Brownies Into Schools

Nelson Madela said "Education is the most powerful weapon we have today". I also remember reading once, "Someday the military will hold bake sales, and schools will get all the funding they need," or something to that nature. Both quotes resound in my head as I wake up this morning to wonder what Dan and Don are doing in the village of Darkha, as they welcome the same sun, in the beauty of the Himalayas. Education is such a powerful tool. We are trying to bring literacy to a simple village in Nepal. How is that going to make a different in the world? What did Greg Mortenson feel as he awoke so many mornings, frustrated and wondering how he was going to bring education, and literacy, to the people of the remote Karakoram Mountain range of Pakistan. But we are all big believers in this power of literacy and being able to read. This past week has confirmed by feelings of this being the right path to pursue. First, our friends Kathy and Eric put much effort into finding out how to ship 6 plus boxes of donated books to our still fledgling school in Darkha. Eric greeted me the morning I drove the books over with great energy and excitement: "The kids are going to love these books!" The kids will be amazed to have these books, I added, because when I visited the village, there were no books. I know from my travels there that any book, even a worn paperback, is a thing of mystery and awe. And so I look forward to greeting these books at the other end, after their voyage across the seas to help load them onto a bus painted with colorful symbols of Shiva, the Ganges River flowing from his head and a cobra around his neck, and then transfer the boxes on to a jeep taxi, the driver with scarf wrapped multiple times around his face to shield it from dust and sun, then to porters, and hopefully the many donkeys who carry supplies up the steep trials to finally our school-being built on the slopes as I type this.

Also news-Danielle's bake sale!! An amazing success, my dear friend who put on a bake sale this past week to raise money for HANDS in Nepal, reported dozens of baked goods sold, as well as some Nepali handicraft items and donations collected. Greg Mortenson, are inspiration and author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools started a service learning project a few years ago to support his school building in Pakistan and Afghanistan called "Pennies For Peace." Along those lines, Danielle has been collecting change and now the bake sale for an amazing contribution to our efforts. So many Namastes to her and other teachers who have been supporters because they too believe in education for all-Julee Bauer, at my school, had her children bringing in change so that we could buy and send with my husband hackey sack balls, and then in addition contributed money she got through a grant. Her students outlined their hands to make beautiful books to also send, in fact, I recently received photos from my son as he worked with children in Nepal outlining their hands and writing back to the California students. Brownies into schools, Hands across the borders! Cultural Exchange over the Himalayas! It makes my heart sing to think of all the cool work being done as we build a simple three room school house with a tin roof on the slopes of a remote part of the world-yet it is reaching, and touching, so many. Thanks, Greg!!!

Breakfast with Buddha

Every morning I wake up to see if there are any emails from Danny, the CEO of HANDS in Nepal. Reading his experiences, as he treks in and out of the village Dharka, where the school is being built has been mine link to the my "boys in Nepal". Lately I've been disappointed to see day after day nothing- no news, no emails. Although this is to be expected because the village is remote, there are no internet cafes for miles around, and even if there were, electricity is something that comes and goes in Nepal like dreams, I still somehow expect for messages to magically appear on my laptop as I slooowwlly open the lid and turn on the airport signal. Wed. morning was like Xmas! There were 4-two from Don and two from Danny-and even one from our Tibetan son Kelsang Lodue-plus another from Rajan-our friend and village fixer! I felt like calling in sick so I could savor each and everyone to reread over and over. First, Don, apologizing of not emailing and giving detailed accounts of village life and construction. The news was great-foundations dug, walls are going up, a hired bulldozer made a new area below the school site for a playground. He is loving the village life-so like "home" (meaning Africa, not USA!!) He has also made a few visits to the orphanage in Kathmandu that we have all adopted as another worthy cause, Buddhist Child Home. Don has put our son Kelsang in charge of repairing broken windows there and has a few other projects, so typical of a contractor to have "side jobs"! I had been teasing that he will find a good Nepali wife and stay there in Nepal. So my next email, from my Tibetan son Kelsang, assured me that "Dad" only wants one wife, me, and has never brought any Nepali wife to house there. Next, Danny's email. More good news about school building, the warm and friendly people in the village and a trek to a nearby canyon to find the source of water for the village. They took a short break from construction to do a trek around the base of Everest with Ram (villager and porter) who was taking a few other clients from America. The boys jumped on the chance to take a 5 day hike to see Himalayan mountain tops higher than the ones in Ganesh Himal, the area of the school and village. "What an adventure,"Danny writes, "but this Everest luxury trekking is not for me, too many way-too-geared up trekkers who are trying to achieve their dreams of Everest-I can't wait to get back to the village." That's my boy-luxury to him now is when you get a slice of apple pie with your dahl bhat, and a hot bucket shower. I remember that merciful hot bucket shower on my little jaunt around Anapurna a few years ago-it was the bee's knees to ladle a spoonful of sweet hot goodness down my tired muscles after walking "up up, down down" all day.

