The growing season is year-round in the Kathmandu Valley. Thanks to our gardner, Krishna, this is what our yard looks like. Check out the 5' tall pointsettas; they're everywhere and all enormous here.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Our October and November Holidays
Hello everyone,
My computer has been experiencing technical difficulties lately. It won’t allow me to open certain documents now, including the last ongoing letter to y’all. So, I’ll condense as best as I can and perhaps at some point I’ll be able to retrieve and send it.
Everyday here still brings new and exciting adventures, hell, going to the market at the end of our alley can prove to be an adventure. We’ve been to the jungle twice now, we’ve gone trekking in the Khumbu Valley towards Everest and we are exploring the internals of Kathmandu itself.
I think Shannon sent a letter out about our first trip to The Royal Chitwan National Park with a group of 9th graders working with bio-gas, the cow dung type. We both really enjoyed the humanitarian aspect of helping the villagers develop their own fuel for cooking , for their health, and for the environment. It was so interesting to me that I’ve contacted the national bio-gas director and will be meeting with him this week hopefully. I’m not sure where that will lead, but after reading Three Cups Of Tea, I’m inspired. After spending some more time in Chitwan on our second trip it was even more obvious to me how much bio-gas can positively affect these villages. The main problem, as you can probably imagine, is funding. It takes at least a year’s wage of an average family to build one of these plants, therefore making it inaccessible to the majority of these folks. The wood source is becoming scarcer and there are increasing numbers of smoke related health issues. I’m looking forward to meeting with Mr.Chetri from the gas company. I’ve volunteered to work with him next spring if possible.
Our second trip there was over the Tihar (also called Deepawali) festival, it is the most important Hindu festival in India, and here it ranks second only to Dishain (I’ll get to that). Tihar is 5 days long, yeeeaaa Shannon got a school break! The festival honors certain animals, starting with offerings of rice to the crows which are sent by Yama, ‘the god of death’, as his messengers of death. There were banana leaves full of rice all over the streets and walkways and crows flying everywhere. It was a little spooky, especially considering Shannon had a dream the night before of crows. I think it was because we had been talking about her dog Anna that night. On the second day, dogs are honored with tikas (the dot of red & yellow on the forehead) and garlands of flowers. It is believed that in the after world it’s dogs who guide departed souls across the river of the dead. This is a little surprising after seeing the way dogs are treated here. It seemed the dogs realized this was “their” day, they all seemed to be wearing big ‘ol smiles. On the way to school that morning there were offerings of the mornings meals on banana leaves with candles lining the walkways to Lincoln School and packs of dogs wearing tikas and flowers around their necks. I thought about all of my dog loving friends that day with special reverence. Our cook, Shiva, brought garlands and tika to our house and we made a little shrine for Anna (her picture) and I put a tika on her. I felt a little odd placing red rice on a picture, but hey, when in Rome. Shannon was at school so I got the honor. Then Shiva and I decorated the house with garlands of flowers and butter lamps.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
the holy cow!
The next day, we were in Chitwan with some of Shannon’s co-workers, cows were honored this day. They received similar treatment as the dogs with garlands and tikas. Some were painted all fancy like. It was quite a sight seeing a white cow with big red handprints plastered on its’ sides. We saw one cow actually receiving its’ tika and blessing. It was a full on family affair, including the dog that was still showing its’ signs of being blessed the previous day. After the cow, bullocks are honored. I don’t even know what a bullock is all I know is I saw a lot more cows with tikas that day.
The third day, Deepawali, is the most important day of the festival. Lakshmi (Vishnu’s consort and the goddess of wealth) comes to every home that has been suitably lit for her presence. This day also falls on the new moon day, so the effects of all the candles is intensified.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Thanksgiving Mt. Bike Ride
Check out the mountains view from our bike trip over Thanksgiving. We rode up the hills and out of the Kathmandu Valley into this rural setting. The yellow in the fields is mustard growing; very pretty. Very long ride though.
dancing with the village kids
On the final day, sisters and brothers come together to exchange tikas and gifts. The brothers receive a tika and garlands and the sisters receive gifts. It was nice to see the sibling love, the old and the young.
During the last two nights there’s a lot of dancing and drinking. The entire group we were with got up and danced with the local village people that came to our lodge. The tradition is that kids will dance and sing in the streets and at your door, a bit like Christmas carolers, but you have to pay them to leave or in this case, to let you stop dancing. It was a blast, especially watching the little kids and drunk villagers getting down. Out of all the festivals we’ve experienced, Tihar has been the most fun.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
look mom, they love me
We spent the days in the jungle riding elephants, rafting the rivers, and being pampered by our guide, who had a phenomenal amount of info about all the birds and animals. We saw four rhino’s, two moms and two babies. We got to wash the elephants in the river, including a 1 year old baby elephant. She was so cute, she wrapped her snout around my arm and then gave me a little head bump, I think she was digging me. We saw a couple of crocodiles, fresh tiger tracks, and gazillion birds, which, like I said, guide dude knew everyone of them.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
up close to rhinos
The weather was outstanding. During the day it was above 80 and at night maybe 65ish. We went swimming one day in the frog pond; I mean pool, at the lodge. In the morning there were like a hundred frogs flopping around in there. It was one guy’s job to clean the frogs out every morning.
Over Dishain holiday was when we went trekking. Once again, we had fabulous weather, all though as soon as the sun went down the down went on. Hey, I like that. That’s a good one! We saw Everest up close and experienced the beauty of the Himalayas first hand. Their beauty and majesty can envelop your entire being. It wasn’t easy for me to come back down to KTM. We stayed in Naamche Bazzar for 2 nights in a great little lodge that served the local rice wine, Roxi, and really tasty Thukpa (thick noodled veggie soup with chicken broth, ummm!!)
