I read with much admiration an excellent essay that a friend sent me today on the politics of international adoption, as considered by Peter Conn, Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania:
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/article.cfm?articleid=6&articlepage=1
In my post of 25th July "The Last Resort" I rejected the politically correct statements being made by ideologists like Gillian Mellsop, the Country Representative of UNICEF in Nepal, who at the time had gone on the record as saying that international adoption should be the last resort. Challenging these hollow, fawning viewpoints at the time I gave a short overview of the other options that were infinitely worse for the unwanted, unloved Nepali child - like ending up in a grim orphanage, on the streets, being trafficked or early death. Professor Conn's review complements this analysis, albeit in a much more erudite commentary.
That said, he does remind us that the process of adoption is always accompanied by "disruption, loss and mourning". In the midst of the joy that we new adoptive parents are revelling in at the moment it is appropriate to remember this and give a great deal of early thought to the future needs of our new sons and daughters who will have to cope with these sentiments. I can imagine how in the light of how the recent international adoptions have been so abysmally mismanaged by the Nepalese authorities some, if not most, parents may wish to have nothing more to do with Nepal. The reality we have to accept and work around is that the adopted child, teenager and future adult will always feel an affinity with their homeland. They may even fantasise about it as some kind of Shangri La - which it certainly isn't. As far as my daughter Alisha is concerned, we will be very open with her in the future about her background (what little we know of it) and of the ongoing situation - and desperation - of Nepal. She should never be made to feel "grateful" for what was an act of love on our part, but she should be given every opportunity to understand the pain and hardship of Nepalese society and the context from which she was adopted. Maybe one day she might even feel inclined to follow in our footsteps and put something back; I would be delighted by that but ultimately this will have to be her own choice.
The Esther Benjamins Trust now has a major Indian circus in its sights for a rescue operation within the coming month. Our field workers have already gone to the southeast of Nepal to research the families of children who have gone to that particular circus. Predictably, it seems that the circus has already been tipped off (doubtless by families who will receive a kickback for their collaboration) as I learned today that four girls have just been sent home to Nepal from that circus. Sometimes circuses do that in advance of a rescue to unsettle us or to improve their image. But once again our already acutely dangerous task will be made all the more challenging by tackling a circus that will be ready and waiting, having bought off everyone that matters in its locality.
Monday 31 December 2007
Saturday 29 December 2007
Elephants help rescue Nepalese children from circuses
A couple of years ago a group of lads came over to Nepal from Ireland to take part in the annual World Elephant Polo championships. Led by the charismatic Graham Little the team did a lot of fundraising for The Esther Benjamins Trust during their training before progressing to success at the event. Afterwards Graham sent us footage to use in our fundraising and I thought you'd enjoy seeing it.
Friday 28 December 2007
Lost in translation
This headline in today's Nepal News online doesn't quite work in English, does it?
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/dec/dec28/news12.php
But then again, maybe they are right after all...
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/dec/dec28/news12.php
But then again, maybe they are right after all...
Thursday 27 December 2007
An abstract philosophical concept
A needless amount of time was spent by us at the bleak Foreign Ministry today in pursuit of Alisha's travel document, a mini passport that would allow us to take her out of the country next month. We were invited to present ourselves at 12.00 noon and, quite predictably, when we got there we were told to come back at 2 p.m. At 2 p.m. we discovered that the staff who were dealing with the documentation would be on tea break for another half hour. They finally turned up at 2.45 p.m. and we were at last issued with her little black book.
Waiting around we speculated on what was going on around us, or not, as the case may be. The young Nepali staff member of Alisha's orphanage who had accompanied us suggested that all Nepalis were lazy. We quickly - and politely - disagreed. Anyway, this is certainly not the case. Bev and I continued the discussion over dinner this evening. She opined that from what she had seen there is a tendency (and let's try to avoid generalisation) for people who have a job to do here to get distracted so that they lose focus and don't achieve their work goals. There is certainly truth in this as you can see it happening in offices across the land, with visitors coming and going all the time, chats taking place and clerks trying to juggle everyone's interests at the same time. Objectives aren't achieved on schedule in this chaos and this is most definitely a land of lost opportunities.
