infants, and men and women who have not found a job for the day. As two of my Dutch friends and I stroll towards the village, some of those who are outside enjoying the sunshine come up to us and greet, Namaste hajur, sanchai? I say I am well and ask them how they are doing. I introduce my Dutch friends to them, they exchange well-wishes and get back to their sunshine.

Further in the village, we can hear the children's din. My friends are more interested in this strange noise than in anything else around them. All of us walk to the corner and turn towards the school. "It is beeau-ti-fool!" screams one of my Dutch friends, her hands covering her mouth, almost gasping. I am pleased both by her reaction as well as the sight of two beautifully painted school buildings.

One by one, we enter each classroom and are greeted by the kids' "good morning sir/ good morning ma'am", identical in each classroom. They are learning identification of animals today in grade two. Our teacher has drawn something that looks like a cross between a cow and a dog and labeled it "goat", and is asking of each student the parts of the animal's body. We stand quietly in one corner of the class for a few minutes, watching the children as they try to show off their skills to two new faces (my Dutch friends). When we take leave, the children all rise again, and scream goodbyes.

In the next six months, our grade three kids will have to move to grade four (according to the Nepali academic calendar). With the infrastructure we have, this is not possible. I have been talking with another non-profit in the village about doing a joint construction project for a classroom and library building (two rooms that would serve the purpose), and have come up with a rough budget. NK Team in Portland and Seattle are working to find money to support these upcoming projects. I have hope that with your generous support, we will be able to meet our target of $10,000 for 2012, which will not only help with classroom construction but also with building four new latrines and a small staff-room cum office space for our teachers.

As we think about our longer term goals and the direction we want to move next as an organization, I am reminded of the informal "needs assessment" I did among villagers when I first ventured into Paurakhi Gaun almost five years ago. What resulted was not solely my creation but a reflection of the people's needs and wishes at the time. I hope to have the flexibility to change with the needs of the people we serve.

Namaste Kathmandu at University of Washington

2011-05-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

Namaste Kathmandu Official Website: Click Here!

Namaste Kathmandu Benefit Concert a raving success in Seattle!

This Spring, Xeno and a fine group of undergraduates at the University of Washington got together and accomplished something grand.

They learned about the condition of the families in Paruki Gaun Village, and about the work NK does to alleviate some of these problems by providing no-cost educational services to children in that community. Any child who doesn't attend any other school is welcome at Mechi Mahakali School. To date, we have over 65 students registered and attending grades Nursery, Kindergarten, First, and Second grades. Everyone receives free lunch, uniform, and school supplies. Parents meet for regular school board meetings, and after-school tutoring occurs every day after school.

When this group of University of Washington undergraduates heard about the work we do at NK, they decided to help us. They called up all of their friends, family, and professors. They hung posters all over Seattle, and gathered a large crowd. Then they danced the night away in Lucid Lounge in Seattle, where a number of bands had been scheduled to play. By the end of the night, the NK Seattle team raised $715 for Mechi Mahakali School!

You can do this too! Just gather some friends, invite Xeno, Erica or one of the brilliant people pictured above to present on the work of NK, and we can raise some money for the kids who need it most! If you're interested in hosting a fundraising presentation in your area, please email me at: erica dot boulay @gmail.com, or leave a comment in the comment section of this blog bellow.

Shante! Peace! Keep up the great work in Portland, Seattle, Nepal, and beyond!

"Namaste Kathmandu" Debuts in Reed Magazine !

2011-02-25T15:25:00.000-08:00

Namaste Kathmandu met this month for a regular board meeting. We have made several new contacts in the Rotary as well as on the ground in Kathmandu, Nepal. New to the group on the morning of Feb. 12th were Brent Neilson and Hannah Smith. We're very fortunate to have them working with us, as they abound with creative ideas and networking skills.

We hope to send Reed College Sophomore and NK Reed Chapter member Joseph Vincent to Mechi Mahakali School this summer to work as a summer 2011 semester teacher. This spring we are planning to hold a dinner at a Nepali restaurant in Seattle where Xeno lives. Please stay tuned for more information on the specifics of this exciting opportunity. Nepali food is always delicious! We continually accept donations as Mechi Mahakali School always requires faculty salaries, supplies, food, and facility maintenance. Wouldn't it be great if we had so much money that we could build a playground, grow a school vegetable garden, or start a community health worker program? We want to go above and beyond for the kids at Mechi Mahakali, and hope you'll join us. Erica has been busy working on a steady stream of grant applications. Competition is tough, but eventually we're sure to hit gold somewhere.

In other news, NK hit the prime-time with a double Reed Magazine debut! Xeno and Erica both wrote articles in this month's issue of the alumni magazine, and you can read all about NK here, at: http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/articles/features/pujas_lesson.html

as well as here: http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/articles/features/school_for_katmandu.html

We hope you'll consider making a donation to NK here through PayPal. As always, your contribution is deeply appreciated and goes directly to the school. We have absolutely no overhead costs, so you can feel confident that your money will make a huge difference in the lives of the 52 students at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Two Truths and A Lie

- The population of Kathmandu increased from 427,045 in 1991 to 671,805 in 2001 and in 2010 reached 948,417.

- The pagoda architectural style originated in Nepal and was invented by a Nepalese person.

