Category Archives: Images of Nepal

Honouring Fridays: December 4th, 2009

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I am beginning to disconnect – with just over 1 month left in Nepal I am sensing an urgent need to be unimportant in the cogs of everyday work. I actually think this has helped to illuminate a couple of key flaws in how I have worked here – I have made myself too central and did not do enough to develop skills in others. I was focused too much on the goal rather than the process. And despite all the advice I was given at the beginning about seeing the process as THE work we should invest in, I made the cardinal and perhaps rookie mistake of doing too much. I now need to spend my final month transferring, as best I can, everything I have learned, to make sure that knowledge stays here in Nepal and doesn’t hop the plane back to Canada with me.  So, in addition to my weekly pauses of gratitude below, I am also grateful that this last month will be slower, easier, and more focused than my previous 13 months…the wisdom of experience has settled in to see me off in good form 🙂

  • The last pages in my day planner. Each page that I flip in the final month of my day planner represents the end of the year – and it was quite the year! I was flipping back through my planner and marveling at the breadcrumbs I left alluding to what I have spent my time doing over the past year. The notes, scribbles, doodles, underlines, and motley assortment of work related meetings…it is like a ticket stub to a concert…and as the band takes the stage for the final encore number the crowd begins to sway and chant the lyrics to the ballad that made them famous in the first place. December will be my encore…the blog will continue but the album will be different.

  • Gingerbread. Thank you Epicurious! I have never loved gingerbread cookies all that much, likely due to the dry and crumbly texture, the gobs of white crusty icing, and fake gingery taste that hangs in my mouth. The majority of gingerbread cookies I have eaten have been store-bought which perhaps explains the poor quality and lack lustre feeling they leave me with. But, as I continue to mark my weeks with small Christmas traditions from home, I decided to tackle gingerbread cookies. This recipe is excellent! Rather than cut them out I opted for small, flattened rounds, rolled in sugar, and baked to a golden brown. They ended up a bit more like a soft, chewy gingersnap which has absolutely cured my distaste for dry and crumbly gingerbread. If you haven’t started your Christmas baking I highly recommend this recipe.

  • Getting crafty. It was Thursday night and I was in desperate need of some wrapping paper.  I didn’t have the patience or energy to head out and scrounge for some in the local shops.  So instead, I scrounged the house.  Paper bag.  Check.  Paper bag with handles that unravel into raffia like ribbon.  Check.  Cabbage stem.  Check.  Cauliflower stem check.  Laundry blue that keeps my whites looking white.  Check.  Sharp knife. Check.  I was ready to go.  The paper bag transformed into the canvas and with some careful slicing the vegetable stems turned into a star and christmas tree stamp (why waste a good potato for a stamp when the stems of my Brassicaceae will do just fine!).  The laundry blue was a great substitute for paint and turned a lovely and shimmery purple on the brown paper.  A quick chop, dip, stamp and the paper was done.  Gift was wrapped and tied up with a lovely paper bag raffia ribbon!  The lesson folks – make it work with whatever junk you’ve got – it is way more fun that way 🙂

  • My new sari! I posted a photo on facebook earlier this week but thought I would share a different one here.  In addition to the tradition kurtaa surwal that many women in Nepal wear, the fancier or perhaps more modern option is the sari. And I felt that I probably shouldn’t leave Nepal without buying one. After stewing over colours and decorations (the bright, sparkly, beaded, embroidered, and heavily encrusted ones just didn’t do it for me) I settled on a turquoise number with dark blue and gold border. After struggling alone while watching this video online I gave up and tossed the sari into a bag – this was going to require some assistance from a regular sari wearer! So, while away for an overnight workshop last weekend my friend Sujata helped. It took me at least 8 attempts to wrap myself without Sujata’s help, but I think I have finally got the basics of it – I won’t dare say I have mastered it…it will likely take another 8 attempts the next time I wear it. It is surprisingly comfortable, feels a bit fancy, and except for the stomach baring portion (dear colleagues, I apologize that you all had to see my stomach during our meeting, but I can tell that it probably bothered me more than it bothered you…actually I think most of you didn’t even notice…pheww!), it is actually quite discrete.