Breakfast with Buddha is how I am thinking these days as I carefully draw open my laptop lid to see what emails await from Kathmandu, Darkha and beyond. I hope those reading this have their own morning rituals and remember a great quote of Buddha's, which goes something like this: "Is your concern about the future interfering with your enjoyment of the present?" Namaste everyone! Good Morning!

Pounding Pavement

I just returned last night from Escondido, where my sister Sandy tried our first attempt at raising money for HANDS by signing up for one of those restaurant fund-raiser events. The deal goes, you sign up for a day and time, print up flyers for the business and your organization, and then your nonprofit gets a certain percentage of the sales made during that time. For us, the place was a fish taco chain called Rubios and we were getting 20% of the sales made. The twist came when we showed up to hand out our flyers and were told we actually had to stay so many yards away from the restaurant, distributing our flyers to those potential (as opposed to those who already were coming in to eat fish tacos anyways) customers. "But I thought the idea was to help our nonprofit make money..."no, actually, the idea is to drum up business for the place hosting this type of event. They in turn give you a small percentage of the sales during those hours. Ummm-after hours walking in circles around Big Box store parking lots, handing out flyers we had spent our money on to promote our "cause" (and the place of fish taco eating)-I was beginning to feel like parking my weary self at a Rubio's outdoor table and eating a few fish tacos myself-paid for and presented with a flyer for the 20% donation, of course. All in all, it was a fun day because my loyal sisters: Sandy, Katy and Patty, nephew Jake and his friend Tiffany and her children all helped out in the spirit of promoting our school being built half way around the world. It was good to talk to strangers in parking lots who were also interested in hearing what we were trying to do. It was good to see the smiles and also see people carry our flyers inside as they went to order their fish tacos, HANDS in their hands. We ended up making something like $75 that will go into the HANDS account. That's about $6,000 in Nepali rubees! And that will go a long ways towards building material...

Books for Nepal

My dear old, as in known for a long time, friend Kathy and her husband Eric just informed me they are "gifting" HANDS in Nepal shipping fees for us to mail to Kathmandu books for our school. The books have been donated by many friends and I've been storing them not knowing how we'll get them half way around the world, but somehow feeling a way would reveal itself. The books are like treasure to the children over there, who seldom have the luxury of a book. When we had our fund-raiser, we asked that children "pay" for their meal by donating a book for the school, and we had a nice selection by the evening's end. Now the books have been turning up on our doorstep. A friend just emailed that she had some books to bring over. There seems no end to gathering this precious commodity that will be so gratefully accepted by the children in Darkha, as they come to their new school. Now my mind turns to bookshelves in the school house. How will the books be stored and what will be the best way to manage the books? Can we actually have the school opened during off-hours, so children can come in and read. This would be especially lucrative during the wet monsoon season, when there is little else to do in a remote and soggy village. How wonderful to give the gift of literacy and the books that will make this gift all the more relevent!

So Kathy, Eric and I are planning our first "book boxing" party, sometime next week, to box, tape up and send off to Kathmandu our first parcels of books. I hope they will arrive about the time I will, June 22. Then I'll be able to receive the books and help escort them on the next leg of their journey-from bus top to jeep to donkey and finally to the hands of Darkha children-from our HANDS to theirs!

Cupcakes for Nepal

My friend Danielle has created a beautiful flyer to promote a fundraiser for our school at her school. Students in lower grades will partner with their upper grade reading buddies and bring cupcakes and brownies for a school-wide bake sale, proceeds to go to HANDS in Nepal. This will all happen on April 25, and I am wishing I could drive up and buy a dozen (at least) of each item. She generously included a suggestion in the flyer that "even if you aren't buying baked goods, consider making a donation to HANDS in Nepal to help build the school."

