Bakrah eid - Jaipur, india

Today is the festival of Bakra Eid celebrated in the muslim culture. In this festival families purchase and slaughter goats. It is a day to thank God for good fortune and to share it with less fortunate people.

According to the custom, meat has to be divided into three equal parts among the family, friends and poor neighbors. Delicious food, desserts and beverages are cooked and served on this festival to people who visit any Muslims house. Being a vegetarian, and not too keen on Indian sweets, I try to miss this event as all my Muslim friends homes feels inclined to treat me as a combination guest and sacrifice. A sort of “foie gras” hospitality you could say.
In the market here there are plenty of goats for sale for bakra eid. To help sell the goats the men owning the goats have named them after Bollywood stars. Sharuk Khan and Salman Khan are favorite names for the goats. It would be the equivalent of naming your sacrifice Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Maybe this is something we may want to introduce in Hollywood?

For those of you more interested, read on………….

Legend has it that Hazrat Ibrahim (Abraham) was asked by the Almighty Allah to sacrifice his son Ismail on Mount Mina near Mecca. That was the moment when Ibrahim blindfolded himself for carrying out the pronouncement of the God so that he wouldn't be able to see his son being killed by him. When he took off the blindfold, a lamb lay slaughtered on the altar and his son stood there unharmed. That was the message clear enough to make him understand that the God was testing his ability to sacrifice his will. This spirit of sacrifice is what truly underlines the spirit of Bakr-Id. Incidentally, the day also coincides with the day when the holy Quran was declared complete.
Festivities mark the first day, when people wear new clothes, offer prayers at the mosque, and greet friends and relatives. Special prayers are offered on all three days. It is said that the celebrations are carried on over three days to ensure that the entire Muslim community partakes in the noble of act of giving and sharing. Bakr-Id is celebrated all over India with much fervor, as it is in the rest of Islamic world. The name Bakr-Id, however, is most popular in India. In Arabic, the feast is usually referred to as Id-ul-Azha or Id-ul-Zuha.

new KG-1 Class in Juanga

I was speaking to Govinda and the Headmaster of the school about the 3 acres of land the government required for us to be able to register a high school for the students reaching classes 7,8 and 9. During the conversation they told me some amazing news. 5 students in the Niali block region (including 100’s of schools) had accomplished to win scholarships awards for the State level of Orissa. Out of the 5 in our region, 3 were from our school in Juanga! This is great proof that the education we are providing in Orissa is a shining example of what can happen.

The new students arrived in KG-1 and I went to meet them and welcome them to the school. There were 36 more then adorable students with big smiles. What was really impressive was the fact that the majority of the new students were girls. This really made me feel that the communities trust the education we are giving students and feel safe with the school. I have been fighting to have more girls admitted every year, since they are usual kept at home to prepare for just marrying off. These subsistence farmers don’t have much reason to push their girls to be educated in the old system.

Marta Miquel works from an Ambulance

A wonderful person named Marta Miquel from Barcelona was waiting for William and I when we arrived to Puri, Orissa. Marta is a friend of Albert Rigat, a young man from Barcelona who had visited the Hospital by chance on a visit to Orissa last year. She is a Doctor that works from an Ambulance for the Govt. of Catalan. For her work, she faces amazing challenges at random times of the day and night. On the suggestion of Albert, Marta wanted to see the Citta project in Orissa for a possible collaboration for around 5 months in 2009. She was hoping to take some time off of work and contribute to a place she felt could really benefit from her skills and help push her to new challenges as well. She was very happy to see that the hospital and surrounding area are definitely places she feels comfortable collaborating with. After some contemplation and consideration on the rooftop of the hospital as the sun rose, she had an Epiphany! The best use of her skills would be to do outreach while in Orissa to villages. Teaching them first aid and how to deal with patients prior to reaching the hospital in Juanga. The first or “golden hour” of care to a patient is crucial to their survival. Patients now arrive to the hospital with dangling limbs or on their back where the tongue can easily asphyxiate them prior to their arrival to the hospital. Marta wants to be able to provide small First Aid kits to the villages and William suggested he gets the Boy Scouts he is affiliated with in NJ to fundraise for such First Aid kits.

Riots in Kathmandu

Ok, this has to stop being a tradition when leaving Nepal. William and I woke up with our schedule set. We woke at 7am to make some important communications to the U.S. (A.K.A. the Todoturkeyfestorama video, link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbdLtmj7zUQ

Then we were catching a quick breakfast, checking out of the hotel and heading to the women’s center in Bhaktipur to meet a candidate for the new production manager position and have a farewell lunch with the women before running to the Airport to head of to India. Well, that was the plan…..