- Most of the people living in Paruki Gaun Village and the students attending NK's Mechi Mahakali School self-identify as Hindus.

~~~ Can you spot the lie? Check back next week for the answer. ~~~

The New Year to Come

2010-12-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

Wishing you peace and love this winter and a happy new year!

The day we'll meet again is hopefully near.

At Mechi Mahakali School we still study and play.

And eat feasts together - it's the Nepali way!

Look what I made! It's a picture for you!
Thanks for making our dreams come true!

Won't you donate to Namaste Kathmandu?

* * *

This winter has so far been extremely busy for us in Portland, Oregon. We sent out holiday newsletters, recruited Reed College students to volunteer with us, and worked on our new website to be launched very shortly at: www.namastekathmandu.org.

Erica has been busy applying to grants to return to Nepal this summer to start a "Community Health Worker" program in which 10-12 literate women would receive basic medical training from Nepali doctors, receive a regular salary for their time, and use their new skills and knowledge to respond to the medical needs of Paruki Gaun Village, the community in which Mechi Mahakali School is located.

If you would like to receive a newsletter, please email us at xenoach@gmaildotcom and we will happily mail one your way. Stay safe, and check back for more updates!

I Miss You, Mechi Mahakali!

2010-09-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

From May 15 to August 22, 2010 Reed College students Kritish '12 and Erica '11 interned for non-profit Namaste Kathmandu at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village at the banks of the Bagmati river in Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal. They worked with teachers and community members in the school,
and gathered information to improve the services provided by
Namaste Kathmandu.

Almost two weeks since we left Kathmandu, I am putting up all of the pictures and VIDEOS I couldn't in the cyber cafés in Nepal. I miss all of the friends I made in Nepal. The grocery stores here seem overwhelming, but it's good to be back in the good ol' US of A. We should be having more fund raising events for Namaste Kathmandu soon, so stay posted.

Pratham and Bikash present the skits they wrote in Nepali

Erica Miss started drawing these stars with smiley-faces, and Ashish has drawn them for himself in most of the pages of his book. He calls them "happy stars."

Sisters Uma and Kusum

Alisha concentrating on her classwork.

I gave my digital camera to the kids for about an hour one day, and here is what I found when I got it back.

Older kids in the Nursery classroom

The school is the pink building on the right. The pile of bricks is going to be used to finish the foundation of the extra room they will eventually build for the school. The woman in the red is Kamila Dede (Dede means 'sister' in Nepali). She is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet, and was always so cheerful and dedicated to the school.

I don't know what this is a picture of but it was taken by a kid, so I decided to include it here. I think it's a photo of a rooster about to (foolishly) walk into the (very high and fast) river.

A man puts the finishing touches on the building to be used for a child care center. It is directly across the pathway from Mechi Mahakali School.

The twins and one of their friends who goes to a different school.

Ram and Laxman

Sisters Kusum (12), Uma (9), and Ruma with Erica
Kusum and Uma were in my Second Grade class and their sister goes to Nursery

I think Ashish took this picture of the ducks and the very noisy truck rolling through the village. The people in the background will use bricks delivered by the truck to build their home.

I miss you, Rupa!!

The kids are SUCH good photographers!

These are movies of some of my Class 2 kids singing songs I taught them. Some volunteers came to give them school supplies, and they decided to perform for them!

Last Days at Mechi Mahakali

2010-08-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Kritish and Esau at the Farewell Party on Thursday.

Reed College students Kritish and Erica are working an internship for Namaste Kathmandu at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village at the banks of the Bagmati river in Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal. They are working with the teachers and community members in the school, as well as gathering information for the non-profit to compile into a report on the situation in the village.

Oh my goodness I'm going to miss this little guy so much!

Ali and Erica on the banks of the Bagmati River.

Wow, the days have passed quickly. On Wednesday, Mechi Mahakali School went to the zoo. On Thursday, the kids and teachers put on a "Farewell Party" for Kritish and I. On Friday, we were able to give the students some books, educational toys, and a new soccer ball and cricket bat and ball. Here are some highlights:

The Zoo in Kathmandu is not far from the AWON Library, which is just over the bridge from Paruki Gaun Village. With seven adult chaperones, we took the tempus (small little vehicles which carry up to 10 or 11 people) to the zoo.

What kid doesn't love the zoo? First stop were the crocodiles. Next were various types of deer, about which I would have liked to read more, but the kids were moving so quickly that I didn't have time to absorb all the info written on the plaques on the pens. There were hyenas, some primates, and a HUGE porcupine. The bear obviously was obviously tantalized by the smell of 42 children just meters outside its pen.

There's a bear in there!

The kids liked watching the bear pace back and forth. We had read the book "Five Little Hippos" at the AWON Library, so Rupa in particular was happy to see two real hippos bathing in some water. There were rhinos, a tiger, guinea pigs, flocks of birds, pelicans roaming about, an ostrich, other zoo visitors, and giant 200 year old tortoises. We all learned so much at the zoo. And to top it all off, we played at the playground at the end of the day. This zoo offered elephant rides, and the top of the slide doubled as an elephant un-loading staircase. What an eventful trip. Here's a picture of Kalyan Sir with Class 2 brothers Barun (12) and Pratham (9) with little Ali from Class KG. Ali was fascinated by the elephant's skin, and kept running up to its trunk to feel it up close.

Teachers also had a good time, even though we had to use a band-aid or two during the playground portion of the trip.

Hiran Ma'am had a great time at the playground.

The kids found a really cool tree near the tropical bird area, and started collecting its giant seeds. The seeds kind of looked like Brazil nuts, but we told the kids not to eat them. They might look yummy ("minto-cha!" in Nepali) but they could be dirty or poisonous. This put an end to many a Zoo-Nut selling business. In this photo, Asmita, brother Samuel, Uma, and Ali try to get to the bottom of the nut situation.

On Thursday the kids put on a "Farewell Party" for Kritish and I. We didn't take pictures, but from 8-10 am on Thursday and Friday Anup and I held Basic First Aid classes for any of the women in Paruki Gaun. Anup translated for me, and the women were serious about what we were doing. Some brought in their babies who had various skin rashes. They said that their family's most frequent health problems are "pneumonia" and cuts from not wearing good shoes outside.

Mechi Mahakali School mothers standing outside of the Voice of Children resource center. These lovely ladies came to my First Aid trainings. They had to go to work (note the basket used for hauling dirt and rocks on Camilla Dede's back) right after we ended our meeting.

All of the kids at Mechi Mahakali were busy outside picking flowers from whatever plant, bush, tree and shrub they could lay their hands on. When they came inside with all of their flowers, everyone needed to have "one photo, Miss" taken. Of course! Both the flowers and the kids were beautiful.

A Class 1 and a Class KG student pose with flowers inside Mechi Mahakali School.

This is a photo of Class 1 teacher Alina Miss, Class 2 teacher Erica Miss, Nursery teacher Hiran Ma'am, and caretaker/tiffin-maker Camilla Dede (sister in Nepali).

The party was great. Many students sang beautiful solos, people gave speeches, and Erica and Kritish put tikka to everyone's forehead. Erica hadn't much practice with tikka application, so some of the kids had more tikka on their noses and cheeks than their foreheads. Below is a photo of her handywork.

Some of the Class 2 students also put in the extra effort to give speeches. They wanted to make sure that I would "never forget" them, which of course I won't. These kids have been a joy to know, and I'm going to miss coming to school and seeing their smiling faces every day. They are all excellent! (This is an inside joke between the kids and I. Whenever they finished an assignment, I would correct it and usually write "Excellent" at the top of the page.)

The next day was Friday, which is always a half-day in Nepali schools. Kritish and I used some of the money we raised to buy educational toys and books, and outdoor toys for the kids. We gave them to the kids on Friday. Usually at Tiffin, the kids have only one jump rope they share between themselves, and we all walk around and chat. On this day, the kids had more toys and games to play than they could ever imagine.

Asmita jumping rope (with a new jump rope) in the Class 2 building. Super happiness!!!

On Saturday, a non-profit came to the school to distribute new copies (notebooks), pencils, sharpeners, and erasers to the kids. These people are Nepali citizens, many of them teachers at other schools, who started a non-profit to help those most in need. In the past they have given a toothbrush and toothpaste to every employee at a carpet factory. They were excellent with the kids; asked them questions, led songs, and got them really excited. They say they will come back soon to donate toothbrushes and toothpaste to every child. We were so happy to welcome them to Mechi Mahakali.

Saurita goes up to receive a new copy and pencil! Yay! New pencil, Miss!

The kids listen to a story told by one of the visitors. I couldn't understand the Nepali, but the story appeared both riveting and humorous.

Some of us came a bit early for the new copy distribution program. So we waited outside and looked at the Bagmati River just behind Mechi Mahakali School. The water level was unusually high, but not at the point of flooding. The kids stood on the river bank and cheered as various objects went by. I think the biggest cheer went to the dead cow as it sped down the river.

h Today is Sunday, and Kritish and I are leaving on a jet plane tonight. We've had a wonderful summer, and it's sad to leave. But we know Mechi Mahakali School is in good hands. There are so many groups of people contributing to this school, and we feel proud to be a part of the non-profit who started it all: Namaste Kathmandu.

Thanks for reading, and look for lots more photos from our summer at Mechi Mahakali School in the coming days. Dhanybad!

Fun Times at Mechi Mahakali

2010-08-17T03:04:00.000-07:00

Class 2 student Bikas holds our wandering rabbit during Science class one day. What a lucky rabbit.

August 15th was my first Nepalese Strike. It's quite impressive that there hadn't been a strike since the week-long strike which ended on May 7th, 2010. Usually they are more frequent in Kathmandu. This strike only affected transportation, not the schools (directly), so I still went to school to teach.

This is a photo of the main Thappa Thali intersection at 1 pm. Normally, this place is full of cars, trucks, vans, tampus, bikes, motorbikes, and people (me) trying not to get hit in the face by oncoming traffic. Today, pedestrians were king of the road. I loved the day of the strike. Clean air, and no worries of getting hit by a car.

Many of the kids thought that we had cancelled school, so about half didn't show up, which was too bad, because we had a fun lesson planned about how to initially respond to an emergency. We inventoried the contents of the new Mechi Mahakali First Aid Kit, and then talked about the order in which we should call for help, ask the hurt person to speak, check for breathing, pulse, blood, and how to decide if it is a good idea to touch the patient. The kids took turns being the "victim" of a motorcycle accident.