Friday, November 23, 2007
Anna's stupa
Shannon was able to give Anna’s ashes a loving farewell to the winds of the mountains. She came upon a stupa that she felt was where “the four corners came together” that was between Tengboche, where there is a large Buddhist monestary, and Pengboche. The eyes painted on the stupa are looking directly up at Ama Dablam, my favorite looking peak, and Everest and Lohtse are gazing down on it. Ama Dablam has two prominent ridges draped with snow that part evenly half way down the west face, making it look like a mountain god with outstretched arms. I saw a face with two distinct eyes, a nose, and a beard, no one else had the vision that I did, but you know, some people just don’t have the “eye” for that stuff like me. Actually, everyone got so tired of me trying to show them they just kept rollin up the trail without me. I was excited that Anna was being welcomed into this guys arms, so excited that I said my goodbyes to her in Pengboche at the stupa directly below the Sir Edmund Hillary (1st person to successfully summit Everest) school. It was fitting that she be placed near a school and once again, in the arms of Sir Ama Dablam. Right after both of us had spread her ashes, crows landed on the tallest of the prayer flags on the stupas. They were playing “who can land on the flag and hold it the longest?” Her and Tuff are flying together in the skies.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Colorful
Pengboche, 3900 meters was the highest we got. We had to get back down to Luchla to get back to school a couple of days later. That last night we stayed at a lodge by the name of “Beautiful View Lodge”, which it did have of the whole upper valley and several of the major peaks. We met a crazy Romanian there that had insomnia and told crazy lies the whole time. One of our friends that stayed up there for a couple more weeks ran into this cat again and he had just bought a huge Tibetan sword and said he was going back to Romania to kill his parents, “whatever dude”. It was good to say adios to that guy.
In Lukla we had millet beer, They ferment millet, scoop it into a big metal schooner with a lid and a straw through it and serve it with warm water. You poor the warm water in and drink it through the straw so you don’t suck up the millet and choke. It’s kinda like a weak tasting cherry koolaid with a fuzzy effect. My friend Mark and I enjoyed a number of those together celebrating our first trek in Nepal.
We have been invited to a big Thanksgiving Day feast at the home of one of Shannon’s co-workers., Kathy. She’s been here for 30 years and she is, let’s say colorful. I guess her house is mansion that is exquisitely decorated and this is an annual blowout for her. Should be fun, but we’ll be missing all of our friends and family dearly.
The weather is reminding me of late summer in Billings, clear and warm to hot during the days and chilly at night, with the mountains visible everyday. On the morning bike rides I’ve been going on they’re especially beautiful!
I need to go meet Shannon at school and hopefully catch the sunset. She’s been working hard with all of her new courses, a lot of late nights and early mornings. Her hard work is paying off though, she seems to be connecting more and more with her students and she, of course, continues to smile and laugh with everyone.
We wish you all the best and we’ll be in touch soon.
Much love to all and peace to everyone,
Craig and Shannon
In Lukla we had millet beer, They ferment millet, scoop it into a big metal schooner with a lid and a straw through it and serve it with warm water. You poor the warm water in and drink it through the straw so you don’t suck up the millet and choke. It’s kinda like a weak tasting cherry koolaid with a fuzzy effect. My friend Mark and I enjoyed a number of those together celebrating our first trek in Nepal.
We have been invited to a big Thanksgiving Day feast at the home of one of Shannon’s co-workers., Kathy. She’s been here for 30 years and she is, let’s say colorful. I guess her house is mansion that is exquisitely decorated and this is an annual blowout for her. Should be fun, but we’ll be missing all of our friends and family dearly.
The weather is reminding me of late summer in Billings, clear and warm to hot during the days and chilly at night, with the mountains visible everyday. On the morning bike rides I’ve been going on they’re especially beautiful!
I need to go meet Shannon at school and hopefully catch the sunset. She’s been working hard with all of her new courses, a lot of late nights and early mornings. Her hard work is paying off though, she seems to be connecting more and more with her students and she, of course, continues to smile and laugh with everyone.
We wish you all the best and we’ll be in touch soon.
Much love to all and peace to everyone,
Craig and Shannon
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Three Cups of Tea
Dear Book Club,
I just finished reading three Cups of Tea while trekking in the Himalayas. If I recall correctly, we selected it as one of our summer reads. It’s been interesting to read about the Balti mountain culture and the life of porters who support Westerners in their mountaineering tourism, while observing it first-hand. I’m not sure what to make of it or how to understand it; I’m still processing and I’m still conflicted. I think feeling conflicted is probably going to be a continuous feeling for the next two years. Let me try to explain:
At UN Day two weeks ago, an American named Ben Ayers presented a slide show and speech on “sustainable development” to the secondary school and their parents. He started out as a climber while in college who took a climbing trip in the Himalaya and was captivated by the Sherpas or porters he met. He graduated from college and returned to Nepal, this time to work as a porter. The typical porter can carry 120 Kgs on his forehead/back (That’s 265 lbs! And they’re really small people.). He worked as a porter for two years learning the trade, the culture, the language and at a grassroots level, learning what type of “development” the porters needed. He organized a non-profit called “Porter’s Progress”. Their concerns were that often times the wages a porter made, a few hundred rupees a day, did not even cover the porters’ own costs for food and lodging, which they paid themselves. Also, many porters suffered injuries and even death while working in extreme conditions with no consideration to their safety or health. Finally, child labor was common among the porters.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/careyeubank/sets/72157602766170753/
The trekking or climbing tourists all seemed to have the latest top-notch clothing and safety gear, while many of the Sherpas wore plastic flip-flop sandals and ragged clothing, hauling heavy loads for the tourists over exhausting and dangerous conditions. He told us about porters who lost toes to frost bite, of child laborers working as porters hoping to raise enough money to pay their school fees, and of porters who acquired AMS or altitude sickness and were left to die. It’s true and here’s where it begins to get hard or conflicted for me. I have a nice pair of gore-tex REI full leather hiking boots, my down and gore-tex ski gear, and if I were to get AMS or any life-threatening injury, help is a helicopter away. What’s worse is that once I get to the tea-house or lodge we’re staying at, everything, from the toilet to the tomatoes in the soup have been carried up the mountainside on someone’s back. By being there as a tourist, I support the local economy, but the catch is the local economy is built on exploitation.
