Christmas in Kathmandu

Toby 'decorating' Christmas cookies.

Coming down from Sarangkot where we saw the mountains!

Playgroup Christmas Party December 13


Noa monopolised the tricycle. Good thing we didn't show her the cookie decorating table until the end...

The artist at work...

Merry Christmas, everyone! And all the best wishes for 2009!

Love
C T N

Field visit to Gorkha

Namaste

In the last week of November I accompanied two of my team on a field visit to Gorkha District, which is to the northwest of Kathmandu and as its name suggests is the original home of the renowned Gurkhas. One of our partners works in the district, employing 3 community disability workers who provide services and support to people with disabilities in 9 VDCs (a VDC is a subdivision of a district).

This is one of the CDWs explaining a poster to raise awareness of disability and the potential of people who have disabilities.


This is a typical house in one of the villages we visited. The village is a cluster of houses set on the northwest side of a hill. Very close knit, every one knows everyone else's business! I stayed in the little building on the right, slightly further away from the cows than I had been the previous night ( I woke up to the sound of one having a very long pee!)

This is a sweaty but very happy me having climbed out of the valley on our way out. (On our way in we had walked uphill for 5 hours...) Downhill from there! And what a view! The next set of mountains we could see to the west of these were the Annapurnas.

OK, it is now December 18 and I am way behind in posting this! Grandma and Grandpa arrived on December 2 and they and Toby and Noa have been enjoying eachother since then! We all went to Pokhara for a few days last week as I had some work to do there. And now we are preparing for Christmas! Very difficult to get in the spirit here- maybe we rely too much on the pervasive commercialism in North America.

More later!

Love
C T N

Nagi Gompa

We are going to miss Natasha when she leaves. Natasha works with HI. I am taking over her job when she leaves on Wednesday; well, officially I will take it over in January but as she is leaving this week I will assume some of the responsibilities while still doing my current job. Tash has been a good friend and toddler carrier since we arrived. She hasn't hesitated to walk with us up and down hills, to the European Bakery, through Thamel during Tihar, and she even did more than her share of vomit cleanup during that holiday.



Today (Sunday) Toby, Noa, Natasha, Bjorn and I walked north from her house to Budanilkantha and beyond, into Shivapuri National Park. Apparently there are leopards there but we didn't see any. We climbed up to Nagi Gompa, a Buddhist monastery and retreat where we had a picnic lunch watching the sun finally fight its way through the clouds. We walked down through the forest and onto a ridge to the east of the city, then down into residential areas and back to the main road. It felt good to move and to breathe fresh air. I felt ready to head back into the office for Monday.

The weather is definitely getting colder here. This morning I poked my nose out from under the covers and felt the different temperature. And the butter just isn't soft in the morning now. Toby and Noa don't seem to notice the cold but today I saw goosebumps on Toby's legs as we were walking. In the midday sun it might still reach 20 C but evenings require fleece. I understand that we will hold meetings outside in the winter because it is warmer than inside, and I can already imagine that: my office doesn't get a lot of sun and my fingers become quite cold when I sit for while at the computer.

I will keep this short as I am never sure how long the internet connection will last. Hope you are all well. Love Chris, Toby and Noa

Welcome to Dadeldhura!

Namaste,
Just a quick note to accompany more photos! Two weeks ago I went on a field visit to a district called Dadeldhura, in the Far West region of Nepal. Prajwal and I flew from Kathmandu to Danghadi and then drove north for 4 hours climbing from the plains of the Terai into the hills on a winding road dotted with landslides. Yes, I threw up when we arrived at our destination of Amargadhi. We were there to monitor and provide technical support to 2 new community disability workers (CDW) and a newly designated but very experienced technical advisor named Indira. It is a beautiful place and as always I felt very lucky to be able to experience a new country by walking into villages and meeting people with disabilities and hearing about their lives. We visited 3 people in their homes, and listened to the CDWs give talks about disability so people are more aware of it and of the potential for including people with disabilties in the community activities.