However I have a different take on this. I often reflect on a pearl of wisdom that I read in a tourist guide book when I first came to Nepal in 1999. In a section of the book it stated something to the effect that "in Nepal time is an abstract philosophical concept" with people unable to time their arrival for meetings, meet deadlines etc. That's definitely true, but what I have seen is not just people losing a grip on their own time management but also their making a very good job of wasting the time of others. I wonder how many man hours are lost per week in Nepal through this inescapable and infuriating practice? Herein lies another problem that just cannot be addressed by the development sector - one of many that bedevil our attempts to improve society. Sadly no one seems to care in Nepal, just accepting this as being the norm, which is why this country is going to get left so far behind as its more tuned in neighbours recognise and seize opportunities with alacrity.
Before Christmas The Daily Mail, the leading UK tabloid newspaper, invited its readers to write in and propose their favourite charity for a prize. Generously, the Mail was offering a top prize of £100,000 with 90 runner up prizes of £10,000. I was very touched to read what some of our supporters wrote about us and we published some of these on our website:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/testimonials.htm
I was over the moon to learn this evening that we have been selected as a runner up prize winner. That's a very welcome boost just as I was starting to worry again about meeting our rapidly growing commitments.
Waiting around we speculated on what was going on around us, or not, as the case may be. The young Nepali staff member of Alisha's orphanage who had accompanied us suggested that all Nepalis were lazy. We quickly - and politely - disagreed. Anyway, this is certainly not the case. Bev and I continued the discussion over dinner this evening. She opined that from what she had seen there is a tendency (and let's try to avoid generalisation) for people who have a job to do here to get distracted so that they lose focus and don't achieve their work goals. There is certainly truth in this as you can see it happening in offices across the land, with visitors coming and going all the time, chats taking place and clerks trying to juggle everyone's interests at the same time. Objectives aren't achieved on schedule in this chaos and this is most definitely a land of lost opportunities.
However I have a different take on this. I often reflect on a pearl of wisdom that I read in a tourist guide book when I first came to Nepal in 1999. In a section of the book it stated something to the effect that "in Nepal time is an abstract philosophical concept" with people unable to time their arrival for meetings, meet deadlines etc. That's definitely true, but what I have seen is not just people losing a grip on their own time management but also their making a very good job of wasting the time of others. I wonder how many man hours are lost per week in Nepal through this inescapable and infuriating practice? Herein lies another problem that just cannot be addressed by the development sector - one of many that bedevil our attempts to improve society. Sadly no one seems to care in Nepal, just accepting this as being the norm, which is why this country is going to get left so far behind as its more tuned in neighbours recognise and seize opportunities with alacrity.
Before Christmas The Daily Mail, the leading UK tabloid newspaper, invited its readers to write in and propose their favourite charity for a prize. Generously, the Mail was offering a top prize of £100,000 with 90 runner up prizes of £10,000. I was very touched to read what some of our supporters wrote about us and we published some of these on our website:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/testimonials.htm
I was over the moon to learn this evening that we have been selected as a runner up prize winner. That's a very welcome boost just as I was starting to worry again about meeting our rapidly growing commitments.
Wednesday 26 December 2007
A funny old Christmas
I really must do something about the window to my study, which seems to spring open all too regularly in the cold evenings. Because of my ajar window as I type I am being inflicted with a chilly draft coming off the hill to the south. Much worse than that though has been the incessant serenading from the house across the way. In characteristic Nepali style it is rather monotonous, with just a whiff of alcohol in its tuneless delivery. Most bizarrely one of the pieces that I have had to endure has included a drawling rendition of "Gloria Inexcelsis". This has only served to reinforce what a very unusual Christmas this has been.
Yes, it's of course been fantastic with the news of Alisha's adoption being approved but this latter has involved us being in the freezing mausoleum of a Foreign Ministry building on Christmas morning trying to progress her paperwork. I watched, bemused, as a slob of a self-important official sat crouched over his desk literally pushing the paperwork around the table top, fingering and re-fingering it but doing little else. He was dressed in padded jacket and had an electric radiator trained on each leg, all contributing towards his general air of indolence. I commented to the chap who accompanied from the orphanage that a guy like this wouldn't last five minutes back in the West. He's clearly made a success of himself in Nepal.
Yes, it's of course been fantastic with the news of Alisha's adoption being approved but this latter has involved us being in the freezing mausoleum of a Foreign Ministry building on Christmas morning trying to progress her paperwork. I watched, bemused, as a slob of a self-important official sat crouched over his desk literally pushing the paperwork around the table top, fingering and re-fingering it but doing little else. He was dressed in padded jacket and had an electric radiator trained on each leg, all contributing towards his general air of indolence. I commented to the chap who accompanied from the orphanage that a guy like this wouldn't last five minutes back in the West. He's clearly made a success of himself in Nepal.
