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Honouring Fridays: October 23rd, 2009

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As many people may have heard, my grandmother died last week. She was in her late 90’s and still managed to go for a swim everyday in Lake Okanagan, knit woolly booties for the new babies at the hospital, and spend as much time as possible with her family. Back in the day she was a talented figure skater, a baker of the most delicious fudge, and a practical joker of the highest degree. She took pleasure in stuffing home knitted socks with jaw-breaker candies as big as my head (at least they felt that big when my 10 year old eyes watched my Dad pull them out of his new socks on Christmas morning) and she could always be counted on for warm hugs, a great game of rummy (she cheated, but we all let her), and some laughs – she was always laughing.

  • Grandma Frances. So, this week I am the most grateful for my grandmother and the wonderful life that she was able to live. I can only hope that I have inherited an ounce of your kindness, a funny bone or two and perhaps a drop or two of your delicious fudge-making talents too 🙂  We love you and will miss you Grandma.

  • Ginger tea. During our 5-day trek in the hills and mountains, after climbing for 4-5 hours, we would reach the guest house exhausted and hungry. Dinner would usually be some warm and filling potato or egg dish but what we all looked forward to more than dinner was the steaming pot of ginger tea at the end of the meal. It was quite simple – black tea with fresh, chopped ginger and a splash of honey dumped into the pot. No infusion of ginger essence or synthetic ginger flavouring, just real fresh gingery hot tea. It was a warm hug before bed, a muscle rejuvinator before the next day of hiking, a chance to reconnect with family about how the day went, and a moment of calm, full-belly, peacefulness. I plan on making this concoction throughout the cold months here in Nepal to ward off H1N1, common colds, chest infections, and stomach irritations – even if it doesn’t work it will still bring me back to the cool crisp evenings in Nepal’s mountains sitting with family and sharing a wonderful pot of tea.

  • Rotisserie chicken. While my parents were visiting earlier this month we made a wonderful discovery. The small and unassuming toaster oven that graces my counter is also a rotisserie! In preparations for a small Thanksgiving dinner we had planned to roast a chicken in the toaster oven. I found some odd spear and dagger like instruments in the cupboard and starting putting the pieces together. On inspection of the oven, we discovered that lo and behold, the large spear-like apparatus rotates! AHA! Spear the bird, slap it on the rotating device and voila – rotisserie chicken – a zillion times better than any Swiss Chalet affair and truly Thanksgiving worthy. You can rest assured that we will be re-enacting this magical moment for Christmas dinner as well 🙂

  • Rekindling a love affair. Despite the fact that I sometimes take you for granted, I am reminded just how appreciative I am to have you. The sweetness of reconnecting feels good. It is also especially good when the object of affection is so steady, familiar, and altogether unchanging. When it can feel like you were never apart. And so I have rekindled my love affair. You keep me connected, give me entertainment, and suffer as pound out my weekly installments of gratitude and yet never have I once shown any appreciation for you…the tool. You may have lost the ability to hold any charge in your battery due to random power surges but you will always have my undying affection.

Honouring Fridays: September 11th, 2009

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Well folks, this is the beginning of the end.  The beginning of my vacation (well, almost) and the end of working like a maniac…for a whole 4 weeks! We look forward to greeting my parents at the airport on Tuesday night and embarking on a trip to Pokhara, a short mountain trek, a bunch of small day trips around Kathmandu, and then a 9 day trip around Rajasthan in India.  And with this adventure comes the great need to disconnect from my life in Kathmandu…just enough to clear the mind and rejuvenate the spirit.

So, this will be my final Friday gratitude post for the next 4 weeks.  I may post some photos of our trip or the odd note during this time but will return in earnest with my weekly musings on things I am grateful for on Friday, October 16th.  Until then enjoy the beginning of Fall – bake an apple crisp, buy a new sweater, and  crush some dry leaves underfoot.

  • XMind.  On two instances over the past month I have needed to pull together a partnership map to show the connections between various stakeholders, community groups, partners, government, donors and volunteers.  In non-development speak this is really just a  complex organizational diagram that shows how any involved is connected to anyone else involved.  After fiddling for some time with the PowerPoint org chart functions I quickly realized they were much too hierarchical for our holistic approach.  So, off to the web to find something better (and free, and open source…of course!).  Enter XMind, a great tool for mind-mapping of the complex and chaotic variety.  Here is an example of what I was able to do.
  • Dhaka topi.  I have been taking more notice lately of the tradition Nepali caps that men here wear.  Topi ithe general word for hat and dhaka is the cloth used to make traditional Nepali mens wear.  When used together they refer to the hat worn when wearing the dhaka clothes.  They are jaunty, colourful, and rather charming.  Somehow, they remind me of time passed – I imagine what Kathmandu might have looked like years ago, with bikes being the main mode of transport, when colourful dhaka topis topped the head of every man riding a bike…it must have looked something like this.
  • Sel roti.  Sel roti looks like a large skinny donut.  It is a sweetened rice flour bread that is deep fried and eaten with Nepali tea or with a snack of curried chick peas.  I ate my first sel roti last week as they are a common snack around festival time.  I have not yet had the guts  to try and make them but if you want to give it a go, here is a good recipe.  The slight crunch of the ground  rice bits gives the texture of cornmeal and the sweet dough with the slight hint of banana flavour all drenched in a crispy greasy crust…delicious!
  • The right amount of time.  Enough time to appreciate, notice, and enjoy what is around you.  Not so much time  that you feel stuck and stagnant.  Enough time to soak it all in.  Not so much time to feel you might never make it to the end.  Enough time to feel powerfully connected.  Not so much time that powerful connections turn into resentful relationships.  Just the exact right amount of time when everything makes sense.