Earthquake

Hello I am back, unfortunately not with the best news. A massive earthquake has hit Nepal and it is stretch over a huge area in the country. Communication is very difficult at this point because of the disaster.  I have heard though, the village Phujel that I am trying to help was hit hard and the school we started building might not be standing at this point everybody is sleeping in the fields because they either don't have a house anymore or it is unsafe to be in it.  If you google "Gorkha Nepal Earthquake" you will see lots of pictures from villages in the mountains that are destroyed, an aerial view will show a lot of rooftops with a ton of bricks crumbled around.    We bought a piece of land in 2013 that we have started building on.   I will write more when I know a bit more.  As I said earlier a 100% of the money I raise goes to the project + I add some on top.
It is very sad in a country that is so poor that so much destruction has happened, and I don't know how they will ever rebuild it.  I might have to start over with my project as well.
 Namaste
Inger
May 12/15  Yesterday another Earthquake happened in the already devastated country. I am not sure how to even begin to help at this point, but I would like to try.  It seems like a hopeless cause for all the people that are effected by it. Thousands are homeless and have no money to rebuild. The rainy season is coming up and many have no shelter or food. Please look at these pictures from April 25th to May6th. It is very difficult for me to even fathom what they all must go through.
Photographs of Earthquake Devastation in Nepal under each date there are about 5-10 pictures and this is all before the last earthquake yesterday.  I have heard news about the school and it is damaged to the point where it is not usable anymore without extensive repair or it has to be totally demolished.
I would like to build a strong concrete building that could withstand another earthquake if it happened again so we don't have to start over again. It would just take a lot more money.  I am open to ideas and help to do this.
I thank you kindly
Inger

My friend Karna on the land we bought to build a new school on.

The kids in the classroom of the existing school with a mud floor.
Below Andy and I with some of my friends, and Andy and I at a ceremony they had for us in the village at the school to show their appreciation for our fundraising to build a new school for them.

A picture from the earthquake. Lots more on the net under Gorkha Nepal Earthquake. Showing all the devastation in all the small mountain villages.

 

Raffle Tickets.

Hello All I am now trying new things to raise money. I have Donation Cards that I sell for either $10 or $20. A nice gift idea. then I am selling raffle tickets for $10 per ticket or 3 for $20. Lots of great  prizes. 2 Gold tickets to the Rogers Cup. A new tennis racquet of your choice. Racquet stringing, lots of gift certificates. A tennis lesson, personal training sessions and more...  I will be returning to Nepal in mid April for 2 weeks, meeting up with Andy. So I will be going to the village of Phujel to check out where the school will be build, so that is pretty exciting.
I am now back from my trip, it was a tough trip because of sickness. But we are both well again and ready for the world. It was great to go to the village where I plan to build the new school. It was a bit of a challenge to get there, first a 4 hour bus ride from Kathmandu where it seems half the population had the same idea as us to go on the bus at stops on the way, in the end there were so many people on the bus that you couldn't possible move any part of your body, the top of the bus was full of people and goods as well. When we arrived at noon we then had to walk up and around the mountain for 6 hours in  30˚ C,  we just made it to the village before dark and thought I was going to pass out many times because of the heat. We stayed with a family who fed us lots of food for dinner which unfortunately didn't agree with my body so I was up sick all night.  The next morning weak as I was we had to go to the school and all the kids and teachers were there and had a big ceremony in our honour  and I was discussing the new building and buying land with the principle while I felt like shit to say it mild.  Luckily after an afternoon nap I felt good as new again. Andy then got really sick and was sick until the end of our trip where I then took over his illness before my return to Canada.
 Being there was very peaceful and amazing, most of the people there are very poor, most live of farming, but a lot of them doesn't even  grow enough for their own food supply, they all have terraced fields dug into the mountain side. It was great being back in Kathmandu again to see all the people I know, most of all the kids I looked after for 2 month in 2010. I miss them and wish I could see them more often.
I am excited about my mission hard as it is for me to raise money, but little by little I know I will succeed. For pictures view my Dec. post please, for you to get an idea on how things are there. There are pictures on some of my other posts as well if you are interested.

Namaste 
Inger

FUNDRAISING FOR SCHOOL

My new ventures

                                      The kids in the mountain villages

Little girls running down the mountain side to go to school.