Sunday 23 December 2007
Santa came to Godawari
Yesterday we hosted a party for all of our refuge children, with a guest appearance from a guy dressed in red and white. Here's the footage.
Friday 21 December 2007
I don't need any Christmas presents
In the past I used to be invited to share the joy of friends in the announcement of a pregnancy or a birth. I'd be sent ultrasound scans or pictures of the ruddy new arrival as the case may be. My delight for the new parents was certainly there but it could never be unqualified. You'd always wonder "Why not me (us)?" and it would inevitably be a time for sad reflection on how things could - or with "justice" should - have been. So I hope those readers who have experienced the pain of childlessness or who are waiting to adopt can indulge me as I write of this, my time for celebration. For this evening's celebration comes at the end of a long and bitter path which began with failed IVF attempts in my first marriage back in 1991/1992. It plummeted to the depths of despair with the suicide of my first wife Esther in 1999. And most recently it has seen a (quite needlessly) long 14 month wait for confirmation of an adoption process here in Nepal. But the celebration stems from the news that the Nepalese international adoption committee has approved our application for Alisha to become our daughter and now all we await is the signature of the secretary to the committee, Mr Neupane. And for the record for waiting parents that's case number 2060 with the committee having worked through (to my pleasant surprise) at lightning speed to case number 2065.
For the last couple of weeks we've had an appeal in place for the rescue of children and teenage girls who are trapped in the Indian circuses (see right). So far we have raised just £230 towards the £15,842 that we predicted would be needed to rescue 150 children from six circuses over the period January-June 2008 (a "planning assumption"). This morning I heard that the first circus on our list for January has no less than 200 trafficked and imprisoned girls so heaven knows where we are going to find the funds to raid that circus in January and to manage them post release. But the planning goes on regardless and the field team will be deployed next week to start collecting data and parents' statements/release requests. However I am sure that we will get a result and that 2008 will be for me a great year both personally and professionally.
For the last couple of weeks we've had an appeal in place for the rescue of children and teenage girls who are trapped in the Indian circuses (see right). So far we have raised just £230 towards the £15,842 that we predicted would be needed to rescue 150 children from six circuses over the period January-June 2008 (a "planning assumption"). This morning I heard that the first circus on our list for January has no less than 200 trafficked and imprisoned girls so heaven knows where we are going to find the funds to raid that circus in January and to manage them post release. But the planning goes on regardless and the field team will be deployed next week to start collecting data and parents' statements/release requests. However I am sure that we will get a result and that 2008 will be for me a great year both personally and professionally.
Thursday 20 December 2007
Mass graves
When I was holidaying in Spain in October it felt very much like a nation that was beginning to come to terms with its past and righting a few wrongs in the process. The last of Falangist Franco's statues were being removed. Bodies were being exhumed from mass graves, the locations of which had in places been an open secret for the previous seven decades since the end of the Spanish Civil War. And there seem to be a lot of such graves dotted around Spain, more than one would expect in a civilised European country with the possible exception of Bosnia.
It seems to be a feature of history that after wars and civil wars nations out of necessity seem to feel the need to move on quickly rather than to risk self-immolation by addressing the crimes that have been committed on both sides under circumstances when peacetime law and order had been suspended. This expedient approach allows all kinds of psychopaths to escape justice, especially if they are perceived as having some short term residual value in the new post-conflict society.
Following a tip-off, evidence of a mass grave was found yesterday in the woods to the north of Kathmandu. It is believed that this could hold the cremated remains of 49 Maoists who were detained at a notorious Army barracks during the "People's War". The site is being investigated by forensic teams and by the National Human Rights Commission. But if it indeed proves to mark the final resting place of those who were tortured and executed it remains to be seen if anyone is brought to book for the crimes.
It seems to be a feature of history that after wars and civil wars nations out of necessity seem to feel the need to move on quickly rather than to risk self-immolation by addressing the crimes that have been committed on both sides under circumstances when peacetime law and order had been suspended. This expedient approach allows all kinds of psychopaths to escape justice, especially if they are perceived as having some short term residual value in the new post-conflict society.
Following a tip-off, evidence of a mass grave was found yesterday in the woods to the north of Kathmandu. It is believed that this could hold the cremated remains of 49 Maoists who were detained at a notorious Army barracks during the "People's War". The site is being investigated by forensic teams and by the National Human Rights Commission. But if it indeed proves to mark the final resting place of those who were tortured and executed it remains to be seen if anyone is brought to book for the crimes.