One constant wherever I have been so far is women carrying huge bales of grass on their backs. Their daily chore is to wander out to any patch of green, carrying their small curved knife and a length of rope, and cutting grass, tying it into a large bundle and hoisting it on to their backs so they can carry it back to the house where it will dry in the sun. I don't know how much they weigh but they are doubled over as they carry the grass bundle. Or the bundle of firewood. Or 30kg sack of rice. Or... I am sure the men work hard too but they sure don't seem to do the daily heavy lifting.

One of the perks of field visits is the opportunity to eat the speciality of the area. We ate guavas fresh off the tree, soya beans from the farmer's field, warm and sweet milk rice for breakfast on our way back to Danghadi; and we bought walnuts, honey, ginger and garlic to take back to Kathmandu.

Last week was a bit lighter as we had 3 days of holiday for Tihar (the Nepali version of Deevali). Noa celebrated by vomiting several times on Tuesday and Toby 3 times on Wednesday. I will remember the holiday for the loads of laundry that I did and patches of spit-up that I cleaned up. We are keeping the local pharmacy in business through our purchases of Oral Rehydration Salts. But we did salvage some of the holiday by walking through Thamel and down to Durbar Square, dodging crackers and gazing at lights on the buildings and decorative mandalas on the ground. We marked the third day of Tihar with an attempt to be local: it is the day when sisters give their brothers tikkas and sweets and in return the brothers give their sisters money. Knowing that Toby doesn't like tikka, we skipped that part, but Noa gave him a soccer ball and a package of chocolate cookies. He gave her a red hula hoop and 10 rupees.

So we still haven't managed to get out for a real trek, but I am optimistic that we may be able to go on our own soon, and judging by this photo I may not have to carry anyone!

Love
CTN

Quick pics of the last couple of weeks

Two weeks ago was Dashain, the big family holiday in Nepal. We had 4 days off during which Toby, Noa and I enjoyed mostly car-free streets, walks in the backroads, balloon sellers in the street, and no power cuts. On one of the days, Dena who looks after the kids while I work, came over with her husband and daughter to give tikkas to the twins. At Dashain this means red coloured rice applied to their foreheads and a barley stalk behind one ear. Toby's didn't last long but I managed to get a picture of Noa's.

On the mornings when we have power we have gotten into two breakfast habits: either a banana lassi (Toby walks into the kitchen and points at the blender) or quick bread (a recipe Mom used to make for us when were kids and I try to make wherever in the world I am). This is a picture of the kids munching on bread, which they know the sign for, wearing their new shoes. A shoe shopping trip was necessary because Toby had poked holes in his, and when faced with the array of bright colours and sparkles, Noa had to have a pair too. Her fondness for glitz had to meet my simple tastes and we compromised on a pair of shiny black Mary Janes that had sparkles and beading in the shape of butterflies and flowers. I say 'had' because the stitching didn't last long. But she still likes the shoes.
We are slowly finding the 'easy' places to go as a family. Any place is easy if our friends are there as well, especially Clare, Mads, and Natasha. A couple of Saturdays ago we met Mads and Clare at Mike's Breakfast, a great place for dinner- kidding! As in most places here, the staff really like the kids and don't worry at all if they pick the flowers or drop food on the floor. And Toby and Noa like any place that serves lassis, which they drink as if they have just walked in from the desert.



This is the season for guavas. We have a couple of trees in the garden and the fruit is slowly turning yellow, which means they are ripe. The guards eat them when they're hard and green and introduced Toby to them. Unfortunately, he really liked them and for a few days he ate 1-2 per day. And then he got diarrhea. On the 3rd day I took him to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics for the evident infection and advised a plain diet. He was better within 2 days and still points to the tree but I have told everyone that he is not to have anymore guavas for a while.
Namaste from Kathmandu!

CTN

The Garden of Dreams

On Saturday we visited the Garden of Dreams, which is an old formal garden that has been restored by an Austrian NGO and is now operated as a business. It is beautiful and quiet, with many places to find your own space. We explored it all, finding all the fountains and ponds, including one with fish in it, and Toby and Noa spent 20 minutes playing with the gravel in the path. I think we will go back there and next time I will bring a book.

After the garden we did another of our favourite things: we visited the European Bakery to buy fresh brown bread, dried lopsi fruit, cheese, and a chocolate eclair. I wanted to see how long it would take us to walk home so off we went: I had Toby in the backpack and Noa walked part of the way. It took us 45 minutes and wasn't too bad on a Saturday, when there is relatively little traffic- Saturday is the one full day off in the week.

