Posts Tagged ‘friends’

Posted on January 15, 2010

Let the Long Journey Home Begin…

As our life here in Nepal is slowly coming to an end, our new adventure – our long journey home – awaits.

Saying good bye to dear friends and colleagues is always hard but thanks to communication technologies (Facebook, email, etc.), we’ll always keep tabs on each other … however, I do have a strong feeling that we’ll meet up with each other again in the near future.

I’ll definitely miss Nepal…

Until then, thank you all for everything, I wish you all the very best, it was an amazing ride and I hope to see you all soon.

Namaste,

Rakhesh Lama, Limba, Tamang, Gurung, Rai, Poudel, Yonzon, Shrestha, Gandharba, Doma, Bhattarai, Pandey, Sunar, Timilsina, Gatraj, Subba, Chhetri, Singh, Parajuli.

(and my friends, when I come to Kenya and Uganda I still expect to see a red carpet and Masai dancers at the airport)

Posted on October 14, 2009

Working with Michelle

I have had the privilege and honour of working with one of the most dedicated and hard-working volunteers I have ever met. Michelle Bonneau, a hard-nosed Canadian from Kelowna, BC has been working in Nepal for over 3 years now as a social counseling volunteer with VSO Nepal’s HIV/AIDS programme and as the heart and soul of IWEN Canada’s (Inter-cultural Women’s Education Network) indentured girls programme (www.iwencanada.com).

When Michelle should be sleeping, she is working. When she should be resting or taking it easy, she is working even harder. When she should be eating, well c’mon now, she is no doubt eating AND working at the same time.

The video

Michelle recruited me (more like strong-armed me with her Canadian charm) to help build a slide show of photos about IWEN’s indentured girls programme in the Dang district of Nepal. She needed it to show at IWEN Canada’s AGM in October.

I said “suuurrrre, why not?!?” as creating a simple slide show wouldn’t take too long to do. Not aware of what I was getting myself into, I also mentioned, “so it’s too bad we don’t have enough time to get some video footage because it would be neat to do instead a video/photo slideshow mixed in with music and interviews, etc.”.

Sure enough, Michelle made it happen. I miraculously got some footage (that needed to be converted) along with pages of translated text for subtitles (that needed to be painstakingly sync’d), and the whip of Michelle’s need for perfection (ouch) driving me into the wee hours of the night in order to get this video presentation done (in less than a week).

It was definitely worth it in the end.

The video is generous length of 21 minutes and there was so much more footage, photos, and stories that had to be left out (and no, there are no plans to make the extended DVD version). I had to choose only a handful of portraits from hundreds, images of girls recently sponsored by IWEN Canada (I personally just wanted to use them all).

While working on the video, I found it almost impossible to not be affected by the some of the girl’s personal accounts of not having the opportunity to know how to read or write, to not have freedom to go out or to have friends, to not know how to properly clean themselves, or to even not know their real names or when their real birth days are.

It was heart breaking to hear and watch.

(And for me to think, I walk down the street everyday and see potentially see underprivileged children, sometimes I not even noticing or thinking twice about what some of them are going through.)

I can see why Michelle works so very hard and why people like her possess the will and unwavering determination to keep on going, doing what they do.

Anyhow, without further ado, here is the video…it was my pleasure Michelle.

IWEN Canada – Indentured Girls Programme from Rex on Vimeo.

IWEN Canada – Indentured Girls Programme is a program that rescues bonded girls from slavery and gives them a new meaning in life through education in Nepal.

Posted on October 10, 2009

The view from Nepal

This guest post is from our fellow VSO Nepal volunteers Mel and Steve who work in Mahendranagar, in the far west district of Nepal.

Greetings to all Leicester FoE (Friend of the Earth) members and friends, Malcolm has invited me to write a short piece for the newsletter and, by chance, a few things recently have reminded me of the complexities of environmental issues here in Western Nepal.

Firstly, I helped write an English version of a funding proposal, for a local NGO. This proposal was for funds to conserve the nearby hill range. With my ‘international environmentalist’ perspective on such issues as global warming and globalization, I sometimes forget that, for most people, the immediate environmental concerns are focused on the local environment. People here are noting that farmland is less fertile and flash floods and landslides are more common than a few years ago. It is largely acknowledged that a main cause of this change is the deforestation of the hills, mostly for firewood and timber. Of course, although the outcomes of this deforestation are bad, people still need to cook and build houses.