We packed up at the hotel and asked Bikash, our Nepali friend at the Hotel to get us a Taxi since his price would be about equal to me bargaining for half an hour. He came back a little confused and said “No Taxi’s”. I figured we had to walk down to the central taxi stand to get one, so off we went. When we arrived at the taxi stand we saw all the shop fronts rapidly slamming shut. There was a wild mob of students heading our way throwing rocks into all the store windows that hadn’t complied with the strike demand. After witnessing a few good windows shatter, we decided to duck into FIRE AND ICE, a famous old pizza house owned by an Italian women that had married a Nepali man. The restaurant had become a staple for both expats and the previous Prince who suffered the harsh death and blame for the murder of his family (and his own death), under the present King’s slaughtering tactics to take the throne. I have to say, if you were ducking out of a riot, it’s was the best place to be near…..they had free WiFi.

We had to cancel our trip to Bhaktipur and I’ll try to interview candidates for the Production Job by phone from India. We barely made it to the Airport in time and off we went to India!

Meeting with the Citta Nepal Board

I planned a meeting with the Citta Nepal board before I had to leave for India. Their were two knew members and I wanted to share some time with them so they knew more about Citta US. Not all members could make the trip since two of them live in Nepalganj on the other side of the country.

We had a nice afternoon together gathered in our office in Mahankal (outside Boudhanath). After eating loads of cookies and Tea we spoke about the upcoming year and what we all had envisioned for the organization. We spoke about the Humla project to a larger extent, since that is the largest project growing at the fastest pace. The board expressed their special interest in that particular project because everyone in Nepal is aware Humla is a difficult district to work and the poorest and most remote in the country.

It turns out that the secretary of the board is a scholar and teacher of the Bon religion in Tibet. He was fascinating to listen to. A Bon practitioner is called a Bonpo and it predates the presence of Buddhism in the Tibetan Himalayas. When Buddhism moved from India into Tibet it merged with the local practices of Bon. That is apparently where Tibetan Buddhism gets its colorful, shamanistic flavor.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Nepal

I was very lucky to meet with a woman in New York this summer named Maggie Piper. She was a friend of the designer Lucy Barnes and when I took a batch of samples from the women’s cooperative over to her for viewing Maggie was visiting there as well. Maggie said she was actually moving, with her family to Kathmandu in the fall. I asked why? She said her husband, Robert Piper, was taking a position as the head of the UNDP in Nepal. So on this trip I called Maggie and set a lunch date to meet with them. Robert was as nice as Maggie and I feel they will bring a lot of grounded energy to Nepal in these fragile months leading to the countries new constitution. Actually, the UN in Nepal has taken a very important role in assisting the government in the process. I spoke with Robert about Citta’s project in Humla and the great progress we were making. I know there is a lot of interest in developing those regions now that the Maoist conflict has subsided and we have a wonderful foundation set up there already.

Robert asked what some of the major hardships or obstacles we are facing and I mentioned the exorbitant cost of flying medicines to that region from Nepalganj to Humla. I also said that I was aware that the world Food Program (WFP) had regular flights to Humla to drop off food for the “work for food” program they ran in the Humla Himalayas for the workers building the road to China. Robert said he would look into that with the head of WFP and get back to me.

On the following morning, Maggie and her friend Roberta Taman from justice reform (justicereform.com) came with me to the Women’s center. They both wanted to get an idea of what was happening there so they may be able to gather support from other contacts they have both locally and in their respective countries (Australia, Canada, France).

Humla Project Award

This award was given to the most beneficial project in Humla region for 2007. There are approximately 130 organizations registered in Humla. It’s not easy to find even the slightest impact that these organizations are having in the region. I frequently ask around to see what work is being done and where, and the same one or two organization names always come up and then they are infrequent and not very extensive in their presence. I hope in the future that this recognition of the hospitals benefit to the region translates into support from within the country. DFID, USAID, and many different international orgs have funds for developing such programs. It would help us tremendously in our efforts to have their support.

Natural Dyes - lalitpur

I went to visit a Fair Trade business called The Association for Craft Producers today in Kathmandu. It was a company set up by an ex-government official named Mira. In 1984, frustrated by government work for craft development, she wanted to start her own private Fair trade Company to employ people. Now they employ over 1200 craft workers and turn over around one and a half million annually! Their biggest client is 10,000 villages.