Rediscovering beauty
Yesterday Bev commented on how one of the girls in the mosaic studio, Chameli, had 
shown a dramatic improvement in her technique as she worked on a new subject, geckos. I wondered if this was a reflection of a sudden boost of self confidence akin to that of the child who realises that swimming isn't that difficult after all and plunges forward into the depths with feet off the bottom. Or maybe her progress was an indication of something else.
After Esther's death - almost nine years ago now - it seemed that in the immediate aftermath of that horror and tragedy beauty had also died for me. I turned all the pictures in our home to face downwards and stopped playing music; the house that had been the scene of her last desperate act became doubly grim. My reaction echoed the experiences of the general medical practitioner I had consulted at the time. It so happened that his daughter had also taken her own life just a month or two before Esther and that loss had followed the murder of her mother some years previously. He told me that after his wife's death all the beauty had gone and he would look upon say a rose as being just another object.
I recall how a couple of weeks afterwards I had a very profound dream in which I was painting a landscape - one that I saw in vivid colour, light and shadow with the sun playing on the early morning dew. In the dream I turned to someone beside me and said "Isn't it beautiful?". I awoke from that dream realising that the beauty was still there; it was merely my perception that had become warped. I decided to work hard at correcting that distortion and that day returned the pictures to their rightful position and started playing classical music again - very loudly. And that jolt seemed to work for me.
It struck me that maybe the other day, after spending years inside the grim Indian circus, Chameli may have suddenly seen her handiwork turning into something that was attractive rather than just an assembly of hand cut tiles. Perhaps she too had re-discovered beauty.
shown a dramatic improvement in her technique as she worked on a new subject, geckos. I wondered if this was a reflection of a sudden boost of self confidence akin to that of the child who realises that swimming isn't that difficult after all and plunges forward into the depths with feet off the bottom. Or maybe her progress was an indication of something else.After Esther's death - almost nine years ago now - it seemed that in the immediate aftermath of that horror and tragedy beauty had also died for me. I turned all the pictures in our home to face downwards and stopped playing music; the house that had been the scene of her last desperate act became doubly grim. My reaction echoed the experiences of the general medical practitioner I had consulted at the time. It so happened that his daughter had also taken her own life just a month or two before Esther and that loss had followed the murder of her mother some years previously. He told me that after his wife's death all the beauty had gone and he would look upon say a rose as being just another object.
I recall how a couple of weeks afterwards I had a very profound dream in which I was painting a landscape - one that I saw in vivid colour, light and shadow with the sun playing on the early morning dew. In the dream I turned to someone beside me and said "Isn't it beautiful?". I awoke from that dream realising that the beauty was still there; it was merely my perception that had become warped. I decided to work hard at correcting that distortion and that day returned the pictures to their rightful position and started playing classical music again - very loudly. And that jolt seemed to work for me.
It struck me that maybe the other day, after spending years inside the grim Indian circus, Chameli may have suddenly seen her handiwork turning into something that was attractive rather than just an assembly of hand cut tiles. Perhaps she too had re-discovered beauty.
Tuesday 18 December 2007
The weather in Nepal
Over the weekend we experienced the first of the winter frosts in the Godawari hills. Our house is now very cold in spite of the gas and electric heaters dotted around the rooms and even the latter cannot be counted on in the coming time (see below). I have to admit to now having plumbed the depths in resorting to wearing socks in bed for the first time in my life.
I noted in the papers recently that the local met office has said that the seasons are changing because of global warming. The end of the monsoon season (which used to be at the start of September) is now being delayed by three weeks. Given that the winter frosts are starting two to three weeks earlier than before that means that the traditionally pleasant autumn - the peak tourist season - is being impinged upon from both sides.
The other impact of the weather on our daily lives is the power cuts that kick in around this time of the year as the dry winter means the water levels in the rivers and reservoirs drop while demand rises because of the darker nights and cold weather. Today we were told in the papers that the present scheduled four hours of cuts per week will increase to six with immediate effect. By next February/March it is predicted that we will be enjoying eleven hours of cuts per day. Lovely....
I noted in the papers recently that the local met office has said that the seasons are changing because of global warming. The end of the monsoon season (which used to be at the start of September) is now being delayed by three weeks. Given that the winter frosts are starting two to three weeks earlier than before that means that the traditionally pleasant autumn - the peak tourist season - is being impinged upon from both sides.
