TREK TO ABC for TRIFC

TREK to Annapurna Base Camp - 13000 ft above sea level to witness the majestic Himalayan Mountain peaks on a guided tour complete with tea-house accommodations, meals and park fees, flight arrangements, land travel. Plus a chance to see how your donation of $1000 or more can help children with disabilities thrive a a country whose government and society hinder their equal participation to nation building.

Here are details of the TREK:

 Day 1- Arrive at Kathmandu and stay over-night at Hotel Himalaya
 Day 2- Sightsee in the Kathmandu Valley and stay overnight at Hotel Himalaya
 Day 3- Fly from Kathmandu to Pokhara, trek to Hille (4840 ft. elevation, 3 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 4- Trek to Ghorepani (9360ft, 6 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 5- Trek to Tadapani (8330ft, 6-7 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 6- Trek to Chomrong (7120ft, 5 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 7- Trek to Dhovan (8330ft, 6 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 8- Trek to Deurali (10,301ft, 4 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 9- Trek to Annapurna base cam (13,550ft, 5-6 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 10- Explore Hidden Valley and trek back to Dhovan (5 hr walk), stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 11- Trek to Jhinu Danda (5-6 hr walk), and stay overnight at a lodge.
 Day 12- Trek back to Naya Pool (5- 6 hr walk), drive back to Pokhara (1.5 hr drive), and stay overnight at Hotel Tulsi.
 Day 13- Sightsee for half a day at Pokhara Valley, fly back to Kathmandu, and stay overnight at Hotel Himalaya.
 Day 14- Visit project sites in Kathmandu and stay overnight at Hotel Himalaya.
 Day 15- Depart for home country

More on my next POST!
Its a breakthrough experience!
Join me!

NAMASTE!
Gina Rose

Welcome 2012!

Let us close 2011 with a blessing:
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you this year! It was not like any year in the past although most any year will have its highs and lows but this year we had the highest high and the lowest low. We had a wonderful visit to Nepal in the 1st Qtr and had so much fun with the children in DNC, Pruwanchal, Naxal and Banepa Deaf School. Taking the Pruwanchal deaf students to Charles point in Dharan was memorable and happy! having a party at the Naxal hostel was awesome!Receiving news that all 8 students at DNC passed their SLC exams in 1st division and Vishnu taking distinction was so over the top! Congratulations to all of you!Special mention to Subodh, from Sanjuwani School who passed the SLC and has been an outstanding student considering his sight challenge! A pseudo parent cannot be prouder!!

Here's a toast to all your hard work, all those early morning studies, late night papers by solar lanterns and endless commutes to take your tuition exercises to get ready for your future were all worth it! I cannot tell you how proud Rob and I are of your dedication to your own education! big hug and kisses to all of you - you serve as an exemplar model for all the younger children at DNC!

Juxtapose that wonderful elation with the deep deep sorrow we had felt when we heard that Lovely had ran away from Pruwanchal and could not be found. Renukha, the school principal, had organized a massive search involving all social organizations, policeman, hospitals, schools and universities, Rotarians and neighborhood citizens. The search spanned the entire Dharan town and extended to the jungles and the Indian border, but to no avail! we were just beside ourselves and were at a desperate loss for our Lovely! You see Lovely not only had deafness but mental challenges as well. At age 16, after this school year we were going to transfer him to a home for mentally challenged children with a handicap like deafness so his needs would be better diagnosed and met. Now it is too late. Oh Lovely, I hope against hope that someone kind has taken you in. We even offered a reward for his return but no one came forward. After 4 weeks, we had to call off the search, Renukha was weary and for fear her health would take a turn - we had to hope that out there - Lovely is fine.

I can't tell you how awful the feeling of helplessness can be! Its heartbreaking and just downright empty! We walked around in a daze thinking, "where would he go , where could he be? What did he eat for food? How is he doing?"

Until as each passing day brings opportunity to focus on other challenges, other pressing issues for the children who are constantly struggling to keep up with school, prepare for the Nepali festivals and other student events they participate in at school or at home - we are pulled toward the tasks at hand. The decisions that need to be made, the fund raising that needs to be successful, the people to meet for grant modification and the many other need-to-dos that fill our lives.

No, we haven't forgotten our lost loved ones, we haven't forgotten at all! We just needed to keep going. {:'<

And so that was 2011 - just a taste of world community service for children TRIFC style! Your heart belongs to around 100 children we see every year - make notes on, write to, check up on and encourage, look for sales for through out the year for and finally hug when we get there in April 2012!

Which brings us to 2012 and all the possibilities it brings, happy or sad, its all part of life. We muddle through, we weep, we laugh, we love! Thanks for all your support! I'd like to think we make a difference, our drop in the bucket is just a drop but I believe its a very big one! Namaste and Jaihos!!! 2012!!!

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.