Check out this link!

Check out this link! We are providing support to the first all-deaf Interact Club with the Rotary Club of Mt. Everest.

We attended an Alternative Gift Fair

We attended an 'alternative' gift fair yesterday at Eastshore Unitarian church. More info and photos later!

Drinking Nepali Tea

Drinking Nepali Tea in Bellevue!

That's a Lot of Braille Books

Weigh it. Unpack it. Repack it. Weigh it. Stamp it. Carry it. Stack it. Repeat.

Over two dozen volunteers crowded the Northcoast Allied Moving and Storage warehouse near Factoria on July 5 to play an instrumental role in preparing Braille and large-print books to be shipped to the blind and visually impaired in Nepal.

The boxes of books to be shipped overseas, due to the usual over-complications of US customs, mustn’t weigh more than 15 pounds apiece. Many of the boxes received by TRIFC weighed much more, and thus resulted the instant creation of many assembly-line jobs that volunteers took up in stride.

To the outside observer, all was chaos. To the participating volunteer, it was still mostly chaos. That was fine for me, since it turned out that I was mainly responsible for delivering the pizza lunch in a timely manner.

But still, the assembly line worked, and it worked better than anyone had anticipated.

The goal going into the day was to pack up 500 boxes of books that weighed less than the 15-pound requirement. In just a few short hours, that goal was met, and then some.

The books were saved from recycling by Cindy Holm, teacher of blind and visually-impaired individuals and they were shipped to and stored at the facility courtesy of the Washington State Braille Resource Center and Stuart Morrow from Northcoast Moving & Storage. Because of their efforts, schools for the blind and visually-impaired throughout Nepal will be able to give these books new life through the imaginations of children in need. And the children need Braille books!

Cindy Holm

Heck, even just blank Braille paper can be hard to come by.

So, a warm thank you and Namaste to everyone who helped out on the holiday weekend!

And to all the other readers out there, there are still many boxes to go! Keep your eyes on your e-mail, we’ll be having another volunteer packing party soon, and we could always use some extra help.

-Carey

Click to see more photos:

Braille Books - Edited

FYI....Click On Any Photo To See The Entire Album!

Defying Description – Disabled Newlife Center Trip to Chitwan National Park – Final Installment

DNC Chitwan Part 5

The days activities had totally worn out both the kids and the volunteers….everyone was ready for a good night’s sleep. The nighttime symphony of jungle sounds were augmented by RR’s loud snoring in the bed next to mine. At least, I hoped it was snoring and not a tiger sitting outside my window! The best gift I have ever received was this trip with these kids. Those were my thoughts as I drifted off to sleep.

The previous evening, RR had suggested that we have a late wake-up call, a leisurely breakfast and a relaxing boat-ride across the river before getting back into the two busses for the long ride home. After waking up and showering we packed up our belongings and headed out for another excellent breakfast with our group. The other guests at the lodge were very curious about our kids and some of them had expressed an interest in wanting to help out in some way. A group of visitors from Greece gave me some art supplies for the kids that they had planned to donate elsewhere in Nepal and a nice young woman from the UK was interested in volunteering at DNC as she was teaching in Kathmandu and had Sundays off.

For me, this jungle-trip was the grand finale of a truly phenomenal five weeks in Nepal. Launching the National Braille Library, being a part of working on the Rotary Disability Awareness Campaign, setting up a Massage Training program for the Blind/Visually-Impaired, visiting all of our sponsored kids in Dharan, Rimwa, Sanjiwani, Kavre-Banepa, and taking the Kathmandu children with deafness to the zoo for the day were just some of the highlights! How can this trip ever be topped? My sincere gratitude goes out to all of the Rotary, Rotaract and TRIFC.org friends, supporters and volunteers who made this such a successful trip.

After breakfast all of the kids and volunteers went down to the river and loaded themselves and all of their things into the canoes. We crossed the river one last time. Laughter and chatter echoed off the otherwise quiet waters. Our many chatterboxes were so excited to experience whatever this day would hold. We had a few surprises left for all of them.

We began our ride home and I insisted that the windows be closed and the air-conditioning turned on! I found out later that the outside temps were easily 110 degrees….that’s too hot! So our ride home was so much more pleasant as we wound our way through Bharatpur, Mugling and past Manakamana. RR’s staff had made lunch reservations for all 40 of us at the Riverside Springs Resort. Right around one o’clock our busses came to a stop in the restaurant parking lot. This was a beautiful location above the banks of the scenic Trishuli river. Unfortunately, the restaurant was at the bottom of many steps. Everyone helped everyone else and when we reached the restaurant at the bottom we sat outside at tables set in a beautiful garden. There was an outstanding buffet with an array of tasty Nepali foods. I’m sure they lost money on us as our kids ate more than any normal person would!

I was sitting with Muna (aka-Little Mosquito), Sunita (the smaller Sunita) and Mansara. We were talking about boys and food and I asked Mansara what her favorite food was. She answered that she really disliked “Gundruk”, the national food of Nepal and that she loved “ice-cream”, the national food of Rob! I was surprised by the fact that she didn’t like gundruk, but the fact that she liked ice-cream gave me an idea. I asked RR if they had ice-cream here for the kids to have for dessert. He made a few inquiries and they had it. We decided to save this for a surprise just before we leave for the busses.