The other impact of the weather on our daily lives is the power cuts that kick in around this time of the year as the dry winter means the water levels in the rivers and reservoirs drop while demand rises because of the darker nights and cold weather. Today we were told in the papers that the present scheduled four hours of cuts per week will increase to six with immediate effect. By next February/March it is predicted that we will be enjoying eleven hours of cuts per day. Lovely....
Monday 17 December 2007
Interview with a Maoist
As per my previous post I went down to the refuge this afternoon to meet the local area commander of the Maoists. He was a very pleasant chap indeed. His eyes were on stalks when we showed him our full length circus rescue film and when I took him to see the art workshop next door. It is very obvious how expensive our operation is and how much we are achieving. So I don't imagine we'll have any more problems from that quarter. Interestingly, before he left he told me that he had left home (in the southeast of Nepal) and family to pursue a vision for a better country and he could see the parallel with my choice to be here. So not all the Maoists at the grass roots are necessarily "bad" people - it's just their leadership that is lacking in, er, leadership.
I returned to the studio this afternoon to find Susma working on a mosaic of the world's worst football team's logo for a supporter in UK. Pictured right.
And I was delighted to receive a Christmas poem in my e mail today. A year ago I went on a research visit to Uttar Pradesh, north India, where I met a guy who clearly felt there was potential to secure some funds off the Trust for his local project (there wasn't and still isn't). He has since sent me a couple of tentative e mails to try and arouse my interest but now this:
My heart is warm, My heart
Strong with faith in you.
But I wish you came with songs to cheer
My lonely Christmas blue.
Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,
Merry Christmas to you.
Nice....
I returned to the studio this afternoon to find Susma working on a mosaic of the world's worst football team's logo for a supporter in UK. Pictured right.
And I was delighted to receive a Christmas poem in my e mail today. A year ago I went on a research visit to Uttar Pradesh, north India, where I met a guy who clearly felt there was potential to secure some funds off the Trust for his local project (there wasn't and still isn't). He has since sent me a couple of tentative e mails to try and arouse my interest but now this:
My heart is warm, My heart
Strong with faith in you.
But I wish you came with songs to cheer
My lonely Christmas blue.
Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,
Merry Christmas to you.
Nice....
Sunday 16 December 2007
Bondage
I was rather pleased to note that the YouTube video that I published on Friday of our art workshop in Kathmandu in progress had proved so popular. It has attracted many more views than any previous film that we posted on the web. It was only last evening that I worked out the reason for this unusual degree of interest. In the text that accompanied the video I had written that we had freed the students from "bondage" within the Indian circuses. The word bondage has attracted viewers and links to other videos whose interest in, and association with, bondage is sexual in nature. I have since amended the text but this has been an exercise in closing stable doors. So the tip is that if you wish to boost your Blog traffic use "bondage" as one of your key words.
Yesterday two Maoist leaders called at our Kathmandu refuge. They said that the Maoists are now conducting their own survey of children's homes, given that these have a reputation for mis-directing donor money. They wanted lots of information from Shailaja CM (our local Director), donations and even asked if some of their leaders' children could travel on our school bus. Shailaja spoke to them openly about our work and about my background and why I am here. But declined their other requests. I believe they were quite happy in the end but expressed an interest in meeting with me - the local leader apparently knows me quite well as he lives just behind my home! So I have suggested to Shailaja that we take the initiative and call them for a meeting tomorrow afternoon rather than wait for them to follow up their first approach. This should be an interesting exchange and we have nothing at all to hide. Quite the opposite; I will take pride in showing them our work.
Yesterday two Maoist leaders called at our Kathmandu refuge. They said that the Maoists are now conducting their own survey of children's homes, given that these have a reputation for mis-directing donor money. They wanted lots of information from Shailaja CM (our local Director), donations and even asked if some of their leaders' children could travel on our school bus. Shailaja spoke to them openly about our work and about my background and why I am here. But declined their other requests. I believe they were quite happy in the end but expressed an interest in meeting with me - the local leader apparently knows me quite well as he lives just behind my home! So I have suggested to Shailaja that we take the initiative and call them for a meeting tomorrow afternoon rather than wait for them to follow up their first approach. This should be an interesting exchange and we have nothing at all to hide. Quite the opposite; I will take pride in showing them our work.
