Aftermath

They say that adjusting when you come home is more difficult than dealing with the culture shock of arriving somewhere new.

 

I came home in the wake of the April 25th earthquake disaster after spending over five months immersed in Nepalese culture.

The selfish part of me is upset that this overshadowed so many memories, but I won't let it mar my otherwise extremely positive and life-changing experience.

There's so much here that I don't understand anymore, and there's even more that I can't even begin to explain to people.

It's beyond devastating when a place that has so little suffers so greatly - it's just not fair.  But one of the silver linings was seeing the nature of this culture really shine.  The people of Nepal are the most generous and community oriented I have ever met.  They were surprisingly calm in the midst of an ongoing disaster, and everyone was so giving even when, by our skewed Western standards, they "don't have much".  I have a new understanding and appreciation for what "much" is, and what is truly important.

I've had the chance to connect with others who were in Nepal at the same time, and with those who have visited the country at other times.  My Nepali family is staying positive all the time, and I'm consistently astonished at their resiliency.

I feel guilty that I got to leave.  I feel guilty that everyone was giving us food and water, when no one knew if the disaster was going to continue and how low supplies were running.  I feel guilty that I survived probably because I lived in a wealthier area of the city with stronger structures.  I feel guilty that I'm able to come home to Canada where we have top rate health care and housing, while there are still so many who don't have homes or access to adequate health care.

I am grateful that the earthquake happened on a Saturday morning, a day where no one was in school, and many, many people were outside.  This is the one saving grace that prevented so many other lives from being lost.  I am grateful for being in a place where the people were so calm and non-violent.  I am grateful that everyone I knew there survived.

You've seen all the photos of destruction and horrific injury and death in the news, so I thought I'd share some of my favourite photos of these beautiful places from a happy time, many of which are no longer standing.

Monastery at Swayambunath

Swayambunath (Monkey Temple)

Mustard Fields

Ganesh Himal

Namobuddha Monastery

Panauti

Bhaktapur

Nagarkot

Sankhu

Some of the children of Sanga-Sangai School

Fewa Lake in Pokhara

Pokhara

Daal Bhat and Curry

Champadevi

Holi Celebration in Basantapur Durbar Square

Garden of Dreams

Pashupatinath

Lumbini

Trek to Everest

Everest Base Camp

Moon Over Kathmandu

Sanga-Sangai School is still standing, though the inside of the building has suffered severe damage, and is no longer safe to be in.  Rajesh Shahi is the wonderful man who runs Sanga-Sangai.  I had the
honour of working with him and his organization for the duration of my stay.  As it was for the last 6 years, Sanga-Sangai worked as a preparation for government school for children who are at the highest risk for ending up on the street.  They also occasionally sponsored community health programs when funds were available.  Rajesh has shared his dream of expanding Sanga-Sangai to sponsor more children and offer health and literacy programs for adults as well.  With enough support Sanga-Sangai School can be rebuilt, and can offer much more than before.  This is a positive that can come out of this tragedy.

Please consider donating.  Even a small amount can help more than you know.

Visit http://www.givengain.com/cause/2064/ to securely donate now.  You can also visit http://sangasangai.org.np/ for more information on the school and its programs.

Sometimes destruction gives us an opportunity to build anew, from scratch.

Safe in Canada

On April 25th just before noon, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Nepal, devastating much of the country.  I was at my house in Kathmandu at the time, and ended up on the third floor balcony during the confusion of the initial quake.  I watched the walls around the perimeter of the house fall, and quickly made my way down and out of the building.  Many people had gathered in our yard as it was a more open space after the walls were down, and we experienced a large afterschock 20 minutes later, along with many other smaller quakes.  The situation had sunk in and everyone was in a state of terror.  Our volunteer coordinator came a few hours later to get me and we gathered with some of his family before I spent the night in one of the tarp villages with our maid.  It was mass confusion for the next three days until I got out, with zero help from the Canadian consulate and no chance of refuge or aid from the American or British embassies.  I had very luckily booked a flight two weeks earlier to London, England, to spend a month in Europe before surprising everyone and coming home in June.  Those plans have obviously changed, but I was extremely fortunate to get out when I did - food, water, and other supplies were already running low three days after the initial earthquake.  It took 72 hours to get back to Vancouver, with the help of family and friends organizing transit while I was already en route, and I am now back on the island.  Now learning of more of the devastation and knowing that this is only the beginning of the disaster, I know I am extremely fortunate to be safe and at home without even a scratch.  I was able to walk to the school through the still-standing but not in great shape downtown core to check the building and get word of the children.  The school was in good condition and a neighbour told me he thinks the children are safe for the most part.

This is only the beginning of the devastation.  Monsoon season is quickly on its way, and for a country that is already so underprivileged this is a major blow.  Many of the villages in the mountains have been completely wiped out, and disease and hunger will spread quickly in the current conditions.  I urge Canada and Canadians to give as much aid as possible, the biggest issue being actually getting the aid there.  With the only international airport already in bad condition, the situation is dire, and travel in and out of the mountainous country is somewhat treacherous in the best of times.  Please research charities before giving, and I will be coming up with some ways to donate and help in the coming weeks and months directly through my contacts in Nepal.

