Monday, December 22, 2008
Mabry's first ski trip
Mabry out on Artist Point with her new ski sun glasses, Craig: "you gotta protect her eyes!"
Friday, October 3, 2008
One month camping trip!
On the full moon, exactly 4 weeks after Mabry was born, we took her out on her first camping trip. In the background you can see our new van, which Craig calls a va-gon, and swears it is a perfect cross between a mini-van and a station wagon (to satisfy Shannon who'd rather be caught dead than driving a min-van). Form and function!
You might also be able to glimpse Mt. Baker in the distance.
Grandpa Jim
Mabry explaining a thing or two to Grandpa Jim as Grandma Joyce re-upholsters chairs in the living room.
Mabry's second bath
With Jessica here to help hold a wobbly head, we gave Mabry her second bath. She's about 2 weeks old here.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Baby "Mabry"
Mabry
(Irish) joyous. (Welsh) baby. Literature: the name of the Fairy Queen in Edmund Spencer's epic romance The Faerie Quenne. NICKNAMES: [Mabe], [May, Mae, Mai], [Brie, Bree,]
Minutes after Mabry was born at the Bellingham Birth Center
Mabry had just arrived in our world with Daddy on the receiving end. This is the first time all three get to meet face to face.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Spring Update 2008
Well Craig made it back home to Kathmandu after 10 long weeks in Germany. He is now officially a certified Rolfer by American and European Rolfing Associations! He feels good about his knowledge and skills and is ready to take up his new career. He has picked up clients from Lincoln School (where I work) and is starting to let the process naturally unfold for him- through connections and conversations to the rest of the Kathamdu expat community this month. This week, he is giving a presentation at the US Embassy to explain Rolfing and promote his services. Things are really picking up for him here. Soon, I'll have to schedule my appointments!
Coming HOME!
In the meantime, the school year is plugging away for me; our last day is June 12th and we fly home, into Vancouver BC on the 16th. It has been a long and intense learning process for me. I have been teaching all new curriculum and content, including all freshman and Sophomore English for the first time. Much of the time, I felt like I was a first-year teacher all over again. Next year promises to be more of the same with all new content, courses, and curriculum once again. Although I’ve been really lucky with this pregnancy, and rarely sick, I definitely have less energy than I am used to. I’m really looking forward to a break and coming home.
PLANS: Right now, our plans are to return to the Northwest and stay in Seattle/ Billings for June and July. Then August, we get to move back into our house in time to get ready for the baby join us! Our due date is August 21st. It’s hard to believe that I’m already 6months pregnant! I sure missed Craig and it is great to have him back. Life is a challenge here in Kathmandu; it’s much better with the support of my loving partner.
PLANS: Right now, our plans are to return to the Northwest and stay in Seattle/ Billings for June and July. Then August, we get to move back into our house in time to get ready for the baby join us! Our due date is August 21st. It’s hard to believe that I’m already 6months pregnant! I sure missed Craig and it is great to have him back. Life is a challenge here in Kathmandu; it’s much better with the support of my loving partner.
Why does this guy look so nervous?
See how he's watching the cobra in Craig's hands? He promised that the venom was removed, but he doesn't look so certain.
Spring Break!
Craig made it back just in time for our spring break. We both got sick, relaxed, did some school work, and took a 10 day trip to Pokhara. In Pokhara, we found a nice hotel with a balcony and view of the lake to hang out in. We explored the tourist resort town and ate lots of good food. We hired a small canoe/boat across the lake and hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda. We went for an intense 3 day trek in the Annapurna range. Craig finally got to see the Rodhendenderon forests he’s been dreaming about, and they were incredible! We were both sick while we were trekking, but Shannon (Craig writing now, hey what’s up?) still made it up the section of stairs that have 4800 steps. Yep, 4800 mo flappin steps. I tried to help her get up them by helping her count at every hundredth one, but both of may suffer from a little bit of attention disorder, especially when exercising, and had a hard time with that one. Shannon did get through a couple of thousand at least. Me? I actually just waited for Shannon to count them and say it loud then I’d act like she was wrong and that the step we were actually on was the next hundredth. It worked every time. It was well worth the torture to see and be in the rhodi Forests. I mean these are trees that are big enough that it would take three people arm in arm to wrap the things. Absolutely frickin fabulous!! The last morning I hiked to the top of Poon Hill for sunrise and was welcomed with an absolutely breathtaking view of an amphitheatre of 6 peaks and the rest of the Annapurna range. Photos cannot do it justice. Next to what I see in the mirror everyday, easily one the prettiest things I’ve ever seen.