Most of the kids walked down to the river and threw rocks into the swift current. We kept a close eye on them and everyone was very careful. We got our feet wet in the cold river water and took a few last photos to remember our trip by. RR told me later that as he carried Bimala on his back out to the river, she remarked to him, “Sir, sometimes I wonder why are you doing all this for us. We are so lucky to have you helping us.” RR told me later that Bimala’s words really touched him and how it brought home how much this trip really meant to all of the children.

“Okay, time to get ready to head home, everyone head back up to the restaurant!”

We reluctantly left the cool, rushing waters of the river and walked back up the steps to the shady grass lawn of the restaurant. We all sat together and the kids started playing a traditional Nepali game called “Gatta” with rocks that resembles the game of “Jacks”. You have five rocks on the ground, grab one, throw it up in the air and while it’s up in the air you grab another of the rocks on the ground and then catch the one in the air. You repeat this until you have all of the rocks picked up in your hands from the ground!

Then, guess what arrived… Ice-Cream, of course!! In little round tubs and a wooden spoon just like we used to get in grade school!!! Vanilla and Strawberry were the choices of the day. It was very popular and a nice way to end our trip activities.

We worked our way back up to the busses, loaded up and took off for Kathmandu. I switched busses to be with the other group of kids for the rest of the trip. The final leg of this trip can be a long, slow, exhausting journey as we go uphill much of the way. We got behind stinky-truck after stinky-truck. Every one of them was spewing out thick, black diesel exhaust. However, I still had fun playing and chatting with the kids for a while and then one-by-one most of them dropped off to sleep and I could spend my time watching them resting so quietly, so peacefully.

Traffic really started jamming up as we got close to Kathmandu. I finally ended up in the far back of the bus with Sunil, DNC’s budding photographer. We talked about photography for a while and the proper use of a tripod (not an unusual line of conversation for photographers!), when Sunil suddenly blurted out, “My mother called DNC and wants to see me.” You might remember from my third blog-entry about this trip that 16 year-old Sunil couldn’t even remember what his mother or father looked like as he hadn’t seen them in 10 or 12 years. They hadn’t had any contact with him or interest in seeing him over all these years and suddenly there is this call. I asked Sunil how he felt about this sudden development in his life and he replied honestly, “I’m angry”. I thought for a moment and then told him that it was okay to be angry, but to try to keep an open mind about it if he could.

We arrived back in Kathmandu around five o’clock. The busses would take the kids back to DNC and we went in RR’s Toyota to head to our home. We said our goodbyes to the kids and the Rotaract volunteers.

I don’t know how Sunil’s visit with his mother went as I was making my final whirlwind project visits and packing/preparing to leave for home over the next two days. Just think about the monumental event this meeting would be for him…I wondered how it went and I’m sure I’ll find out the next time we get to talk. If it is okay with Sunil, I will let you all know what happened…

Update!!! I just had an email from house-mom- Shanti and she wrote that Sunil had a nice visit with his mother and that he is happy! I think that is very good news!

This was an emotional finish to an energizing trip. I learned a lot about myself, about Nepal and about our commitment to these children. I can try to paint the picture with my words, but being there is magic!

With My Warmest Regards,
-Rob.

Defying Description – Disabled Newlife Center Trip to Chitwan National Park - Part Four

DNC Chitwan Visit- Part 4

I watched as Rotaractor Sudeep Shrestha carefully hoisted Sanjay out of his wheelchair and up onto his back, carrying him down to the canoe for the early afternoon boating trip on the Narayani River. He placed him gently into the boat, positioning him so that he was comfortable. For those of you who don’t already know Sanjay, he is an irrepressible kid with an engaging smile who had always run around with total abandon on the two stumps that serve as his feet. He had severe burns as a young child as he fell into the cooking fire in his home. His feet were so badly burned they had to be amputated. Another of the DNC kids- Dhiraj comes from a similar background, but that had never slowed either of them down… until this trip. I had noticed that Sanjay had been confined to a wheelchair and he definitely wasn’t his usual, exuberant self. Looking at him, one leg appeared to be shorter than the other. I asked Anjan (DNC admin.) why this was and he told me that Sanjay’s stumps were becoming infected. After proper assessment it was decided to further amputate both of his legs to allow him to be fitted with proper leg prosthesis’ so that he could have better mobility over the long-term. During our trip Sanjay was in the midst of this process and was awaiting the amputation of a portion of his other leg to even them out and prepare for his new legs.

When you spend time with these children and find our more about their health and family backgrounds you quickly realize that each one of them has been through more emotional/physical pain and heartache than most of us will ever encounter in our own lives. I am so glad that we have been able to make this trip to the jungle and that they have these special moments to remember always…

We alternated groups on either the elephant-ride or canoe-ride on this hot, breezy afternoon. The wind was strong, but instead of a cooling breeze, it felt more like what would come out of a hair-dryer if put on “high”! I was alternating my attendance from Group Rhino to Group Tiger to Group Crocodile, thus enabling me to spend time with all of the kids as they did their various activities.