I just finished reading three Cups of Tea while trekking in the Himalayas. If I recall correctly, we selected it as one of our summer reads. It’s been interesting to read about the Balti mountain culture and the life of porters who support Westerners in their mountaineering tourism, while observing it first-hand. I’m not sure what to make of it or how to understand it; I’m still processing and I’m still conflicted. I think feeling conflicted is probably going to be a continuous feeling for the next two years. Let me try to explain:
At UN Day two weeks ago, an American named Ben Ayers presented a slide show and speech on “sustainable development” to the secondary school and their parents. He started out as a climber while in college who took a climbing trip in the Himalaya and was captivated by the Sherpas or porters he met. He graduated from college and returned to Nepal, this time to work as a porter. The typical porter can carry 120 Kgs on his forehead/back (That’s 265 lbs! And they’re really small people.). He worked as a porter for two years learning the trade, the culture, the language and at a grassroots level, learning what type of “development” the porters needed. He organized a non-profit called “Porter’s Progress”. Their concerns were that often times the wages a porter made, a few hundred rupees a day, did not even cover the porters’ own costs for food and lodging, which they paid themselves. Also, many porters suffered injuries and even death while working in extreme conditions with no consideration to their safety or health. Finally, child labor was common among the porters.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/careyeubank/sets/72157602766170753/
The trekking or climbing tourists all seemed to have the latest top-notch clothing and safety gear, while many of the Sherpas wore plastic flip-flop sandals and ragged clothing, hauling heavy loads for the tourists over exhausting and dangerous conditions. He told us about porters who lost toes to frost bite, of child laborers working as porters hoping to raise enough money to pay their school fees, and of porters who acquired AMS or altitude sickness and were left to die. It’s true and here’s where it begins to get hard or conflicted for me. I have a nice pair of gore-tex REI full leather hiking boots, my down and gore-tex ski gear, and if I were to get AMS or any life-threatening injury, help is a helicopter away. What’s worse is that once I get to the tea-house or lodge we’re staying at, everything, from the toilet to the tomatoes in the soup have been carried up the mountainside on someone’s back. By being there as a tourist, I support the local economy, but the catch is the local economy is built on exploitation.
Another argument supporting this exploitation is based on some sort of biological determinism (which always raises an eyebrow for me) - it’s that the Sherpas are biologically the world’s strongest or heartiest people. Genetically, they can carry these enormous loads supported with the structure of their skeleton and their ability to handle high elevation. Really. At one small lodge, we stayed with a Sherpa family- the father was a guide (or porter?) and had summited Mt. Everest; he had a wife and three daughters. A Japanese physician was also staying there (along with a crazy Romanian and an anti-social Kiwi), this doctor had brought a little fingertip oxygen sensor that could measure the oxygen in one’s blood. We all tried it out for fun at the dinner table and at 3,500 meters (or 11,500 feet) my blood oxygen level was at 85% while the Sherpa family’s was between 90-93% (Just for perspective, 60% is cause for evacuation and 30% means you’re dead). Even the six-year old daughter had a 93% blood O2 level- while the rest of us tourists ranked in the low to mid 80’s.
So, we hired a guide and a Sherpa. We ordered whatever we felt like that was on the menu at guest houses, beer that was hauled up on someone’s back. Toast with honey, butter and jam for breakfast with eggs or muesli with hot milk were all among our favorites. We were giving someone a job, right, by purchasing the goods they were paid to haul up there to please the tourists’ pallets? Or were we simply contributing to an exploitative system? It’s the whole globalization question that I face at home, but just on different terms. At home it’s easy to just not shop at Wall-Mart and to try to buy local when I can. But this is different, or is it? My conscience says, do as the locals do, (or when in Rome…), but I really wasn’t into one meal a day with Yak butter tea and porridge balls.
Since the Maoist revolution in Nepal, some things have begun to get better for the porters. They aren’t supposed to carry more than 60 kgs at a time (although we saw many, many loads that looked to be way over that), and children are not supposed to work (we did see some children carrying loads, but it was hard to tell if it was part of regular family life or in commercial service), also, the wages are supposedly set at 600 rupees a day (or close to $10 US dollars). Porter’s Progress has also brought some positive changes and awareness to the situation. Actually, it’s hard to tell what the changes are or who is responsible for them. We did have to stop at an extortion check point set up by the Maoist revolutionary forces and pay a $1.50 foreigner tax.
My way of dealing with it was to induldge in the services offered. I mean who hasn’t gone backpacking and dreamt of paying someone ($10 a day!) to carry your heavy pack? And after a long day of hiking, who doesn’t want a cold beer?! And, I made an effort to make friends with Chirring Sherpa, the porter we hired. He was 18, and spoke very few words of English. I walked with him, when he wasn’t hours ahead of me, and tried to learn more Nepali words as I tagged along behind him. I smiled at him a lot since I couldn’t communicate much more than that and I also threw in some pantomime episodes trying to have a conversation with him. I asked him to sit with us and hang out, although I began to sense that he was more comfortable on the fringes rather than in our small group of English speakers. I made sure to give him money for food and that he got a good tip from us.
It brings me back to Ben Ayers’ speech: sustainable development is not about barging in and thinking you know what’s best or that your way, the way of the West, is best. It’s about listening, being present, and most importantly, about building relationships.
And for those of you who’ve read three cups of tea, you’ll appreciate that development comes along with many conversations, much listening and learning, over many cups of tea.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Lincoln School United Nations Day
October 18th was Lincoln school’s UN Day. Wow, what a cool celebration. All of the students wore their traditional clothing from their home countries and invited their parents to come and celebrate for the day with speakers, projects and activities. The parents all brought food from their home countries and let me tell you it was a smorgasbord. The best damn potluck I’ve ever been to. Imagine 43 different nationalities all bringing their culinary specialties to share for free!
But it wasn’t the food that made it finally sink in that I am teaching and living in an international setting, but the stunning visual and emotional reaction I felt when I watched each child, dressed from around the world stand with pride and carry their “national” flag to the stage. Living in the US, I always preached diversity and international awareness and even promoted peace, but it remained at an intangible level. The experience of seeing the world in front of me, as students that I know and relate to, made the world feel so much more intimate and real.
We have a lot of Tibetan students, (most of whom are Nepali citizens and only refer to themselves as Tibetans in the Lincoln school community or around American tourists- tapping into the national goodwill towards anything Tibetan). We also have Chinese students; some with diverse backgrounds such as Ella, one of my ninth graders. Her Dad is Norwegian and her mom is American; she was adopted from China. Ella stood proudly bearing the Chinese flag with several students carrying the Tibetan flag; they stood together in friendship with their flags crossed in unity. The next thing that blew me away was that it seemed for the Pakistani families- who appeared very close knit and didn’t mix as much with many of the Western or African families- that they felt a closest connection to the Indian families. Next thing I knew, the Indians and the Pakistanis were talking and laughing together, understanding one another’s’ culture and language. When I saw the Israeli kids holding their flag conversing with the Palestinian (our next door neighbor!) and his flag, I finally saw and believed that world peace is indeed possible. Through dialogue, friendship and building relationships we can challenge and even defy the dictates of nationalism and break the limiting binds of political identity.