Don't Angry Me

The new year has passed and it's now officially the year 2072 in Nepal.  That also means a start of a new school year.  The children who are ready will be heading off to government school, where they will hopefully stay for the remainder of their educational years.  I'll be sad to lose some of the strongest little singers, but the younger ones will rise to the occasion.

Over the past five months I've compiled a list of some of the more hilarious things that come out of these kid's mouths.  Kids are basically the same no matter where you are on earth.  So here's a list of some of the best moments:

"Fighting, miss?"
"No, no fighting."
"Miss, DON'T ANGRY ME!!!!"
Commence fight sequence.

"Yaahh miss? No..." - when something is bad or they don't want something.

"Krisshh 3!!!" - favourite movie

"NamaAaste, miss!"

"Game off?" - time to stop playing

"Ke garne?" - "what to do?" a common Nepali phrase.  The kids will use it sometimes to pretend they                         don't understand and couldn't possibly do what you've asked

Here's a video that gives you a bit of an idea of a typical morning at Sanga-Sangai.  They act a little weird when they know I'm filming but you'll still get the gist.

Other exciting news!  My father is brilliant and brought along a roll out keyboard.  It obviously doesn't have the action of a real piano, but it's the best we can do taking security and space into consideration.  The kids are delighted.  I got them to do their absolute best singing and presented them and then they couldn't stop giggling.  So now every day they ask for "piano" and start shaking when I bring it out.  I'm glad I waited until now to at least start them as they didn't have enough of the basic skills needed back in December.  I needed to prep them first.  We don't have a lot of resources, so we write out most of the songs by hand so everyone has a copy (and practises their notiation).  Most of the time that means "miss" has to do a lot of the writing.  They can read the basic notations and rhythms quite well now.  We are having a lot of fun with this.  I am so proud of these guys!

I've been doing my best to teach them about life on the west coast of Canada.  We've watched a few videos and looked at a bunch of photos.  I told them some First Nations stories and we did some work with totem poles and other First Nations artwork.  They love hearing all the stories, and especially love anything involving the ocean and its animals, which they have never seen.

We spend most mornings reading books in English and Nepali, so we all get to practise our words.  I feel that just speaking with them in English really makes a big difference.  They have their favourite phrases as well.

We've been enjoying the completed grounds at the school.  We now have concrete over the full yard.  Now it stays dry when the rains come, and the kids can play football more easily.  It's been getting so hot now though that it absorbs and throws a lot of heat.  There really are only two seasons in Nepal.


We had a fun sidewalk chalk day and the kids went nuts "decorating" the entire grounds.  Check out the photo below for secret messages and tiny children climbing motor vehicles!  Safety first :D

Some new adorable students have joined at the start of this new year, and over the next month or so more will come as families figure out where their children will be going.

Yard puppy.  Still haven't figured out who he belongs to.

Boys being cool.

Still haven't understood this pose.

Girls being cool.

Playtime - Peaceful

Sad...

Just kidding!

Bye for now!

Kathmanzoo

There is a zoo here, believe it or not.  The habitats were better than I had expected, and they supposedly do some conservation as well.  I generally feel conflicted about zoos, but couldn't really say no to take a group of the neediest kids in the city.  It turned out to be a great day!

Ready to go!

Since there's no such thing as permission slips or waiver forms, we basically counted the 21 kids there that day and then hit the road.  We had to take the city bus to get to the zoo area.  The Nepalese all act like brother and sister, so we had some "strangers" holding onto our tinier charges.  The kids thought the ride was hilarious and had a really good time.  We probably could've ridden the bus for an hour and they would have been as happy as going to the zoo.

Insanity.

We saw many kinds of deer, rhinos, hippos, tigers (those habitats were a little small), tons of little birds, hyenas, storks, cranes, bears, monkeys, and we sort of snuck into the red panda area and saw one poke his little head out.

There was a play area with slides and tubes for the kids to go in.  There's also a huge pond with boat rentals in the middle, but we didn't have the money or courage to do that with all the kids.  They still had a great time watching.

The kids taught me a lot of the animal's Nepali names.  I can't remember any.

The slide queue waits for no one.

Rhinos look like Kinder Surprise toys.

Can't stop laughing at this one.

Cool, but kind of sad.

Stork

Insisted on climbing.

With one of our newest little ones.

We enjoyed a take out lunch of MoMos and chow mein, which was a really big treat for these guys.  It would be fun to be able to do this more than once a year.

It's also the beginning of the new Nepali calendar, so the oldest children will be going on to their government school.  Sanga-Sangai provides some sponsorship for their school fees, and also provides ongoing support to check in on attendance and progress.  You can contact me for information on how to sponsor a child's school fees for a year if interested.

We played ball and other games until it was time to go home.  It turned out to be a really long but worthwhile day.  The weather is really heating up here, getting up to the high 20's in the afternoon, and not really cooling off in the evening.  There are flash thunderstorms and rains.  I can only imagine what monsoon season is like.