Day 3 continued: Namaste

Now that you've seen some pictures and we've been able to digest the events of today, we wanted to share some words to let you know what an emotional and humbling experience today was.  These words won't do the day's events justice, and really no words can, but we will definitely do our best to articulate it more through words, pictures, and videos when we get back to the office.

Matthew's go to phrase about today sums it up perfectly:"this is what it's all about."

When we arrived, the entire school greeted us with a big "namaste" ( the Nepalese greeting).  As you saw in our previous pictures, they placed garlands around our necks and traditional tikkas on our foreheads.  What you didn't see, but will, is that the students were split in 2 lines and we walked right through the middle of it - like a team entering the Super Bowl, but even better.  As we walked through the line, the kids just burst out in applause, and smiles, and threw rose petals.  You couldn't walk through that line without crying.  

They then treated us to a performance of dance, poems, and a play - we may have found the next member of Jordana's improv troupe.

The poem and play spoke to what life is like for these kids, and many of these similar performances are done in villages to spread the messages and lessons that they embody.

Welcome song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTCenZwNS0

The play 

Kids want to go to school, but their father thinks it is a waste of time because they can make money doing manual labor.  He forces them to work, then takes their wages and spends it gambling and drinking.  He is an alcoholic and beats his wife and children when he gets drunk.  Hs wife starts to advocate for her children and the children do as well, eventually teaching the father that education gives you knowledge which grants you the opportunity for a richer life overall.  

According to our guide, Prabin, there are mothers' groups that started forming in some of these villages to stand up to alcoholism and ban alcohol in the villages.  This has succeeded in a number of nearby villages due to the power of these women in numbers and has reduced domestic violence and increased enthusiasm for education.

The poem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruBIkQesu8I

A daughter is asking her parents why she isn't treated the same as her brother and given the same opportunities.  She stands up for herself and her future.  The first two lines of the poem:

When my brother was born, you held your head up high.

When I was born, you hung your head in shame.

After the performances, we had the ability to mingle with the kids and take part in the construction of the school.  They loved taking pictures with us and seeing the pictures of themselves. The sheer happiness on the kids' and parents' faces when meeting us was a gift that no amount of money can compensate.

The whole experience was electrifying (despite being in a location without electricity!) and just left us with faces that hurt from smiling all afternoon.

Despite the death-defying trip to get there, we can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

Thank you, Hobsons! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZJsOtRIKd4

Day 3: It's For the Kids

What an amazing day. There were many things I was looking forward about traveling to Nepal with the PLAN trip; sharing Nepal with coworkers was high on the list and I feel like my coworkers got a really good feel from the country. Here are some pictures from the day today.

The drive was a little rough through the mountains. One lane dirt roads made us a little nervous!

Hold on!!

The team!

We received flower mala's and tikka when we arrived:)

Our morning briefing

Helping move rocks for the new school floor.

Shoveling and moving cement 

We showed the kids how to take "selfies"

We ended the day with a group dance! 

Day 2 continued: An Afternoon of Sightseeing

IBefore moving on to the rest of our day yesterday, I wanted to share something that made me really proud to be a part of the Hobsons family. Lindsay, our PLAN representative on the trip made a point to tell us and the PLAN Nepal staff how special Hobsons is as a PLAN sponsor, specifically because how all of our donations (both time and monetary) as well as our site selections are completely employee driven.  Many of the PLAN partners are larger corporations (I.e. Microsoft) with large foundations funding and organizing the projects.  We are individually and collectively truly making a difference in the lives of all of the kids/countries we help.

The team touring Nepal

Now on to the rest of the day.  We did have the opportunity to experience our first pre-monsoon rains which, thankfully, cleared up before our sightseeing.

We started off the day visiting two medieval farming villages, populated by the Newari people: Bungamati and Khokana.  There were animals throughout the streets in both towns, so you have to watch where you step to avoid the "natural land mines."

Bungamati villagers are skilled woodworkers and it was amazing to watch them carve intricate designs and statues out of wood in their houses.  Khokana is famous for mustard oil which is used in cooking and to massage new mothers and newborn babies as a tradition.  In both cities, most of those working appeared to be women whether through carrying materials, spinning yarn, washing clothes, and staffing stores.  The one exception is the woodworking.  The men for the most part would congregate outside of houses looking in.  Some of the guys on our trip were a little jealous of the lifestyle.

Jordana and Kyle purchased some woodcarvings!