Friday 14 December 2007
Film of our art workshop in Kathmandu
Yesterday I went to visit our art workshop for child trafficking victims here in Kathmandu. I was delighted with the progress as I watched our UK volunteer ceramicist, Alex Hunter, teach the girls press moulding and pot throwing. In a classroom next door other girls were learning mosaic techniques.
When the course is over at the end of February I expect about half of the students to become employees at my new not-for-profit company "Himalayan Mosaics". The remaining girls will commence an advanced workshop. Ultimately all should enter good employment through jobs that we create and never again be vulnerable to poverty and the criminal intent of others.
There's a challenge!
Wednesday 12 December 2007
Good advocacy
Our circus rescue film (see yesterday's post) was shown to a full house in a 700 seat auditorium yesterday, this being the final day of the Kathmandu International Film Festival. I was intrigued to see the response of the audience which seemed to consist of mainly young Nepali men. Our film was second on the bill, the first being "Miss Tibet". This rather quirky movie (in fact it was rubbish) featured a candidate for the title who at times was shown in scant clothing. This attracted lecherous cheers and whistles. Our film opened and the first shots showed an equally scantily clad circus girl on the high wire (a state of relative undress being one of the "attractions" of the Indian circus) and this also drew a similar outburst from a large number in the audience. But as the truth behind the circus emerged - the poverty that fuelled the girls' being trafficked, the alcohol abuse of their parents, the violence against the girls and their deep unhappiness - the auditorium became silent. We hope the film will now soon run on Nepal TV and have a similar impact on a much wider audience.
Tuesday 11 December 2007
Circus rescue film
Today I will be attending the premiere of a film about one of our circus rescue operations which is currently showing at the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival. The 26 minute film was shot last January by Subina Shrestha and is presented by former UK Daily Telegraph correspondent Tom Bell. You can see a four minute abbreviated version of the film on this post.
After that rescue I wrote the following to Trust supporters:
“I returned yesterday from a circus rescue mission at the New Raj Kamal Circus which has been based near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, north India. This trip by our team has resulted in the release of 20 girls from that very abusive circus.
Our assistance had been requested by parents who had visited this small circus a number of times in failed bids to retrieve their children. Moreover, we had to act quickly as some recent evidence had emerged that children were being sexually abused within the circus. So our immediate aim was to remove all the children from the circus as quickly and safely as possible and to take action against the circus management for their crimes. This was always going to be a difficult operation not least because Uttar Pradesh is a particularly lawless state.
The team of local staff members was accompanied by 12 parents and in India we linked up with major local organisations including ChildLine India. Following our approach to the local police it became rapidly apparent that in spite of the small size of the circus it had indeed an extensive local support network. The police were totally uncooperative; in fact they were fully in collusion with the circus management and openly protecting the circus owner who had been raping and sexually abusing the girls. Faced with police collaboration with these criminals the team was left very exposed. At one point on Saturday our driver was abducted by the circus staff outside the very gates of the police station. This left us standing by the roadside being watched threateningly by circus thugs with sticks. After a very long hour's wait our hasty mobile telephone calls for reinforcements were answered and we were extracted as part of a seven vehicle convoy. Thankfully there are good and genuine people in India who are willing to help us in the fight against trafficking.
In the end and by going above local heads, 12 children were released to their parents and a further 8 (whose parents were not present or available) were sent directly back to Nepal where they were handed over to the Nepal police and from there into our care facilities. The work in India continues in taking evidence from the 12 girls prior to their return to Nepal in an effort to see charges filed against the circus owner.
This operation - which has led to the release of all the girls held by the circus - has cost in the region of £1,000 and more funds needs to be spent on the girls' residential care, rehabilitation and training/education once they are back in Nepal. Larger operations lie ahead so we continue to need your support. One girl who is 12 years old had been repeatedly raped. Another said that every day she had prayed to God that someone would come to rescue them. In the light of findings like this, our commitment to the project can only remain total in spite of the obvious dangers and difficulties.”
In The Esther Benjamins Trust Christmas Appeal we are asking you to donate towards more rescue operations like this one. Please visit the icon on the right and give generously!
Monday 10 December 2007
A German volunteer
At the start of last year we had two outstanding German volunteers join our work, Katharina Tomoff and Micha Ludecke. Both are clinical pyschologists - just the kind of skills we need with traumatised circus returnees - and when they returned home they carried on the good work. This led to another German volunteer, Marie Therese Vollmer, joining us at the sta
rt of September this year. Marie has been great and, although fairly fresh out of high school, has had a lot to give. Her tour started in Hetauda where she quickly struck up a rapport with the girls. We then transferred her to join the children in Bhairahawa. Judging by the reports of tearful farewells from Bhairahawa last week (mirroring those when she took her leave of Hetauda) I think this project location has also been equally fulfilling for her. Since leaving Bhairahawa she's had a birthday in Kathmandu and is now on trek in the mountains. I am sure that this will be a year to remember.