Then, we had a visitor. A French photographer was walking through the area and was kind enough to act as a guest "victim." The kids loved this, and did a great job of asking his name, his breathing, his pulse, and practiced putting his arm in a sling. Then, we pretended to take him to the hospital. After class he took Erica and Anup out to lunch. Maybe if he comes with us to the zoo in a few days, we can buy him lunch!

There is a hospital just around the corner from Paruki Gaun Village, and most services (except overnight stay) are totally free. If you have a baby in the Maternity hospital, your family is given one-thousand Nepalese Rupees. If you have twins, you get two-thousand. Yet so many of the villagers do not go to the hospital when they really should. Maybe they are scared that they might have to pay after all. So we are trying to teach the kids the importance of going to the hospital when you need to, how to clean a cut and apply a bandage, and how to tell if someone has a fever . . . among other things.

Yes, we are doing a lot of teaching and learning here at Mechi Mahakali, and sometimes I wonder whose brains hurt more, my own or the students'. They teach me new things every day, and I'm going to miss them very much when I return to the states. Here are some pictures of the kids I get to hang out with every day.

Kusum and Rupa on the bus ride home after the library trip.

"For you, Miss!"

Almost everybody but Hiran Ma'am and the Nursery students.

Today in Math we continued to work on long division. Some of the kids are wizards and have almost completely mastered it, and some have missed days of class and need to catch up. In English we're working on the future tense. We asked the kids to finish the sentence:

In the future, I will be . . .

Their responses were:

I will be old.

I will be a doctor.

Ashish, Laxman, and Ram will be pilots.

Pratham will be a bus driver.

I will be a doctor in the future. (Asmita)

Rupa and Uma will be nurses.

Then they finished the sentence:

In the future, there will be . . .

aliens.

no aliens. (Asmita was adamant that all of her fellow classmates were wrong about the alien thing)

hovercrafts.

Then they wrote:

In 30 years, Kathmandu will be beautiful.

In 30 years, I will be 39 years old.

In 30 years, Baghmati River will be clean.

In 30 years, I will be tall.

In 30 years, Erica will be sooooooo old.

In 30 years, Barun will drive a hovercraft.

Then it was time for Science. I first asked the kids what they like to do after school. Study, play football, play cricket, skip rope, draw pictures with crayon, and eat were their answers. I asked them what parts of their bodies they need to do these fun activities. A small amount of chaos always ensues when we ask them questions. People here love telling stories, anecdotes, and hitting their friends with erasers. And non of this can happen sitting down. But when we were all ready to learn again, I showed them a picture of a clean lung and a lung after smoking cigarettes. Then I showed them a list of ingredients found inside cigarettes.

How do all of these poisons affect the parts of the body you need to have fun and play games? I asked. They had lots of ideas, and Rupa came to the front of the class and shared the story of how one of her relatives had died of Emphysema. All of her classmates got very, very serious. Some of the students in our class have smoked cigarettes before, and in general, drugs and alcohol are a big problem (especially among the men) in Paruki Gaun Village.

I brought my laptop to school today for the first time, because I wanted to show them a YouTube video showing the effects of cigarette smoke on the heart and lungs. They made me play it for them at least six times. When it came time for tiffin, they locked the door so non of the littler children would come into our laptop-movie-theatre. " I am going to show this to my Mummy and Daddy," they said, pointing to the hand-out showing all the chemicals found in cigarette smoke.

Tomorrow we go to the Zoo just across the bridge, and the day after I have heard that there will be a special event like we had when Haseeb Sir went home.

This is the sign in front of the organization which organizes Children's Club in Paruki Gaun Village, just a stone's throw from Mechi Mahakali School. I visited the nice people there today, and learned that they are in the process of creating a LIBRARY in their building for all of the children of the village to enjoy!!!! This made me so happy. Right now any kid in the village can come to play games after school, or just hang out. About twenty kids ages 9 - 16 most often visit the "Children's Club." From what we could tell, the older kids have really taken ownership of the place. When the organization leaves after 2 years (that's all they have money for), the older teenagers are going to run Children's Club. Wow.

The center has trained psychologists available for the villagers, and these people also go door-to-door sometimes when they hear they are needed. They see domestic violence and substance abuse as a problem in the village, but don't see childhood substance abuse as a big issue in the village.

Eleven women meet at the center regularly for the "Protection Committee for Women." They talk about problems they and others face in the village, and think of ways to help make life better. They help to organize parenting classes, help parents get their kids to regularly attend class, and let other adults know about the drug addiction counseling available to them at the center.

Here's a picture of one of our Paruki Gaun Village friends. The pointy-eared dude he's sitting on was about half as big when we first came to Mechi Mahakali in May.

First Aid, Fossil Making, Library Field Trip, and the Final Countdown Begins

2010-08-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

With only a week to go, Kritish and I have been busy trying to finish all of the projects we started at the school.

First, we went to the Patan Hospital with Anup, who knew some people there who could help us. We were able to buy enough plastic gloves, antibiotic ointment, band-aids, etc. to prepare Mechi Mahakali School for most low-level medical issues. The kids are always needing band-aids (or "Handy-Plasts" in Nepal) and cream for infected cuts. In addition to the first aid kit, we are also training the teachers (all those American Red Cross First Aid, CPR, Lifeguard, and WFR certifications come in handy) in basic first aid, and teaching First Aid in Science class to the Class 2 students.

When we first introduced the Class 2 students to the idea of "Dinosaurs," they immediately thought "Dragons." Nooooooo, Dinosaurs are not dragons. There are many important distinctions, and we have become experts in differentiating the two. We read a dinosaur book to the kids, borrowed from the library where Anup volunteers (Anup's amazing - he volunteers at the library once he's all done teaching at Mechi Mahakali). Then we thought, "Why don't we just take all of the kids to the library so they can find their own books?"

So on Thursday, we took 20 kids to the AWON (American Women of Nepal) Library. It was started by American Women living in Nepal, and the books are donated, in English language, and never thrown out. So some of the kids books especially are quite beautiful and vintage. It's a fun place where families can get a year-long membership for 500 Nepali Rupees (about $6), allowing them to take out 20 books at a time.

Seeing a person experience a library for the first time is incredible. Multiply this by 20, and you're having a good day. Most of the Mechi Mahakali kids didn't know what a library was, had never seen a library, and gone inside. So when they saw the rows of books and realized they could look through ALL of them, they went BALLISTIC. These kids love the library, and it's just a short trip over the bridge near their village. But there was one thing missing . . .

The librarian brought out a big stack of DINOSAUR BOOKS! Yay! The students were very respectful towards the books, and none of the pages were torn. Mechi Mahakali full-time teachers Alina and Kalyan are wonderful and made the whole library trip possible. Nursery teacher Hiran stayed at school with the really little ones, but we love working with her too! We all left the library with big smiles, and boarded a bus back to the village. The students love busses in general, so this was also a treat. Icing on the cake. We hope to make more trips to the AWON Library in the future, and we're working on buying a family library card for the Mechi Mahakali School for the teachers to use as a teaching-aid resource.

Some of the photos below are of "fossil making." The kids used salt dough to make leaf impressions in the same way rocks, shells, feathers, bones, leaves fall into mud sediment and are fossilized after many years. Our "mud" unfortunately never hardened (due to the humidity of the monsoon), but the kids seemed to have a good time. We also pressed toy animals into the dough and made animal impressions. Sometime during the fossil-making event our old friend The White Rabbit hopped into class for another of his exciting visits. Is the bunny albino? Yes, because he has red eyes. Always something new and different at Mechi Mahakali!

Unfortunately, Kritish and I have only a week left in Nepal. But we will have more updates to the blog, so don't despair! More updates are soon to come. Dhanyabad ("thank you" in Nepali).

Asmita with the biggest book in the whole library. "What was your favorite part of the library, Asmita?" "All the books, Miss!"

The rest of the kids in this photo are working on wooden puzzles, or reading a book with the librarian at the bottom right corner. She is a volunteer and was excellent with the kids, answered their many questions, and rounded-up every dinosaur book she could find.

One of the twins with Alina Miss and a world map. "Soooo, big. Sooooo, big." The first stop on the AWON library tour was the magazine and periodical section. While not all of the magazines were . . . educational, most of them were and the students were impressed by just the sheer volume of magazines and color photographs at hand.

The students jaws drop as we walked through the walls and walls of books.

Our Vanna-White-esque tour guide shows the students where to find animal books.

A successful animal impression, which would have hardened into a "fossil", had it not been monsoon season in Nepal. But it was so pretty while it lasted!

KG teacher Alina Miss, KG student Rabindra, Nursery teacher Hiran Ma'am, and Class 2 teacher Kalyan Sir enjoy some music and laugh at the antics of students during Tiffin time. These guys are wonderful to work with and the kids love them. We're going to miss them so much when we have to leave in a few days. They make Mechi Mahakali go 'round!

A Rabbit, Hand Prints, and Teacher's Day

2010-07-28T02:51:00.001-07:00

Teachers and students in front of Mechi Mahakali School at Teacher's Day and
farewell party for teacher Haseeb Ali.

Last Tuesday, the Mechi Mahakali School Committee held a meeting. They discussed the use of the school building by other organizations. Everyday before class begins at 10, Adult Education classes are held for adults in the community, and everyday after class ends at 3:30, tutoring is offered for all of kids in Paruki Gaun Village, many of whom attend class outside of Mechi Mahakali. Mechi Mahakali School does not charge for the use of the school building, as it is the only available building to hold such programs. But the organizations offering these much-needed programs do not do a particularly good job of cleaning up after themselves and respecting the school's furniture. The School Committee decided to speak with the other organizations and ask for more cooperation.

The following Thursday, a little white rabbit hopped into our Class 2 classroom. Although we didn't know the rabbit was planning a visit, we welcomed the opportunity to learn all about rabbits. We looked at the size of the rabbit's ears, and decided we needed to be extremely quiet around rabbits. Then we examined the large back feet and sharp claws of the rabbit, which help him to dig burrows. One little girl, Alisha was afraid of the rabbit, so we made a list of "what rabbits eat: Watermelons, Fruits, Veggies, sometimes garbage," and "what rabbits do NOT eat: cake, pizza, people."

