Monthly Archives: August 2009

Honouring Fridays: August 29th, 2009

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Call me crazy, but I think I feel a chill in the air.  The temperature dipped below 20 degrees and as we scrambled to get the blankets back on the bed I realized just how much my internal thermometer has shifted.  Since when did 20 degrees become cold?  And how much will I shiver when I get home and an hour of rain isn’t followed by blazing hot sunshine?  But perhaps it isn’t temperature at all, but rather old habits driving this need to cozy up – with September around the corner it somehow just feels like the right thing to do.

  • Work days that allow for a quick venue research trip up a mountain to resort-ish type location where one can see the Himalayan vistas. Need I say more?  In comparison it would be like being asked to visit Whistler (albeit much less fancy) for a day and report back on the quality of the hotel rooms, meeting halls, and menus of possible workshop venues.   And our selection was…Hotel Country Villa.  Beautiful rooms, fantastic food and excellent (read inspiring) views.  Sigh…work is tough some days!  The only piece of this day that I was not as grateful for was the screeching and precariously speedy trip up the mountain side to get to said location.  Thankfully, I was not riding on the roof of a public bus…it was scary enough from the backseat of a car.
  • Pothole warnings.  due to some very heavy rainstorms lately, some of the paved roadways are developing rather large, almost crater like, holes.  On my regular walking route to the tuk-tuk stop I had noticed some sinking spots in the pavement.  But literally overnight, these sink holes had sunk to new lows…giant hollow spaces beneath the pavement, much like cracking the head of a chocolate Easter bunny – the hole may look small from the top but is cavernous underneath.  So, to warn drivers who are speeding through the streets the neighbourhood solution is to prop a tall tree-like branch into the hole.  No bright tape, coloured ribbons, massive orange cones, or heavily roped off areas.  Just a bamboo branch waving lazily in the breeze and blending very wall into the surroundings.  I admit the holes were fixed within a week, an excellent turnaround time for Nepal, but Iam still left marveling at the simplicity of it all.
  • Being able to get work done in a cyber. Cyber is Nepali speak for an internet cafe – minus the cafe.  A bunch of old computers crammed into a small shop along with phone booths, a copy machine, and some dusty office supplies.  Speeds vary, monitors are often discoloured and flickering, and keyboards have notoriously sticky keys.  But right now, we have no internet in our office and have not had for the past 3 months.  So, this means regular trips to the local cyber to check and answer email.  And I am still somewhat shocked (and grateful!) for the amount of work we manage to do in these little cybers.  The noise level is ridiculous, with locals calling family gone to work in the Middle East and yelling over a poor reception, the ergonomics would make any office rep cringe, and there are always a gaggle of folks reading email over your shoulder.  However, with a bit of focus and preseverance we have managed to operate this way for 3 months.  Not ideal, but somehow satisfying.  And a tribute to a culture like Nepal where people simply are not bothered by these small inconveniences.
  • Peanut butter cookies.  It was a moment of madness and I was blinded by a recollection of smell and taste.  I had been dreaming about this particular version of peanuttyness for a few weeks but thought that the feeling would wear off.  It didn’t.  It got worse.  So, after trying desperately to ignore it, I caved and sent R on a scrambling race to the corner store for some peanut butter and baked out my craving with only moments to spare before the power cut started for the evening.  They were delicious and I think worth the madness.  My only excuse is that it was a back-to-school treat (without the back to school part)!

Honouring Fridays: August 21st, 2009

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This week, I was passed along a wonderful blog treat from my dear friend bakergirl – she tossed me the One Lovely blog award!

Now bakergirl knows a thing or two about good food…we all know that.  But what she is also incredibly talented at (and something not everyone would know) is that she is VERY good at appreciating people. She regularly does kind little things to make everyone feel appreciated.  SO, I wasn’t really surprised to see her appreciating other bloggers but was I tickled to be appreciated!  So wanting to follow the kind-hearted ways of my bakergirl pal, I too would like to honour 8 of the the best of blogs I know with a ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD.

All my Friday gratitude this week goes to these talented writers, dreamers, critics, and artists – may the words always flow eagerly from your fingertips so that I can continue the pleasure of reading your thoughts and feeling inspired by you!