My teacher friends have been both creative and kind in their attention to our dream to promote educaiton in this part of the world. While Danielle is herding children and parents into baking mode, my other friend Julee, a fellow teacher at my school, has made books with her class for children in Nepal, and raised money to donate to the school project. Her class also did a coin-drive, buying hackey-sack balls to send over to Nepali children in the village. I packaged up the balls in a gift bag along with the book, which contained colorful outlines of her student's hands. My husband was given careful instructions to photograph the children on the receiving end, so we can do a cultural exchange. I also sent paper and crayons with him, so the Nepali children can outline their hands and send them back.

It suddenly hit me that building the school is not only a benefit for the Nepali village children. The students of our schools, too, benefit so much when they can see, read and participate in helping to create something that is such gift to others their age. As much as they may complain about going to school, I feel they understand it is an important part of their life and this makes it seem even more so.

My other teacher pal, Ana, has generously donated teeshirts and books that made their way over to Nepal with my husband, and I know were excitedly received by the children who often wear the same outfit daily.

To all my teacher friends out there, I want to extend a very warm "Namaste" from the "Ama la" of HANDS!

Fish Tacos and Dahl Bhat

When I was last talking to Rajan in Kathmandu, I told him America is in very bad economical shape right now, and I thought we'd have a hard time convincing people to part with their money in order to build a small school in the lap of the Himalayas, in a village no one outside of Nepal had ever heard of. Rajan was confident. He had overcome worse obstacles-just by being who he was, yet because of who he is, he has the faith and mental clarity to see that people are pretty much the same everywhere. Which is to say, most want happiness and to eliminate suffering for themselves and others. Rajan grew up in this village where dahl bhat, a dish made of lentils and rice, is eaten at least once a day, mainly because there is little else. And to go to school means walking, up and down, down and up, long, long distances, to wherever the nearest school might be, even if it is a day's walk or more. So he came to Kathmandu at an early age to finish his education, alone, without family, as many Nepali rural kids do, and work and attend school the best you can, until you find your path, your way to earn a living. To think that Americans, who have free public education, school supplies, often public transportation to said school, and free breakfast and lunch at some schools, no lack of pencils, paper or books, therefore can spare a few dollars to help promote literacy, that is something Rajan does believe. His faith never waivered, although mine did. We tossed around a few ideas in his office, which is often dark because of the lack of electricity in Kathmandu. "Maybe we can hold dahl bhat dinners" I said-something a Nepali would find funny-a dish so common that nothing is special about it, and no one would think of having as a main course for a banquet.

I started small, by inviting friends over to our house for dahl bhat, hard-boiled egg and chapati-sort of a Kathmandu combination plate . I put out an empty vase with a sign suggesting a $5 donation and by the end of the evening, had won over some dahl bhat fans and more then $100 which I decided to send to an orphanage Danny has volunteered at in the past: Buddhist Child Home. But it was a success for the small crowd we had, so when it came time to hold the first premier fundraising dinner to launch our school in Nepal effort, we went all the way! Hiring the Community Center and calling on all our kind friends of every type of talent, from dish washing to musical entertainment, we threw our first "Dahl Bhat" without the dahl bhat, party. Although originally planned as a Night in Nepal, the dahl was replaced by a yummy vegetarian lasagne made by local gourmet restaurant The Range in our hometown Santa Margarita. Another offering came from Thai Elephant, curry and vegetables, along with rice, so soon the dahl was dropped from the menu for another time. Bread was donated by The House of Bread in San Luis Obispo and kind friends The Bauers made a giant Cesar Salad, while our gourmet chef Jamie Walker cooked up trays of apple tarts. Coffee, freshly brewed came from The Porch cafe in our town, and friends brought pies to round out the fare. We charged $20 a person for all this cornucopia of delicious food-and people came from all around to join us as we kicked off our HANDS campaign. Tibetan prayer flags flew for the first time in front of the community center and friends danced and toasted to our dream-in the best spirit of giving, despite hard economic times, and I thought once again how right Rajan was in his faith in America and Americans. We are connected to everyone, and efforts to help a group of children in the lap of the Himalayas, in a village no one outside of Nepal has heard of, will ripple into all our lives, this I truly believe. In this good spirit of generosity people join us and participate in what it is like to make such a difference in a child's life, and future. "Gum Gana pa ta ye-namo namaha"-I can hear the chants ringing in the hills of the Ganesh Himals-in gratitude and thankfulness that we care. There's still time to plan a dahl bhat dinner, but first I am on my way this weekend to a fish taco fundraiser my sister Sandy has organized via Rubio's Fish Taco in Escondido. From 2 pm to closing, anyone coming in with flyer in hand, 20% of proceeds will go to HANDS. See you there!

