#365grateful

There are many things I feel strongly about, some more important than others in the grand scheme of things. For example, having crunchy bits in my ice cream is something I feel strongly about, but is not something that I feel the need to spend huge amounts of time thinking about. Two of the more important things I am currently thinking about and trying to focus on are gratitude and accountability. I realize that I have a great deal to be grateful for and I try to express my gratitude, but I also liked the idea of sharing with the greater world what I am grateful for and also trying to be more intentional. At the beginning of this year, I saw something posted somewhere that asked "us" to do something with all those pictures we take with our smartphones and to focus our picture-taking on the things that make us grateful and then being in the age of social media that we are, to then post our images somewhere (accountability). The hashtag to use is #365grateful or #365gratitude; I can't really remember which one it was and I don't think it matters, so I use one or the other. The point being, that when I try to be intentional with my gratitude and to document it, I find that there are limitless things I am grateful for, but are they worthy of capturing an image of? How much do I want to share my images? Also, what happens if I miss a day? Am I kicked out of the gratitude club? I don't actually worry at all about being judged, because how can anyone question what I am grateful for? So, to date, I have 53 images of things I appreciate starting from January 3, and yes, I have skipped a couple of days, not because I wasn't grateful, but more because I didn't pull out my phone in time, or some things are just hard to capture in a photo. There are also some days where I posted two photos! I am going to try to keep this up for the year and see what happens. I can't say for sure if I have shifted my thinking or that I am a happier, more peaceful person, but I do think about gratitude everyday and I try to tell those around me that I appreciate them (I try). Here are a few of my images and to see more, you can follow me on Twitter (iggybb) or Instagram(bbiorn). Now, accountability, there's a BIG topic and left for another blog post. One thing I do wonder about though, is how do we teach our children and our students to be more grateful? Really grateful...

 

Nepal Part 2

The day after our trek, Mingmar invited us to his house to visit his family and have lunch, which we all quickly agreed to do. Renji came and met us at our hotel and walked us over to his neighbourhood, which was only about a 30 minute walk and got us away from most of the hustle and bustle of the city. Most people who live in the city live in apartments and the buildings are only about 3 or 4 stories high and each apartment takes up the entire floor. Mingmar and his family of 5 lived in a two bedroom apartment and his wife and daughter prepared a lovely feast of dal bhaat. All of Mingmar's children speak excellent English so we were able to have a lovely chat while we waited for our food. It is clear that Mingmar's accomplishments are a source of pride for his family and he has all of his Everest certificates and photos up around the living room. It once again reminded us how lucky we were to have someone with such experience as our guide. It was a very special afternoon and we were sad to leave and say good-bye to our Nepali friends. The only thing that made us feel better is that we know we will return to Nepal and see them again.

The next day, Scott and Rhonda were off to work which left Wes and I to explore the city on our own. We did some shopping, saw some sights and I got ready for my presentation out at SIRC.

 This photo was taken at Swayambhunath, also know as the monkey temple. I joked that I wanted to get my photo taken with these monks, so Wes told me to go stand beside them. I was actually quite mortified, but I "cozied" up to them and posed. Wes was trying to get these guys to smile by saying, "Everyone say cheese!" The guy to my right who was so serious , yet actually took out his phone and handed it to Wes so that he could also have a record of this strange tourist posing with them. It turned out these monks were visiting from Myanmar, so we were really all just tourists that day. I love that the cute old guy also had a smartphone and now also has a picture of me! Sometimes, we need to step out of our comfort zone and take a chance.

Next, it was time to board our ride (ambulance) out to Dhulikel to where SIRC is. We were all going to stay at the same hotel and drive back and forth for the workshops that were taking part over two days. We were there to do some work with a team from Switzerland and the workshops were being presented to mostly nursing students with some OT's and physios there as well. I was only going to be giving a short presentation, but I was still quite nervous! As much as everyone tried to reassure me, I still had the jitters.
The centre is a wonderful place with wide corridors, lots of outdoor space, and the sound of children laughing and enjoying time with their families. People who are brought to the centre are there for rehab and their family comes to stay with them and help with the process of rehabilitation and reintegration back to their villages. The work that is being done is quite extraordinary and it was such a pleasure to see the rewards of some of our work.

 My talk, of course went fine, and I was pleased to be able to contribute even just a little bit. I spoke about general teaching practices which may or may not have been applicable to the audience, but my friends reassured me that I did a good job. There was also a language delay with some of the audience which didn't really help with my jokes, or maybe it did!

SIRC entrance

This is me actually presenting!

After our day at SIRC, Wes and I once again had some time to explore and we decided to walk through the towns close to SIRC and our hotel.

We came upon a number of students of various ages on their way to school and many of them wanted to stop and chat while we were walking past. They wanted to practice their English so they were shouting, "Hello, how are you?" There are many private schools in Nepal and most of the students we saw were in uniform. We came upon a few groups on their way to school, so we asked to take some photos of the children of various ages.

Disney princess backpack!

We also took a walk to the Golden Buddha and to a hilltop temple where I came upon a woman with the most beautiful smile and she very kindly allowed me to take her picture.

This trip was so memorable in so many ways. It was wonderful for Scott and I to share these experiences and for him to bring me into his world just a little bit. We challenged ourselves physically and stretched ourselves to step out of our comfort zone. We met some wonderful people and had the opportunity to give back and be part of a world much larger than ours. I was able to teach a group about teaching and I so look forward to when we can go back and do more and see more. Thank you so much to Peter and Claire for finding a way to include me and give me a chance to be a part of the amazing work they are doing.
Namaste!
A few more random photos from various parts of our trip:

One of the many cows we saw in the city.