Then we took out some paint and poster paper, and each student made their own poster. We painted their palms and everyone (including the teachers) put their hand prints on a piece of poster paper. They taped their posters to the wall, and now the classroom is looking suitably colorful!

Sunday was Nepali Teachers Day. Students came to the school carrying flowers to give to their teachers, and put tikka on the teachers' foreheads. Teachers gave speeches, four students sang songs, one school committee member gave a speech, and two teachers danced. This was Class 2 teacher Haseeb Ali's last day at the school. He gave a speech thanking the students for their hard work, and was presented with a ceremonial scarf and badge. A festive time was had by all!

Student poses in front of the Class 2 building.

Class 2 students and teacher Haseeb Ali with their new favorite white rabbit.

Class 2 and teachers making "hand print posters."

Haseeb Ali and Nepalese NK volunteer.

A Class 2 student applies tikka to the KG teacher's forehead on Teacher's Day.

KG, Class 1 and Class 2 students with the flowers they picked to give to their teachers on Teacher's Day.

We'll miss you, Haseeb Sir!

The Villagers, New Room, Exams and Tons of pictures

2010-07-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Reed College students Kritish and Erica are working an internship for Namaste Kathmandu at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village at the banks of the Bagmati river in Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal. They will be working with the teachers and community members in the school, as well as gathering information for the non-profit to compile into a report on the situation in the village.

* * *

The Monsoon has finally started in Nepal; since last Saturday it has been raining almost everyday making the ground and paths around the school full of puddles and mud.

The muddy path to the School: local ducks are going to have some fun!

I've been going to the school everyday this week. My friend, Anup, is volunteering to teach at the school. Since Erica is off traveling, Anup has taken her place. He goes to Dartmouth as an undergrad, and he is here for the summer. He has been of a great help at the school. He has also been helping me take surveys in the village. Everyday we've been walking around the village meeting and talking to the villagers. Although during the day time most of the people go for work, we still met many. There are usually women, either sitting outside their houses or, drawing water from pumps, or doing some household works. We also met some men who were hanging around when they didn't have any work to do. The villagers are very cooperative. Specially when we meet some parent of some kids from Mechi Mahakali, they talk to us and even offer us tea.

Talking to the villagers, we've learned a lot of new and interesting stuff about these people. We've interviewed total 56 families including 25, who send their kids to Mechi Mahakali school. Almost all of them had moved to this place at the banks of the Bagmati river about 3 years ago, and that was when this settlement started. But all of them have been living in Kathmandu for longer than that: ranging from 4 yrs to more than 40 years. They are originally from more than 35 different places scattered all over Nepal - from Mechi in the far-East to Mahakali in the far west (that's where the name of the school Mechi-Mahakali came from) and from villages at the base of the Himalayas in the north to the the plains near the border to India. All of them moved to Kathmandu for basically the same reason: in hope of getting work and earning a livelihood. Some of them were threatened out of their homes and land; some of them lost everything in flood or landslides; some of them wanted to give their children a better education which was not available in their own villages. Here, most of them, both men and women, work at construction sites. Some women just look after their homes. They've been growing corn on small plots of land behind their homes.

Most of the families we talked to send their kids to school; if not to Mechi-Mahakali, they send them to barely affordable government school nearby. Some parents even work hard to send their children to better private schools. They all said they felt very happy that Mechi-Mahakali School was built. The thing they like the most about this school is that it is a part of their village; they all had contributed their labor to build this school, so they feel it is their own. They want to send their kids to this School, but this school has only up to grade 2. They said they'd definitely send their kids to this school if it had higher grades. Some were also concerned about the standards of the school. They said that this school did not met the standards of even an average government school. This is quite true. Right now, it has only two rooms for three classes and only three paid full time teachers. But progress is happening. Construction of a new building with three more rooms is going on. So, hopefully, next year older kids at Mechi-Mahakali school will not have to go to other schools due to lack of higher classes.

Yes, times are changing at Mechi-Mahakali school. Just today, Class 2 kids took their Science exams in a new room right opposite to the school. The person of the house generously let the school use this empty room which is quite huge and can be partitioned into two. From next time, one of the classes (either KG or 2) will be held in this new room. They will not have to share the same classroom.

The new room is right across the street from the main school building

Class 2 students taking their science exams in the new room

Yesterday and today, students of Mechi-Mahakali School took their first term exams. They had English, Maths and Nepali exams. Class 2 had an additional Science exam too. They also had oral exams for all subjects except Maths. Now the kids will have four days off before the next term starts.

Students wait for their papers before the exam begins

The Exam begins!

Almost there!

a nursery kid writing her English exam

Kids pose for a photo during recess

kids play some soccer during the recess

The Mechi Mahakali Football Club!

The supporters!

Kids have their tiffin after exams

Kids love to eat

RamLaxman

Returning home after school

Done with the exams

School Uniforms and Parents

2010-07-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

* * *

Last Sunday and Monday, at early mornings, we distributed school uniforms to all the kids at Mechi Mahakali School. The parents were invited to receive the uniforms; they were handed out individually. Mechi Mahakali School's uniform is sky blue shirt with dark blue pants or skirt. All the schools in Nepal have mandatory school uniforms for students. It is a norm that students must were uniforms. (Even colleges have uniforms.) The kids and their parents were very happy to get new school uniforms. This has encouraged parents to send their kids to school neat and tidy, and the kids not to play in dirt as it might spoil their new uniforms.

Since all the parents came to get the kids' uniforms, we also grabbed this opportunity to talk to them and fill the surveys that we'd made for them. We recruited four volunteers who helped to interview the parents. The parents were all very cooperative and happily helped us through the surveys. They were very positive about the work this school has been doing in educating their children. They hope the school to expand by adding higher grades so that their children can continue to study here in future years.

The uniforms were bought with the funds raised by us (and those mailed to Erica) before we left Reed back in May. Thanks to all the donors !

Erica is now taking two weeks off traveling around Nepal. She plans to go trekking and visit Pokhara and Chitwan. While, I (Kritish) will visit the school regularly to assist the teachers and meet the locals around the school to gather their views about the school.

Keep looking for updates.

Here are some pictures:

Kids with their parents waiting to receive school uniforms

A parent receiving her kid's uniform

Class 2 in their new uniforms

Class Nursery in their new uniforms

The kids stand in line outside the school and sing the National Anthem everyday before classes begin

Prabesh and Bikash from class 2 pose with their new school uniforms

Pictures from Mechi Mahakali School

2010-07-04T03:52:00.000-07:00

* * *
Here are pictures of kids learning in their classrooms, Friday's Spelling contest, SOS Youth Facility's program and constructions going on around the school premises.

Class two students learning new English words

Mechi Mahakali student, Laxman Majhi, shows his coloring

Class 2 students learn about wind in their Science Class

Spelling Contest held as a Friday activity

"Inter house Spelling Contest"

A representative from SOS Youth Facility gives a speech at their program

A student receives copy and pencils from SOS Youth Facility

A program organized by SOS at Mechi Mahakali School on the occasion of International SOS day

Construction of new building for Mechi Mahakalai School funded by Crossway Church, Lalitpur

Locals around the School are also building their own concrete houses

Interns from Crossway Church come to this school every Friday to organize games and tell stories to the kids
Bagmati river and corn field

Monsoon!!

Teaching at Mechi Mahakali School

2010-07-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

Plans and Progress

2010-06-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

* * *

Today I met Mr. Janardan Sharma, who is a retired teacher and a poet. He is a friend of Mr Dev ram and has been helping at Mechi Mahakali School. For past week, he has been teaching Nepali with creative writing to class 2 students and will continue to do so in future. He has been working with Dev Ram to register NK as a non-profit in Nepal and he will also be helping us take surveys in the village. He has suggested some questions which specifically address quality improvement issues at the school and also suggested some changes in the format our questionnaire that would make it easier for the villagers for respond. We also got some suggestions from Mr Dev Ram and Padma Acharya, who went through the questionnaires we had made before. Now, we will work on the questionnaires and integrate the suggestions we got from these people. Then, starting from next week we will door to door to interview the villagers and collect information.

Now Mechi Mahakali school has 42 students who are registered. All of them will be getting their school dresses next week. The kids seem very excited about it. They are also going to have a spelling contest tomorrow at 1 pm after tiffin as the Friday activity.

The construction of the new building has suddenly stopped. The donation was only enough to raise walls just a few feet high. It seems the committee had not planned it well beforehand. We hope the donor will deliver the necessary amount to complete the building which is supposed to house more classrooms for the school.

Progress at Mechi Mahakali School

2010-06-21T03:13:00.000-07:00

For the past week, our schedule has consisted of Kritish teaching Nepali and Social Studies after Tiffin Time, and Erica teaching English, Math and Science in the morning. A week ago, Erica’s friend Haseeb began volunteering at the school as well. He is a Mechanical Engineering ’09 graduate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and volunteered at an elementary school in rural Morocco as an undergrad.

On Saturday, SOS Youth Facility came to Mechi Mahakali School. A large crowd of students, parents, and other community members filled the school building and looked through the windows. SOS Youth Facility in Nepal is a member of the international organization that gives children orphaned, found on the street, and often disabled the education, vocational training, and food and shelter they need to grow into successful adults. Leaders of SOS Youth Facility spoke, as well as a doctor who talked about the importance of vaccinations and hygiene, and two SOS Youth Facility graduates gave inspirational words to the Mechi Mahakali students. They donated a locking cabinet to our school, and gave every student a new notebook, pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener and a packet of cookies. We believe we will be working with SOS Youth Facility in the future.