I am back now on this site. I have been back in Canada 6 months already, after my indescribable time in Kathmandu.  Time flies when you are having fun! I miss all the kids and I can't wait to go back to visit.

The reason that I am writing to you all is that I have now decided to raise money to build a school in Phujel Gorkha, Nepal, which is a small Himalayan mountain village about 10 hours from Kathmandu (of which 6 hours are by foot since that is safer than driving on the steep mountain roads that lead there). 

                                                                      

The little kids in the school now with dirt floors and no washroom facilities.

My goal is to raise and give enough money to build a new better school big enough for 8 grades with washroom facilities, and hopefully within a year be able to pay for good teachers too.  These kids deserve a chance at a good education without having to move away from their families to Kathmandu, a very polluted and dirty city full of garbage in the streets.  I lived it for 2 months and the clean mountain air would be much preferred.

So to everybody who reads this - I am asking for a small donation. 

If I get it out to enough people $10, $20 or $50 would be enough 

and I would match whatever I raise up to $5000, as well as travel there to oversee that the money is well spent.

My goal is $60,000 and whatever is needed for teachers' salary thereafter.  I realize there are a lot of fundraisers out there, but the difference is every cent you donate will go to the cause.  There are no administration fees since I am the only one involved and I will pay for my own expenses.  When I went there I thought I was going to give up 2 months of my time to help the kids, but I ended up being the one who gained so much from the experience instead.

Please contact me by e-mail at  love2hike@rogers.com  THANKS.

Here are the youngest grades in front of their old school that only goes up to grade 5.

    The little kids are generally very happy even though they have nothing.

   A young boy who washes dishes all day for a restaurant instead of going to school because his parents can't afford to send him to school.

    Given the chance the kids can be very resourceful. The kids in the orphanage I worked in, made a ping pong table in the yard that they enjoyed very much.

   Two cute little kids who were greeting me with Namaste on one of my treks through a small mountain village.

In the street of another village I meet a  little girl and her sister with a look of despair in her eye's from an already way too tough life at an early age.

Some of the older kids migrate to the city in hope for a better life, to get an education that the villages can't offer, or work but can't cope and loose their job and end up on the streets begging and sniffing glue. A sad sight for me to see on my daily walks through the streets of Kathmandu.

       Or going through the garbage with the cows and dogs in the garbage strewn on the streets of Kathmandu.
     
                     

A sad little girl, that I would love to be able to help to get into a school and off the streets.

The cremation of a body  at the Pashupatinath Temple area,  where after wards the ashes are pushed into the Bagmati River.                                                                      

Young boys sifting through the dirty water in the Bagmati river after the cremations take place, in hope to  
find any valuables they can sell.

More kids sifting through the dirty river water. 

In the mountain village of  Dhunche where I trekked through, a little girl was helping her dad work.

Little kids running around by themselves on big construction sites where their  mothers are doing hard labour.

Hey I am back

I know you all know I have been back for almost 3 weeks now.
Denis and I had an amazing but extremely hot time in India 46C, we did the Golden Triangle after sight seeing in Delhi for one day almost passing out from the heat, so to Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal and to Jaipur, very interesting old City, but I have now seen Palace's, Temples, Museums,  Mosques, Monasteries, Heritage sites, Towers, Statues, Forts, Ruins  and Old  Buildings enough to last me a lifetime:-)
Wow this was  truly a trip to remember I can't tell you how much I loved it. I miss everybody back there a lot,  especially all the beautiful  kids, I wish so much I could visit them all the time, they were so sweet to me, and to see their amazing smiles and appreciation for the smallest  things I did for them.
As for fund raising I am trying  to figure out other projects in Nepal where I can help a bigger group of kids. I will work on something for sure but for now this is my last post, so thanks for tagging along on my  most amazing journey!!!!  I will add a few more pictures though