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Mehendi

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I blogged a couple weeks ago about the importance of the month of Shrawan to women.  Many of the activities this month lead up to Teej (which, by the way I had mistakenly said was in July but which is actually near the end of August) and another important practice for many high caste, Brahmin Hindu women is the application of beautiful mehendi designs of intricate details to the palms of their hands. Traditionally, they apply the henna the night before the first day of the month of Shrawan, which was Wednesday night this week.

The ready-mixed henna paste is stuffed into a foil cone that narrows to a pin prick at the bottom (in fact a pin is inserted in the narrow end of the cone to keep the henna inside the cone).  You can buy the dry powder but the cone is just much easier, especially for a novice like me.  Remove the pin and gently squeeze the cone to release a narrow thread of the paste.

Before applying the henna women first, coat their palms with lemon juice or sugar water and let it dry. This helps the paste adhere really well to the skin and not flake off.  Many women will apply the henna on the last night of the month of Bhadra and sleep with the henna on their hands until the next morning.  It really does stick like glue to skin and can be difficult to get off, although it still feels a bit crunchy, like applying a face mask to your hand.

I timidly began to draw a design, having no idea what would be suitable.  My colleague from work gave me a few ideas which was good asI think it helped make it look more authentic.  But it was hard to get it as detailed as I would have liked.  I saw some women on the bus the next day whose hands were so finely decorated it look like a red lace glove on their hand.

Below is a before and after picture of my first attempt – not too bad I think! Apparently, the darker the henna stains, the more your husband loves you…they say mine was very dark… 🙂

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My hand with Mehendi still on
My hand with mehendi still on

Chitawan

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Exhausted but happy we arrived back in Kathmandu from a whirlwind trip to to the Nepal jungle.  Rather than try to write every last detail down, please consider joining me as your virtual guide, here, on a photo tour of our weekend in Chitawan.  The best way to view is with the slideshow option in Picasa – all photos have captions…sorry they are so long!

Enjoy!

Video Memories: Photos from the past 3 months

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Rex has been working really hard to get this video uploaded, so I wanted to be sure to share it.  It is a quick photo summary of our first months in Nepal that he created for our final night of training (before all our new and dear friends headed off to other parts of Nepal).  It is about 20 minutes long so settle in for some great pictures taken by all the members of VSO Nepal’s November 2008 Volunteers.

Enjoy!

The Beginning of a Life Inspired by Nepal from Rex Turgano on Vimeo.

when a villaged opened their hearts

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It has been 7 days since we returned from our week in the small village of Chanku Besi – I have sat many times blankly in front of the computer screen wondering where to start.  How to appropriately capture the moments, the emotions, the surprises, the faces, the kindness.  It is not an easy task, to be sure, but my hesitation is partly a yearning to be accurate with my words and leave unspoiled the vivid images that will live with me.  I want to honour the wonderful people whom I met.

The village sat upon a long and incredibly steep set of rice terraces with my house being at the top of the village, shrouded by leafy trees, jungle, and orange trees.  The cold was intense.  The nights were pierced with winds whistling through the cracks in the mud and beam structure.  I had the bedroom to myself while next stoor my new Nepali family (amaa, baa, bhai, and 2 bahinis) cuddled up in one bed.  Mornings were spent with dawn hours around the small kitchen fire drinking chiyaa, laughing, and snuggling with the goats who lived downstairs.

From the doorway, the darkness inside fools one into thinking of dampness, dirt, and discomfort.  But rather the house was immaculately clean and comfortable.  The only discomfort was the blue stinging smoke during hours of cooking – no chimmney desired as the black soot covering the roof beams protect the wood from termites.

We spent a full 5 days living with our families and then abrubtly on the day of our community project we learned that there would be a bandha in the nearby town the next day – it was called for 3 days which meant we wouldn’t be able to get out in time for Christmas.  There was concern for our safety and we had to make the difficult decision to leave that afternoon.  It was a very difficult way to leave and with such a rush the goodbyes were not at all what we had meant them to be.  With garlands of marigolds around our necks and thick red tikas on our foreheads, we departed.  Sadly, heavily, and with much regret.

So rather than paint more pictures with words, I will gladly post some images of our brief and exciting stay in the village. My thanks to H-Bone who took all these photos and a whole bunch more, and painstakingly uploaded all of the them so that I was able to steal them 🙂 Photos from Rex and I coming soon too.

The village of Chanku Besi seen from the top of the rice terraces
The tree where we hung a tireswing the day before we left.
A few of our talented team in front of the school we painted on our final day.