A New Day

February 23, 2011
Dhulikhel, Nepal
Himalayan Horizon Hotel
6:30 am

The plan was to wake up to catch the light the sunrise casts over the Himalayan range, to marvel at the beauty only nature can stage! You could make out the varying degrees of blue gray shades that marked the many layers of mountain’s skyline. I caught view of fog rolling in low below the tree tops. The haze over the mountain range stayed as the sun rose at 6:40am yet despite that, witnessing the sun rise today as quickly as it set last night. In a few minutes, it shown in all its glory, the yellow orange orb that we rely on each and every waking day.

Bobbie and I stood there recording the scene via video and photo and felt the warmth it brought our faces. Mornings are precious, I thought! Here we are at the beginning of a new day! All the possibilities become evident, become hope, become a vision of what the day could be! We stood there shoulder to shoulder to face the day together!

The day will be a fun day of art! We’ll visit the blind students as the Sanjiwani School who board there and create personal boxes that they will paint and decorate with ornaments and jewels we brought over from home. There’ll be a box lunch and some presentations of presents and games. I’m sure it’ll be a fun day!

Sanjiwani School Art Project

February 24, 2011
At Sanjiwani School


There are 14 visually challenged students who live in a hostel in the grounds of the Sanjiwani Model Higher Secondary School in Dhulikhel, Kavre District, Nepal. 4 of these students have sponsors who pay for their hostel and tuition fees. We always plan a special activity here to benefit all the visually challenged students. They range in age from 6 to 18 and attend the school with all the other 1000+ students from class 1 – 10.

Bobbie has suggested a “treasure Box” art project wherein the students would decorate wooden boxes with objects of many shapes and sizes and then the volunteers would help varnish these boxes so they would have their personal treasure boxes to keep as a memory of our volunteer activity. RR had the boxes made by a local woodworker and we brought the plastic jewels of all shapes with adhesive backings to make the process a little easier for our students. Each volunteer partnered with a student to assist and interact with them while they decorated their boxes. Each box was labeled with their name and the name of their volunteer. We had boxed lunches brought in and gave out goodie bags we brought for each student too! We also got to buy each one a shirt, underwear and socks from the local market.

A good time was had by all! The students had fun being out of the classroom for a few hours (who wouldn’t?) and created their treasure boxes and just chatted with us about their families and favorite things! I just felt really warm inside as I saw their smiles light up their faces as we joked around. They don’t care what we looked like or how we dressed or why we were there. They just enjoyed our company, received our presence and felt good that all eyes were on them that day!

Namaste from Nepal

Today we visited the building site for the Disabled New Life Center. It is a lovely three-story handicap access building overlooking an agricultural valley. The valley has fields of potatoes now, which will change to rice during the rainy season.

Sita accompanied us on this visit and she was impressed with new building. This was my first opportunity to act as her guide as we traversed the construction site. I have never been a guide for a blind person and I relished the opportunity to share the colors of the tile and the view from the verandah as well as avoiding piles of gravel and pieces of cement. She seemed to sense many things before I spoke any words. I cannot imagine living in a developing country without being able to see!

We visited the Disabled and Helpless Children Newlife Center Nepal run by Amrit Pususainee. He has worked many years with disabled children and has just created his own NGO. He currently has 13 children at the home. Some are disabled and some are from homes of severe poverty or have been abandoned. They all attend a regular school and are socialized in a normal manner.

They are renting a lovely three-story house, which is likely to be the best living conditions these children have ever seen. The walls are all pink with cheap vinyl imitation wood flooring. All very clean and the bathrooms have clean green and white tile. The boy’s bath has a western toilet while the girl’s bath is the traditional squat toilet. There are two bunk beds in each room and they are requesting funding for dressers and bookcases as currently their belongings are on the floor. We arrived on Saturday which is their one free day each week. The boys were upstairs playing Monopoly and the girls were sitting on the patio playing Uno. Everyone seemed very happy and content.


Armit lives at the home and is not paid a salary. There is one staff person. The children all seemed very happy and I was impressed with his dedication and concern for the children. Although they have funding from several sources they are short $430 each month. We discussed some fundraising ideas and his plans for the future. I was very impressed with his goals and with his values.

We then went to lunch at The Bakery Café. This is a chain here in Nepal and they employ the deaf as waiters. The service was excellent as was the food.

Now for the adventure. We needed to find a cab to our next destination. We are standing there on the side of the road one tall white man, two blond white women and a blind Nepali woman with a cane. This is Saturday, a holiday, and every cab had passengers. Two buses stopped and we waved them on as we had never taken a Nepali buss-a minivan with as many people as possible inside.. both sitting and standing. Finally when no vacant cabs appeared Sita said lets take the bus. We squeeze inside having no idea of the fare or where we are going… trusting only in Sita to guide us.

Luckily everyone was very helpful and we were able to get off at the right stop. Now we had to walk half a mile. Sandie is guiding Sita as the sidewalks have steps up and step downs and there are building supplies here and there, trash and mud puddles to avoid. Finally we decide it would be easier to walk in the street and face down the motorcycles, buses, cabs and rickshaws rather than deal with the sidewalks.
At least the street was a relatively smooth surface! People were staring at us and we just smiled and said Namaste.

The next facility reminded Sandie of hospitals back in the 50’s and 60’s in New York City. The conditions were “tolerable” with spacious rooms but they were rather dark and dank. The patients had the freedom of the open grounds but the disability level was profound. We meet with Rakesh Gwachha, who is diagnosed with brittle bone disease. He is about three feet tall at age 24. He was living with his family on the third floor of the house with no access to the outdoors. He could only watch life go by from his window. His sister carried him to school when they were younger but she is now married with a child of her own. His father is alcoholic and Rakesh was not receiving the care he needed.