Construction began this week on a new school building just outside of the current Mechi Mahakali School. The new building will house Classes 3, 4, and 5. This expands opportunities for older children in the village who are unable to pay attendance fees at private and public schools outside of the village. We will post photos of the construction soon. Construction has not yet begun on the three walls for the “patio” where we teach Class 2. This is okay, as once construction does begin, it will be very difficult to teach in that space.

Today we met the teacher hired by the Mechi Mahakali School to teach Class 2. He came at the beginning of the day, and we taught the usual English, Math and Science alongside him. He taught Nepali and Social Studies by himself after Tiffin Time. The new teacher attends class for a teaching degree from 6:30 to 9, and then comes to teach from 10 to 3.

Although teaching our Class 2 students can be challenging at times, it has been a pleasure to be a part of their lives. Not all of our students are able to come to school every day. Some need to collect garbage to earn money, take care of their younger brothers and sisters (although this responsibility seems to be somewhat alleviated), some occasionally beg on the streets, and two of our students miss school to care for their mother in the hospital. After this week, we will teach only Conversational English for an hour at Mechi Mahakali School. We will use the rest of our time to interview those connected to Mechi Mahakali School as part of our survey on the success and sustainability of the school. We expect to learn a great deal of new information from our surveys.

We will publish photos on this blog soon. Thanks for reading.

Changes at Mechi Mahakali School

2010-06-07T02:10:00.000-07:00

Mechi Mahakali School Class Two students show off their drawings of the water cycle.
Class Two students with the maps they made of Nepal, showing all of the Nepalese Zones.

Reed College students Kritish and Erica are interning for Namaste Kathmandu at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village in Kathmandu, Nepal. They will be working with the teachers and community members in the school, as well as gathering information to help Namaste Kathmandu to better serve the village.

* * *

"Times they are a changing" for Mechi Mahakali School!

When I got to the school today at 10 am, the community was holding a meeting to celebrate the creation of a second latrine, right next to the one they built for Mechi Mahakali School when the school first opened. The Mechi Mahakali School latrine is the only real bathroom in the village, so community members use it, and it has become overused and has reached its capacity. The students have to go to the dirty river if they need to go to the bathroom. Dirty does not begin to describe the condition of the Bhagmati River. It is a toxic cesspool of garbage; the water cannot even run due to the amount of clogging debris. This new latrine looks like an outhouse, and even though it's just a hole in the ground that dumps into the river, it helps to keep bathroom smells from wafting directly into our Class Two classroom, and will hopefully be a temporary hygienic solution for the kids.

Lately, many visitors have come to Mechi Mahakali School. Since the Class 2 classroom where Kritish and I teach has only one wall and an awning, anyone can look in and walk around during class time. Visitors have happily included mothers of students (who are always very helpful and concerned), older kids from the village who don't go to school and sometimes help the Class 2 students with their work, Westerners just passing through, Nepali college students doing research for class projects, Westerners who may volunteer at Mechi Mahakali, and other people who are interested in donating to Mechi Mahakali.

Recently, the French lady who pays for the kid's "Tiffin" (1 o'clock lunch) made a series of visits to our school to see how everything is going. She saw us out there teaching on the concrete porch under the awning, and wants to fund the building of a new classroom for Class 2. Woohoo!

We suspect that the two large piles of bricks on the ground directly in front of our Class 2 space are meant for building three more walls for us. Everything is happening so quickly, we can hardly believe our eyes.

Just an hour ago, someone from SOS Youth Facility came for a visit while Kritish was teaching (we split the teaching day) and told him about his non-profit. SOS Children's Villages is an international organization that provides housing, food, education, and enrichment to orphan kids, sometimes with disabilities. (For more information go to: http://www.sosnepal.org.np/OMV.HTM ). The kids at the SOS Youth Facility in Kathmandu heard about Mechi Mahakali, saved their pocket money, and want to help make improvements at our school. They would like to put on an interaction program with Mechi Mahakali School students before June 23rd, and they may be able to help us put on a health clinic for the kids.

In other news, today was the first day in which we did not have any little brothers or sisters tagging along and distracting the students from their work. Hopefully they have all gone to the Mechi Mahakali Nursery School classroom.

In about two weeks, we will have a new Class 2 teacher to replace Kritish and I. The new teacher is working towards his B.Ed. (Bachelors of Education) and will soon become a professional teacher. He worked at Mechi Mahakali in the past, and people seem happy to have him back.

We have been preparing individualized surveys for parents, community members, school committee members, teachers, and non-profits working around Mechi Mahakali School. We will be delivering surveys to those who can fill them out, and going door-to-door to conduct oral interviews with the villagers. We feel confident that the villagers will respond positively towards our questions, as we have met and spoken with many of them during large gatherings.

With these surveys, we hope to gain a better understanding of the demographics of Paruki Gaun Village, how the community feels about the work NK is doing, how they feel about the quality of education offered by Mechi Mahakali School, and what we can do to make the school a better place for everyone involved.

"Times they are a changing" at Mechi Mahakali!

Prize Day and More Students at Mechi Mahakali

2010-05-31T03:22:00.000-07:00

A Class Two student shows her prize and new books to her mother after Prize Day.
Class Two student accepts his prize at Prize Day. Way to go!!
A village leader makes a speech to the student body and parents inside Mechi Mahakali School at Prize Day.
Class Two students practicing English animal vocabulary using the Animal Coloring Books we drew and photocopied for them.

Reed College students Kritish and Erica are working an internship for Namaste Kathmandu at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village in Kathmandu, Nepal. They will be working with the teachers and community members in the school, as well as gathering information to help Namaste Kathmandu to better serve the village.

* * *

Last Saturday, was "Prize Day" at Mechi Mahakali School. Students who performed best in the last school year received prizes for their hard work. One student was given a prize for being "neat and clean" throughout the year. All of the registered students were given their books and notebooks ("copies") for the new year, which started in April.

On the day after Prize Day, Mechi Mahakali School admitted more new students, whose families saw that we give out free books to admitted students. Now the number of students at the school has increased. Today, Monday, we had ten students in Class 2. Just a week ago, we had three. Wow!

For those who are new to the Namaste Kathmandu Blog, Erica and Kritish are teaching Class 2 outside of Mechi Mahakali School on the awning-covered "patio." This porch-like space is directly adjacent to the Mechi Mahakali School latrine, just above the Baghmati River. The Baghmati River is extremely polluted, and every time there's a breeze, students and teachers get an unpleasant whiff of stinky air.

We are teaching Class 2 students until Mechi Mahakali School hires a Class 2 teacher for them. We arrive at 10 a.m., and teach English and Math from 10-12, and Nepali from 12-1. Then the kids have "tiffin" (snack time), and play games at recess. After tiffin, we teach Social Studies and Science/Health until 3 p.m. We integrate art, music, dance, and theater into everything we teach. Today the kids learned about "feelings" and acted out the English words (angry, sad, sick, etc.).

Thank You Donors!

2010-05-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the donors and volunteers who generously gave of their savings and work to make our recent Namaste Kathmandu Fundraising Dinner a great success. Unfortunately many of our donors were not able to attend the dinner but kindly sent us their checks anyway. Hopefully more people will be able to enjoy our delicious Nepali feast next year. At the end of the day we are happy to say that we were able to send $3000 to Kathmandu for the Mechi Mahakali School.

Let us all hope that the political and social situation in Nepal will calm to the extent that our school and Pauroki Gaun Village can remain and prosper in the coming years. Regardless of the outcome however, you can be sure that Namaste Kathmandu will continue to support our big adopted family.

Namaste

First Days Teaching at Mechi Mahakali

2010-05-25T03:01:00.000-07:00

Reed College students Kritish and Erica are working an internship for Namaste Kathmandu at Mechi Mahakali School in Paruki Gaun Village in Kathmandu, Nepal. They will be working with the teachers and community members in the school, as well as gathering information for the non-profit to compile into a report on the situation in the village.

* * *

Tuesday, May 25th

Yesterday was our first day of teaching at Mechi Mahakali School. For the first few weeks we will be teaching English and Math to the Class 2 students (age seven). On Monday, three Class 2 students were in attendance, but today we had five. We expect to have altogether around 30 kids by the end of the summer, as kids in the village attending private schools (which require a small fee every month) are not always able to afford to attend the schools outside of the village for the entire year. Class 2 is currently the smallest class of students.

Half of the school building is the KG (kindergarten) classroom, and the other half is for Classes 1 and 2. The amount of noise and distraction caused by three different classes going on simultaneously without walls to muffle the sound, can make it difficult at times to teach and learn. We therefore took Class 2 outside of the school and into the awning-covered "patio" that will in the coming months be built into a separate classroom. We brought out some benches, and class began.

We have taught the kids parts of the body using the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song, and we practice vocabulary words using a Nepali version of "Simon Says" - "Suraj Says." We are working on multiplication, spelling, the five senses, and "parts of the house." For an extra challenge, we learned the "Hokey-Pokey" today, and that was a HUGE hit with the kids. The song also helps with learning "left" and "right" and parts of the body. It also involves jumping, spinning, dancing, shaking, and clapping - all of which are great things to do at school!

We have ordered new books for the kids. They are English-medium, soft-cover and have lots of pictures and activities. Mechi Mahakali School does not always have enough money for books for the students, as new kids always come to the school. If you're interested, you can always make an online donation to non-profit Namaste Kathmandu and help support the kids and teachers at Mechi Mahakali School. The school is also looking for a new teacher to teach grade 2 students.

Today a beggar woman came up to us in the middle of our class to ask for money, even though class was clearly in session, behind the school on the covered patio. When a group of mothers of the Mechi Mahakali students saw what was going on, they came up to the woman and (in Nepali) told her, "This is a school, and our kids are having class right now. These teachers are students also, and don't have much money. Why don't you try and ask for money in the places where people are shopping?"

