Basanta

March 11, 2011

Today was the day we were going to visit Basanta. He has been our sponsored student since he was in Class 1 back in 2004. Tina, my sister pays $50 a month for his school fees, uniform, hostel and schoolbooks. Every year Tina puts a care package together, picking out a few clothes, shoes, chocolates and little toys to send with wishes of Happiness and love!

We came to know about Basanta from Rotaractor Sanjeev Dahal who had a friend who taught at Suryodaya Secondary School. She mentioned there was an orphan boy who did not have much but was a good student and needed a sponsor to continue his studies. He would hide under his table because he was so ashamed about not having the requisite school uniform or materials everyone else had. The teacher would provide second hand clothes and materials but she would not be able to provide these on an on-going basis. He lost his Mother after his little brother was born and his father was so upset, he left the family and now Basanta has 2 aunts to care for him during festivals and school breaks. He still has his grandparents whom he loves very much.

“No problem”, Rob had immediately said, I am sure we can find a sponsor for him and that was that!

That was 7 years ago and yesterday we enjoyed a bright and enthusiastic 13 year old, now in 7th grade who is Vice President of the school’s Eco Club! He loves plants, shows us the club’s herbal garden which they had tended which boasts of mint, timor, basil, and all other herbal /medicinal native plants.

He is shy but opened up after an hour and was excited to tell us where his Eco Club activities has sent him; Godavari and other neighboring towns to look at plants and trees. He said he was so excited about our meeting, he could not sleep that night before and neither could he concentrate at class the day we were supposed to arrive. He’s a bright and confident boy now and on the verge of adolescence and despite the heartache of missing parents, he seemed content with the knowledge that somewhere halfway around the world, Tina, his adopted parent cares for him and loves him.

He wants to meet Tina! I hope that next year she can visit and finally meet the recipient of her love and care! Gotta make it happen! He’s smile is oh so worth it!

Sanjiwani School Art Project

February 24, 2011

There are 14 visually challenged students who live in a hostel in the grounds of the Sanjiwani Model Higher Secondary School in Dhulikhel, Kavre District, Nepal. 4 of these students have sponsors who pay for their hostel and tuition fees. We always plan a special activity here to benefit all the visually challenged students. They range in age from 6 to 18 and attend the school with all the other 1000+ students from class 1 – 10.

Bobbie has suggested a “treasure Box” art project wherein the students would decorate wooden boxes with objects of many shapes and sizes and then the volunteers would help varnish these boxes so they would have their personal treasure boxes to keep as a memory of our volunteer activity. RR had the boxes made by a local woodworker and we brought the plastic jewels of all shapes with adhesive backings to make the process a little easier for our students. Each volunteer partnered with a student to assist and interact with them while they decorated their boxes. Each box was labeled with their name and the name of their volunteer. We had boxed lunches brought in and gave out goodie bags we brought for each student too! We also got to buy each one a shirt, underwear and socks from the local market.

A good time was had by all! The students had fun being out of the classroom for a few hours and created their treasure boxes and just chatted with us about their families and favorite things! I just felt really warm inside as I saw their smiles light up their faces as we joked around. They don’t care what we looked like or how we dressed or why we were there. They just enjoyed our company, received our presence and felt good that all eyes were on them that day!

A New Day

February 23, 2011

The plan was to wake up to catch the light the sun casts over the Western Himalayan range, to marvel at the beauty only nature can stage! You could make out the varying degrees of blue gray shades that marked the many layers of mountain’s skyline. I caught a view of fog rolling in low below the tree tops. The haze over the mountain range stayed as the sun rose at 6:40am yet despite that, the gift to just witness the dawn of a new day is an awesome feeling. I felt priviledged and blessed. In a few minutes, it shown in all its glory, the yellow-orange orb that we rely on each and every waking day. The one reality man has relied on since he walked on 2 legs.

Bobbie and I stood there recording the scene via video and photo and felt the warmth it brought our faces. Mornings are precious, I thought! Here we are at the beginning of a new day! All the possibilities become evident, become hope, become a vision of what the day could be! We stood there shoulder to shoulder to face the day together!

The day will be a fun day of art! We’ll visit the blind students as the Sanjiwani School who live in the hostel at the school grounds there and create personal boxes that they will decorate with ornaments and jewels we brought over. There’ll be a box lunch and some presentations of presents and games. I’m sure it’ll be a fun day!

