In summation

I left Nepal on Sunday night on a Qatar airways flight bound for Doha, Qatar. It took me some 33 hours to fly home. I can say that I am glad to be back in Michigan but I also miss Nepal and all the people that I met. In the three short weeks that I spent in that amazing country I grew really close to the staff and other volunteers and the kids that I was working with.

While in Nepal I saw a country which was vastly different than ours. Nepal, while a wonderful country is stricken by poverty in many areas, and I saw this poverty up close. Previously i had not been exposed to so many people in need and so many people that we would consider below the poverty line. I would say that many of the people were far below our "poverty line", especially those who I saw living in the country-side. Then there were the slums by the rivers, and the communities of "river children", kids who have no parents but make a living together by a polluted river on the outskirts of Kathmandu. I can only guess that there are more communities such as this elsewhere in the country.

Besides this I also saw the amazing working spirit of the Nepali people. In the country side I saw farmers planting rice. I also saw men, women and children hauling tall grass, and other loads on their shoulders; or on a sort of backpack which was slung to their head, walking up a mountain road to their home. In the city or even on a roadside community on the main highway, which led through the mountains, there were small businesses everywhere trying to sell what they could to make a living. There is something to be said the the entrepreneurial spirit of Nepali people. They will set up a shop almost anywhere.

Something also has to be said for the rickshaw drivers. These guys(I say guys as I didn't see a single female driver)work HARD. It may seem easy to drive what looks like a bicycle with a seat, but try doing that on 90+ degree day. Not to mention if there are two people sitting on it there could possible be over 300 pounds, and to top it off some of the roads are unpaved adding to the difficulty. But they do it, they charge you more as a westerner but at times it beats walking.


How can I talk about Nepal with out mentioning the scenic beauty. The mountains are breathtaking and the country side is gorgeous. The Himalayas are amazing, and from where I saw them mystical. On most days the mountains were concealed by large thick clouds. But when they came out last week it looked as if these enormous mountains were floating on the clouds, and I for a while couldn't take my eyes off of them.

Now to talk a bit about the amazing organization that I worked with, the Esther Benjamins Trust (EBT). I of course knew that they rescue children and help them until they are old enough to help themselves. But when I got to the childrens home the kids seemed to me to be your average kids. I knew they had stories but I wasn't going to pry and ask them. It was only until one of the staff members at the house told me about them that it really clicked with me about what amazing work that the EBT does.

Many of the kids were rescued from the streets and the and the horrible condition in-which they had to live. The street kids in some cases have parents but they cannot take care of them so they have to go to the streets. Other kids are called "jail kids", these are kids who have to go to jail with their parents as the kids have no other relatives who can care for them. So these kids languish in a filthy jail cell on account of their parents. There were a brother an sister at the kids home, ages seven and nine years old who had to sit in jail because their father was a drug dealer.

Down the street there are girls who were rescued from the circuses, not only do they have to do dangerous acts which leave scars but they are also abused while there.

So when I learned all this i was able to get a true picture of the amazing work that the EBT does. All these kids, weather four years old or 19 and above, on account of the EBT are safe, given a home, a bed to sleep in, fed regularly, educated in public or private schools, given vocational training and looked after medically.

With all this in prospective, it is an amazing thing that the Esther Benjamins Trust does, and has been doing for years now. For me it was an honor to work with them and I want to go back again next year for two months if possible.

In closing I would like to say thank you for following this blog, and I hope that you enjoyed it. As I really enjoyed Nepal and sharing my experiences with all who read my posts. Now that this trip is over I don't really know what to do with this blog, I guess I will think of something...

On the path to Buddha

This morning I went out on a walk with another volunteer and some kids from the kids home by Kathmandu. We ventured out to the BIG golden Buddha in one of the mountains, well its really a foot hill compared to the Himalayas in the background beyond Kathmandu.

It took about 45 minutes to reach the Buddha and wow was it big, it only looked like a little golden speck from the room where I had been sleeping. But upon reaching the Buddha in all its majestic glory, we discovered from a local man that it is in-fact 27 feet tall or higher. This was a holy site so we had to take our shoes off.

It was a good experience and I was able to see Kathmandu in the distance. You cant really get a good idea of just how big the city is until you look at if from a mountain, or in my case Buddhas perch. Kathmandu is a huge city which appears to occupy the entire valley, and is hemmed in on all sides by mountains.

