Wednesday, December 4, 2013 ~ My Bathroom Brainstorm

I just went to the washroom.

Still reading? Good. Now hear me out.

It got me thinking about how fortunate we are here in Canada. To be able to go to a toilet in the comfort of your own home (I know I'm not the only one who holds out until I'm in a familiar and safe space!) do your business, flush the toilet and never have to deal with the discards again (hopefully). I didn't have to wander out into the forest and crouch over a clump of grass and bury it in a hole, fearing that a wild animal might come up behind me decide I'm going to be his next meal. I get antsy enough when I go camping and have to worry about mosquitoes biting my ass, let alone getting demolished by a tiger or charged by a rhino.

It has been three months since my visit to Nepal and when I left, I promised Ranjan and his family that I would do my best to raise some money to send back to help the community of Gawai to construct a washroom facility for those families who have never known proper sanitation.

At first I didn't think my short stint in Nepal had altered my outlook on life a great deal. After four years in Asia, I think I've seen some pretty dire situations. China, Philippines, and India are three countries with extremely high poverty rates and I've seen some situations that are absolutely gut-wrenching. Even on a meager backpacker budget, I've never actually had to spare more than a passing glance at the dirty bare feet, the sunken eyes and cheeks, the rotted teeth and the filthy streets. After living in closely knit community and having the opportunity to experience first-hand a very different way of life than I have ever been exposed to, I've certainly learned to be even more appreciative of what I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that old cliché, "We're so lucky." Now go back to your warm, cozy bed and eat whatever you want, when you want and drive your cars all over the place and never have to think about it again. Many of us are told growing up how fortunate we are to have what we have and it's just like telling one of your girlfriends that she can do better when she's dating some guy who treats her like crap, sometimes you just have to live it and learn it for yourself.

Though I realize that this can be a difficult time of year for people, so much to do, people to see, gifts to buy, I would ask you to stop and think about what you're giving and what you're asking to be given this holiday season.

I have always *hated* asking for money and handouts; door-to-door chocolate bar selling in Elementary school. I would have preferred piled wood for my father for a week than have to go through that hellish experience. I guess that was until I was inspired by the kindness of the people in Nepal as well as inquiries from some generous friends around the globe who were interested in helping out.

I have created a PayPal account (linked to the right) where you can easily donate any amount and I will provide a little certificate if the donation is being given as a gift in someone's name. I have already had a few people offer to give me cash donations which I will forward on to Ranjan's bank account in Nepal.

If you or anyone else would like to donate to this cause and help with my goal of raising $1500 to provide a basic human necessity to these wonderful Nepalese people, they (and I) would be so, so grateful.

This would be the 3rd toilet facility built in this community of 100+ residents. Previous donations from past volunteers have provided the structure pictured above which services approximately 10 families.

Thank you to those of you who have expressed your interest in this cause and for your support, even if it is just through positive comments! :)

Gawai to Pokhara ~ Saturday, September 28, 2013

Today was departure day. I awoke early, and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen and had a nice, long, energizing yoga session. I tried to calm my mind in preparation for my final days in Asia and the solo hiking adventure that was to come.

Sunrise at 5:30 am. I packed up the clothes that had been hanging out to dry after taking advantage of what could be the last opportunity to wash them and be in one place long enough for them to dry for a long time.

Swapna made a small meal of boiled egg, toast and one final, delicious masala tea and then we walked a few minutes up the road and through the corner of a rice field to a small mud hut where Muwa lived with his family. I had purchased some workbooks, pens, pencils, an eraser and a sharpener in town the previous day and was hoping to subtly leave the materials outside the door, but Swapna wanted to march us right into their home so that I could present the materials directly. I told him he was a very good student and that I hoped he would continue to work hard at school. He gave me a sweet, shy little smile and whispered a thank you. He was probably hoping for something a little more exciting than paper and pencils when he opened the small bag…

Upon returning to the home that I have shared with this wonderful family for the past two weeks, I assembled everyone, except for Ranjan’s father who must have been off visiting a neighbor, and got a couple of group shots.

Saying goodbye to the wonderful Bhandari family.

I can’t say that this volunteer experience has been one that has forever changed my outlook on life or that I am a new and better person for it. That makes the whole thing sound like an incredibly selfish venture. I think that my past travel experience and seeing the extreme poverty in places like India, China and the Philippines had prepared me well for.

I give a great deal of credit to the way I was raised and think I developed a better understanding of appreciating what you have and not wanting. It didn’t really matter what clothes I chose to put on each day, whether or not my shirt matched my pants, if my new eyeshadow brought out my eyes, what new food item was on sale at the local market.