Namaste
 Inger

TIBET AND MY LAST DAY IN KATHMANDU

9 Days in Tibet. Change of plans drove in a bus anyway, just so I wouldn't miss the buses here, with 49 other people from 15 different countries from Kathmandu to Lhasa, a great experience. Saw numerous Monasteries along the way, being a true Buddhist is harder than you would think, and experienced first hand how the Tibetan people are affected by the over taking by the Chinese . Tough landscape but beautiful and of course we saw Mount Everest from land and closer by plane on the way back. Fantastic view of the Himalayan mountains.I will go into detail later about the trip when I have more time, it was a tough trip as well with us going up to a height of 5200m , which affected a lot of us some more than others, and a few funny moments like one day when there was a cow under the toilet which of course is just a hole in the floor, great service, a cow lick could save you some toilet paper, which by the way I have had to carry with me everywhere for 3 months. Today is now my last day in Kathmandu, lots of mixed feelings about that, after having spent so many days here, strange to have to leave in a few hours just. I am meeting up with Karna and Bishnu from the orphanage for one last time, I really miss them all there and wish I could go back to see them all again one last time, or even stay there another 2 months, but I am looking forward to coming home now too to see my boys and friends, I miss you all very much as well. It will be tough to come home and have to cook again after I have only done that twice the whole time I was here, had to learn how to cook Dal Bath just in case I should miss it when I return. Denis and I have treated us self to a nice Hotel just outside Thamel, after me living very primitive for so long, an old Palace that was build by a king in the last century, so very beautiful and nice. Right now I can hear somebody playing the trumped, so I feel like I am part of a different era, very cool. I am sitting here in our room writing at a desk with a cup of tea at 6:00am, listening to the singing of the birds , and with a view of the mountains surrounding the Kathmandu valley, total luxury!! Not the view I had that every day at the orphanage. Last night Denis took me out for dinner to experience the Nepali culture one last time, we went to a great place called Bhanchha Ghar, where we were sitting on the floor on handmade carpets and cushions at low tables enjoying a drink and eating great Nepali, Newari food to a Nepali cultural show, and a taste of their local rice wine, perfect last night for us here in Kathmandu. I will miss everything here, well almost. Off to India soon so until next time Namaste Inger.

                                A shy Tibetan woman I had to bribe to be able to take her picture.

CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK

Denis got here safely and the strike is finally over. We just got back from a 3 day trip to Chitwan National park. Which is 200km and a 7 hour bus ride south west of here, closer to the Indian border. Away from the mountains and into the jungle, and the extreme heat, it is hot here every day but without the excessive humidity that we experienced there, we were sweating buckets, day and night, one time where I missed my AC, which I am usually not a big fan of and do enjoy it here without, they even had it but without power most of the time it is really not that effective, who knows if it even worked. We stayed in a really nice place where we had our own personal guide appointed to us the whole time. Went for a walk the first day, to see some of the elephants, insects, plants, and birds later in the day to avoid the worse heat and saw the sunset over the jungle, very cool. Next day started at 6:00 where we went on a beautiful canoeing trip down the river, quiet apart from all the beautiful birds chirping in the morning calm. After that we did a 2 hour jungle walk where we were first told about how to react to the different wild animals, rhinos, tigers, elephants and sloth bears in case we encountered any contact with any of those. So we started walking and soon after a flock of wild boars ran by in the distance, I was surprised to see how fast they can run. Later we saw barking deers, monkeys and all of a sudden we heard this loud sound and could hear something moving around close by in the thick jungle bush, our 2 guides who were only allowed to carry  sticks, looked at each other with a worried expression on their faces, and started talking in Nepali, by then my heart already started racing, and I repeatedly asked what is it but no answer until all of a sudden they started yelling tiger tiger tiger, as scared as we were and with my heart now beating like mad, we still were moving forward and looking frantically to see where it was, a very strange occurrence, that we were approaching a wild and highly dangerous animal to get a look at it and maybe take a picture instead of getting the ---- out of there before becoming its next meal, we never did get to see it but after wards every sound made me a little tense. We saw lots of deers and still very scared of tigers and rhinos to unexpectedly show up. After an hour the one guide in front jumped up and he had almost steeped on a king copra, all I can say thank goodness it wasn't me, but we got to see it slide through the grass and was able to follow it for a while, again running after a snake that could kill so we could see and take pictures of it. Well we made it out alive and it was very exciting for both of us. Time for us to get cooled off a bit and have a shower but mind you not your regular shower, not that I had one of those in a long time anyway, so we went down to the river where the elephants were also trying to cool of in the extreme heat, we joined them and got up on the back of an elephant, which then wandered into the river where he repeatedly showered us with the water from his trunk which could hold 9 liters of water. I feel off the elephant twice when he was trying to lye down in the river, it was a total awesome adventure to be able to be part of. Later in the afternoon we went on a 2 hours elephant ride trough the jungle and saw lots of rhinos up close, but from the top off a very tall elephant we felt very safe observing them, we had an amazing experience seeing many animals on this trip. The next day we flew back to Kathmandu after a nice morning walk bird watching along with the elephants who went in to get their grass for the day, what an amazing site. Followed by getting to see a 3 month baby elephant who climbed trough the bamboo fence that was supposed to hold him back, very cute thing, but still a little scary when he ran in our direction with his over 200 pounds. Our ride to the airport was in the back of a small pickup truck with seats, but at a speed of 80km per hour passing all other vehicles and in the wrong side of the road most of the time,  Denis was trying to imagine how many ways we could die in case we flipped over.  Tomorrow we are setting off to Tibet on our 9 day trip.Starting with a bus ride, that now is just a normal day in my life to spend a day on a crazy bus, that will take us to the Tibetan border where we then will be riding in Jeeps the remainder of the trip to Lhasa. Here in Kathmandu we have just enjoyed sight seeing showing Denis some of the sights that I have already experienced and some new,  went to see The Swayambhunath Temple, also called Monkey Temple because there are a lot of monkeys around there, so we went mostly for that reason, since for me I have seen enough temples by now. But to Denis's  great disappointment, there was not one monkey in site when we arrived only to discover later that they all came out of the woodwork one by one until there were tons of them running around, eating scraps that people had left behind, picking lice on each other or jumping around in the tree tops, big and small. Now we are just relaxing in the Gardens of Dreams a welcoming quietness. I would have liked to go back to visit the kids and they asked me to come back when I left, they really wanted to see me again, so I said I would try my best, but one of the strict rules are that we can only visit on Saturdays, but because there were no seats on the plane back from Lahsa we have to spend an extra day there which is next Saturday where I had planned to go back to visit, so I get no chance to go, I asked permission for this afternoon for a couple of hours just, but unfortunately for me and the kids, not granted, so sad that I didn't get to see them one more time before I go back after I have spent 2 month with them. Well I guess such is life. Namaste Inger

STILL ON STRIKE

Now it has been a week and the Maoists are still here demonstrating, getting more and more upset that nothing is happening, nobody can come to an agreement, so they are threatening to become  more violent if this goes on much longer, yesterday they came close by here, but I go to Thamel every day to see what is going on, yesterday they blocked the sidewalk which they do have along bigger roads, so I had to walk with them to get to where I was going. I have lots of pictures now and am pretending I am a photo journalist ha ha.. The worse part is the strike, everything is closed so nothing to do, no places to eat, even the hotels can't open their restaurants, and they don't allow people to cycle any more either.. I miss my chocolate or any food for that matter, yesterday I was able to buy some eggs that I cooked today for lunch, the first thing I have cooked in two months, apart from the last two nights where I have helped in the  kitchen to learn to cook Dal Bhat so I can cook that when I get home in case I should miss it since I have it so much here, it's been amazing not to have to cook anything at all for that long, I just have to sit down and eat for every meal without lifting a finger, very strange after cooking every day for 30 years. I truly hope this strike will end soon otherwise my Tibet trip will not happen and I have plans to go on a jungle trip with Denis as well to try elephant riding, I don't want to miss that. I know that is a pretty selfish way to look at it when this whole country is in turmoils. I hope that they one day will be able to run it in peace, since it could be a beautiful place if it was taken care of properly. It's been raining everyday at some point, yesterday I got caught in a thunder storm and it was really gross with all the dirty water running down the street that I had to walk in, but the air is very clean every day, no car exhaust or dust it is very pleasant being her now, to be able to breathe all that fresh air, I did buy a mask to wear but that only lasted a couple of days since I felt silly with that over my face and then sun glasses, looking like a criminal walking down the street, Hmm health over beauty, tough one. but of course no issue right now with only pedestrians left. Still trying to figure out how to get Denis from the airport tomorrow, he would walk if he knew where he was going. My time is up so until next time Namaste Inger