Flollowing my meeting with the golden Buddha (which isn't really gold, I think its concrete with golden paint, as it is starting to bubble in some areas; but none the less amazing to look at) we continued to a botanical garden. On the way, we went through some smaller villages and I saw something pretty amazing. A countryside rife with pot plants, in some areas it reeked of Mary Jane. Around that area its like, well, a weed...ha, ha, ha, ok bad joke. I got some good pictures of some pretty large plants. I had to pick a leaf and pose with it just for fun.

The Botanical garden was nice, and I was able to get back to the house and do my final packing for my return trip. Which brings me to my next point, right now I am in Doha, Qatar. I have about a ten hour lay over, so I will have to bide my time somehow. I have one MRE (Meal Ready to Eat- military food ration) left and plan to eat that sometime soon.

The flight went well though, and now I cant wait to get back in the states, although it was a bitter sweet exodus. I love Nepal, its a beautiful country and I worked with alot of great people, and the kids both young and older were great. The people of Nepal are really nice and very helpful.

Infact when I and another volunteer arrived back outside of Kathmandu at night, we were helped by some local people who showed us where the kids house was. They were just nice enough to help us when our bearings were lost and we clearly needed the help. Great people.

Well its time to sign off, hopefully I can write again when I get to Washington DC. LATER.

Sacrifice time

This morning the goat that was residing in the house for the last day or two was ritually sacrificed. The method of dispatching the beast was by sword, and quite a large sword.

Earlier the man who was to do the deed was looking around for a sharp instrument, but could only come up with smaller knifes. So he had to go to the house next door in order to get a proper sword.

The beheading went quickly, he sharpened the sword and with one quick fell of the blade it was all over. It was interesting to see this, although the back of the "executioner" was to those watching, so we didn't see the blade do its work. Apparently this is quite a big deal as part of the celebration as most of the kids were watching.


On a brighter side, some of those living near by made an enormous swing out of bamboo poles. The swing must have been thirty feet high, and the kids were all waiting their turn for a swing, and it looked really fun.

This morning I also got some good pictures of the snow covered mountains in the background beyond the city. Normally the mountains are shrouded by clouds but this morning the clouds moved away and revealed the huge Ganesh Himal portion of the Himalayas.

The mountains are amazing to see, they are so big and stretch on for quite a ways. Their sheer size even from a distance is breath taking. This was also the first time I was able to see them and was totally taken away by them, I just had to stare for a while in amazement.

Back in Kathmandu

Well, here I am back in Kathmandu, I am actually on outskirts of Kathmandu, about 45 minutes outside the city. After being in the smaller and less busy city to the south going into Kathmandu was a bit overwhelming. Like I said when I got here, Kathmandu was and is a mad-house of people, residents and tourists. The fact that the Hindu holiday of Dassain is here, Kathmandu is that much more busy.

While in Kathmandu this morning, there seemed to be more police and Special Force (the para-military arm of the police) and Army personnel about. I saw some Special force guys in riot gear with their large assault rifles, so they are ready for some unrest if it comes, but nothing will happen. Kathmandu is sort of wild but its and organized chaos. I also finally saw where the US embassy is, didn't see in, the walls were pretty high.

So for Dassain, from what I understand it is tradition to sacrifice a goat. So on my way up to Kathmandu, which took about 10 hours, I saw trucks and buses not only carrying passengers but also goats on the roofs, lots and lots of goats.

It was funny, this other volunteer noticed that there was a goat being off-loaded at the kids home that we are currently at. He said "I wonder if the goats gets the point, since it is being off-loaded with vegetables". Brilliant

Aside from that I got a book for the return flight, since I read an entire Stephen King novel on the way here (The Gunslinger). The book that i got today is about Tsarist Russia and the British Government sending agents to the border of China in order to influence the trade routs. It is a true story and its pretty cloak and dagger, so I will be looking forward to starting that. Beside that I got some presents for my niece and nephew. I found some little wooden elephants with ornate carvings on them. So the are pretty indestructible, but I wouldn't put it past a 2 and 5 year old to break them :)

At the moment it is raining pretty heavily and we are planning some activities for the kids to keep them busy. The kids home that I am at is really close to the mountains, so that's nice, slow and quiet.

Through the mountains again

By now all but two kids are left at the children's home, yesterday we drove four n' a half hours east to drop three more kids off. As I had mentioned earlier the Hindu holiday of Dassain and all the kids go home for about 15 or so days.