Humongous rhododendrons
This is the rhododendron forest we trekked through. Amazing. I think Joyce would like these!
The Yoga Retreat
We ended our trip with a 3 day respice at a Yoga retreat center where we gave each other mud baths, relaxed with meditation and Yoga, ate some really good food, and took a steam box. Yep, BOX with a pressure cooker making the steam. I’m all over that design. Nelson is gonna love this man. Cohen- you'll be on marketing...It was a perfect ending to spring vacation.
Should I be this big?
At the yoga retreat, we met an AK woman who was also 5 months pregnant. Why am I so much bigger?
Maternity Leave!
Shannon was granted a year maternity leave recently, so that means our options are a little more open now. Worse case scenario, we come back here in Nov. Or we come back in Jan. Who knows what will come up after junior is here. Actually, we’ve been calling the baby Chori or Chora, which is little boy or girl in Nepali. Other than that, we don’t have name yet either way.
I would write about all my adventures in Germany and Switzerland, but we want you finish reading this, so I’ll write a little something something on my own about that.
We’re off to a Cinco DeMayo party at some friends. I’ll need to be on my game to keep Shannon out of the tequila and keep her from dancing on the tables, She gets wild when she’s on the tequila (just so you know (this is a whisper now) Shannon really isn’t going to drink tequila). It’s the last day of a 4 day weekend for Shannon so we’re gonna have some fun. We spent yesterday celebrating my birthday by attending an acupuncture Meridian massage clinic. It was just what Chori and Shannon and Craig needed.
We hope all of you are well and happy and we look forward to seeing you soon.
With Much Love,
Craig, Shannon, and Chori, and Sebastian (our cat)
We’re off to a Cinco DeMayo party at some friends. I’ll need to be on my game to keep Shannon out of the tequila and keep her from dancing on the tables, She gets wild when she’s on the tequila (just so you know (this is a whisper now) Shannon really isn’t going to drink tequila). It’s the last day of a 4 day weekend for Shannon so we’re gonna have some fun. We spent yesterday celebrating my birthday by attending an acupuncture Meridian massage clinic. It was just what Chori and Shannon and Craig needed.
We hope all of you are well and happy and we look forward to seeing you soon.
With Much Love,
Craig, Shannon, and Chori, and Sebastian (our cat)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Back to the basics: Water, fuel, electricity, and air
Welcome to another addition of “Nepal Updates”. When you last heard from us, we were together celebrating Christmas in warm and sunny Thailand. Things have changed. Craig has moved to Munich, Germany for 11 weeks to complete his final unit of Rolfing certification- where it is cold and snowy. Shannon has remained in cold and slightly miserable Kathmandu waiting it out patiently till spring break, when Craig returns. I suppose that’s not the biggest news of changes yet… The happy couple is now expecting a child, due to join them sometime in September in Bellingham, WA. Figuring that a new job, a new career, a new home, a new country, a new marriage just weren’t enough of a change; they have now added a new baby to the list of major life changes to embrace all at once. It’s easier writing about it all in the third person, because it’s all still a bit surreal. I’m sure it will be real enough, soon enough. We’re very excited and happy to bring our child into our lives and share the experiences of parenting together. Wow. It will be a big change…
In the meantime, how about an update on life in Nepal?
So, if you haven’t seen it, this weeks’ TIME magazine cover story is Nepal, “The Battle for Nepal: Why Maoists, royalists and the big powers all want to control the Himalayan nation”. Here’s a link if you want to check it out; there’re some pretty good photos of what life looks like here too. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1708585,00.html
You know, reading the article, one would get the impression that what people want here is democracy, equality, and first and foremost: elections to make that happen. If only that were so. Really what people want are: electricity, fuel, water, clean air, and basic sanitary services. Not too much to ask for, right?