The Plight of the Disabled in a Corrupt Society

For the most part the sighted children are willing and able to help the challenged ones and they seem to be well assimilated. Subodh, one of our sponsored kids, placed 1st in a class of 185 8th graders and last year he placed 4th. He understands that education is his ticket to opportunity despite his blindness. He knows his strengths and has harnessed it to excel. He won 3 awards this year: one in speech, the second in poetry and a third in quiz competition. He has won cash prizes and medals and trophies to prove his achievements. The sad part is that these awards seem to have disappeared from the Resource Room the teachers have told him they were going to store them. Are they worth any money? Could they have sold them? That’s only one of the questions we began to ask this evening as Subodh began to tell us about the injustices that have befallen these visually challenged students.

We had invited Subodh to dine with us that evening and here is shared the pain and heartache he has stored in to his giving heart. He belongs to a school that has been part of an inclusive program supported by the government. Hostel accommodations are provided to the school plus 3 resource teachers who would teach the students braille and support them in their integrated study with sighted children. We have come to find out that the resource teachers are not teaching braille but teaching sighted students other subjects. They hardly receive their braille paper and rely on their sighted friends to read to them. The older students have taken it upon themselves to teach the younger students braille and together they try to make their tests and homework with whatever is provided to them. If this was not horrible enough, he had also revealed that some musical instruments donated by some foreign visitors to their hostel has been taken away and provided for use by sighted students.

It blows my mind that the principal had the gall to invite us to his office for tea and tell us what a great job his school is doing for these blind students. Something definitely must be done about this!

We are back in Kathmandu at the NAWB (Nepal Association for the Welfare of the Blind), a non-profit organization that has the support of INGOs from Germany and Japan, trifc.org, government ministries of Nepal and a host of local foundations to provide resources, education, vocational training for the visually impaired children and adults. NAWB operates in 7 districts which serves 5500 children. They had estimated that there are 30,000 visually challenged school aged children in the country.

We were there to check on the 200 boxes of Braille books we had shipped from Seattle to build the first National Braille Library of Nepal and plan the project to catalogue the Books and ensure that these are disseminated via a Mobile Library to the districts that NAWB covers. There are plans for India to donate the vehicle for this purpose.


We had brought our concerns to Rajan Raut, Immediate past chairman of the center. Being a Rotarian and passionate supported of this organization, he will follow up on the goings on at the Sanjuwani School Blind Hostel and Resource center with the help of the Rotary Club at Dhulikhel. It is a start in the correction of practices that have harmed the blind students’ progress. It is encouraging to note that despite the seemingly unjust society, that when good people are asked to do something about an injustice, there are Rotarians that stand up and take the challenge, work in their environment and hopefully see positive change for the students and the future of the inclusive program.

On our part, Sita Gyawali, our volunteer will continue to keep in touch with Subodh and the other students on their progress and needs and relay conditions to Mr. Rajan Raut for continued action and support.

My Day 1

KE flight 695 from Seoul did touch down and we all filed into the Tribhuvan International airport to get our visas, pay our fees, collect our bags and meet our welcome party which included Rob and RR Pandey! Pradeep from Everest Tours was kind enough to meet us and shepherd us along the queue. The ride into town must have been wild to our new guests, new to the madness of Kathmandu road driving or must I say organized jockeying of buses, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians and all sorts of motor vehicles owning the portion of the road they can manage to inch their way through to get to their destinations.

I figured they can marvel at the organized chaos, the seemingly strange way drivers communicate with each other to avoid any more delay that a fender bender can add to their already laborious commute. Or like me, I just let the driving stay with the driver and gasp quietly as we travel along.

We got to visit Kathmandu Durbar Square first and be part of the living museum of 16Th century palace grounds overridden by the passage of time. We saw the Kumari, the living goddess still worshipped to today during her festival. The merchants remain peddling their wares, striking a weary look to the tourists who need to check it out before saying, “Cha Hai Daina” meaning, “No, I don’t need it!”

Shopping will be relegated to Thamel where we can haggle and compare merchandise. For now we follow our guide, Mitra who can do this tour with his eyes closed, He’s been our guide to the volunteers and guests we have brought over year after year! He is proud of his country and at the same time aware of the failings of a government, the failings of the opposition parties and the failings of a people to rise up and demand their democracy because they have been a people of hope, of peace, of calm and of quiet suffering. There is something that runs very deep in this culture that will take years or decades to peel off. The fact that their freedoms were never taken away from them by a colonizer makes it harder to determine who the enemy really is.

I digress. The palace square was fascinating! After all, where in the world can you see 16th century architecture as it stood then, a testament to a kingdom on the top of the world that once ruled a people that believed in the notion that a King protects, guides, honors his people and strives to make his kingdom the most powerful one in their land! A kingdom no more today as all kingdoms have gone to make way for the people to rule themselves.