This was a positive moment, because it showed us that the mothers of the students are supportive of Mechi Mahakali School and don't want anyone to interrupt class while it is in session. They know we are students, and they are supportive of the teaching we are doing at the school for their children. Although we were sorry we didn't have any money to give to the beggar woman, we were glad to see the parents standing up for their kids' education.

The kids at Mechi Mahakali are taught the "core classes" English, Nepali, Math, Science, and in the coming months, Kritish and I will be teaching an extra class at the end of the day which will rotate between Health, Art, Geography, and P.E.

2010-05-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Tiffin time!! Everyday at 1 o'clock kids have their tiffin prepared by the nanny.
Nursery class

May 21, 2010

Yesterday was our first visit to the school we'll be working at all summer, Mechi Mahakali School, on the banks of the Baghmati River in Kathmandu. The school is part of a refugee migrant settlement named Paruki Gaun Village, and the people living here have been forced out of their rural homes during the civil war which lasted from 1996 - 2006. The villagers used money from Namaste Kathmandu to build the school, and did all of the construction work themselves.

When we first walked into Mechi Mahakali School, the kids were noisily practicing spellings amongst themselves, with the teacher walking around and helping small groups of kids at a time. All of the students were wearing their uniforms, and peaking at the two new people (Kritish and Erica) who had just walked into their classroom.

The school is divided into two rooms: one for nursery school aged kids (this classroom can be seen in the video posted here) and one for grades KG and 2. A part-time nanny makes food for them to eat during the middle of their day. When the kids grow older, they leave Mechi Mahakali School and go to other schools (usually government schools) nearby in the city. Some of the families can afford their tuition fees which isn't high for government schools (about Rs 1000 or $15 once a year). For others, the tuition is paid for by other NGO's working in the area. From this academic session, Mechi Mahakali school has started to charge Rs. 100 (about $1.5) admission fees from each student. They get all books, stationery, dresses and a daily tiffin (afternoon snack) from the school.

Here are some photos of Mechi Mahakali School. Among other activities, Kritish and Erica will be teaching English at the school this summer. Lots more photos and information to come!

Pictures of Traveling and Durbar Square

2010-05-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Kathmandu!

2010-05-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

* * *

The journey to Kathmandu took almost two days. First, Kritish finished his Chinese exam at Reed College, then packed for an hour, and then Dean drove us to the Amtrak station. We took the train to Seattle, met Erica's cousin who drove us to Xeno's house, and stayed there overnight. The next afternoon, we took the bus and the light-rail to the Seattle Airport, and took the plane to San Francisco. When we got to San Francisco, we met the extremely nice guys from Cathay Pacific. Then we got on the plane and ate good food for 13 hours until we reached Hong Kong. In Hong Kong airport, we spent 12 hours sleeping, sitting, and going to bookstores where Kritish practiced his Chinese. After the layover, we got on "The Dragon" and flew "The Dragon" to Dhaka, and then Kathamandu. Woohoo!

Kritish and Erica arrived in Kathmandu on the 16th, late at night, during loadshedding. Erica had never experienced loadshedding before. For 12 hours every day, electricity goes out for every part of the city, because there is not enough electricity for everyone. There's a schedule for loadshedding distributed in the newspaper, and today the power goes out at 10 am. When we don't have power, we socialize, study, play soccer on the roof, and eat.

And there are a lot of people here! Kritish, his mom, and Erica took a walk around the streets yesterday. The air was very polluted, and the river we walked along was very smelly. The streets are horrifying. There are no sidewalks, and even where there are, the motorbikes weave in and around the people walking on them. The road is full of busses, microbusses, "tampu", bikes, motorbikes, and regular cars, and people. None of these vehicles stop for pedestrians, so in order to cross, one needs to run. Erica was walking on the sidewalk, and was about to take a step, when a motorbike drove out in front of her, so she lean backwards to save herself from falling onto the motorbike. Valuable lesson learned: take slower steps, even on the sidewalks.

The houses are very close together, and everybody comes out on top of their roofs at night. From the very top, you can almost see the Himalayas. Wow. There are lots of birds, and men selling watermelons at 7 in the morning, yelling very loudly, their voices bouncing off of other buildings and going right into your ear "kar-buj-jaaa, kar-buj-jaaa", which means "watermelon" in Nepali.

Erica is working and learning very quickly how to speak the glorious language of Nepali. Erica is SO excited, because the next door neighbor speaks Spanish and French, so we can talk to each other!! How cool is that?!

Now is our second day in Kathamandu. The temperature hovers around 85 during the day, and at night it feels just as hot. Kritish's family has been very welcoming and kind to Erica, who drinks a LOT of water. Kritish is happy to see his family. They missed him very much.

Soon we will be meeting up with GHAR members , and visiting Paruki Gaun Village soon after.

Until then, keep checking for pictures from Erica and Kritish in Kathmandu. Because of loadshedding, we don't have time to upload pictures right now. But when they come, they will be plentiful.

Namaste,

Erica and Kritish

Reed Students to Intern at Mechi Mahakali Summer 2010

2010-04-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hi,

We are Kritish Rajbhandari and Erica Boulay. We were awarded the McGill Lawrence Internship from Reed College to intern for Namaste Kathmandu (NK) this summer. Kritish is a Sophomore at Reed, and Erica is a Junior. Kritish is from Kathmandu, Nepal, and Erica is from Wells, Maine. We are both English majors, and next year, Erica plans to write a creative thesis, possibly based off of her experiences in Paurakhi Gaun. We will be working at Mechi Mahakali School, helping to provide water safety and sanitation education for the Paurakhi Gaun community. We'll also be serving the teaching staff at Mechi Mahakali in whatever ways we can.

Today, we are holding a fundraiser at Reed College for Namaste Kathmandu. We are going to show the 20-minute film "Kavi" and present a short presentation about NK and the internship we will complete this summer. We're really excited to have the opportunity to work with the kids and others at Mechi Mahakali this summer!

We will be blogging throughout our time in Nepal. Look forward for lots more pictures and posts!

Sincerely,

Erica Boulay and Kritish Rajbhandari

We are Namaste Kathmandu

2009-08-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

A project like Namaste Kathmandu can't be successful without a few people to lead and a large number to lend a hand. Currently NK has 3 Directors and a growing number of volunteers. Our Directors include:

Founder: Xeno Acharya - Xeno recently graduated from Reed College in Portland OR and is now getting ready to begin graduate studies in Public Health at the University of Washington. Xeno is from Kathmandu Nepal. His committment and dedication to Namaste Kathmandu have been the driving force behind this project.

Director - Jennifer Rupert - Jennifer is also a Reedie and is a physician with Kaiser Permanente in Portland. Her experience and level head are the compass by which we direct our efforts.

Director - Dean Gadda - I am the third member of our managing team. My introduction to Xeno and Jennifer is courtesy of my wife who works at Reed College. I have two children, one who has graduated from Reed College and one who just finished up at University of Puget Sound. My family and I have lived in Japan, Australia and the USA. I have travelled widely in Asia, Latin America and Europe. I am currently a small business owner here in Portland. My interests outside of work include playing squash and working with Namaste Kathmandu. My introduction to Xeno came by way of playing squash at Reed College.

So far most of my efforts on behalf of Namaste Kathmandu have centered on fund raising and marketing, and administration. We are all working together to define the goals, directions and strategies which will most effectively assist the people of Kathmandu to recover from their current economic and social dilemma.

My history includes a stint in the Peace Corps (Colombia) and many years of international business and government work. Working for the State of Oregon, I was the International Trade Officer for Japan and Korea, as well as Director of the Oregon office in Tokyo. While I have not had the opportunity to visit Nepal, I am looking forward to my first trip. As I look forward to retirement in a few years I know that my work with Namaste Kathmandu will continue and I am excited to see our project unfold.

We need your assistance. At the least please help us out with a donation to Namaste Kathmandu via the PayPal account here on our blog. Your comments, advise and connections are not only welcome but necessary to help us build our efforts to provide education, health care, and jobs to the refugees of Nepal. Please feel free to comment on our blog at any time!

Exciting News!

2009-07-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

The work done by Namaste Kathmandu is being noticed and supported not only by local non-profits in Nepal (more on this soon) but also by non-profits in the US. Project Sarurun, a grassroots arts and craft campaign project that uses art to bring change in the world, has chosen NK as its first beneficiary!

Founded by young, highly motivated, and energetic students and professionals in the East Coast, Project Sarurun stands as an excellent example of using art to bring peace and well being to children trapped in conflict around the world. Its members auction large, magnificent chandeliers made from colorful paper cranes that represent the hopes of people who wish to work towards a more peaceful world. Their story is a story of hope for redemption from collective suffering, and their willingness to help budding projects and non-profits like Namaste Kathmandu is inspiring. Please find out more about this innovative project here.

Please support Project Sarurun by checking out their most recent chandelier, Corsica, currently being auctioned in eBay. Support us by supporting them!

Bike ride to Cali

2009-06-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well wishers of Namaste Kathmandu and my dear friends from Reed started a two-week long, extremely daring and adventurous, ~650 mile bike ride to San Francisco from Portland, OR on Thursday the 4th of June! On their way down, they plan on collecting donations for the children of Nepal. Everything they raise on this trip will go to NK funds that is being collected for building a clinic in Paurakhi Gaun, Kathmandu. Bike enthusiasts, hardcore bikers, environment lovers, and lovers of equality and social justice, please support these bikers if you come across them, and donate to NK online through our new paypal we recently set up!

The school is doing well!

2009-04-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