News on the international adoption progress seems to be very difficult to read accurately. Things have been certainly moving, albeit excruciatingly slowly, and one or two parents have had children finally allocated. However it is quite impossible to distinguish between cases having been "considered" and "approved". I keep hearing stories of the pace of review being increased dramatically but I think it prudent to remain sceptical and not to book the pre-Christmas flights home just yet.
rt of September this year. Marie has been great and, although fairly fresh out of high school, has had a lot to give. Her tour started in Hetauda where she quickly struck up a rapport with the girls. We then transferred her to join the children in Bhairahawa. Judging by the reports of tearful farewells from Bhairahawa last week (mirroring those when she took her leave of Hetauda) I think this project location has also been equally fulfilling for her. Since leaving Bhairahawa she's had a birthday in Kathmandu and is now on trek in the mountains. I am sure that this will be a year to remember.News on the international adoption progress seems to be very difficult to read accurately. Things have been certainly moving, albeit excruciatingly slowly, and one or two parents have had children finally allocated. However it is quite impossible to distinguish between cases having been "considered" and "approved". I keep hearing stories of the pace of review being increased dramatically but I think it prudent to remain sceptical and not to book the pre-Christmas flights home just yet.
Sunday 9 December 2007
Decision making in Nepal
We are planning to move house into central Kathmandu at the end of this month. It's been pleasant living in the hills of Godawari but we are very isolated as the only foreigners for miles around and the daily 20km trip in and out to Kathmandu has become quite a chore. Oh, and it gets bitterly cold here in the winter in a house that, typically for Nepal, has no central heating.
A couple of months ago we found a suitable house. It's a little old fashioned but it had the attraction of being a few minutes walk from one of our favourite watering holes. And it had an idyllic secluded garden that gave a lovely sense of peace perched high above hectic, noisy, polluted Kathmandu. I went to the house last month with Bev and the owner to discuss what works needed to be done in advance of the move. Surveying the garden, the owner pointed out a rogue tree which had to be removed as its roots were undermining a wall. That was of course fine with us but within my earshot I heard Bev confirming with him no less than three times that the other mature trees would be spared. He agreed to that and we left quite happily.
Last week Bev returned to the house to find the trees had been chopped down. Horrified she challenged the owner as to why he'd broken his promise. He answered "Oh, I thought you'd like a nice panoramic view of Kathmandu". Bev protested that this was exactly what we didn't want but of course it is now too late. Perhaps if the owner had told the truth he might have said that he just wanted the firewood.
You come across this kind of behaviour all too commonly in Nepal. People say yes, yes and then run on their own agenda often taking the most bizarre jaw-droppingly stupid decisions. It leaves you feeling at times like you're surrounded by drunks whose irrationality goes a long way towards making life miserable and risks turning you into the horrible expat.
Thursday 6 December 2007
Exhibition mosaics
I haven't been posting for the last few days as I have been very involved in setting up our exhibition of girls' mosaics in Skipton, North Yorkshire. In spite of a consignment going temporarily astray somewhere in Dubai, all exhibits were in place in time for Tuesday evening's opening. They remain on display at the Namaste-UK showroom until this Friday. I am pleased to present a selection on this Post, with pictures captured on my elderly father-in-law's antiquated camera.
Saturday 1 December 2007
Trafficked girls rescued from India
Our partner organisation in India, ChildLine, intercepted some child traffickers in Gorakhpur, North India on Thursday. The picture isn't entirely clear just yet but it seems that their victims were rescued as they were ostensibly on their way to jobs in Delhi, complete with appropriate documentation to commence work. However, instead of boarding a train to Delhi they were going to be put on one going to Mumbai (Bombay), a switch that illiterate girls wouldn't have realised until it was too late. In Mumbai they would have been sold to brothels or sent on to the sex trade in a Gulf state. When ChildLine contacted us for help, we immediately agreed to accept them upon repatriation and take them into our care.
Seven girls are now back in Nepal, waiting at the border before being transferred to our Kathmandu facilities. Of the seven, three are minors. Within the other four, one or possibly two are the agents involved in the crime and the police need to question the group further to establish the truth. Once identified the agent(s) will be brought to justice and face long prison sentences.