21 flight hours to Kathmandu

Incheon, Korea
02/21/2011
7:00 am

The long haul from LAX was pretty pleasant. We all were able to sit across one row, Steve and Elisabeth had aisle seats, Bobbie got a window and I happily tucked my little body in the middle seat and off we went to lala land. We all had our sleeping aid of choice. I chose Melatonin and we all had a pretty good rest for about 6 – 8 hours with some nature breaks in between. That shrimplike airplane pillow worked really well. I feel refreshed and despite another 7 hour leg to Kathmandu, I must say I am functioning. The only thing I wish for is airport wifi!!!

I kept maulling the last interview I had last Friday in my mind thinking I could have done better. But after several hours, I figured I needed to let it go in order for me to focus on the present moment. I have 3 lovely companions on this wonderful journey and I am seeing my kids again after an entire year!! Chill! Relax, and feel good that I had the experience to interview and this will make me a better candidate next time! Life is good!

From what I gather about my travel mates is that we are all adventurous, and willing to put ourselves out there to experience something new. Elisabeth decided to be a travelling biker in her early 60’s, Steve backpacked across Europe for a year in college. Bobbie traveled to China and Asia and is giddy with anticipation, I feel like a Mom with kids! Everyone is easy going and kind and thoughtful! This will be a wonderful trip, oh it already is! After 21 hours of flight time and 9+ hours of lay overs and waiting around airports, I can’t wait to touch down and hug my Robbie!

Sugar and Spice?

Got an email from Bobbie wantingto get together to figure out what to purchase and bring over as little presents for our kids at DNC or possibly the sponsored kids in the 2 Deaf schools and 2 hostels where our visually impaired sponsored children stay. What would girls and boys want? Girls would want books, dolls, toys, clothes, make-up, hair accessories, etc etc , you know the drill. Boys may want CDs, books, paint, comics, mags, T-shirts etc,etc, etc.

And so we will go shopping and bargain hunting to get great deals! I love America! Yes they appreciate anything we bring. It still is a testimony that we have been thinking of them and we anticipate their needs.

They did call last month to greet us. "Happy Christmas, Rob and Gina Miss!" I thank them and ask them how their schooling and their class marks are coming along! They have all positive news! Everything is fine! " When are you coming to visit Nepal?", they ask. I respond, "Very Soon!" "We'll be there by Feb 19th!"

"Is there anything you want us to bring for you?", I ask.
"What Ma'am?" was the reply.

"What do you want from here?", I repeat.

"Nothing, Ma'am!, Just you!" and I began to cry!

Trip 2011 Launched

2 smaller groups are coming with us to Kathmandu this year. Rose Stevens and her friend, Sandie Olsen are arriving on Feb. 13 with Rob, a week before the 2nd group arrives with me on Feb 21. Their specific purpose is to establish a cooperative with group of women with hearing impairment to produce specialty note cards with hand embroidered designs. These have been successfully produced and marketed in India. Rose will set up the process and train the team lead to produce these quality merchandise.

Our 3 person volunteer group includes our Board Member Bobbie Izuo and 2 Rotarians, Elizabeth Saunders from the Rotary Club of Leavenworth and Stephen Swank from the Rotary Club of Des Moines. Needless to say that this trip is always the highlight of my year and I am excited to be sharing this journey with them.

The children at DNC ( Disabled New Life Center) have been waiting a year as well, to move into their new residence, which has been delayed in its completion to date. We hope to inaugurate it while we are still there and the tentative date is the first week in March.

Planning is half the fun! I have been purchasing items for each child at DNC and for our sponsored student, Lovely, who is at the Purwanchal Deaf School in Biratnagar. Material gifts may not be the most important things we bring although it means that we have been thinking of them throughout the year and anticipating their needs. I wish I could stay for months and I am tempted if only the income I used receive has been cut off due to as lay-off is not needed to sustain our lives back here.

I understand the journey I need to undertake and the journey never ends although the physical presence does in 25 days. These kids are my motivation now, the children's future always is present in my mind, their class marks, their interests, their dreams and their future. I need to make this happen, I want to make this happen for them. They already put in their trust and their hard work at study and have sacrificed not being with their family. They suffered the multiple operations and the pain of rehabilitation, I cannot ask for more from these children, just their continued belief in themselves, their talents and hard work.

I know I too should believe in my capacity to see this mission through. Together with the Board of Directors, the donors, supporters and sponsors of all the children, trifc.org will make that difference in the future of these children's lives.

Join me in this journey, follow the blog and share it with all you know who care about children living with disability. Share your comments and ideas and together we can make this difference a reality!


My yoga teacher finished our practice last night with a quote, "There is a place within each of us that is connected to the Universe, when you and I are in that special space, we are one!" Namaste!