caught up

Today, I was rather rushed through my morning routine as we were in a hurry to attend the focus groups. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually had to drink oatmeal as I did this morning, but it wasn’t as altogether unpleasant an experience as it may sound.

Also, I showered by way of small bucket with cold water, moist towelettes, and a dash of creativity, though not without a certain nostalgia for, you know, a real shower. That will hopefully happen tomorrow morning.

For those that don’t know, Jim Hebert of Hebert Research has generously donated his and his company’s services to trifc.org and Rotary International so that we may gather baseline info regarding people’s perceptions toward those with disabilities, and then we can see what kind of impact we are having as the project launches and progresses. Jim showed the focus groups some of the concept boards I mentioned in a previous post, and gauged reactions. It was all captured on audio and visual recording equipment.

The focus groups were highly successful. The results were excellent, in that some were unexpected, and thus extremely helpful in refining these concept boards and finally deciding on which approach to use.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Bakery Cafe, which is a restaurant that hires mostly deaf individuals for wait staff. Nirmala had the pleasure of interviewing the owner previously, who said candidly that he didn’t hire the deaf workers for philanthropic reasons. They simply worked much harder and better than the other employees who were not hearing impaired. Hm. Just goes to show what those with disabilities can do when they’re given an opportunity.

Oh. And the food was really good, too. I had fried buffalo momos.

Following lunch, I went to Swayambunath with Penny and Len. Swayambunath is a Buddhist stupa / temple area that overlooks much of the Kathmandu valley. I’ll leave it to the pictures for this one.

Len and Penny wanted to continue to be adventurous, but I had to return to go to dinner with Olga and everyone. Olga, for those that don’t know, is the person who got my dad started with his work in Nepal. He happened to see her in the newspaper, call her up and volunteer his photographic services, and as a result, changed his life entirely.

The dinner was very nice, RR and Chandra and my dad and Nirmala and Sita and myself went, and it was great to see Olga again. Olga is, near as I can tell, immune to the effects of the passage of time, i.e. she looks great. I also met Lynn and Laurie (I hope I spelled that right); Lynn has known Nirmala for a very long time. I also met Emily who just turned 21 and is from Colorado. She’s volunteering at a school here and teaching classes as well as designing the curriculum for those classes, which is pretty amazing. She’s come to Nepal alone, and definitely seems more outgoing and adventurous than I am, I must say. It's great meeting all these Rotary people and they're absolutely wonderful people, but it's also always nice to meet someone my own age.

Okay. Proofreading this post, I notice it's more...informative than entertaining, but I suppose I have to post something serious now and then. Anywho, it is late, and I’m up to date.

Check out the pictures though, they should be pretty good this time around.

Focus sessions, Swayambunath

Talk to you all soon,

-Carey

p.s. oh. my. god. there is a dog outside that will NOT STOP BARKING. BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK. LDGSL:DKGHSD:LKfjS:LKHG:SLKFJ;slkfjad;slkfj