This week is the build up to Dasen, the biggest family holiday of the year. We will have a party at work on Friday afternoon and then next week the office will be closed for 4 days. I'll tell you more later! Many of our staff will take 2 weeks of holiday around this time. At the end of the month is another festival called Tihar, which means 3 days holiday. In a way I'm dreading October because we have so much to do and not enough time to do it. We're going to make the most of it, though, hopefully with a short trek with my friend Mads next week.

OK, I should post this before the internet connection goes or the power is cut off!

Love
CTN

Buddha Air Frequent Flyer

Namaste from Kathmandu Domestic Airport, where I am waiting for Buddha Air flight 603 to Pokhara. This is my third trip to Pokhara in the almost 6 weeks since we arrived. Seriously, I have a Buddha Air frequent flyer card! When I collect enough points I can redeem them for a scenic mountain flight!

I can expect to spend 50% of my time 'in the field' i.e. out of the office in Kathmandu. I have been to Pokhara to attend the end of an 11 week basic training course we organised. Then last week we escorted a monitor from the European Commission, the funder of our project, to see some of the project activities. We started in Pokhara, drove and walked ot a village in the hills (photo above) to see a new community disability worker (CDW) at work, then drove south to the Terai.

Nepal is roughly divided into the so-called hilly region in the north and the flat Terai in the south. This topographical division influences everything: economy and prosperity of individuals, ethnicity and society, politics, even basic health services. In a nutshell: in th esouth are the fertile farmlands, roads and Indian border. Where there are roads it is cheaper to build other infrastructure and provide services. HI Nepal supports 5 rehabilitation centres, which offer prosthetic and orthotic workshops and physiotherapy, and they are all in the Terai belt. In order to reach people in the hills they operate mobile camps periodically, usually by flying to a nearby airport and then driving and walking to the site.

On our last day in the field we had to drive about 30 minutes to Bharatpur Airport for a 3:45 flight. About 4km from the airport we hit a traffic jam. Bishnu, our driver, quickly found out that it was due to a bandh or strike. This has become a common show of people power, especially in, but not limited to, the Terai. A group of people united in a common cause get attention and hopefully action from government by bringing transportation to a halt. Vehicle movement can be tied up for hours. We left Bishnu with the truck and hopped in a bicycle rickshaw that could navigate the jam and reached a bridge that was completely blocked except to foot traffic. There we discovered the reason for the bandh: a man had been beaten to death by police several months ago and evidently no one had yet been held accountable. Kathmandu Valley was also seriously affected the following day. In the end we made our flight and I arrived back in Kathmandu tired and more experienced.

So this is my third trip to Pokhara. This time I will officially close a 3 week course we have organised for experienced CDWs. They have learned about the approach of this project, which is still essentially community based rehabilitation but in a much more holistic way. It focuses on the person with a disability and his family and is strength based instead of problem oriented. This means that instead of going to see someone for the first time and asking what the problem is and looking for all of the weak areas, we ask what he can do, what he would like to be able to do and then set about giving him the tools and adapting his community so that he can do it. It is all about empowering the individual and family while also trying to affect social change in order to achieve full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.

Immediately following this course the technical team (me and 3 technical officers from HI in Kathmandu) will conduct a 1.5 day course for CDWs who will be taking on the role of technical advisors. They will support less experienced CDWs more frequently than we can based in the capitol.

While I am away enjoying 2 evenings to myself to wander the touristy but pleasant streets of Pokhara (and hopefully see some mountains if the clouds clear), Toby and Noa are home in Kathmandu. Dena, the didi, comes to stay and will bring her daughter and husband with her. It sounds like the kids don't miss me at all, which is great because then I can enjoy my time guilt free!!

Love
C T N

Jumlea in Kathmandu

Well, so much for my plans for a weekly blog update! I can offer 2 reasons for the delay: first, I just started receiving internet access at home and second, work has been absolutely full-on since we arrived. I won't go into a lot of detail about work at this point because I know most people are much more interested in how Toby and Noa are settling in!