Water: I mean I’ve always taken it for granted that when you turn on the tap you have clean drinking water. Here, you just turn it on (if you even have running water in your home) and wait and see if anything comes out. As foreigners, we never drink it without first boiling, filtering and sterilizing it (although we have taken to brushing our teeth with it – risqué!) Nepal probably has some of the world’s richest potential for fresh drinking water. With the Himalayas as our backdrop, snow melt rivers cascade down in the valley most of the year. Plus, we have a significant rainy monsoon season that stretches May until October (at least this year). Yet, there is no catchment system; no storage or centralized planning for water. You would think that there would be reservoirs and a system for holding water and dispensing regularly as needed. Of course not! We have a few huge tanks at our house, one under-ground that apparently has city water (most don’t have this and if you live on a hill- you can forget about city water all together- you pay for it- but none ever makes it to your home). Luckily we live at the bottom of a hill. Anyhow, I have no idea how this water gets here, but I do know that it requires a pump system- which is problematic because the water comes at irregular intervals and you need electricity-which we rarely have- to pump your tank full. Okay, the craziest thing is that these Indian Tata trucks- they are painted bright green red or blue, have flowers and Hindu gods and goddess painted all over them- they drive up at odd times, maybe 3:00am- yes, in the morning, and with a big hose they deliver water. Water is delivered by Hindu religiously painted trucks in a country that has terrible roads and a chronic fuel shortage. Where do the trucks get their water? I don’t know, but I have seen a few parked alongside a hillside spring, just out side of the city. It’s weird.
In the meantime, how about an update on life in Nepal?
So, if you haven’t seen it, this weeks’ TIME magazine cover story is Nepal, “The Battle for Nepal: Why Maoists, royalists and the big powers all want to control the Himalayan nation”. Here’s a link if you want to check it out; there’re some pretty good photos of what life looks like here too. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1708585,00.html
You know, reading the article, one would get the impression that what people want here is democracy, equality, and first and foremost: elections to make that happen. If only that were so. Really what people want are: electricity, fuel, water, clean air, and basic sanitary services. Not too much to ask for, right?
Water: I mean I’ve always taken it for granted that when you turn on the tap you have clean drinking water. Here, you just turn it on (if you even have running water in your home) and wait and see if anything comes out. As foreigners, we never drink it without first boiling, filtering and sterilizing it (although we have taken to brushing our teeth with it – risqué!) Nepal probably has some of the world’s richest potential for fresh drinking water. With the Himalayas as our backdrop, snow melt rivers cascade down in the valley most of the year. Plus, we have a significant rainy monsoon season that stretches May until October (at least this year). Yet, there is no catchment system; no storage or centralized planning for water. You would think that there would be reservoirs and a system for holding water and dispensing regularly as needed. Of course not! We have a few huge tanks at our house, one under-ground that apparently has city water (most don’t have this and if you live on a hill- you can forget about city water all together- you pay for it- but none ever makes it to your home). Luckily we live at the bottom of a hill. Anyhow, I have no idea how this water gets here, but I do know that it requires a pump system- which is problematic because the water comes at irregular intervals and you need electricity-which we rarely have- to pump your tank full. Okay, the craziest thing is that these Indian Tata trucks- they are painted bright green red or blue, have flowers and Hindu gods and goddess painted all over them- they drive up at odd times, maybe 3:00am- yes, in the morning, and with a big hose they deliver water. Water is delivered by Hindu religiously painted trucks in a country that has terrible roads and a chronic fuel shortage. Where do the trucks get their water? I don’t know, but I have seen a few parked alongside a hillside spring, just out side of the city. It’s weird.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Electricity:
We actually have planned power cuts 8 hours a day. It’s called load shedding. My students now say, “I had load shedding” instead of “My dog ate my homework.” It sucks. I often go to bed in the dark (well I wear my headlamp around and have a few candles) then I get up in the dark with no power. It means no toast and my alarm clock doesn’t go off with the power out. It’s hard to get ready in the morning in the dark. It’s hard to read by candle light. Hard to grade papers, to do anything. It just makes one want to sleep more. I sleep a lot more. The ironic thing, once again, is that Nepal has the world’s best potential for Hydro-electric power. In fact we sell much of our power to India and China is investing in Hydro-plants in Nepal near the border. Why don’t we have any? Again, no storage capacity. It’s maddening. It seems such an easy problem to fix.