Political protest leading up to the election.

We called this guy the Nepali Ben Affleck. The best part was that he had never heard of Ben until we told him to look himup!

Buddhist nuns waiting to receive offerings.

Learning outside of the classroom-Nepal Part 1

We have been back from Nepal for over a month now and while I had hoped to blog while away and as soon as we got back, that did not prove as easy as I thought. I will do my best to give a brief overview of our trip and what the whole experience was like. I want to say from the outset; that the trip really exceeded my expectations; in terms of the trek, the work, the people, the landscape; all of it. I feel so fortunate that I was able to be part of this adventure.

We arrived in Kathmandu after 36 hours of travel, with plans on heading off after a day of rest to do our trek which would start in Jiri and head west for 8 days towards Phaplu. This trek would see us going through some beautiful scenery including getting glimpses of Everest and a harrowing plane and/or bus ride back to Kathmandu. It turned out though that when we got to KTM, we found out that the country was about to be shut down through a general strike, which would mean that we could be prevented from doing any traveling at all! We met with our guide Mingmar and luckily, he presented us with an alternate plan that would still have us doing a 9 day trek, but going in a completely different direction. We decided that we would be fine with whatever plan he came up with as we really just wanted to go on a trek! Our plan was to fly to Pokhara, hike up to Annapurna Base Camp, come back down, do Poon Hill and then back to Pokhara, so that is what we did.

A very cool Lama with his friends at the airport. 

Myself and Renji (Mingmar's son) waiting to board our plane.

Our group (Me, Scott, Rhonda, Wes) and our bags ready to start the trek in Phedi.

Stairs, stairs and more stairs...

Our home for our first night-Landrung

Trying to read outside; temperature dropped dramatically once the sun went behind the mountains. If we only knew how much colder it would get!

Each day quickly fell into the routine of eat, trek, eat, trek, drink beer, eat, sleep, with little variety in the food; great variety in the landscape and even greater variety in the quality of sleep and toilets. Mingmar was very good at making sure we went slowly enough and that we ate enough; in fact, we had to tell him that we didn't need as much food as he thought. The days were warm and sunny and the nights cold, colder and really cold. The highlight was definitely the views at Annapurna Base Camp and especially the views from the little excursion we did out to a ridge where the mountains loomed above us and the glacier was so far below us. The boys taught Renji how to form and throw a snowball (he had never seen snow before!)

Our group at 3100m

Mingmar and I peeking over the edge.

Mingmar, Scott and I taking a break.

Renji and his first snow.

Sunset on Fishtail

 When we were up at this height surrounded by the majestic mountains, we all had thoughts of, "Can we go higher?" "How much more can we do?" We were ill equipped to do more, but we understood the temptation that has brought mountaineers to Nepal for a hundred years or more. While we saw monuments to faller climbers, we were still lured by the adventure, challenge and risk and Scott and I are quite risk adverse, yet we wanted more. We felt small and insignificant in the shadows of the peaks, but also so fortunate that we are able to just be in the shadows and to bring home memories and photos of our little adventure.

Cozy, warm dinner in the teahouse at -10!

The way down after ABC was filled with warm, tropical days and many, many steps down. I learned that walking poles can be your friend and that runners are really all you need for a speedy descent. I think the biggest piece of learning I take back with me is how easy our lives are, yet we think we struggle so, and we need so much. Many of the villages we passed were a 3 or 4 day walk from a larger town with access to health care, food, etc. 3 or 4 days! The villages needed to be self-sufficient and to rely solely on porters who bring goods through on a semi-regular basis. There is no running to Safeway when you need milk, or popping into the clinic when you have the sniffles. While I can appreciate the proximity of health care if something goes seriously wrong, say you fall from a tree 

Woman cutting down feed for her animals in her sock feet and with a rather large gurkha knife.

and can't move, I do think we can learn to do more with less and to rely on our own ingenuity and intuition. There were a certain sense of calm in the villages that was not present in the larger towns we went to. We did only spend just over a week in the countryside; but I did achieve some of the perspective I was hoping I would find.

Dal bhaat: this was our standard meal for lunch and dinner; delicious and filling; free refills too!

Scott trying to carry our pack and Chandra, our porter helping him 

Beer o'clock!

All of us just before our descent into Ghorepani

Chill sunrise at Poon Hill

The trek was really made complete because of Mingmar our guide. We found him through a personal reference and we would highly recommend him to anyone doing any kind of trek in Nepal. He has climbed Everest 6 times and summited twice; amazing! He took incredibly good care of us and made sure we had an enjoyable and successful day everyday. That even included bringing us really good coffee from Kathmandu that he made especially for us every morning. He also pulled out emergency Snickers bars at a low point when everyone needed a little refueling. Mingmar told us about his life in his village growing up and his adventures as a cook, porter assistant and now guide. On our final night, he gathered us all for a special farewell dinner, complete with beer for everyone and a special cake that the teahouse staff made for us. Our porters, Chandra and Don Kumar also made sure we were happy and well cared for; and we bowed down to them for carrying our monster packs over the 8 days.  

Poon Hill Sunrise

Our final night; celebrating with our crew.

That's it for the first part of our journey. Next will be more about the work at SIRC and our days wandering the countryside.