It strikes me that one of the lessons of living internationally, is that you bond with anyone who can understand you- even if at home we would be enemies. Plus, teaching in an international school, I am seeing that we can all understand one another and bridge the gaps of geography, language, politics, religion and culture. It is very cool.
But it wasn’t the food that made it finally sink in that I am teaching and living in an international setting, but the stunning visual and emotional reaction I felt when I watched each child, dressed from around the world stand with pride and carry their “national” flag to the stage. Living in the US, I always preached diversity and international awareness and even promoted peace, but it remained at an intangible level. The experience of seeing the world in front of me, as students that I know and relate to, made the world feel so much more intimate and real.
We have a lot of Tibetan students, (most of whom are Nepali citizens and only refer to themselves as Tibetans in the Lincoln school community or around American tourists- tapping into the national goodwill towards anything Tibetan). We also have Chinese students; some with diverse backgrounds such as Ella, one of my ninth graders. Her Dad is Norwegian and her mom is American; she was adopted from China. Ella stood proudly bearing the Chinese flag with several students carrying the Tibetan flag; they stood together in friendship with their flags crossed in unity. The next thing that blew me away was that it seemed for the Pakistani families- who appeared very close knit and didn’t mix as much with many of the Western or African families- that they felt a closest connection to the Indian families. Next thing I knew, the Indians and the Pakistanis were talking and laughing together, understanding one another’s’ culture and language. When I saw the Israeli kids holding their flag conversing with the Palestinian (our next door neighbor!) and his flag, I finally saw and believed that world peace is indeed possible. Through dialogue, friendship and building relationships we can challenge and even defy the dictates of nationalism and break the limiting binds of political identity.
It strikes me that one of the lessons of living internationally, is that you bond with anyone who can understand you- even if at home we would be enemies. Plus, teaching in an international school, I am seeing that we can all understand one another and bridge the gaps of geography, language, politics, religion and culture. It is very cool.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
We're here: in Kathmandu!
Namaste,
It means both hello and goodbye, literally, "I salute the light that is within you." However, for Shannon it means: hi, excuse me, thank you, how are you?, I need a taxi, no thank you, yes, I don't speak Nepali, and will you be my friend? She's pretty much worn the word out- grinning at everyone she sees, raising her hands in the upright prayer position and Namasteying people. The people here are so nice that they stop what they are doing and give her a Namaste back. She's like a small child who does something once and gets a result from the adults around her- so she just keeps doing it over and over. She's convinced that she'll make the city of 7m all her friends, all with only knowing one word: Namaste.
It means both hello and goodbye, literally, "I salute the light that is within you." However, for Shannon it means: hi, excuse me, thank you, how are you?, I need a taxi, no thank you, yes, I don't speak Nepali, and will you be my friend? She's pretty much worn the word out- grinning at everyone she sees, raising her hands in the upright prayer position and Namasteying people. The people here are so nice that they stop what they are doing and give her a Namaste back. She's like a small child who does something once and gets a result from the adults around her- so she just keeps doing it over and over. She's convinced that she'll make the city of 7m all her friends, all with only knowing one word: Namaste.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Cultural Experiences
08/20/08
We have begun week three. This weekend we got outside of the city for the first time. Sat morning we went for a nice run with some fellow staff members of Shannon’s. We ran maybe fifteen minutes to get beyond the cities outside road, Ring Road, and we were all of a sudden into rice fields and peace. We made our way up to a little village about another thirty minutes out or so. Sat is the one day of the week that Nepalise take off and it’s their spiritual day, so the village was full of families worshipping, visiting, and playing music. It was peaceful and lively. It was what we needed. We had heard that just outside of the city everything changes, but we hadn’t gotten the chance to experience that yet. There is world of difference in just forty minutes of running, as if we were running back in time. The people of the village were extremely kind, but I imagine seeing six or seven white Americans running through there streets was not an every day sort of thing, so we may have gotten a few extra stares. Being in that environment with people worshipping at the different temples and blessing there food and each other, a person can’t help being impacted in some way. There is a power to the peacefulness that is unavoidable. This peace shows in their faces, especially the children’s. There is this obvious lack of inner stress or angst. It seems that they, speaking in general terms, are at peace with where and how they are. There seems to be this lack of anxiety in the air, as if everyone knows that they are all in the same game together and are okay with being teammates and let’s not get excited, that’s not going to make this moment any better. Maybe it’s just contentment. It definitely feels refreshing.
On Sun. we went out to a touristy village called Bhaktapur. It was lovely. This is the slow time for tourism because of monsoon season, so it wasn’t too busy. There are no cars or trucks allowed within the temple squares, so it’s nice and easy to walk around there. Some of the oldest and largest temples in Nepal are here. Most of them were built long before the fifteenth century and all are built with absolutely amazing detail, it seemed that at every corner there was a temple of some sort. The Hindu’s and Buddhist have coexisted here since the beginning of the city, actually empowering one another, what a concept, this is where the power of these temples seems obvious. We will definitely be back here to explore more of this on our own, once again we were with a group of folks, which is cool, but being alone would allow us a little more freedom to check it out.
We are getting a couple of bicycles this week from the director of the school, he has extras for us to borrow, and our possibilities for exploring will increase exponentially. Plus, it’s like when you’re looking for a new job, it’s easier to find a new one when you already have a job. Well, hopefully that’s how it’ll work with the bikes, because the selection is limited. The other cool thing is we are having dinner with some folks that go on rides three or four times a week in the mornings and they have already invited us along. A couple of them have lived here most of their lives. Local connections are being made, SWEEEEETTTT!!! This is where we’ll get all the good beta.
We have been looking at photos and feel blessed to have the friends that we have. We are holding all of you in our hearts and love all of you.
