Nepal…

...is 12 hours and 45 minutes ahead of PST and 9 hours and 45 minutes ahead of EST.

Video Memories: Photos from the past 3 months

Rex has been working really hard to get this video uploaded, so I wanted to be sure to share it.  It is a quick photo summary of our first months in Nepal that he created for our final night of training (before all our new and dear friends headed off to other parts of Nepal).  [...]

Nepali Cooking Class

The finale to our 10 week training has been an exciting foray into the world of Nepali cookery.  What was a classroom the day before, was transformed into a make-shift kitchen with the addition of a small table top stove and a large canister of gas.  The smells of cumin, red chilies, garlic, ginger, and [...]

Pashupatinath

This week our class visited the holy site of Pashupatinath, which is situated along the Bagmati river on the Eastern edge of the city.  This holy site is an incredibly important place for many Hindu Nepalis as it is here that many families come to conduct the cremation ceremonies for family members who have died.
Before [...]

when a villaged opened their hearts

It has been 7 days since we returned from our week in the small village of Chanku Besi – I have sat many times blankly in front of the computer screen wondering where to start.  How to appropriately capture the moments, the emotions, the surprises, the faces, the kindness.  It is not an easy task, [...]

Needing less, learning more

Tomorrow our small but dedicated group of volunteers moves along to a small village 1/2 hour outside of Dhulikhel (find a map of Nepal and look east of Kathmandu, east of Banepa, and you will find Dhulikhel).  We will be living with a small (or in Rex’s case large – 11 people to be exact!) [...]

Load Shedding

Ackk! We have been experiencing regular efforts to decrease power consumption in Nepal which means peak hours without power…which means few entries to my blog   So, consider this a chance for you to load shed yourself…read only once a week instead of once a day   And, sadly, with an [...]

Bistaarai, bistaarai

Firstly, thank you to everyone for the comments - they bring me many smiles (especially since I am usually sleepily checking my email at 7am…we wake up super duper early here).  A special hello to all my friends at UBC and family around Canada – miss you all very very much.  Also a special congratulations to [...]

Mero namm Tlell ho.

Mero deshko naam Canada ho.  Mero ghar Vancouver ho.
My name is Tlell.  I am from Canada.  My home is in Vancouver.  The first day of language classes have been going great – small groups of 3 students and lots of repition and drilling for practice.  I can also say banana (keraa), pomegranate (anaar), and orange [...]

Arrival!

We hve successfully arrived and had our first night in Kathmandu.  It was a smooth and rather uneventful trip, aside of course from the anticipation and excitement that built as we got closer.  Had no difficulty getting our visas sorted out and arrived in Kathmandu with a group of 6 other volunteers.  In traditional Nepali [...]

Community

I will be spending the next 4 days in my final Canadian training session which is focussed on skills for working in development.  Today we discussed what our meaning of community might be…which raised a question for me.  Is community optional?  Is the idea of community predicated upon opting into the community or can you [...]