After our visits to the towns, we decided to make an unscheduled stop at a Tibetan Bhuddisht stupa that is on the UNESCO list as a world heritage site and is one of the most holy sites for Buddhists.  According to our guide, Prabin, Tibetan lamas (monks) tell disciples that anyone who is able to get there once in their life is lucky.  The site was spectacular and we got there at a time that was filled with people circumambulating the structure, praying, spinning prayer wheels and chanting mantras, and visiting the surrounding monasteries.  We had the opportunity to meet with a former lama who owns an art audio to train students in the art of the thanka - Buddhist paintings.   He showed us the difference in quality of these paintings, showed us the intricacies that cause even small paintings to take upwards of a couple of months to complete and the main stories behind the three most popular thematic paintings.  

Favorite images of the day:

- Monkeys!

- two kids playing ping ping on a makeshift table (a concrete slab with a "net" made of bricks) on the side of the road.

- the soda wars.  There are advertisements everywhere for Coke and Pepsi with an image that Kyle has affectionately dubbed the "power chug."  We are convinced that the models in the pictures are tortuously being forces to down entire bottles of soda in single sips for hours on end

- the woman in Bungamati who was throwing bricks (at least 20) into the basket on her back, as a group of men in the town looked on.

- street vendors carrying bags of cotton candy for sale

- The street animals of Nepal: dogs, ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, and cows

A couple of interesting facts about Nepal

- there are about 27 different ethnic groups in Nepal, and over 100 languages are spoken.

- Nepal sits between two economic powerhouses (China and India), but the economic fortune has not spilled over and the country is quite poor

-There are mandated rolling 4 hour blackouts in the city every morning and every evening

- it is illegal to kill a cow in Nepal.  If you purposefully kill a cow, you will be punished as if you killed a human - 25 years in jail.  If you accidentally hit a cow with a car, you will also receive jail time.

- Men in the villages who reach 77 years old receive a huge ceremony and get their ears pierced.  At 83, they get a second ceremony and piercing and at 90 a third.  The elderly are taken care of by the villagers and spend much of the day together sitting outside in "rest houses" chatting.

Now a trivia question to see who is reading the blog.  First person with the correct answer will get a Nepalese flag!

What makes the flag of Nepal unique?

Day 2: PLAN Nepal

We just finished with our briefing at the PLAN Nepal office in preparation for our site visit in Sindhuli tomorrow.  A big thanks to Donal, Krishna, Suresh, Naresh, and the rest of the team for their hospitality  and for taking the time to educate us more about Nepal, their work, and the specific site we are visiting.

Hearing the team talk makes it even clearer how important and valuable our assistance is to the children.  

Some stats to share:

- 45% of the population in Nepal is under 18

- more than 1/3 of the children live in households who earn less than a dollar per day.  1/4 of children live in landless households.  22% of children do not have access to clean drinking water.

- 20% of children are being exploited in child labor, many are trafficked.

Visiting the Plan Nepal office

A "place of peace for children"

Day One: Travel Day

Our first day was one of travel. Five of us started our day on Saturday morning at Dulles. For 13 hours, we traveled across time zones and landed in Dubai on Sunday morning. The Dubai airport was amazing, but a little confusing for these Hobsons staffers. The main terminal was filled with every bell and whistle imaginable. To get to our connecting flight, though, it took us two busses, three trips through security, and almost two hours to get to the terminal of yesteryear. We found a McDonalds and our gate and were set for the 4-hour flight to Kathmandu. Upon arrival, we were met by our guide, quickly made it through customs and got our bags. A 30 minute van ride led us through the streets of Kathmandu an gave us our first taste of the culture. We saw streets lined with shops and people. Tons of people everywhere! Kathmandu is hopping day and night.

We found the rest of our team and had dinner on the rooftop terrace at our hotel, talked about our upcoming experience, an hit the sack. An exhausting day of travel, but we are excited to be here and ready to explore!

Ready to go!

The Dubai airport

One of our long bus rides at the Dubai airport. Notice the fancy curtains-

Ummm...

We have arrived!

Kathmandu airport

Our van!

An Open Letter to Arlington

All,

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support for our school in Jhangajholi Ratamata in the Central Region of Nepal. It’s hard to imagine the trip is less than 24 hours away. It will surely be fun to experience "monsoon season" first hand. You can’t even hunt monsoon here in the States!

In all sincerity, we at the HUGS Committee are constantly amazed at the charitable nature of the Hobsons staff.

The school-supply barrel was so full we had to pack up 4 duffel bags. The amount of monetary PLAN and trip-specific donations this year has dwarfed those made previously within the Arlington branch.

Time, probably the most important donation, has been offered in a myriad of forms.

Whether it’s volunteering to flip grilled cheese, helping within your local community/school, or staying after to help a HUGS rep clean up after an event, all encompass the mission of what we hope to achieve within Hobsons: a greater appreciation of our community and the advancement of our fellow man.

As we embark upon our journey, we hope that you will share the experience with us via this blog. After all, none of this would be possible without you.

-Jordana, Kyle, and Sugath