To get to these kids houses we went through two mountain chains an I believe that I was the highest up that I have been yet. The road wound up and over a large mountain and it looked as if I was over a thousand feet up from the looks of it. Like most of the roads that go through the mountains there are some medium sized concrete blocks on the side of the road, set up as barricades to keep you from flying off the side of the mountain. It sounds nice but these blocks would really only slow your fall down the mountain, so traveling through the mountains at times is not for the faint of heart.

I was especially unnerved as the driver seemed to like to drive a bit fast. All I could think was "is it possible for you to slow down just a little bit?" Because there wasn't much to stop us from having a roller coaster ride down the mountain side.

So aside from a couple frightful moments I did see some more interesting communities in the mountains and the forests proceeding the mountains.

The forest communities were what I noticed first. These people lived about an hour and a half outside of the large town/city of Butwal. There must have been 15 or more houses and a stable. The houses were bamboo framed, adobe walled and the roofs were made of cut tall grass. As I said these houses were in the forest right by the side of the road. I would imagine that in the US or any western country this might be considered illegal squatting. These people seemed to keep to them selves as they did not have any small shops for attracting passer-by's, as most small towns or individual residences do.

The communities in the mountains were just as interesting, the homes were very similar if not of the same build. The difference was that these people for the most part were more commercial oriented. Many houses had small shops where you can buy pop, snacks, hot tea, and similar products. Some of these communities had hotel/restaurants, where the truckers can stop for the night. The trucks that you see all over Nepal are not the 18 wheelers that were used to in the US but smaller 2 1/2 to 3 ton trucks.

One of the most out of place things that I saw were several of these adobe houses or hotels with their thatched roofs, and a solar panel sticking out of the roof. I was interesting to see the contrast of the very old look of the house and the new technology of a solar panel protruding from the roof.

At one of these wayside stops we took a travel break and had some milk tea. There were some kids playing a betting game with rupees. From the looks of it the boy placing his money down was not doing so well, but it looked like it was all in good fun.

Lizard...post mortem

So about two days ago a lizard seemed to have decided to lay down and die in such a fashion and place so as to let all those in the children's home know its time had indeed come. That little lizard could not have picked a better place to lay down and pass onto another place of existence or consciousness.

The little reptile chose to die, belly up eyes open at the base of the water pump, in doing so it made its reptilian corpse available for all to see. Seeing as that the water pump is where everyone washes their dishes, clothes, and in some cases the children take their bucket showers, it would inevitably be noticed.

Would you know it, it was noticed, however like mice none of the female staff members or children would get near it. So I decided to take one for the team and give it a proper burial.

Then a thought occurred to me: Why not chase the women and children around with a dead lizard? So doing what any decant person would do, I proceeded to chase them around with it. They were screaming and running around, like the place had caught on fire, it was great. I could have had them run up the stairs but I decided that I had put them through enough. So finally I did in-fact give the lizard back to the earth by tossing it into the swamp next to the house.

Here ends the tale of the pump lizard.

Saying good bye to some of the kids

The Hindu holiday of Dassain is begining very soon (or it has already began) and all the kids from the kids home will be going home to spend time with their families or extended families for about 12-15 days.

So today I went by van with five of the kids who were going home. Not only was it a bit sad to see them off but it was also pretty sad to see where some of the kids lived.

One of the girls were dropped off, her family lives in a slum by a river. This little girl who is five, her mother lives in a "house" with a bamboo frame and the walls and roof are made of tarps much the same as the other homes near by. The river they live next to is not by any means clean and the river I was told floods, so her house of course floods and the floor of dirt probably turns into mud. But despite this she had a beaming smile on her face as she was playing with her friends when we dropped her off.

The other kids we dropped off are the older of the kids at the home and they are family (brother and two sisters) and they lived farther off into the country. Their home was much better than the four year old girl mentioned above. The house in the country was made of clay or adobe and the roof was framed with bamboo and the roof itself was made of corigated steel. They had a small amount of live stock and a water pump.

Every kid at the childrens home has a sad or tragic story, I was told about most of their backgrounds and its enough to make you want to cry. But the bright side is that the Esther Benjamins Trust saves these kids from the conditions that they would have almost assuredly been condemned to.

So learning their backgrounds made it that much more amazing that they now have food to eat everyday, a nice place to live and they are being educated, which is so important in Nepal.

The rest of the kids are leaving tomorrow and Tuesday, so its jerks at your heart to see them leave. They are all great kids and I am priveleged to have spent time with them.