Similarly, we live next to a nature reserve and the wildlife rangers (whom I sometimes assist) and officials are having to strike a balance between enforcing wildlife regulations and not causing extra suffering for the local villagers. For example, they often overlook grazing and firewood collection within the park.

Another issue, is that we are currently in the grip of a heat-wave. The monsoon rains are late and the temperature has reached the record high of 45oC. There are reports of children fainting in class and, as a result, we just heard today that the schools are closing a week early, for the summer vacation. Interestingly, during the radio announcement about this, global warming was mentioned as the cause. So far, the crops have not suffered too much but if the rains don’t start soon, problems will arise.

Finally, I recently read an article, in a local magazine, about energy needs versus climate change in South Asia, in which the authors tried to address these issues of local and global environment. For example, here in Nepal, most electricity generation is from hydro projects. Whilst producing very little CO2, hydro-electric generation has caused many problems to people in the local areas and, as a consequence, the World Bank no longer funds hydro-electric projects as it once did. Further, as climate change continues to shrink the Himalayan glaciers, the rivers on which hydro-electricity depends, are threatened. In terms of energy generally, most in Nepal comes from Bio-mass which means wood and cow-dung burning. These contribute to deforestation, as mentioned, as well as being energy inefficient. Given the problems in the local environment, neighbouring India is looking to nuclear and coal-fired power-stations to supply its energy.

It seems unreasonable to expect Nepal not to try to generate more electricity since energy consumption is seen to be the key to success of developed countries. Given that Nepalis have, over the last few decades, contributed almost nothing to current climate pollution but suffer disproportionately from the results, I don’t think that we have any right to expect them now to spend money or to lose energy potential in order to combat climate change, when all the ‘developed countries’, that did produce the pollution, are seen doing so little to prevent it themselves. Half of the population of Nepal and India (that’s approx. 600 million people) currently have no access to electricity and they want it.

As they say here in Nepal; ‘Ke garne?’ (What to do?).

Posted on May 14, 2009

A renewed sense of hope

For quite some time now I’ve been putting aside feelings of restless uncertainty and thoughts have been incessantly running around my head about  “why” I am here and whether or not I am really making a difference.

We are reminded by friends and fellow volunteers that the small battles that we endure every day in our work and the little things that we do to inspire the people that we meet are all that matter as they will inevitably create a ripple effect of progress in the long-term.

This is our mantra but sometimes it is difficult to stay motivated.

Instances of subtle frustrations has taken its toll and there were many days where I felt like throwing in the towel and going home.

And then last night, the “Wall of Friends and Family” was erected by Tlell.

At first glance, the visual reminder of friendly faces, loved ones, old high school buds, and our favourite places from home silently renewed our sense of hope and purpose. The smiles on our faces slowly formed as we reacquainted ourselves through the collage of images past.

Keeping in touch with friends and old colleagues via chat, Skype, Facebook, and email is undoubtedly better. However, it only happens in spurts, when time zones and schedules match, and of course whenever there is power.

Along with each other, the Wall is our constant and a visual reminder of not only who is thinking about us but also what is waiting for us when we eventually come home.

(feel free to tag yourself)

Posted on January 30, 2009

Looking Back

After many, many attempts via slow computer networks and even dial-up Internet accoess (yes, Internet dial-up using 28.8 kbps is still a reality here), I have successfully uploaded a 25-minute video of our time here in Nepal during VSO’s in-country-training program.

In this video (hosted by Vimeo) you will find photos and video footage of our arrival and first night in Kathmandu, our welcome party at the VSO Nepal office, Nepali language and cultural classes, our first walk through Thamel Market, the sights at Swayambhunath Stupa, our time in Chetana Kendra, life changing moments during our village stay in Chankhu Besi, our visit to Pashupatinath, Nepali food cooking class, and our last day with our Nepali gurus.

Not only do I have fond memories of our journeys but I also really enjoyed making this video for my new friends. We have all shared a unique experience together that we will never forget. So without further ado, here are our personal memories…