I recently received an email from a local reporter in Kathmandu who sent me some pictures (see below) of the Mechi-Mahakali School! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the local media now knows about this very hidden place by the banks of the filthy river Bagmati, which means we must be doing something right. I am glad to share these pictures with you. Currently I am working on arranging my own paperwork so I can go to Nepal this summer at least for a few weeks and get a health clinic project rolling. I have also been researching some on pharmaceutical companies that might be able to donate me free medication that I can take to the clinic. If you know of any that might, or if you work in one, please contact me (xenoach@gmail.com) so I can take those to Nepal! If my paperwork is not sorted out 'right' and if I am unable to go to Nepal this summer, the funds that we collected will continue to provide a modest teacher's salary and money to buy school supplies, and the health clinic project will be pushed until next summer. I will certainly keep you posted on what happens, so do check back now and then!

Evaluators (GHAR members and my parents who are looking after the school) doing teacher evaluation during a class session.

These children seem really excited about their new furniture in the school!

Sleepy in class?

Roll Call!

The pictures/posters hanging on the walls are alphabet tutorials, calenders in English and Nepali, some pictures of the local children, etc. The translucent corrugated plastic is used instead of regular tin/zinc sheets to let more light in. I am surprised by the little improvements that have taken place in the school since I left. When I left last summer, it was a partitioned two-room building, mostly empty (with no furniture), and not much lighting. I am excited to get back there and see more improvements, as well as to find out how much these children have learned!

Do Come Again!

2009-03-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends of Namaste Kathmandu,

Thanks to your participation in last year's fundraiser, we have achieved significant progress in support of the Dalit refugees of Kathmandu. With Xeno's leadership and hard work we have:

1. Completed construction of Mechi Mahakali Primary School. This 2 room cement block structure was built at a total cost of materials of $2500.
2. Hired a teacher and are delivering a basic Nepali language curriculum to 43 students on a daily basis.
3. In cooperation with a local non-profit (GHAR), we have established monthly health clinics at the school.
4. Built a basic latrine to provide sanitation to the students and residents of the new village Pauroki Gaun (Dilligent Village).

Please come and help us celebrate our success! On Friday March 20, at the Eastmoreland Golf Course Club House we will be having our second annual Namaste Kathmandu Dinner and Fundraiser. Food will include delicious curries, nan, rice and other tasty surprises. There will be a no-host bar. We will be showing a short documentary footage produced by Xeno and Shreya Shrestha, another Reedie who has been an active volunteer at NK.

All proceeds from this event will be used for the following:

1. Teacher salaries
2. Construction of an additional building that will act as a clinic/community center
3. Development of water and sewage infrastructure

We need your help! Now that we have established Mechi Mahakali Primary School, we feel an even deeper sense of responsibility for our new friends in Kathmandu. Please help us continue our small effort. Please advise your RSVP by return e-mail and send your checks for $50.00 made out to Namaste Kathmandu to:

Namaste Kathmandu
5815 SE 18th
Portland OR, 97202

Namaste!

Back to work!

2009-02-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers:

Graduating from Reed kept me wonderfully busy for the past months. Now that I have some free (hm..) time, I want to start updating you on the school project. Thursday February 5, 2009 (tomorrow) at 5:00pm in Vollum Lecture Hall at Reed College, Portland, I will be presenting the major details of the progress on our school so far. I will also be showing a short documentary on the Maoist Movement and its effect on schools in Nepal. Please be there if you can make it.

More coming soon!

Teaching

2008-08-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

I talked to GHAR President Mr. Arun Pradhan yesterday about Mechi-Mahakali School. He said there was a school committee formed comprising of GHAR members and the village elders, and that classes were due to start today. A teacher has been hired who will be teaching the older children while another caretaker has also been hired who will be looking after the younger children while the older ones are in school.

NK Oregon is on its way to becoming an actual organization, and we will soon be sending updates about our fundraising and other events to you.

finally

2008-08-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Now that I am in Hong Kong and I have good internet access, I can upload the many pictures I so much wanted to upload from Nepal but could not because of 'technical problems'. So here they are, at least, some of them (more will come soon)-

Kids showing off during a 'photo session'

Women getting sand for the school construction from the Bagmati River

Another 'photo session' for girls

Goodbye to Bikalpa kids, last day teaching

My last day at Bikalpa, kids play board games- a much needed break from their rigorous two month long grilling!

closing with Three Cups of Tea

2008-08-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

It’s my last day in Kathmandu before my next return. Greg Mortenson’s ‘Three Cups of Tea’ has almost been a Bible to me, and I have been silently reading the last half of it for the past two hours as I wait for my ‘delayed’ flight back to Portland where a mild end of summer is welcoming. In my head, images of the children of Paurakhi Gaun collage with the images of recently bombed Afghanistan hills during those horrible months of 2001. I wonder why I feel the same fear that crept in Greg’s heart about his schools during the time when George Bush was waging his war on terror.

I remind myself that I will not be gone for long, and am hopeful I can come back to check on the school in less than a year. With the images of these children and their grateful parents’ humble requests resounding in my head, I am sure I will find a way to squeeze into Dragon Air’s cheap flights to Kathmandu again!

The Opening

2008-07-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

July 26, 2008, in a warm Saturday morning at 8am, Mechi Mahakali Primary School at the Paurakhi Gaun, Kathmandu was inaugurated by a thirteen year old untouchable refugee girl child Sapana, who is very excited about the opening of this new school in her village. She works as a household helper in the neighborhood and bring home money to support her single mother and her three siblings. Previously enrolled in grade three, Sapana no longer can afford to go to school after her father who is now living in a different part of town abandoned her mother and married someone else. When asked about her future goals, Sapana says she wants to be a doctor and serve the untouchable community. Her mother is a construction worker, like most women in Paurakhi village.

The name ‘Paurakhi’ was recently made official after I discussed with the village elders regarding the name of the village. Until this point it had a generic name, and perhaps a generic existence- the “refugee-village-by-the-Bagmati-river”. We discussed the significance of a proper name, and I suggested that since the diligence and hard work of the villagers had made the construction of the school possible, why not call the village the “diligent village”, which translates as Paurakhi Gaun.

The partnership between Namaste Kathmandu and Paurakhi village has inspired other institutions in Kathmandu valley to participate in our effort to improve the living standard of the untouchable refugee community. Though the squatter community is not a legal establishment and thus temporary, clubs in the area (Lions Club International, Rotary Club Nepal, the local maternity hospital, to name a few) have been interested in joining hands with Namaste Kathmandu and GHAR to support educational and health promotion efforts in Paurakhi Gaun.

At the opening ceremony today, representatives from four leading political parties- Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), Nepal Communist Party (Maoist), Nepali Congress Party, and Madhesi Morcha Forum were invited by the village elders in hopes of government support for the refugees. All politicians start out with grandiose promises, and they were no different. However, we have yet to see what might come out of this.

Plans for running the school were discussed. A tentative teacher was interviewed today after the opening ceremony, and a small fund was established for buying school supplies and furniture for the empty school building. Admission will start by the middle of this week, and the plan is to start classes from next week!!

The entire village turned up for the opening of the school

People without whom the school would not have been possible, starting from left- Mr Shrestha, the village president's right hand; Mr. Indra Tamang, the guy who let me do what I did and supported me with all heart, and Mr. Gurung, the president of Paurakhi Village Committee

Mechi Mahakali Primary School in Paurakhi Gaun, Thapathali, Kathmandu,Nepal

Teachers' Day

2008-07-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

July 18, Friday was a beautiful day, although I was too tired then to write about it. Friday morning as I got ready to leave for my morning class at the Bikalpa Mobile School, something about that day ‘felt’ very special. It must be the sunshine after days of pouring rain, I said to myself as I walked down the little hill towards the river past tarp huts and angry street dogs. “Goood moooor-ning Sir!” All the children rose to their feet and greeted me in their usual singsong tone. “Good morning class, please take your seat,” I said and laid my book out in front of the class to start our lesson.

Samjhana, a twelve year old girl who is one of my favorite students and has been at the mobile school for more than two years now, rose from her seat and came up to me, and as the children started giggling and clapping, produced from her hands that were hidden behind her back a small box. “Happy Teachers’ Day Xeno Sir!” she said as the students rose and clapped and cheered. I found in the box a Chinese pen, something clearly none of the children could afford to give to anyone as a gift. The caretaker for the school, Sunita, told me later that the kids had decided to collect a rupee each and get me a gift for teachers’ day!

That was Friday.

Each child at the Bikalpa mobile school looked at me with sad eyes today after somebody told them I would be leaving after about a week. “When are you coming back Xeno Sir?” Jhilke, a nine year old boy blind in one eye asked, with his ever-smiling face and gleaming eyes. “After a long long time,” I said, unable to give him a definite answer, “I would like to come back again, certainly!”

Construction in progress

2008-07-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

Mechi-Mahakali Primary School under construction

Sarita and her brother will benefit from the newly built school

construction started today

2008-07-01T17:26:00.000-07:00

Construction of the NK School started today!! The foundation was dug for two rooms (16x15 sq. foot each) in the Bipanna Basti refugee village at the banks of the Bagmati River. Minimum estimated budget is $1250 for the construction of a two-room cement block building with plain sheet roof. Local contribution is $250 while NK funding for the construction is $1000. The rest of NK money will be used to buy school supplies and teaching material. The villagers have volunteered their labor through the school construction committee constituting of village elders, GHAR President Mr. Arun Kr Pradhan and GHAR member Padma Acharya. The estimated time for the completion of this project is 30 days. I will be sending regular updates on the progress of the construction and the search for a qualified teacher to teach at the new school.

A small start

2008-06-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