I was interested to see how they set up the company and how they dealt with some of the issues we face at Citta’s Bhaktipur Women’s center. I learned a lot from the tour about their structure. I was hoping to ask them whether they had any unused applicants for a production woman. We really need someone badly for that position. At the end of the tour I found the manager alone and pulled her aside to ask. The women looked at me confrontationally and said, “no, we are looking for one too”. I guess she may have felt I was there to headhunt.

After visiting the Association for craft producers, I jumped on the back of a motorbike with Wanda’s assistant Raju. Raju is a master weaver and belongs to a school in Lalitpur called the Nepal Srijanatmak Kalaghuti. The founder of this weaving school was an elderly Nepali woman named Urmila. She lives half the year in Canada and the other half in Kathmandu. On the upper floor of the building there was large room that functioned as an office/ atelier for Ms. Urmila. There were two old couches lining the corner of the room near the windows. I was on one, and Urmila on the other. Across the room was a large half-done weaving in silk of the standing Buddha. The loom was quite tall and rose half way to the ceiling. A young, fragile girl sitting cross-legged in front of the weaving was busily tying away the varied golden naturally-dyed silk threads on the lower portion of Buddha’s robe.

Urmila was not hesitant to spill her life story. It was one of those grand stories that unfolded through a never ending soft smile. All her memories had clean edges and where slightly elevated to just below mythic. She told me she was one of the youngest girls to be sent to the Gandhi Cotton weaving houses. Her and six or seven of her girlfriends (accompanied always by one male, of course) would take their long weekends and travel to different parts of India. Urmila and her friends would be a guest of another Gandhi weaving center and food and lodging was not a problem. They would come up with an excuse every weekend away saying that they were sick with a fever or some common illness to extend their stay another day or so. She said this was an exciting way to see most of the country at a time when people didn’t travel as much. After that it was the Beaux Arts in Paris, New York working at a weaving house, and separating her time between Edmonton Canada and Kathmandu at the weaving center. She hesitated after telling me the New York portion of her story. She strained to remember where in New York it actually was. Eventually, lemongrass tea was brought to the table and Urmila sent the young student to fetch her address book to recall where it was in New York she was working. The address book showed up and even that had a story about it. She paused and said “this book was begun in 1963”. I, of course, was able to add to the story that that was before I was born. She found the address on 23rd street and put her mind to rest.

After tea I was given a tour of the center. The weaving looms, students and the dye house were fascinating. The center grew its own Silk-worm farm and the cocoons were stored in giant jars to be sorted before use. The natural dye selections of Onion, pomegranate, tea, ect. were incredible! I made a deal with the school to do small dye batches for our women’s cooperative in Bhaktipur and eventually help set up and train our women to have our own dye house in the center.

Getting out of Humla

Well, I thought getting into Humla was difficult. Getting out was much more difficult! Renu Chetri (the Journalist) Decided to leave wed. The 29th of Oct. She had a new job as senior Journalist at the Kathmandu Post starting on the 1st. The week we were in Humla was Tihar celebrations, which is a very big religious holiday for Nepali’s. Every day seemed to have another theme to it. Well, from what I could see, the overall holiday theme for the local men were drinking and gambling in the streets. Come to find out it wasn’t only Humla that had this festive atmosphere. In the early hours we all sat on the hospital porch drinking Black tea filled with Pepper and said our goodbyes to Renu. The conversation continued and we reminisced about all the adventures and stories we heard from locals. Slowly, realized the flight was much too late. Dr. Yeshe called the tower and asked what the problem was and if there is a flight. They didn’t know the answer. We stared at the horizon for a few more hours. The flight never appeared over the Himalayas Wednesday morning.

The next day David, Yeshe and I were also heading back. No flight! We got word that due to Tihar all the pilots got drunk and the planes never left Kathmandu. We got a phone call from the tower later on Thursday and they said definitely there would be a flight by next TUESDAY! We also were hoping for a random helicopter to show. Every day we took a walk to a new corner of Simikot, but never far enough away to prevent us from running back to catch a plane the minute we heard something on the horizon.

Finally, Saturday morning we got confirmation a flight had left Nepalganj and we had seats on it! We were all sad to leave Humla, but a refreshed to actually have a flight out. I guess it’s better then having drunk pilots driving the plane?

What's wrong with this picture? Humla

We heard that that a Government office was providing rice supplements to some of the Humla mountain people in central Simikot today. David Driver (the filmmaker) and Renu Chetri (Journalist for the Kathmandu Post) were eager to see what it was about. We all went into the market and met with the lively crowd gathered to collect some rice for the upcoming month. Women lined up to the left and Men to the right. In the center was a group of around 8 people ranging from a young girl to a middle-aged man. This group transported the rice from the Tibetan border to the Govt. Center in handmade Yak-wool Bags tied to 90 Goats! The goats circled about as the team untied them and poured them into larger Govt. Sacks. They were paid for each Kilo they transported.