Fuel:
Nationwide shortage of fuel, all types: gasoline, diesel, cooking fuel, propane… etc. This means that people often wait hours, even overnight in line at the gas pumps. Apparently, Nepal has been getting subsidized fuel from India for years and hasn’t paid the bill for it. So India has cut us off. Unless we pay. So the government raised prices on fuel two weeks ago and there were massive protests and demonstrations. They were burning tires in the streets the whole city shut down. (No school for me!) In response to the protests, the Nepali Oil Authority dropped the price increase and we are back to a state of chronic shortages and huge queues (lines) for gas. This also means that there is a shortage of fuel for our heaters and it is very cold here now. None of the homes come with centralized heating. So you just wear down everywhere- to eat dinner, in bed, etc. and try to stay warm. I have gone to bed with my jacket on, hat and gloves. At least I have heaters. All around the city, people huddle in little groups of three around piles of burning plastic bags for warmth; you can imagine the smell of constant burning plastic in the air. The good news is that it should warm up soon.
Garbage:
There are garbage workers here, apparently. But they’ve been on strike. So the trash just sits in plies that grow to mounds and eventually into road blocks, rotting everywhere. It’s not pretty. But it does serve as a feeding method for all the street dogs and cows. (Yes there are a lot of homeless city-street cows wandering around here.) We actually do still pay for garbage collection. Men come by our alley and the gate to our house calling out chants. I never knew what they were saying, in fact I thought the first one I heard was asking for food, and I gave him some oranges and bananas- much to the amusement of all my neighbors. I later learned that he was collecting newspapers. It’s hard to tell, because they all ride a bicycle with a cart attached to the back and they ride around singing out to the houses. I guess our cook, Shiva, or cleaning lady, Bina, bring them our trash and they pedal it away on their bikes, just to dump it in the street in front of our house. Lately, it has been picked up from the piles on our street. But they can’t take it to the garbage dump because the community next to the dump is protesting. They were promised that in exchange for hosting the dump they would get some benefits, like a school and some basic services from the government. Since they haven’t gotten a thing from the government, they have stopped allowing the garbage to go to the dump. So they revert back to the original method, before the dump, which is just to throw all the garbage into the river. That’s also where the raw sewage goes. I refuse to eat any fish while in Nepal. The recycling is post-consumer. That means that you throw it all away in the same garbage and if it makes it down the river, the lower caste people who live near the riverbanks, wade around and pull out the plastic, the bottles, the cans, newspapers and bits of scrap cloth. Then they recycle it somehow.
We still pay bills for all of our services. But since there is no mail service, these same guys on bikes come around, chanting and singing for bill collection. I hadn’t paid for our water for 6 months, because I didn’t realize that’s what was going on. Luckily Shiva (cook) figured it out and when my phone was disconnected, he went around the city and paid all our bills: water, electric, and phone. I know who the garbage guy is now; so he gets paid when he come singing. Craig and I are practicing the chant and will try it out back in Bellingham to see what happens. Who knows, it works like magic here.
Did I mention that Kathmandu has the second worst air pollution in the world? I’m not sure who is first, but some weeks, when we’re burning lots of plastic and tires, we’re sure we’ve beat them.
All of this is daily reality here. But somehow it works. People keep living, having happy and fulfilling lives. They just accept and move on. It’s people like me, who are used to things making sense- to problems being solved- who don’t deal as well. I’ve learned a lot about myself. On one hand it’s nice or empowering. I’m confronted on a daily basis with how much I consume and what the daily impact of my existence on the globe is creating. In the US, it just wasn’t as real. Now when the lights suddenly flick back on, I’m alarmed at their brightness and at first it’s an intrusion. It teaches me not to take things, even water, electricity and heat for granted. It also provides another perspective on appreciating life: the stars are much more noticeable in the dark- with no city lights!
Next time you throw something in the garbage, turn on a light, come home to a warm house, or just use water, appreciate it for us.
PS Don’t worry about us; we do have a maid a cook and a gardener who take excellent care of us! We foreigners really are incapable of caring for ourselves here. You just can’t figure out how it works.
We actually have planned power cuts 8 hours a day. It’s called load shedding. My students now say, “I had load shedding” instead of “My dog ate my homework.” It sucks. I often go to bed in the dark (well I wear my headlamp around and have a few candles) then I get up in the dark with no power. It means no toast and my alarm clock doesn’t go off with the power out. It’s hard to get ready in the morning in the dark. It’s hard to read by candle light. Hard to grade papers, to do anything. It just makes one want to sleep more. I sleep a lot more. The ironic thing, once again, is that Nepal has the world’s best potential for Hydro-electric power. In fact we sell much of our power to India and China is investing in Hydro-plants in Nepal near the border. Why don’t we have any? Again, no storage capacity. It’s maddening. It seems such an easy problem to fix.