  • the rex-files.  He may (or may not…oooooh…mysterious) be my husband and he blogs with intelligence, wit, and perspective on anything and everything (particularly technology, photography, the environment, or information management).  And as cheesy as it is to pass a blog award to your husband (damn…there goes the mystery!) he deserves it!
  • Burnt Lumpia.   In my quest to add Filipino food to the repertoire after marrying into a Filipino family the excellent and creative (and incredibly humourous) ramblings of Marvin have satisfied just about every culinary Filipino need I have ever had…now if only my Filipino husband really likes Filipino food!
  • Desert Candy.  Mercedes has inspired a strong urge in me to cook more Middle Eastern food…REAL Middle Eastern food – not your run of the mill hummus and pita.  Her recipes are easy and delicious!  Keeps me dreaming of all the recipes I look forward to trying when we leave Nepal!
  • SmellyBlog.   Anyone who knows me well knows that if I could live my dream it would be to become a perfumer.  So, I can’t help but devour the blog of Ayala.  A resident of my adopted home town, Vancouver, and a talented perfumer who can describe a smell so vividly you can almost smell/taste it!  She is living proof that my dream could one day become a reality.
  • Everybody Likes Sandwiches.  Also a Vancouver blogger who I stumbled upon while looking for a good cabbage recipe.  I found one.  And many many many other appetizing, healthy and seasonal recipes that seem wholesome and real.  I resonate with her lifestyle, her food style, and her sense of style.
  • Pinch My Salt.  Stumbled here as I was looking for a recipe for making cheese and found so so much more.  Nicole is a fabulous cook and an excellent writer!
  • Sailu’s Kitchen.  These days, I am understandably obsessed with finding recipes and blogs related to good Indian and Nepali cuisine.  I am afraid that if I don’t perfect some of my favourite recipes I will be lost for what to eat when I leave Nepal!  Sailu’s Kitchen has provide great inspiration and a stock-pile of delicious recipes that I will make forever.  The kind of recipes that are destined to become family favourites 🙂
  • My husband cooks.  I read this blog out of complete admiration and awe…some day I dream my husband will surpass me in cooking ability too 🙂  Until then, I revel in the fact that her husband cooks the most delicious food and they both share it with us!  Now if only I could get my husband to read this blog…

Mushroom and Paneer in a Cashew Yogurt Curry

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Last week we made what I think may have been the most mouthwatering curry I have ever made – the addition of cashews and yogurt made for such a a rich and sumptuous taste.  I have no pictures (I am a terrible picture taken when I am cooking…too much going on and not enough hands!), but the recipe is below.

The recipe came from a small local cookbook, the proceeds of which support a local technical school, Kumbeshwar Technical School for low caste and economically deprived people.  A good meal for a great cause!

Mushrooms and Paneer in a Cashew Yogurt Curry

Serves 4

500g paneer, cut into ½ inch cubes.  If you can`t find paneer, you can substitute halloumi cheese or easily make your own.
½ cup cashew nuts
1 large onion, chopped
½ cup thick full-cream yogurt
½ tsp turmeric poweder
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
2 Tbsp ginger and garlic paste (equal parts ginger and garlic pureed with a bit of water to make a paste…this is the foundation of all Nepali curries)
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 cup fresh diced tomatoes
Oil
Salt

  1. Soak cashew nuts in water for about 20 minutes until they feel soft.
  2. Pour a couple tablespoons of oil in the pan and fry paneer until it is golden brown and crusty on the outside. Remove from pan and set aside.
  3. Add to the pan chopped onion and fry until golden brown.
  4. Put onions, soaked cashew nuts and ½ cup water into a food processor or blender and puree to a thick paste.
  5. Into the same pan as before add 2 more Tbsp oil. Once oil is hot, turn down the heat and add all the spices, the ginger garlic paste, yogurt and the cashew puree and fry for 4-5 minutes.
  6. Add mushrooms and diced tomatos to the pan and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid sticking. The curry should be thick but if it sticks to the pan add a small amount of water.

A Tribute to the Beginning of a New University Semester

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I am experiencing some serious nostalgia these days as I see the numerous notes from friends and old colleagues about the fact that students are just around the corner, set to enter university en masse for what will hopefully be one of the most satisfying and challenging learning experiences of their lives.  And while I truly grateful to spend the months of August and September in a more relaxed and less frantic state of mind, I do remember just how exciting and important this time of year can be.