He is very happy at the home and has a small wheelchair which provides his with independence. He is still attending school and TRIFC will be funding his English classes. He really wants to learn to speak English to communicate with his benefactors. He was thrilled to see Rob and wanted to know when he and Gina were going to visit again.

We move on to the Disabled New Life Center ( DNC ) to visit the children for a second time. They were watching a Hindi film and insisted we join them for this special time. We played games with them after the movie and generally just spent some quality time. The kids are truly happy here thanks to the house mom/director Shanti. She lives full time at the home (except for Friday when she is off from 9-4) and sets a gentle, loving tone to all the activities. They are all very anxious to move to the new facility, mentioned earlier, which is much more spacious and light. The children learn English in primary school and our conversations were meaningful and enlightening into their thoughts and feelings.

This being only my second meeting with these children I already feel connected and very concerned for their well being now and in the future. Such potential. Such love.

Touring the new Disabled Newlife Centre - Kathmandu

Rose, Sandi, Sita and Amrit (in the back) at the new DNC (Disabled Newlife Centre) building

Rose, Sandi, Amrit and kids at DHCNLC in Kathmandu

Mr. Rakesh Gwacha

Santa from DNC with kitty cat!

DNC's Saraswati with cat

See and download the full gallery on posterous

New X-Ray machine

Because of the past success of our Bellevue Rotary Auction we have been able to fund an x-ray machine to replace the antiquated one you see in the photo. In addition, we are proposing a project to put in a 2-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

This is an urgent need at this hospital. The types of cases that the hospital treats are difficult and complex requiring not only medical expertise but also post-operative, specialized equipment that the hospital does not currently have.

This hospital does surgeries and procedures that cannot be done anywhere else in the country. Currently, prior to a difficult surgical procedure they call other nearby hospitals and confirm that an ICU bed is available.

Only when that is confirmed can they start the surgery, otherwise they have to postpone. If, in the case of an emergency the patient needs to be transported to the other hospital’s ICU, patients must be moved in a delicate, precarious condition over terrible, bumpy roads to the other hospital’s ICU.

Transporting children in this way, who have just had spinal surgery is not advisable. Having an in-house ICU would remedy this problem.

The children you see

The children you see in the photos are receiving treatment at HRDC Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in Kavre-Banepa, Nepal (near to Kathmandu). This is a wonderful institution where families only pay what they can afford for orthopedic surgeries large and small.

The Essentials… When packing

The Essentials… When packing my carry-on’s for a long flight I have a methodical (some would say maniacal) process whereby I try to plan and prepare for any eventuality. As you probably know, on most international flights you are allowed two items- a size/space-approved hand-carry bag and a computer bag. Of course I have my travel pillow. It’s a new and improved design that stores neatly and blows up to resemble a huge blue shrimp!

Then there are the mandatory eye-shades and ear-plugs (the industrial-strength ones capable of silencing the piercing shrieks of a two year-old sitting right next to you!). I also have my own headphones so I don’t have to wait for the standard ones to be passed out.

Here are some other items I bring that maybe aren’t on the ‘usual’ packing lists:
• One regulation ping-pong paddle with spare balls (you never know where a game might pop up) and I don’t want my valued paddle damaged in my checked luggage!
• 24- Granola Bars (there wasn’t room for these in my checked luggage)
• My own concoction of ‘trail-mix’ with peanuts, raisins. m&m’s, yogurt covered raisins, pretzels and craisins (sweet cranberries). I ate my allotment of these during the first hours of my flight from Seattle to Seoul!
• Carpal-tunnel wrist braces to keep my hands from falling asleep when I snooze.
• Eye drops and Saline Nasal Spray for those super-dry plane flights.
• One regulation Nepali language phrasebook and Nepali letters flash cards.
• Battery powered computer speakers for those times when the power is out in Nepal (which is about 14 hours a day!).
• Vitamins and medicines for my trip Geez, you’d think I was preparing for an Everest climb, there’s such a wide selection stuff!

It’s kind-of a strange collection, but when I’m going to be away from home for a while, I like to bring some reminders of home and my life there. What ‘unusual’ items do you bring on your long trips?

Rob begins trip to Nepal 2011

Rob sent an email a little after 1:00 am today that he arrived at Incheon, Korea safe and sound. He will arrive KTM on Sunday 1:00am PST with Rose Stevens and Sandie Olsen, 2 of our volunteers who are scheduled to develop a women's cooperative and produce embroidered notecards for sale in and around Nepal and overseas. These empowerment activity wil allow these women, who are hearing impaired, to develop a craft, learn the process of marketing and business. This is just the start of the many projects trifc.org will launch this year.

I follow on Saturday, the 19th with our board member, Bobbie Izuo and 2 Rotarians, Steve Swank (RC Des Moines) and Elisabeth Saunders (RC Leavenworth)to visit their Nepali project partners on their disability awareness campaign initiatives and to tour our project sites, meet our nepali friends and witness the beautiful tourist attractions in and around Kathmandu(KTM).

Needless to say this is the highlight of our year and we are excited to meet the children who have benefited from the generosity of our sponsors and donors. Rob will also continue to monitor the 3 year Rotary 3H Grant activities and with his partner Rotarian RR Pandey host the RI Auditor visiting to evaluate the overall impact of the Nepal Disability Awareness Campaign that began in 2008.

With just last minute packing to be done, I am grateful to all of you who have supported Rob and I in our trips whether for Rotary International, trifc.org or other interests. As those who have experienced the magic and mystery of this country, this trip will be just as ethereal despite being Rob's 12th and my 6th trip over. I believe it is about people, it is about friends and it is about humanity coming together to make a better future. Namaste.

~Gina Rose