HANDS at Home: Amma on the road-again!

Summer is a time for travel when you're a teacher. Although I was in Nepal just a few months ago to officiate at the opening of our first library project in Phulkharta, I found myself on the road to Nepal again. This time I had solar lamps to deliver, thanks to a generous grant from Rotary Club International and in particular, the kind members of Morro Bay, California, as well as individual donors. These popular little green lights operate on a battery that recharges with sunlight, and holds the charge for many days at a time. We had been able to buy and bring some to our library in April, and the villagers, living without electricity, were mad about them, asking if there was anyway we could get one light for each family. Now my big black suitcase, filled to all 50 lbs. of capacity, held 20 lights, another dozen lined my carry on (in case the checked-in suitcase went missing, -the rest were in my purse. I wondered what the security checkers would think at so many steel goose-necked lights distributed amongst my bags, but no one batted a wand at me or my strange luggage. The little green wonder lights:

Beside the lights, there are books for homeless children, new teeshirts contributed by the Benevolent Sheriffs Society, pencils, erasers and school supplies contributed by the D.A.R.E. officer at our school, and toothpaste and toothbrushes given to me by a lady who had them given to her, but felt the kids we help in Nepal would benefit more from them. There is little room for personal items, but I don't need much when in Nepal. The emptied suitcase will be filled with items I find in my walks around Kathmandu and in the women's sewing cooperatives I try to help out. As dawn greets me after stage one of my slog over the Pacific to Hong Kong (the entire journey to Kathmandu will take 34 hours)I sit at Nosh cafe, with a nice view of the Hong Kong harbor next to the airport runways, humped-back mountains in the background. Warm, moist air greeted me as I walked up the gangplank and plotted my 10 hour layover here. I've brought enough office work to do for HANDS in Nepal, including a report and newsletter for our supporters-and as usual for long-distance travels-lots of reading material. For a mere $22 an hour, I can rent a booth and have a shower at one of 4 "pay-in" lounges here at the airport, but I opt for my next choice-a booth at Nosh, and a steady stream of espresso. My booth comes equipped with outlets to keep my laptop powered up, and a TV built in the booth, tuned to CNN. When the waiter brings my bill for 2 espressos and I see that it's $79 KH dollars, ($10 US) I wonder if it wouldn't have been cheaper to go to the lounge, where food and drink are free. Here's what I am noticing about travel-since heading overseas has become at least an annual event. The first pull from family and friends is the hardest. No matter how much I travel or how excited I am to be off to new places, I feel homesick the minute I hug my lovely family, friends and world's cutest dog, goodbye. I know in my head how instantly I'll be taken up by the new sights and smells on the other side of the planet, but the familiar, and a life I love, is difficult to leave behind. Hong Kong is always cloudy when I've come here, and the skyline is beautiful with big, white and gray clouds that often rain, green hills, and a spectacular skyline. I often feel like a fish in a fishbowl, looking out the huge floor to ceiling windows at the China out there-the new and glittery, and further, beyond the ocean, where ferries wait, the old and ancient.