These people appreciate everything they have and are comfortable with their lives without having this insatiable appetite for material items. If anything, my return to the western world has been more of an eye opener and has left me more confused and uncomfortable than life in rural Nepal ever did. Since leaving Nepal, I’ve made my way back to the western world through some of the biggest and most expensive cities on earth; Milan, Munich, London, Toronto. As I’ve driven through and walked around these cities, I just want to scream at these people, “Stop running around! Stop worrying about your designer handbag matching your designer shoes, stop buying 15 Starbucks coffees in disposable cups every day, who cares about all this stuff?!” The ready made meals, the rushed business lunches, the mad dash toward…? What? Where are you people in such a rush to get to? Slow down and appreciate the world around you.

I think the aspect of life I appreciated the most in Gawai was the time and effort that was put into the preparation of meals. Each home that welcomed me through it’s doors was full of people who partook in some fashion in the preparation of two large meals each day. Admittedly, I have a voracious appetite and would eat just about anything that is put on my plate, as long as it didn’t walk there. Meals were straight from land to plate and a good part of the day’s activities involved the preparation of food; be it sorting through beans and rice to pick out the stones, or delicately separating the spinach leaves from their stalks, peeling and chopping potatoes for curries or milking the cow and allowing the milk to curdle on the counter for curd.

Despite our cultural differences and communication difficulties, the overall kindness and generosity I have been shown by complete strangers along this journey as has compelled me to follow through on my promise to do my very best to give something back to the community of Gawai and to return someday in the future to visit the adoptive family that became my own for the last two weeks.

Final Day in Gawai ~ Friday, September 27, 2013

Ranjan announced that he had a surprise for my final day in Gawai; we returned to the village to present the elderly couple with a large photo that we had taken on our previous visit. They were so excited to see a photo of themselves as it had been many, many years since they'd seen a photo of themselves. Many of their neighbours gathered around as we presented them with the photo.

All in all there were certainly positive and negatives to the whole stay. The former definitely outweighing the latter. but the experience could have been improved by the placement being more goal oriented and project-based. Do I sound like I’m leading a teacher’s Professional Development seminar? Going into the placement, I had inquired as to ways I could prepare or materials I could read in order to get a better idea of the specific duties I would be performing and what they were looking for in terms of community development. With my experience as a teacher, I was afraid I’d be stuck teaching, which ended up being the case somewhat. I was really not looking forward to going to the school, mostly due to the disorganization of the entire thing (i.e. being told where I was going 2 minutes before and rarely told what to teach) and then when I wasn’t covering for a teacher, I was just placed in a class with another teacher which was incredibly boring and stressful when you can’t just take over and do your own thing. I had some ideas for how to improve the classes in terms of management and behavior, but never did get a chance to voice them. I should write a summary report and send it to them along with the video when it is uploaded.

While the children were, for the most part, very pleasant, the time I had to spend in the teacher’s lounge was really starting to grate on my nerves. I could understand their interest in this foreign girl who is also a teacher from a developed country, but the staring, open conversation about me in Nepalese while they would turn and look at me throughout the conversation, became very irritating. At first I would just pretend to write things in my book or work on the iMovie once I had started that project, in attempt to ignore their stares, but then they would come stand over my shoulder and read what I was writing or sit and watch me work on the computer for like 5-10 minutes. I had turned my screen down and partially closed the top of my laptop one morning when I had to run downstairs for a few minutes. I returned to find one of the teachers with the computer open, going through a folder of pictures I had on my desktop. This same teacher was reading my “journal” over my shoulder one day, even after I stopped typing and said “This is kind of like my journal. Journals are usually kept private.”

“It’s ok!” He said.

Ranjan was so kind and open to my ideas, but I found that he provided little opportunity to really get involved in the community. After the first week, I told him I wasn’t really interested in teaching every day and was hoping to get more involved in the environmental/community development side of things. He’d drive me around and show me bio-gas units and point out the toilets that had been provided in the community, but I was really hoping to get more directly involved and get my hands dirty; like helping to physically install one of these units and learn more about how they work or develop other ways to provide sustainable solutions to the area. Maybe the program is developed to that stage yet and my disappointment most likely arises from having these sorts of expectations.

So, on the days where I chose not to go to the school and worked on the video, I was pretty much left to my own devices. Again, I should have been more self-motivating perhaps but I found some days pretty boring.

I am choosing to look at these negatives as learning experiences that may lead to a potential career path; studying sustainable development and learning how to incorporate these types of projects into communities that need them.

As Friday was another holiday, I decided to bike to Sauraha to a shop to purchase a couple of small gifts and cards for the teachers at the school and the Bhandari family.

I also wanted to get some notebooks, pens, and pencils for the little boy who lives down the road from Ranjan’s family who Swapna was telling me about. I returned to the shop that Ranjan directed me to the first time we went to Sauraha, owned by his friend where he gave me a great deal on the items I wanted to purchase.