It has been difficult for them. It has been 4 weeks now and I can just about leave a room for a minute without them crying. They in turn are just starting to explore outside of whatever room I am in, for a few minutes, coming back to check that I am where they left me. Or so it seems to me. Now and then I see Toby quietly turning the pages of a photo album Grandma gave them: all pictures of family. And they both like to hold my mobile phone to their ear and 'talk' to Grandpa.

I have tried to ease them into the new situation. I started work 3 days after we arrived and that was a Friday so then we had the weekend together. ANd they quickly came to rely on my friend, Karen, who came along as the second adult ont eh trip, as a playmate and caregiver. I had to go to Pokhara (30 minute flight away) for work the week after we arrived so all 4 of us went. (Karen left just last week. We put her in a taxi and stood waving and crying as she drove away.)

It was in Pokhara that we all experienced firsthand how much Nepali people love children. Toby and Noa made many friends near the guesthouse and even walked the children to school one morning. We couldn't walk 10m without having to stop and confirm that yes, they are jumlea (twins), chora, chori (son, daughter) and yes, son was born first. In Nepal it's not just the women who are interested; men are really fond of children too. We have a day guard and a night guard at home (part of a prevention policy; there isn't much for them to deal with, which is good because Pradeep might blow away in a strong wind and Man Bahadur wiles away the evenings playing his flute.) Both of them love to carry either twin around the garden and Noa has fallen asleep on Pradeep's shoulder.

When we returned from Pokhara our 'didi' (means big sister in Nepali) started work. The office had put her at ht etop of a list of candidates and I was more than satisfied with her experience and stated cooking skills (!) Her name is Dena and it didn't take long for Toby and Noa to smile at the sound of her voice in the mornings. She comes from Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 6:00 and then for a few hours on Sunday because as I told her, and she soon discovered for herself, it is impossible to take care of the kids and clean the house.

Part of the problem is the size of the house. I was expecting an apartment or a floor of a house. We have a whole house with a small garden. On the main floor are the kitchen, eating area, living room, bathroom and one bedroom. On the second floor are the master bedroom with bathroom, 2 more bedrooms, another bathroom and a large open area. The third floor has another bedroom and access to a huge rooftop patio. So folks, if you need a bed in Kathmandu, odds are that we have space!

On the bright side I walk to work in less than 10 minutes. And as we have discovered 2 weekends in a row, our location means that after a short micro (shared minivan) ride to the north and we can walk north or east through paddy fields and up hills through pine forests. Kathmandu has a major air pollution problem so it is refreshing to breather cleaner and fresher air.

Some say it is due to the pollution, but conjunctivitis is a common problem here and Toby struggled with it for 10 days, even with eyedrops. He seems to be back to his old self, though, enjoying walking again and excited about seeing new things. Both kids are so good about all the new things they are seeing and smelling and tasting and hearing. Toby likes the music. If we are in a micro and the radio is on he does his little back and forth bop and has added a raised hand for effect.

Rest assured that we are all OK. I could use a bit more sleep in order to be a more patient mother but it will come.

Love
Chris, Toby and Noa

Testing and Itinerary

I have to learn how to Blog before my children do. I have a feeling it won't be long..! Both Toby and Noa already know what most of the remote controls around Grandpa and Grandma's house do and Toby has made a couple of calls on my mobile phone. He tried to surf the net until I had that function blocked.

Our itinerary:

Sunday, August 10 Big Smerdon, Oke and Binns family picnic at Locarno Beach in Vancouver in honour of Graham and Merle's visit to our neck of the woods.
Monday, August 11 Leave Vancouver at 0255h, stop in Hong Kong for 12 hours, and then fly to Kathmandu.
Tuesday, August 12 Arrive in Kathmandu at 2125h. (Apparently, Nepal is GMT+5hours 45 minutes!!)

We (in addition to the 3 of us, my friend Karen is coming along as the second adult, who is necessary when 2 infants are traveling) will stay with Natasha, from HI Nepal, for a couple of days at least, until our new home is ready for us.

OK, let's see how this looks on the blog. I promise that future posts will be much more interesting! And I will learn how to post photos!

Love
Chris, Toby and Noa