Apart from teaching at the mobile school in the refugee village, a majority of my time in the last few days has been spent researching about the non-government organizations (NGO) involved with the mobile school, including GHAR, the NGO that invited me through the McGill Internship to come to Nepal to teach the refugee kids. I found out that GHAR was working in partnership with a larger NGO, Bikalpa, but because of political and economic reasons GHAR and Bikalpa have now split up. NGOs such as Bikalpa that are funded by foreign donations have sprouted like mushrooms in Kathmandu, and it is a profitable business! There are currently more than 22,000 NGOs and 178 International NGOs in Nepal, and most of these organizations get a huge amount of foreign aid. In spite of so much money flowing into Nepal, actual change has not come about mostly because of embezzlement of funds. Of the money that flows into most of these organizations, hardly 5% goes to the people who the NGO claims to serve. Yes the numbers are astounding. Because of this, it is also difficult to get financial help from local businessmen here—nobody is willing to trust an earnest effort!

GHAR, on the other hand, does not rely on foreign aid. I have known its board members and have worked with them long enough to trust that they are really trying hard to make a difference in the lives of underserved children. GHAR members raise money from among themselves, and do local fundraisers enough for programs focused on advocacy for health and education, and awareness campaigns for poor people with disabilities. I am teaching at the mobile school as part of their education project they run in three other areas.

Since Bikalpa refused to cooperate regarding the establishment of a firmer structure to replace the make-shift school, and since GHAR members have been very helpful and supportive of the effort put forth by Namaste Kathmandu, we have looked for and successfully found an alternative site a mile and a half from the untouchable village to build a two-room structure that will act as a school for refugee children. This, of course, will in no way be as grand as Greg Mortenson’s twenty-grand Korphe school. With the limited budget we currently have, this building will be constructed with low-cost bamboo planks with a cement plaster and a tile or tin roof. The classrooms will be able to fit fifty children at a time, and can also be used as a community center when the school is not in session. I will be attending a meeting put together by village elders (who have formed a school construction committee) and GHAR this Saturday, and update on the progress of this soon. Once Dean and I discuss our budget and I talk to elders here, I will also post a detailed plan and budget for running the school for the next two/three years.

There are altogether 67 such refugee villages in and around Kathmandu valley today. Each of those villages have 5000 to 20,000 people living in them, and almost a quarter of them are children. This school is going to be a very small start on educating these refugee children who live on the banks of the Bagmati river.

To change and not to change

2008-06-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

A lot of things have changed and have not changed in the past year. There are new faces at the school, and a lot of them have moved on to different directions. Families have changed also-new families moving into the village while some moving back out to their hometown now that it is more peaceful in western Nepal.

Kabita, I found out, has stopped coming to the mobile school. Her father married his wife’s sister, and they live together in their tiny hut. Kabita, her mother, and her brother share a part of the hut, unable to leave because housing is expensive and finding more land in the refugee village is impossible. Kabita’s father supports his new wife and her two children (from a previous marriage), but refuses to support Kabita’s mother. So Kabita, being the responsible thirteen-year-old that she is, quit school and started working, cleaning dishes in the neighborhood. Her mother sustains two jobs but still struggles to keep her children from starving. Kabita’s brother continues to go to school.

There are still many things that have not changed, and will not soon. The four by five feet hut Kabita’s family lives in still floods if the river rises during monsoon. The tin roof and tarp still leak, and rainwater runoff still comes into their hut from the road. I will be reminded of this over and over in the next months now that monsoon is here.

School Supplies

2008-06-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

There was muffled silence in the room and I could see each child mumble beneath her breath. I could see them trying to restraint their excitement and terribly failing to do so. They knew what was coming and they had waited for this long.

The maid at the school, a local untouchable woman who had been working at the school since its establishment, brought with her a large plastic bag and the children rose and cheered in excitement. She handed the bag and its content (school supplies bought by Namaste Kathmandu) to the volunteer teacher, Laxmi “Miss”, and told the children to take their seats and calm down. Each child rushed towards Laxmi Miss as her name was called, eager to explore her ‘companion’ that would aid her learning from now on. They each received a school bag, a notebook, two pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, and a ruler inside each bag. It was a beautiful moment to see how much they prized their small possession and how they proudly walked back to their seats when they got one.

Starting today, I doubled my time at the school. Now I will be teaching four hours each day, two hours with the “general” class (student of all ages mixed together), and the rest of the two hours with ten older children who are ‘returnees’ (kids who no longer could attend a government school they were going to because of many reasons but still want to learn). These children have forgotten most of what they learnt in school as they are out of practice now, thus being in the general group will be a good revision of what they previously learnt at a different school. But since they are way ahead of the rest of the group, they need something a little advanced than just learning alphabets. I am currently following the course curriculum prescribed by the ministry of education of Nepal for grade one because though some kids in this group of ten quit their private or government schools in grades three of four, they have only remembered the very basics of things and need to be prepped from the beginning.

There is a two to four hour long power cut at nights three days a week in Kathmandu. While my parents and I were huddle around our battery-powered radio after dinner today, we heard that there are more than twenty-two thousand non-government organizations (NGOs) and a hundred and seventy eight international non-government organizations (INGOs) working in various sectors in Nepal. There are about eleven hundred NGOs and INGOs registered in Kathmandu alone that are specifically dedicated to improving the water quality and environmental conditions in and around the Bagmati river, the major river that flows through Kathmandu valley. These numbers are shocking even to me, who should know ‘how things operate’ in Nepal. Today the Bagmati river is nothing more than an open sewage that collects (and fails to wash away) all the garbage in Kathmandu. Something very similar can be said about organizations working in other fields such as child rights, education, health, etc.

Sometimes these numbers are daunting. Sometimes I question myself how I envision changing this situation, this deep-rooted problem that has engulfed countries like Nepal for many centuries now. Some days I have to remind myself those small steady steps helped Greg Mortenson get to his goals ‘one school at a time’. Today is one of those days.

Started teaching

2008-06-03T12:25:00.001-07:00

Kathmandu is a lot more crowded than I remember it being. The streets seem narrow and dangerous because the news talks about bomb blasts here and there in spite of Nepal’s political “improvement”. Anyway, I started teaching at the makeshift school today. Two hours a day with the untouchable children hardly does anything to change their current situation, but it is a start. I spent the rest of the day talking to GHAR members and to another NGO that is involved with the untouchable village. I discussed the possibility of building a school with members of GHAR, but at this point they seem to have “withdrawn” from the untouchable village because of a recent “scandal” they discovered. I will update more on what it exactly is once I find out clearly what is going on. For now, I have been talking to local villagers and taking video footage of the untouchable village as well as of Kathmandu valley. Uploading pictures from here is slow and painstaking, but I will try to post new pictures as I take them as much as possible.

2008-06-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Some pictures

2008-06-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

Finally something

2008-05-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

May 25, 2008
Portland, OR

Waiting requires a lot of patience—it means anticipation, it means expectation, and most of all it means hope. Hope can be deluding. It requires courage and harbors fear, fear for the future, for loved ones, for life and for beauty. This fear is brewing in me as I board Flight UA6084 from Portland to Los Angeles on May 25, 2008, my final destination being Kathmandu, Nepal.

It is strange that I should be afraid. I was born and raised in Nepal and came to the US to go to college four years ago. Kathmandu is home for me, and yet this time I am afraid. The thought of being there for two months brings mixed feelings of excitement, ecstasy, and fear. Fear because unlike all the other times, this time I am responsible for more than just bringing myself home. I am carrying peoples’ expectations and their trust, the people that I know, respect, and have come to love. Trust is a good thing most of the time, but it comes with a responsibility. Without realizing, I have made a silent promise to these people. I created my own hell, as my thesis advisor told me jokingly.

May 27, 2008
Hong Kong

The twelve hour-long flight from LA was very neutral—it was not awful. I managed to watch a couple of movies and get some sleep. My phone died so I cannot call anyone at this point, and I have a eight hour layover. Maybe I will finish Three Cups of Tea in the mean time, get something to eat and find a good resting place. Kathmandu is very near now, and so is the beginning of something that might be a part of me for life.

May 27, 2008
Kathmandu

Dragon Air has a bad reputation in Nepal—it never brings its passenger’s luggage on time. I landed with a friend who I met at the Hong Kong airport, and no, my luggage was not waiting for me. Come back tomorrow, they said. My father met us outside the airport gate (the security is tight these days because tomorrow is a BIG day for Nepal, they are declaring Nepal a republic tomorrow) and taxi cab drivers rushed at us with bargains and deals, one of them nearly snatching my backpack away from me to take to his cab. My uncle and some cousins had come to see me at the house, and, though I was tired, the evening was spent eating warm daal-bhat-gundruk (lentils, rice, and dried spinach curry) and chatting about recent political events.

May 28, 2008
Kathmandu

Nepal has now turned into a federal republic! The government has decided to have a three-day long holiday for the celebration of the birth of the republic. This is yet
another turning point in the history of Nepal, but I am skeptical of the positive change this might bring to the country. Even during the day, the streets are empty because pro-king demonstrators have prohibited public transportation in protest of the king’s dethronement. There was a time when we could walk freely in the streets until late night and it would be all right, but now no more. I walked out of my house with my cousin to get my luggage (that was two days late) from the airport. The streets were empty and my dad was worried about our safety. In the past week, there have been three bombings in the city, one right next to the convention center where the six hundred and one members of parliament declared Nepal a republic this evening. Some suspect the bombers are pro king protesters, some say they are actions of one of the political parties that did not get a seat in the parliament. I have not been able to contact GHAR (Growing Holistic Approach for Rehabilitation), the non-profit I was working with last year, because the office has been closed for the past few days. The public holiday ends Monday, June 2, 2008, when transportation will resume, and life will (hopefully) return to normal.