The canoe ride felt great, sitting in those low-slung boats close to the cool water. The river isn’t very deep at any point and as you will note, the boatman simply had a long pole to push us from place to place. After the canoe/elephant rides we had another filling lunch and then some rest time. I spent it visiting some of the older boys – Bishma, Sujan, Mahadev, Manav, Pushkar and Bishnu. As Pushkar fell fast asleep on his bed the rest of us chatted about the happenings at DNC and some of their future plans. Most of the boys in the room were going to be finishing their high school next year, so everyone’s thoughts are very much on their SLC (School Leaving Certificate) exams. Some people call it the ‘iron-gate’ exam as if you don’t do well, your future educational opportunities are very limited (the iron gate stays closed!). Eight DNC kids are scheduled to take their SLC exams in the upcoming year. TRIFC.org has undertaken the responsibility of finding sponsors for their higher education or vocational-training (note to readers…please let me know if you have an interest in sponsoring the higher-education costs for one or more of these great kids…it’s not too expensive and you’ll make such a difference in their lives…).

The kids were also excited about their upcoming move to the new, permanent DNC building that is almost finished with a move-in date of July 1st! The land acquisition and building were entirely funded by the Nepali Children’s Trust (NCT) in the U.K. (http://www.nepalichildrenstrust.com/home.htm). Brother/Sister team- Michael and Fran McGowan have spent many years volunteering at DNC and started their own non-profit organization to provide assistance where needed. They provide the funds for schooling for all of the kids in an English-medium school as well as providing for many other needs. I am proud to be partnered with such a great group of people who are there to help strictly because the need is there…

We at TRIFC.org also partner with the local Nepali Board of Directors of DNC and the Rotary/Rotaract Club of Kopundol, who help administer our funds and also plan/participate in fundraising activities for DNC. Having this balance of local involvement and international assistance is a strong support system that bodes well for the future of our children at DNC.

After my chat with the older boys, Naina and I were walking around the grounds talking about this and that. As we walked past the river, I noticed my mentor and project partner, RR in the river with a bunch of kids splashing close to the bank. He called out- “Hey Rob, go get your swimsuit on and get down here asap, we need to keep track of all of these kids!” I hurried back to my cottage, changed, put some suntan lotion on and rushed back to the riverbank. The kids were jumping, splashing around, leaping here and there and generally having a blast! Now, as mentioned the river isn’t very deep at any point, but for the little kids, especially the ones with mobility issues, even one or two feet deep is deep enough to cause trouble! We quickly moved the smaller kids closer to the riverbank, helped some of them try to learn to swim and splashed with the older kids who were having such a great time. One of the older boys- Hari was a superb swimmer and looked like a dolphin in the water. He is a polio victim and also has a congenital hip dislocation and he walks with great difficulty. Water is definitely his element, however!

The water felt so nice on this hot, hot afternoon. Even our volunteers with blindness- Sita and Namrata walked right into the river- fully clothed! Then, some other oversized visitors lumbered across the river from the opposite side and it wasn’t the tourists visiting from Greece! They were…. elephants, in the river, right beside us! The elephant trainers were astride them and the beckoned us to join them on top! I thought about it for a minute and then decided that this could well be the only time in my life that I would swimming in a river next to some elephants….I decided to ‘be bold’ and climb up and on. The elephant lowered itself down into the water, I grabbed an ear (of the elephant), the hand of the trainer and pulled myself up and on top of my large gray friend. It was great fun holding onto the elephant’s ears as she sprayed me with cool river water from her trunk again and again! Then I dropped back into the river as the elephant once again lowered her head down toward the water level. RR also climbed up on one of the elephants (see the photo!) and some of the older kids and Rotaractors followed suit. We felt it was a little too deep for the little kids to ride the elephants in the river, but many got an up-close and personal look at the elephants as we held them up so that they could touch them and feel the texture of their skin.

After swimming with the elephants, we helped all of the kids back up the banks of the river and back to their cottages to dry off and change. We had one more canoe ride that evening with RR1 in one boat and RR2 (that’s me!) in the other and a variety of kids in each boat. As we slowly poled down the river there erupted a major Hindi/Nepali song contest between boats! The Rotaractors in my boat seemed to be human catalogues of songs, but RR was the true master with a song-lyric recall that was amazing. Of course, I’m not familiar with any of those songs, but it was fun to witness as the sun began to drop slowly in the sky. The contest ended in a draw as our canoes came to a stop on the sandy riverbank near the lodge.

We gathered as a group in the shelter near the lodge. Bishma grabbed an empty Sprite bottle to act as a makeshift microphone and emceed a heartfelt presentation about how much this trip had meant to all of them. Sujan and Namrata sang beautiful melodies beside the banks of the river as the sun set. Sunita fondly remembered her past years at DNC (she is in college in Nepalgunj now). As the other tourists at the lodge looked on, our little group reflected on the past, rejoiced in the present and looked to the future.

The last day of our trip will be my last installment. A few surprises are yet to come…