The goat group was very photogenic and didn’t mind having their picture taken. One young boy just stared as I photographed him. So when David came over and said, “I would love to interview one of the goat team” I said this boy looks interested and calm.

We approached the boy. He had a turban wrapped around his head. His jacket was so warn the sleeves deteriorated mid arm and by his wrists was no more then Nylon threads. We asked his age and he said 16. The girl on the team looked 8! I showed him a few pictures that I took of him. I asked if he ever saw a camera. He shook his head no. I asked if he liked it and he smiled shyly and shook his head yes.

We questioned him about the difficult journey from Tibet and such difficult work at 16 yrs. old. He shrugged his shoulders and said it was all right, quite comfortable. We tried every angle to see show how difficult it was for him and his team to traverse the mountains in the cold, with the lack of food and clothing, sleeping outside. We tried everything. He said it was fine. He had some food, sometimes not enough, but that was OK. He said his family life was fine in the village and he was glad for the work. He faced each question with a solid calm that said, “I don’t have a problem”. So what was ours? Trying to prove he was unhappy without the things we considered comforts? I left that conversation learning more then he did from us.

Begger's Dance oct 29th 2008

In the morning I was sitting outside in front of the hospital with David. We heard some children, singing, coming from the fields towards the hospital. When they came into sight I saw a line of about 12 kids ranging from around 13 down to 7 or 8. The oldest and tallest in front played a two- sided drum hanging from his neck. He also led a song. The line went from tallest in front to shortest at the rear. After each line sung by the Drummer the others all chorused in between “dau Shiray”. They continued singing as they entered the Hospital Gate as the parade circled around David and I, dancing as they walked. We asked Yeshe what was happening. He said its part of the Tihar celebration this week. The children go around and beg for food or money. It seemed similar to our Holloween celebration. Yeshe said the leader with the drum would sing things like “ you have come all this was and built a prosperous hospital” then the chorus piped in “give some to us” “you have great karma to have the ability to do such things” ……“give some to us”. It was actually very charming and the children put a lot of effort into their dancing. After a few rounds someone emerged from the kitchen with a plate of uncooked rice and the leader produced an old duffle bag that she poured the plate of rice into. The group, dancing and singing in line moved back out through the gate towards the village.

Beggers dance oct. 29th

In the morning I was sitting outside in front of the hospital with David. We heard some children, singing, coming from the fields towards the hospital. When they came into sight I saw a line of about 12 kids ranging from around 13 down to 7 or 8. The oldest and tallest in front played a two- sided drum hanging from his neck. He also led a song. The line went from tallest in front to shortest at the rear. After each line sung by the Drummer the others all chorused in between “dau Shiray”. They continued singing as they entered the Hospital Gate as the parade circled around David and I, dancing as they walked. We asked Yeshe what was happening. He said its part of the Tihar celebration this week. The children go around and beg for food or money. It seemed similar to our Holloween celebration. Yeshe said the leader with the drum would sing things like “ you have come all this was and built a prosperous hospital” then the chorus piped in “give some to us” “you have great karma to have the ability to do such things” ……“give some to us”. It was actually very charming and the children put a lot of effort into their dancing. After a few rounds someone emerged from the kitchen with a plate of uncooked rice and the leader produced an old duffle bag that she poured the plate of rice into. The group, dancing and singing in line moved back out through the gate towards the village.

Humla Journey Oct 27

While in Humla I took a walk to a few of the staffs villages. David Driver came along as well to get interviews in the homes of the staff. It was a long 3 hour walk to the village of Langdu. Due to the altitude change David and I were a bit winded. We came to Champel’s home and met his wife, mother and some other aunties and children in the dark, windowless, smoke-filled kitchen that served as the center of the home. The only light was from a hole over the stove. It took awhile to grow accustomed to the dark. Pema, Champel’s 3 year old girl, came in both crying and growling. She had just fought with the neighbors kid over a branch of berries and from the looks of it, lost.
After the interview we were treated to Humla hospitality. Food was prepared and we were served a small Yak Butter tea. And for all you information buffs, Yeshe Said it was incorrect to call it “YAK” butter tea as the female of the species is called Dee. Yak doesn’t provide milk! Also, we were given a bowl of Tsampa (Barley Flour) to accompany the tea. Then I watched, as tradition dictates, Champel’s mother placed three equidistantly spaced dollops of “Dee” butter on a shallow brass bowl’s rim before filling it with Chang (Tibetan Barley Beer) and presenting it to each of us. Then we were served steamed dough and cooked cabbage.