Peace and love,
Craig & Shannon
We have begun week three. This weekend we got outside of the city for the first time. Sat morning we went for a nice run with some fellow staff members of Shannon’s. We ran maybe fifteen minutes to get beyond the cities outside road, Ring Road, and we were all of a sudden into rice fields and peace. We made our way up to a little village about another thirty minutes out or so. Sat is the one day of the week that Nepalise take off and it’s their spiritual day, so the village was full of families worshipping, visiting, and playing music. It was peaceful and lively. It was what we needed. We had heard that just outside of the city everything changes, but we hadn’t gotten the chance to experience that yet. There is world of difference in just forty minutes of running, as if we were running back in time. The people of the village were extremely kind, but I imagine seeing six or seven white Americans running through there streets was not an every day sort of thing, so we may have gotten a few extra stares. Being in that environment with people worshipping at the different temples and blessing there food and each other, a person can’t help being impacted in some way. There is a power to the peacefulness that is unavoidable. This peace shows in their faces, especially the children’s. There is this obvious lack of inner stress or angst. It seems that they, speaking in general terms, are at peace with where and how they are. There seems to be this lack of anxiety in the air, as if everyone knows that they are all in the same game together and are okay with being teammates and let’s not get excited, that’s not going to make this moment any better. Maybe it’s just contentment. It definitely feels refreshing.
On Sun. we went out to a touristy village called Bhaktapur. It was lovely. This is the slow time for tourism because of monsoon season, so it wasn’t too busy. There are no cars or trucks allowed within the temple squares, so it’s nice and easy to walk around there. Some of the oldest and largest temples in Nepal are here. Most of them were built long before the fifteenth century and all are built with absolutely amazing detail, it seemed that at every corner there was a temple of some sort. The Hindu’s and Buddhist have coexisted here since the beginning of the city, actually empowering one another, what a concept, this is where the power of these temples seems obvious. We will definitely be back here to explore more of this on our own, once again we were with a group of folks, which is cool, but being alone would allow us a little more freedom to check it out.
We are getting a couple of bicycles this week from the director of the school, he has extras for us to borrow, and our possibilities for exploring will increase exponentially. Plus, it’s like when you’re looking for a new job, it’s easier to find a new one when you already have a job. Well, hopefully that’s how it’ll work with the bikes, because the selection is limited. The other cool thing is we are having dinner with some folks that go on rides three or four times a week in the mornings and they have already invited us along. A couple of them have lived here most of their lives. Local connections are being made, SWEEEEETTTT!!! This is where we’ll get all the good beta.
We have been looking at photos and feel blessed to have the friends that we have. We are holding all of you in our hearts and love all of you.
Peace and love,
Craig & Shannon
Monday, August 13, 2007
Kathmandu arrival story
Hello again everyone,
Shannon and I are hanging out filling time during one of our scheduled energy load sharing times. This means that we don’t have any electricity for two hours, this happens twice a week, apparently our two days fall on sat and sun, maybe it’s because we are near a couple of big hotels and a convention center.
So, I wanted to continue to share the story of our trip here. I told you about the excess baggage and how the clerks were clueless about what to charge. That all ended well, it actually cost substantially less than shipping any other way. In Bangkok we had to do a little finagling to get seats next to each other, Shannon ended up whistling and yelling across the terminal when our names were called to come to the front desk, she was really more freaked because she thought that her carry on had been stolen, when actually it was below her seat. Kind of funny. I got to catch up on some movies on those two flights, Spider Man 3, Shrek 3, Fracture, and some other even more lame one. I’ll have to say, Shrek was my favorite. We also got some reading in and some shuteye. Then we got to Bangkok. The business director had made reservations at a hotel in the airport for us and boy were we looking forward to taking a shower and getting some more sleep, especially since we had twelve hours to kill. Well, we spent a good two hours just finding the hotel, that airport is huge and fancy, it’s like a Las Vegas style shopping mall. Once we found our hotel we found out that we actually did not have reservations, maybe it was a speech barrier, Janna insists that she made reservations, speech barrier or not, we just were not getting a room. Sweet! At least we had already killed a few hours by this time. We ended up finding a lounge that’s for handicapped people and mothers, of course we made sure no one was there because we couldn’t poach the leather if there was, I mean we still do have our morals you know. We ended up sleeping on a leather changing table, it was pretty miserable, but we were able to get some sleep. Sebastian was a little freaked, he would hardly come out of his carrier and when he did he would crawl under whatever he could find and hide. That morning we were both kind of out of it and went through security without our boarding passes, oops. We also hadn’t checked in Sebastian on this different airline, maybe we should’ve had more coffee; oh no we couldn’t because the security check thingy. Shannon came shining through with a little wink and wit at three different desks, one for our boarding passes, one to pay extra for Sebastian (“how much does he weigh? Oh, fat cat”) , and then one for his papers, my mad book keeping skills saved the day there, which cost even more. Shannon had to haul ass back to the security check to catch our flight, which was all good.
We actually met two teachers from The Lincoln School in the waiting area. We recognized one of them from being on the same flight to Bangkok; she ended up being one of the people we had corresponded with via e-mail. She’s our age and very active, a great connection. We’ve hung out with her a couple of times already. This last Friday night we went to some bar that we had to go through this funky little alleyway and through a big gate to get to it. It was a cool little place with some dude playing the guitar and a woman singing a lot of bad eighties American hits. By the end of the night we didn’t mind. The cab ride home was a trip. The driver might have been thirteen years old and we were drunk and lost. Good time.
Anyways, back to Thailand. We flew Thai Air, they were great. Free drinks, they had whatever you wanted and they had some really good food, topped off by being given an orchid when we got off the plane. I think they do that because they knew what the airport experience is all about in Katmandu. You’ve all seen the movie Midnight Express? You know the airport seen when he’s on the tarmac and he’s getting busted? Well, that’s all I could think about when I got off the plane. It looked like we had landed at the local prison. The place looks like the old Montana prison in Deer Lodge that’s been converted to a car museum. There were all these random airplanes around that were all dirty and scary looking with names like “Buddha Air”, “Cosmic Air”, and a couple of others that seemed to have been thought up over and after cocktails. It was hot and humid outside and that quadrupled once we got inside with all these people standing in all these random lines for different visas. Our friend from school luckily was there to vector us in on the best bet. Thank goodness the line we needed to be in was the shortest one of all of them because I was sweating so badly that my eyes were stinging from the sweat getting in them. Once we got through that line we were on to our baggage.