Fuel:
Nationwide shortage of fuel, all types: gasoline, diesel, cooking fuel, propane… etc. This means that people often wait hours, even overnight in line at the gas pumps. Apparently, Nepal has been getting subsidized fuel from India for years and hasn’t paid the bill for it. So India has cut us off. Unless we pay. So the government raised prices on fuel two weeks ago and there were massive protests and demonstrations. They were burning tires in the streets the whole city shut down. (No school for me!) In response to the protests, the Nepali Oil Authority dropped the price increase and we are back to a state of chronic shortages and huge queues (lines) for gas. This also means that there is a shortage of fuel for our heaters and it is very cold here now. None of the homes come with centralized heating. So you just wear down everywhere- to eat dinner, in bed, etc. and try to stay warm. I have gone to bed with my jacket on, hat and gloves. At least I have heaters. All around the city, people huddle in little groups of three around piles of burning plastic bags for warmth; you can imagine the smell of constant burning plastic in the air. The good news is that it should warm up soon.
Garbage:
There are garbage workers here, apparently. But they’ve been on strike. So the trash just sits in plies that grow to mounds and eventually into road blocks, rotting everywhere. It’s not pretty. But it does serve as a feeding method for all the street dogs and cows. (Yes there are a lot of homeless city-street cows wandering around here.) We actually do still pay for garbage collection. Men come by our alley and the gate to our house calling out chants. I never knew what they were saying, in fact I thought the first one I heard was asking for food, and I gave him some oranges and bananas- much to the amusement of all my neighbors. I later learned that he was collecting newspapers. It’s hard to tell, because they all ride a bicycle with a cart attached to the back and they ride around singing out to the houses. I guess our cook, Shiva, or cleaning lady, Bina, bring them our trash and they pedal it away on their bikes, just to dump it in the street in front of our house. Lately, it has been picked up from the piles on our street. But they can’t take it to the garbage dump because the community next to the dump is protesting. They were promised that in exchange for hosting the dump they would get some benefits, like a school and some basic services from the government. Since they haven’t gotten a thing from the government, they have stopped allowing the garbage to go to the dump. So they revert back to the original method, before the dump, which is just to throw all the garbage into the river. That’s also where the raw sewage goes. I refuse to eat any fish while in Nepal. The recycling is post-consumer. That means that you throw it all away in the same garbage and if it makes it down the river, the lower caste people who live near the riverbanks, wade around and pull out the plastic, the bottles, the cans, newspapers and bits of scrap cloth. Then they recycle it somehow.
We still pay bills for all of our services. But since there is no mail service, these same guys on bikes come around, chanting and singing for bill collection. I hadn’t paid for our water for 6 months, because I didn’t realize that’s what was going on. Luckily Shiva (cook) figured it out and when my phone was disconnected, he went around the city and paid all our bills: water, electric, and phone. I know who the garbage guy is now; so he gets paid when he come singing. Craig and I are practicing the chant and will try it out back in Bellingham to see what happens. Who knows, it works like magic here.
Did I mention that Kathmandu has the second worst air pollution in the world? I’m not sure who is first, but some weeks, when we’re burning lots of plastic and tires, we’re sure we’ve beat them.
All of this is daily reality here. But somehow it works. People keep living, having happy and fulfilling lives. They just accept and move on. It’s people like me, who are used to things making sense- to problems being solved- who don’t deal as well. I’ve learned a lot about myself. On one hand it’s nice or empowering. I’m confronted on a daily basis with how much I consume and what the daily impact of my existence on the globe is creating. In the US, it just wasn’t as real. Now when the lights suddenly flick back on, I’m alarmed at their brightness and at first it’s an intrusion. It teaches me not to take things, even water, electricity and heat for granted. It also provides another perspective on appreciating life: the stars are much more noticeable in the dark- with no city lights!
Next time you throw something in the garbage, turn on a light, come home to a warm house, or just use water, appreciate it for us.
PS Don’t worry about us; we do have a maid a cook and a gardener who take excellent care of us! We foreigners really are incapable of caring for ourselves here. You just can’t figure out how it works.
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