Where is Nepal and why are you building there?

One of the first things I've learned in helping my son promote his NGO is, not too many people know about Nepal! First, I've been surprised that some don't even know it's a country, and second, that some have no idea where it is, or third, that it is the home of Mount Everest. If nothing else, our goal to build a school in one of the poorest countries on our Planet has helped spread information about this little known corner of the world. Picture a slice of land about the size of Florida but with much more people and towering mountains along one border-in fact, 10 of the world's largest mountains lined up practically side by side. And then carve a valley somewhere towards the middle and fill it with ancient temples, ancient shrines, predominatly Hindu practicing people of various tribal backgrounds, world travelers converging from all corners and a hearty mix of monks, sahdus, Hindu priests and humanity-that would be Nepal's one large city, Kathmandu, and all around the other edges of the country, plains, desert and jungle where rhino, elephant and tiger live-that is Nepal. It is wedged neatly between India and China, with Bhutan at its foot. It is a political hotbed and a stew of political parties and interests and that's all I want to say about that. Nepal is filled with warm-hearted, caring people who have opened doors and extended heart-breaking hospitality, despite having so little, to us as we've traveled there, and the lovely children greeting you with Namaste will remain in your memories forever.

That is a small reason why we are putting out the effort to build one school, one to begin with, in a remote, somewhat "primitive", to American standards, village in the lap of the Ganesh Himalayas. Our son has volunteered in Nepal for awhile off and on and has grown to know the culture and become good friends with some of the people there. The school is both a product of his desire to do something of benefit to help Nepal, and to practice something the Buddhist call Prajna and bodhisattva action. Simply put, an effort to eliminate suffering.

How can I not be so proud of him and work here at home to help fund his dream? And so as Amma la, I've become the fund raising coordinator of his HANDS in Nepal (HANDS by the way, meaning: Humanitarian Acts in Nepal Developing Schools). The first act of business was to make this official by becoming a "real" NGO (Non-government Organization) and registering as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit. Downloaded copious amounts of reading material through a wide-variety of government sites for non-profits and several months later, we came out of the paperwork quagmire with our official paperwork in hand and officially registered with our official tax ID number for our official status as a nonprofit, even incorporated. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy, and I have to say it was the least fun part so far of this adventure. But we did it, and now felt we were officially on our way to making the school and HANDS a reality. The next big order of business-how to raise the money for a school in a part of the world so many knew so little about?

Amma la is in the house

Namaste! I decided to try blogging from the home front. As the "Amma" of Hands in Nepal, I find myself here at home alone, Don and Danny deep in the foothills of Nepal, beginning work on building a school in the village of Darkha. What has taken us to this point, and would it be useful to others to read a bit of the background and work we have done to get here? And so I thought I'd add my "at home" experiences, sort of a "behind the scenes" look at what it has taken to assist and support our son in his dream to create this NGO "HANDS in Nepal," and what we do now to keep it going. I am Amma la-an endearing term used in Tibetan culture to note the female head of the household. The La is simply a sort of loving suffix, and because so much of where we are now and what we do has been influenced by the wonderful Tibetan culture and people, Danny has taken to calling me "Amma la" and I feel honored to bear the title. My hope in starting this blog is to inform and share with those interested, our journey as we begin to take a dream of building a school all the way to actual fruition. I hope it in turn will inspire others to do the same, for we were inspired by one man who's book we shared and discussed, Greg Mortenson, of Three Cups of Tea and now the more recent Stones Into School. I hope we can return the favor by showing it is not all that difficult to create a vision for peace through education and make it happen. Here it goes with blog number one!