Holy crap, talk about mayhem. I felt like I was walking into this starving crowd that had just been thrown free food. People were everywhere, on top of crates, on top of these beat up old push carts, standing on the turnstile that carries the luggage. It was chaos. Then, through this mayhem I see Shannon’s boss waving and yelling at us. I was so damned relieved! He had already found a good portion of our stuff in a pile of luggage that had fallen off the turnstile and had carts waiting for us. We found the remaining pieces, all of which made it, and we’re off through customs. This is when Allen says to me “Just follow me and don’t stop, act like you don’t understand what they’re saying and play dumb”, I had slept for maybe a total of two hours the night before, and those were on a diaper changing table, I had landed in what I swore was the courtyard of a prison, and I was just breaking out of this crowd of people that were crawling on top of one another to get their luggage. I did not need to play dumb at this point. Shannon, in the mean time is just getting it done all with a smile and looking as cute as ever with her little orchid pinned to her shirt. Okay, I’ll follow Allen as he just wheels the cart with our ski gear through customs while the guard is yelling and grabbing at him, Allen just yanks his arm away and keeps walking. Shit man, doesn’t he know we just landed at a prison? that‘s what I’m thinking. I mean, these guys have guns, but hey Nepal is all peaceful right? Wait, The Maoist thing. Maybe it’s not all peaceful; I need to just play dumb. Well, it worked; we got through the customs gate after some yelling and twisting. I’m not even sure why we did that other than to save some time, apparently customs here must be slow. We get outside and there are three or four men in uniforms grabbing our baggage from us and taking off with it; I’m thinking what the hell at first, then I realize that these are guards from school and the woman with them must be Janna. Indeed that was the case. I gave up all of my luggage except my ski gear, I am not going to pack that all the way over here and have it get thrown on top of a pile of other stuff and have it topple out onto the street. The guards were looking at the ski bag and me and looking kind of puzzled;” what, haven’t you ever seen a ski bag before? Come on we’re in the Himalaya’s, people must ski here all the time”. Apparently that is not the case. Needless to say, I still made sure that it was placed securely in the back of the pickup.
Finally, we’re in a vehicle moving on the ground towards our new home. Introductions are made; there was Allen the school’s director, Janna the business administrator, and our guard and driver. This all felt like it was out of the movies. It was like we had just made some brazen escape and now we were being given the entire beta on these current events that we needed to be privy to. Janna and Allen were both in front of us looking over their shoulders talking simultaneously to us, while the driver drove down the “wrong” side of the road honking every time that he turned the wheel. You know those times when you’re riding with bad driver’s or driver’s that tailgate cars in front of them (what’s up Nathaniel?) and you’re afraid to take your eyes off of the road, because you know that as soon as you do there’re going to wreck? Well, multiply that feeling by like ten and you might get a sense of how I felt. Holy frickin crap man, all of the signs and lines on the road are merely suggestions. The only form of any control is the horn. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. I mean, I think that I usually handle driving and what comes along with it pretty well. I guess that’s the driving that I know. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. After a few minutes I gave in to the laughing. It was so absurd to me. The only times that I almost cried or peed myself was when, and this happened more than once, these very big, decorative water trucks were coming at is head on, somehow our driver would find this hidden space on the road to let them by, all in what felt like warp speed. This indoctrination into the driving here was an eye opener for me. Shannon, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
We were very happy to hear Allen and Janna say “here we are, your new home”. We had just gone down this little alleyway where all the homes are surrounded by nice large fences and gates with guards standing outside of a good portion of them. Our house was the last one before a tee in that leads to dead ends both ways, making it nice and quiet. It has come to be quite the nice sanctuary.
Shannon and I are hanging out filling time during one of our scheduled energy load sharing times. This means that we don’t have any electricity for two hours, this happens twice a week, apparently our two days fall on sat and sun, maybe it’s because we are near a couple of big hotels and a convention center.
So, I wanted to continue to share the story of our trip here. I told you about the excess baggage and how the clerks were clueless about what to charge. That all ended well, it actually cost substantially less than shipping any other way. In Bangkok we had to do a little finagling to get seats next to each other, Shannon ended up whistling and yelling across the terminal when our names were called to come to the front desk, she was really more freaked because she thought that her carry on had been stolen, when actually it was below her seat. Kind of funny. I got to catch up on some movies on those two flights, Spider Man 3, Shrek 3, Fracture, and some other even more lame one. I’ll have to say, Shrek was my favorite. We also got some reading in and some shuteye. Then we got to Bangkok. The business director had made reservations at a hotel in the airport for us and boy were we looking forward to taking a shower and getting some more sleep, especially since we had twelve hours to kill. Well, we spent a good two hours just finding the hotel, that airport is huge and fancy, it’s like a Las Vegas style shopping mall. Once we found our hotel we found out that we actually did not have reservations, maybe it was a speech barrier, Janna insists that she made reservations, speech barrier or not, we just were not getting a room. Sweet! At least we had already killed a few hours by this time. We ended up finding a lounge that’s for handicapped people and mothers, of course we made sure no one was there because we couldn’t poach the leather if there was, I mean we still do have our morals you know. We ended up sleeping on a leather changing table, it was pretty miserable, but we were able to get some sleep. Sebastian was a little freaked, he would hardly come out of his carrier and when he did he would crawl under whatever he could find and hide. That morning we were both kind of out of it and went through security without our boarding passes, oops. We also hadn’t checked in Sebastian on this different airline, maybe we should’ve had more coffee; oh no we couldn’t because the security check thingy. Shannon came shining through with a little wink and wit at three different desks, one for our boarding passes, one to pay extra for Sebastian (“how much does he weigh? Oh, fat cat”) , and then one for his papers, my mad book keeping skills saved the day there, which cost even more. Shannon had to haul ass back to the security check to catch our flight, which was all good.
We actually met two teachers from The Lincoln School in the waiting area. We recognized one of them from being on the same flight to Bangkok; she ended up being one of the people we had corresponded with via e-mail. She’s our age and very active, a great connection. We’ve hung out with her a couple of times already. This last Friday night we went to some bar that we had to go through this funky little alleyway and through a big gate to get to it. It was a cool little place with some dude playing the guitar and a woman singing a lot of bad eighties American hits. By the end of the night we didn’t mind. The cab ride home was a trip. The driver might have been thirteen years old and we were drunk and lost. Good time.
