After two years of being state-side, holding fund-raisers, contacting our people in Nepal for updates on our programs, and many What's Ap calls, I am boarding the great Iron Bird (EVA Airlines actually) to fly to Nepal via Thailand. Why Thailand? Years of traveling the long, long, oh so long flight from LAX to Nepal has taught me many things-like how to curl up in the fetal position and try to sleep in a economy seat that only reclines a few inches, and then unfold and sit up for the salty mini-meals pushed up and down the aisles by the kind airline attendants (bless their hearts, what those flight attendants put up!) There are no non-stop flights to Kathmandu. No jet can hold enough fuel to fly 7,899 miles from California to Nepal. You must make at least one (or sometimes more) stops or lay-overs on your way, adding to the flight time by bunches. Usually, it takes an average of 15 hours to get to a hub, then a layover of 6 or more hours depending on which hub you're at, then another 5-6 hours. All in all, you can spend two days flying from California to Nepal, cross many date lines and throw your internal clock into chaos trying to keep up with the sleep you need to function.
This was Ok when I was a younger traveler, keeping in mind I was early 50's my first trip to Nepal. Now I am about 20 years older, and so sleep is more imperative to keep my mind steady. So why not get off in the Land of Smiles, Thailand, and spend a few days resting, taking a swim, enjoying a walk around historic sites and chatting with monks? I would then board a smaller jet for my final 5 hour stretch and arrive in Kathmandu fresh (if all goes as planned) and ready to tackle my list of HANDS in Nepal jobs.
Hopefully, with a smile on my face and full of energy to tackle the walks, talks and meetings that will greet me there.
Our list this trip includes meeting with our program manager Kavita and traveling to villages to meet and greet students and their families that we have been sponsoring for the past year-all 46 of them! We'll bring sports equipment to the schools as well, and more scholarship donations to keep the 46 going for another year.
I always look forward to meeting my Nepal friends, like Govinda-an amazing man of huge smiles and generosity who, despite confined to a wheel chair due to polio (yes, there is still polio in Nepal) helps marginalized children and women through sewing programs. He is one of the inspirations for our HANDS in Nepal "One Stitch At A Time" sewing programs, where we pay the tuition for women to attend 6 months of sewing school so they can have a viable vocation earning money to help themselves and their families.
I will also be visitng a program called Kopali-Nepal: Kopali-Nepal.org
This amazing non-profit in Nepal helps abused women through rehab and vocational programs. One thing I love to do while in Nepal is seek out programs like this to gather information and bring it back to our Board, and share with all of you, so we may learn more about how to help women and children in Nepal better their lives.
I'll also be visiting with several of our success stories-Two young women who have completed sewing programs that we've helped them with, who are now successfully running their own tailoring businesses. Hopefully I'll also get to meet up with our engineering student who is now working in Kathmandu in his own office and doing amazing things-a young man who came from a remote village but just needed that "hand" to get an education and start his career.
There is always a way to help those who want to help themselves. We seek to give these people a way to do that through education, our learning centers that we build, and scholarship money so they can stay in school. Our HOME to SCHOOL program is doing that right now-taking children who otherwise would have to work and making it possible for them to go to school (some are very, very young, primary grades) Some would have to drop out at 3rd or 4th grade to help families, but, with financial aide that we can provide, these children can stay in school, one year at a time.
I am so looking forward to meeting each one and shaking their hand, and the hand of their parents for believing in education, which we all at HANDS in Nepal so strongly do.
Please join me on this journey as I take off April 10th, and report back on all I see and do. We could not accomplish this amazing work without all the support and love we get from people who believe as we do-that it starts with a foundation of education, and a belief that all deserve to be literate so they may make the best decisions for themselves, their families, villages and country.
I speak for everyone on our Board and everyone who has ever supported us in what we do, we love this work, we get so much out of it! We hope you do too as you see how a little goes a long way. Do take a look at our website for more stories and info, and do subscribe to this blog, check in once in awhile (especially after April 10) and a big NAMASTE from my heart to yours, for joining me on this amazing journey! If you're looking for a way to make a big difference in a confusing world, you've found it!
Warmly, with deep bows,
Jan Didi