While we were sitting there Champel jumped up and looked out the window and said excitedly, “My brother is back from Tibet”! We ran down and met his brother and three horses carrying sacks of Flour. We all went back inside and again gathered around the kitchen fire. The Chang kept pouring.

While sitting there, I asked Champel about his children, and if his brother was also married. Yeshe smiled hesitantly, he said, “Michael you know its tradition here for a wife to marry up to seven brothers”. It turned out Both Champel, 22 and his brother, 19 were married to the same girl in the kitchen. I asked how Champel knew which child was his? Champel was shy to answer and Yeshe said with a little laugh, “The wife knows”!

After Langdu we traveled another hour and a half to Yeshe’s village, Baruashe. We had another lunch and more chang. Bad idea to drink chang THEN do Yeshe’s interview. In the dark kitchen we had to have two young men hold up flashlights as David Filmed Yeshe. It was a funny interview and Yeshe came across more like a political leader trying work a crowd into a frenzy. We did a few takes and I think David got what he needed. The female leaders of this Buddhist community showed up before we left and tradition says they should offer us chang from their homes. We siphoned all the different changes into a plastic jug that looked like a gas container and headed home via Simikot. We reached the hospital before dark. We settled into the kitchen around the fireplace and …….drank more chang. There was a lot of longwinded stories that night.

Meeting Tiwari Basu Oct 21st

Dr. Yeshe (from Humla) and I met with the Kathmandu based engineer Tiwari Basu at Java Café. Wanda Vivequin from Canada, is responsible for the funds that came from the trekker Toby Mollins of Montreal Canada. She had hired Mr. Basu to make the best possible plans for the new extension on the Humla Hospital.

Wanda leads amazing treks into the Himalayas. Since Simikot is one of the places she travels to she has introduced many trekkers to the benefits that Citta Nepal’s hospital is bringing to Humla. Wanda has also brought hundreds of donated hats as well to help protect the people of Humla from the harmful raise of the sun at such an altitude. She distributed them through the Hospital.

Mr. Basu had laid out plans as well as he could with the information provided by Wanda and myself. When Yeshe met with Basu before my arrival, he added a few rooms he felt were necessary, so an upstairs was put on the plans. The budget was now way over what we had planned to spend. The meeting with both Yeshe and Basu was a struggle between budget and design and what Yeshe wanted this tour de force new medical facility to be. In the end there was a good compromise and the top floor was left off and the bottom floor was extended 13 ft to accommodate a delivery ward. The x-ray lab and equipment rooms were left off and Yeshe said we may be able to accommodate this in the new structure that was being built at the moment.

Bhaktipur womens center - 20th Oct.

Women’s center, Bhaktipur - Oct. 20th

I visited the center and spoke with the manager Prakash about some new orders that were sent over with me by different clients. The women are on Dasai break (their big holiday season of the year) and should be back to work in about two weeks.

I also visited Binod Raya, who is the president of Citta Himalaya. We spoke about a young lady who they want to join the center. Her name is Chandran, she is 24 and has a young boy of four. Her husband drowned to death at 18 and now she does whatever she can to get her little boy food. She has a dream to get her son into school. Chandran’s family has a small shop on the roadway but with little stock they make just about enough to sustain the child with some noodles each day. Of course I agreed to hire her and she also agreed to an interview with David Driver for the documentary.


Also, another funny moment at the center is Buddha laxmi. She has worked for us for about a year doing piecework and hasn’t been offered a fulltime position yet. David Driver while compiling different women’s stories interviewed her as well. She told him her story. Her husband died of alcohol poisoning and she was left with her two children. After her husband died, she became a burden to her family. Now, working at the Women’s center she feels an independence and hope for her family’s future. She says she feels a new voice and is much more open then she use to be.

After the interview Buddha Laxmi came back to the center feeling encouraged from telling her story. She came through the door where Prakash and I were discussing the new orders and broke out into a strong, confident soliloquy! She said she was previously in such despair, now she is very happy working at the center. She said it’s close to her house and she can check on her children easily. She doesn’t want to go to the fields for hard labor again. But the problem is, she feels a lack of security and wants to know she has a monthly income. I agreed and told Prakash (the manager of the center to give her a permanent position at the center.