Anyways, back to Thailand. We flew Thai Air, they were great. Free drinks, they had whatever you wanted and they had some really good food, topped off by being given an orchid when we got off the plane. I think they do that because they knew what the airport experience is all about in Katmandu. You’ve all seen the movie Midnight Express? You know the airport seen when he’s on the tarmac and he’s getting busted? Well, that’s all I could think about when I got off the plane. It looked like we had landed at the local prison. The place looks like the old Montana prison in Deer Lodge that’s been converted to a car museum. There were all these random airplanes around that were all dirty and scary looking with names like “Buddha Air”, “Cosmic Air”, and a couple of others that seemed to have been thought up over and after cocktails. It was hot and humid outside and that quadrupled once we got inside with all these people standing in all these random lines for different visas. Our friend from school luckily was there to vector us in on the best bet. Thank goodness the line we needed to be in was the shortest one of all of them because I was sweating so badly that my eyes were stinging from the sweat getting in them. Once we got through that line we were on to our baggage.
Holy crap, talk about mayhem. I felt like I was walking into this starving crowd that had just been thrown free food. People were everywhere, on top of crates, on top of these beat up old push carts, standing on the turnstile that carries the luggage. It was chaos. Then, through this mayhem I see Shannon’s boss waving and yelling at us. I was so damned relieved! He had already found a good portion of our stuff in a pile of luggage that had fallen off the turnstile and had carts waiting for us. We found the remaining pieces, all of which made it, and we’re off through customs. This is when Allen says to me “Just follow me and don’t stop, act like you don’t understand what they’re saying and play dumb”, I had slept for maybe a total of two hours the night before, and those were on a diaper changing table, I had landed in what I swore was the courtyard of a prison, and I was just breaking out of this crowd of people that were crawling on top of one another to get their luggage. I did not need to play dumb at this point. Shannon, in the mean time is just getting it done all with a smile and looking as cute as ever with her little orchid pinned to her shirt. Okay, I’ll follow Allen as he just wheels the cart with our ski gear through customs while the guard is yelling and grabbing at him, Allen just yanks his arm away and keeps walking. Shit man, doesn’t he know we just landed at a prison? that‘s what I’m thinking. I mean, these guys have guns, but hey Nepal is all peaceful right? Wait, The Maoist thing. Maybe it’s not all peaceful; I need to just play dumb. Well, it worked; we got through the customs gate after some yelling and twisting. I’m not even sure why we did that other than to save some time, apparently customs here must be slow. We get outside and there are three or four men in uniforms grabbing our baggage from us and taking off with it; I’m thinking what the hell at first, then I realize that these are guards from school and the woman with them must be Janna. Indeed that was the case. I gave up all of my luggage except my ski gear, I am not going to pack that all the way over here and have it get thrown on top of a pile of other stuff and have it topple out onto the street. The guards were looking at the ski bag and me and looking kind of puzzled;” what, haven’t you ever seen a ski bag before? Come on we’re in the Himalaya’s, people must ski here all the time”. Apparently that is not the case. Needless to say, I still made sure that it was placed securely in the back of the pickup.
Finally, we’re in a vehicle moving on the ground towards our new home. Introductions are made; there was Allen the school’s director, Janna the business administrator, and our guard and driver. This all felt like it was out of the movies. It was like we had just made some brazen escape and now we were being given the entire beta on these current events that we needed to be privy to. Janna and Allen were both in front of us looking over their shoulders talking simultaneously to us, while the driver drove down the “wrong” side of the road honking every time that he turned the wheel. You know those times when you’re riding with bad driver’s or driver’s that tailgate cars in front of them (what’s up Nathaniel?) and you’re afraid to take your eyes off of the road, because you know that as soon as you do there’re going to wreck? Well, multiply that feeling by like ten and you might get a sense of how I felt. Holy frickin crap man, all of the signs and lines on the road are merely suggestions. The only form of any control is the horn. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. I mean, I think that I usually handle driving and what comes along with it pretty well. I guess that’s the driving that I know. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. After a few minutes I gave in to the laughing. It was so absurd to me. The only times that I almost cried or peed myself was when, and this happened more than once, these very big, decorative water trucks were coming at is head on, somehow our driver would find this hidden space on the road to let them by, all in what felt like warp speed. This indoctrination into the driving here was an eye opener for me. Shannon, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
We were very happy to hear Allen and Janna say “here we are, your new home”. We had just gone down this little alleyway where all the homes are surrounded by nice large fences and gates with guards standing outside of a good portion of them. Our house was the last one before a tee in that leads to dead ends both ways, making it nice and quiet. It has come to be quite the nice sanctuary.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Thanks for joining us!
We had a rollickin' good ole time at our wedding party! Thanks to all who came to celebrate and especially to all of you who helped to make it possible. Here are some photos from Shawn Doan.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/careyeubank/sets/72157602766123791/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/careyeubank/sets/72157602766123791/
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Carey Eubank Wedding: Gift Registry & Ideas
Carey Eubank Wedding: Gift Registry & Ideas
As we prepare to pack and store all of our belongings to move to Nepal for two years, we are realizing how much "stuff" we both have and thinking about how to down-size. We know for many, giving a gift is an important gesture to support and celebrate marriage. If you are wondering what would be appropriate or helpful to us as we start our new adventure together we have some tips and ideas to share:
First off, gift cards that won't expire for two years would be excellent and allow us flexibility to get home and decorate our kitchen and home building off of the things we buy in Nepal.
For Nepal, there are a lot of things that have been recommended to us to bring:
We need flannel sheets! Apparently, there is no central heat in buildings and the winters can get quite cold. We would love things to help us keep warm: a heavy-weight down comforter, warm wool socks, down booties (we have a lot of sweaters & down jackets already), and other such cozy things.
Despite the cold nights, the growing season is year-round. Most folks have an outdoor (for us, it will be a patio or roof-top) garden where they grow fresh vegetables, flowers and herbs. We would love it if you would like to give us a "garden kit" with your favorite seeds for us to grow fresh in Nepal.