Campuses will be buzzing with activity again, moving trucks will mark the weekend moving madness, the supermarket shelves will be nearly empty as student apartments are stocked, some sort of back-to-school flyer will crowd out of every mailbox on the block, orientation programs will be scrambling to get the last bits in order for the big day, information booth duty becomes a central part of your job description, and those lovely, curious, keen, bright, and energetic students will come bounding into campus, hesitantly ready to make their mark.

And as the “fresh” students collide with the tradition and culture of the old, I am also reminded just how hard that clash can feel.  The sense that there may just not be any room left for newness in all the oldness.  The feeling of needing to “catch-up” and get there faster to ensure you blend in and avoid any cultural blunders.  The wish for someone newer than you to arrive so you can feel experienced and knowledgeable again.  It sounds hauntingly familiar to my own culture shock here in Nepal actually.

So…

To my old colleagues at UBC who are working tirelessly right now – I am with you!  I can sense the energy and imagine the dedication, exhaustion, and anticipation you are feeling.  Keep your eye on the end of September, keep your student leaders at the front, and yourself on the sidelines.  Enjoy the familiarity and the camaraderie that this time of year brings – I will miss being part of that feeling that an entire campus is poised and looking towards the same goal.  Watch it amazement as it all unfolds magically and with some predictability – another year, another slice of pizza 🙂

To the campus oldies, remember to make space for all the newness.  Leave room for those who follow you to step into new roles, test new ideas, and change the campus that you have so willingly cared for and loved.  You made it better and they will continue your legacy – but they might also begin some legacies of their own.   Support and help them do that and then get the heck out of their way – you have a new role as the shoulders on which they will need to stand.

To the campus new ones, despite what it may seem (and it may seem exceedingly chaotic, large, overwhelming, and secret-club like) your new community has the potential to change your life.  And you have the potential to change it right back.  You will get lots of advice – you should listen to all of it, but choose to take only what seems valuable to you.   There is space for you here to find whatever it is you are looking for – space to choose, to experiment, to explore, to change your mind, to disagree, to get swept up, to lose track, to find focus, and to learn.

And I am looking forward to being back and a part of the fray next year perhaps because there is no better place to work than on a university campus!

Honouring Fridays: August 14th, 2009

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Last night I awoke to the most spectacular rainstorm we have had yet.  It sounded like rivers streaming from the sky and drowned out any other sounds.  I laid still for about half and hour and just listened to the sound, carefully looking for a change in pace, water volume, or drop intensity.  Straining to hear, you could make out the sounds of the rain falling on different objects – the banana trees in the yard were lashed and submissive, the leaves being torn by the heavy drops, the rhythmic thudding of the balcony downspout on the pavement 3 stories down, and the metallic spring of drops bouncing vigorously off the tin roof over the carport.  All these rains sounds wove together to create a cocoon inside our mosquito net – at that moment there was nowhere more secure, cozy or peaceful to be.

  • The countdown. It is literally one month until we embark on a 4-week vacation that feels like it just can’t come at a better time.  The 4 weeks will be blissfully free from work and allow me to remember just how amazing Nepal has been.  So, forgive me, while I not so silently jump for joy each morning when I look at my countdown clock on my Google homepage and see the numbers ticking down…such power those little numbers hold…I may not be living as directly in the moment as I may like, but I sure as heck have lots to look forward to!
  • Finding the lesson, despite how deeply it might be buried. With enough distance from my stressful and rather confidence defeating past weeks, I have had enough time to gather my wits and regain perspective.  And buried near the centre of all the junk is what I like to call the kernel of wisdom.  My kernel from the last weeks has been: don’t assume that lack of interest is equivalent to lack of caring.  
  • The smell of fresh guava. Not the prettiest of fruit but certainly the most intriguing.  Walking down a muddy alley in Kathmandu I could smell what seemed like a some rich and luxurious Parisian perfume – heady top notes of super sweet and fragrant fruit – like a strawberry married a pineapple.  Much to my suprise the smell was wafting from a precarious looking basket of rumpled yellow-green fruit.  The guava season had arrived by smell alone.  They are not the most delicious of fruits – in fact I would discourage you from going out of your way to find them for their taste value.  Oh, but the smell…the smell alone is reason to seek them out.  They permeate our entire apartment with their fruity, flowery, and steamy scent.  They smell like seduction, passion, and intrigue.  I think small animals, insects, and birds must be seduced by them too – it is a bewitching fruit.  I have since used them to make a rather perfumed sauce with honey and a raspberry tea bag which I hope to serve this weekend with a chocolate cake.  And true to Nepal, the fruit seasons just keeping bringing the most delightful surprises – wistful goodbyes to mangoes – flared nostril hellos to guavas!  And it probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that guava essence is a central ingredient in many perfumes too!
  • Cooking my way to good mental health. There is a term in our house that R and I use, particularly on weekends, when I emerge from a state of intense cookery…we call it the food coma.  Sometimes it is induced by eating all the fruits of my kitchen labours, but other times it it simply the coma from channeling every last drop of creativity and soul into making something tasty.  But I actually do believe that cooking has become an important mode of expression for me.  An outlet from some frustration, a chance to capture feelings on a plate. Nothing better than expressing myself and ending up with a delicious plate of food at the end of it.