The other big recommendation is that we bring mountain bikes for all of our commuting purposes. The roads are crazy and the pot-holes are big, so front suspension mountain bikes are the way to go. Shannon will have to put aside her road bike and needs a new mountain bike, so if you'd like to make a contribution to a bike fund that would be an enormous help. We plan to outfit our bikes with racks, panniers, a good light system long cable-locks and a basic home-repair kit. Once we get used to the traffic mayhem, we will be riding most everywhere.
We plan to do as much traveling as possible while we are in Nepal. During the school holidays, we want to go on treks in the Himalayas, go white-water rafting in Nepal, and fly to Southeast Asia to explore. If you'd like to support us on this two-year working honeymoon adventure, we'd welcome your support and promise to send cool pictures of our adventures and travels.
For more traditional ideas, we have a limited registry set up at Macys (macysweddingchannel.com) and at the Greenhouse in Bellingham (1.800.446.0104). We mostly need good cookware to last the rest of our lives, a good set of kitchen knives, and nice silver-ware to replace our chipped-up hard plastic hand-me-down current cutlery. Also, Shannon's Grandmother, Ellen, left her some of her fine China when she passed away. Shannon would like to re-establish the set, and plans to use it as everyday table-ware (why not?!). The problem is Lenox discontinued the "Olympia" line in 1984, after making it since 1952. If you are a good internet bargain shopper, and can find used pieces to match, we need bowls, platters, serving dishes, and basically everything but dinner and salad plates. We have the ivory plates with the simple gold decorative rim. They are very plain, and as we've discovered no one makes new China that is ivory or has gold trim anymore! Lenox: Olympia in ivory with gold.
Both of us love pottery and any hand-crafted pottery pieces would be welcome! We are planning to get rid of all of our kitchen wares (except the China plates), and would love to re-build with earthware. We need things like platters, serving dishes, mugs, a tea-pot, plates, bowls basically anything pottery! There is a great pottery shop in Bellingham, called Mud in Your Eye Pottery, plus earthware is easy to find at most outdoor farmer's markets.
As we prepare to pack and store all of our belongings to move to Nepal for two years, we are realizing how much "stuff" we both have and thinking about how to down-size. We know for many, giving a gift is an important gesture to support and celebrate marriage. If you are wondering what would be appropriate or helpful to us as we start our new adventure together we have some tips and ideas to share:
First off, gift cards that won't expire for two years would be excellent and allow us flexibility to get home and decorate our kitchen and home building off of the things we buy in Nepal.
For Nepal, there are a lot of things that have been recommended to us to bring:
We need flannel sheets! Apparently, there is no central heat in buildings and the winters can get quite cold. We would love things to help us keep warm: a heavy-weight down comforter, warm wool socks, down booties (we have a lot of sweaters & down jackets already), and other such cozy things.
Despite the cold nights, the growing season is year-round. Most folks have an outdoor (for us, it will be a patio or roof-top) garden where they grow fresh vegetables, flowers and herbs. We would love it if you would like to give us a "garden kit" with your favorite seeds for us to grow fresh in Nepal.
The other big recommendation is that we bring mountain bikes for all of our commuting purposes. The roads are crazy and the pot-holes are big, so front suspension mountain bikes are the way to go. Shannon will have to put aside her road bike and needs a new mountain bike, so if you'd like to make a contribution to a bike fund that would be an enormous help. We plan to outfit our bikes with racks, panniers, a good light system long cable-locks and a basic home-repair kit. Once we get used to the traffic mayhem, we will be riding most everywhere.
We plan to do as much traveling as possible while we are in Nepal. During the school holidays, we want to go on treks in the Himalayas, go white-water rafting in Nepal, and fly to Southeast Asia to explore. If you'd like to support us on this two-year working honeymoon adventure, we'd welcome your support and promise to send cool pictures of our adventures and travels.
For more traditional ideas, we have a limited registry set up at Macys (macysweddingchannel.com) and at the Greenhouse in Bellingham (1.800.446.0104). We mostly need good cookware to last the rest of our lives, a good set of kitchen knives, and nice silver-ware to replace our chipped-up hard plastic hand-me-down current cutlery. Also, Shannon's Grandmother, Ellen, left her some of her fine China when she passed away. Shannon would like to re-establish the set, and plans to use it as everyday table-ware (why not?!). The problem is Lenox discontinued the "Olympia" line in 1984, after making it since 1952. If you are a good internet bargain shopper, and can find used pieces to match, we need bowls, platters, serving dishes, and basically everything but dinner and salad plates. We have the ivory plates with the simple gold decorative rim. They are very plain, and as we've discovered no one makes new China that is ivory or has gold trim anymore! Lenox: Olympia in ivory with gold.
Both of us love pottery and any hand-crafted pottery pieces would be welcome! We are planning to get rid of all of our kitchen wares (except the China plates), and would love to re-build with earthware. We need things like platters, serving dishes, mugs, a tea-pot, plates, bowls basically anything pottery! There is a great pottery shop in Bellingham, called Mud in Your Eye Pottery, plus earthware is easy to find at most outdoor farmer's markets.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Wedding Date Changed!
Since Craig and I (and Anna) are moving to Nepal, we've had to change the date of our wedding. You might notice the little sticker switch-aroo on our nifty post cards hiding the original date...The new date is July 28-29th. We hope you can join us! Feel free to send us an e-mail now if you already know if you can make it; we'd love to hear from you.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Moving Business
So, we're moving this summer and need to find long term accomadations for Sebastien (Cat) and lots of plants...Let us know if you're interested. We'll be renting both of our houses too (Craig's is already rented). If you know of anyone looking let us know. Craig's email is craigeubank@yahoo.com & Shannon's is scarey@bham.wednet.edu.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Nepal, two year honeymoon
So, to add to our wedding excitement, we have recently accepted a job in Nepal. Shannon will be teaching at the Lincoln School in Katmandu, Nepalhttp://www.lsnepal.com/ for the next two years and Craig will be a "kept man" while beginning his Rolfing practice, enriching his already natural Buddhist intuitions, coordinating many fun adventures, and pretty much making sure that their Nepal experience will be as fruitful as possible.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Rolfing 10 Series: Internship
Now that Craig is back from Rolfing school in Boulder, he's looking to complete his Internship. If you're interested in some transformative body work, read on below.
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