Honouring Fridays: August 7th, 2009

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I hear it is hot in Vancouver. Hotter than what would be considered usual for this time of year. And while I can sympathize with those West Coasters who are just not genetically engineered for this heat (and I feel absolutely terrible about the forest fires that are raging…they were actually featured in photo on the cover of a national Nepali newspaper this week…I could hardly believe my eyes)…but I digress. I just wanted to toss out a quick reminder that your version of hot is mild. Yesterday, I walked to work and by the time I arrived my shirt was actually soaking with sweat…and I mean SOAKING..dripping…could be wrung out with enough sweat to brew a cup of tea…gross. And there is no cool refereshing lakes, rivers or oceans…just large seas of rice paddies. In some of the southern areas of Nepal near the Indian border the temperature is regularly in the 40’s for weeks. So, it is hot on the West Coast but my sympathy extends only so far…until your brewing tea with your t-shirt sweat it’s not that hot 🙂

  • Cold marble floors. On those days when the temperature is insanely hot one of the most cooling things I can find to do is stand (or admittedly sometimes lay)  in my kitchen. Usually associated with hot, steamy, splattering foods, the kitchen in my house is actually the coolest spot around thanks to the floor to counter slabs of marble. I find that I channel almost all my excess body heat through my feet so there is nothing more comforting than soaking up the cool through one sole…which inevitably cools the other soul.
  • Nimbleness. One of the things that I have learned since being here is just how much I appreciate nimble organizations.  The type of organization that can be quickly responsive, adaptable, flexible, and strategic – that doesn’t get bogged down by adhering to excessive, circular, and semantic conversations.  I truly believe that nimbleness is possible for an organization of any size, degree of hierarchy, or type of work.  It is often thought that being smaller means being more nimble, but really it is more about the implementation of organizational structure not the actual structure itself.  In a dictatorship, nimble is easy – boss makes decision and can change the decision based on new information at any time.  In the same way, a more participatory organization could empower those most impacted to make the decision on behalf of the group.  I believe that very few organizations recognize nimbleness as a high priority but I think this will become increasingly important – to stay ahead they will need to be nimble to remain competitive.
  • Good communication. Good things happen when communication is good.  I was reminded this week that communication takes practice, patience, and listening.  Listening.  Listening.  Maybe speaking.  Listening.  And no matter how experienced or capable you are in communication there will be tests of this skill – moments when your abilities fail you and you need to find some new strategies.  But as soon as you stop allowing your communication strategies to evolve, the less able you will be to communicate.
  • Garlic and cheese rolls. Near our house there is a wonderful Italian bakery of which we only recently started taking full advantage.  They make breads, cookies, pastries and other delicious goodies.  But my indulgence there is singular.  In fact, I don’t think my eyes even drift further than the large tray of warm garlic and cheese rolls.  They always have my full attention, the garlic winking, the cheese seductively draping itself over the wholesome multigrain goodness.  For those who know me well, they could tell you just how much I love savoury breakfast.  So, for breakfast, we sometimes walk over for a breakfast treat and delicious latte (next door is a little coffee roasting shop that hand grinds beans and steams milk individually for each latte…divine and the best to be found in Kathmandu I think).  Below is a photo tribute to this new Saturday morning ritual.
The source of deliciousness
A little piece of heaven in the form of a roll.
The equally delicious latte.
Sheer joy and contentment!