This good news coincides with the launch of our online Christmas appeal (see the link on the right). In the first six months of next year, alongside ChildLine, we want to retrieve approximately 150 children and teenage girls from around six Indian circuses. This follows our successful rescue of 280 children in the last four years from other circuses. This time the team will be tackling the most exploitative of the circuses and some very dangerous men, bringing these child abusers to justice through a dedicated lawyer. We need to raise £15,846 to undertake this mission, this covering rescue operations, repatriation and legal action.
Please give as generously as you can.
Seven girls are now back in Nepal, waiting at the border before being transferred to our Kathmandu facilities. Of the seven, three are minors. Within the other four, one or possibly two are the agents involved in the crime and the police need to question the group further to establish the truth. Once identified the agent(s) will be brought to justice and face long prison sentences.
This good news coincides with the launch of our online Christmas appeal (see the link on the right). In the first six months of next year, alongside ChildLine, we want to retrieve approximately 150 children and teenage girls from around six Indian circuses. This follows our successful rescue of 280 children in the last four years from other circuses. This time the team will be tackling the most exploitative of the circuses and some very dangerous men, bringing these child abusers to justice through a dedicated lawyer. We need to raise £15,846 to undertake this mission, this covering rescue operations, repatriation and legal action.
Please give as generously as you can.
Wednesday 28 November 2007
Two pieces of good news
The first long-awaited news that I heard today is that the international adoption committee has now met (I think yesterday) for the first time in months to process the 442 pending adoption case files, including my own. At this meeting the first 20 files were processed i.e. up to file number 1970. I gather that in some cases documentation may need updating since the files having been collecting dust for most of this year. I have no idea when the committee will meet again, but at least a start has now been made.
The second piece of good news is that my not-for-profit business Himalayan Mosaics was finally registered today. So we can now sell handmade mosaics all over the world. I just need to get the website done now and identify international customers. But that doesn't stop us from selling at fairs in Kathmandu this Saturday and the following Friday. I am very excited for my work to be evolving from charity into not for profit business which seems to be the only way to go that assures beneficiaries of not only an income but also of retrieving their self confidence and dignity.
For both news items the bottom line is that nothing happens quickly in Nepal. Least of all international adoption.
The second piece of good news is that my not-for-profit business Himalayan Mosaics was finally registered today. So we can now sell handmade mosaics all over the world. I just need to get the website done now and identify international customers. But that doesn't stop us from selling at fairs in Kathmandu this Saturday and the following Friday. I am very excited for my work to be evolving from charity into not for profit business which seems to be the only way to go that assures beneficiaries of not only an income but also of retrieving their self confidence and dignity.
For both news items the bottom line is that nothing happens quickly in Nepal. Least of all international adoption.
Tuesday 27 November 2007
Suraj
Suraj came to see me at the weekend. He is the elder of two brothers whom we had rescued back in November 2000. They had been found sleeping rough outside Tansen jai
l, obtaining scraps of food through the bars of the prison gate courtesy of their imprisoned mother. The two boys came to our refuge in Bhairahawa where they quickly began to blossom. Both are very good all rounders - academically, musically, at dance and sport. Suraj took the lead role in a community play that we organised at the refuge a couple of years ago. His part in the play's "dream sequence" (pictured) is very memorable.
l, obtaining scraps of food through the bars of the prison gate courtesy of their imprisoned mother. The two boys came to our refuge in Bhairahawa where they quickly began to blossom. Both are very good all rounders - academically, musically, at dance and sport. Suraj took the lead role in a community play that we organised at the refuge a couple of years ago. His part in the play's "dream sequence" (pictured) is very memorable.His progress took a jolt when his father turned up out of the blue a few months ago. He had been in different prison from his wife but freed after the Maoists burned down the jail at the end of last year; he is technically on the run but apparently had joined the Maoists himself. He arrived at the refuge on his motor bike, flashing money and showing off to his sons. Although told to go away he has been around the neighbourhood ever since. This put us in a doubly difficult position as Suraj's mother was insistent that the boys should never be handed over to their no-good father. And the boys had been signed over to our care by her, not him, and she expected them returned after her release.
Last week Suraj announced that he wanted to leave school (he's now 16 and very close to taking his final examinations) and if he couldn't work for us (not an option) he wanted to join his father. The local staff couldn't persuade him otherwise so he came to Kathmandu where he met the local Director here, Shailaja CM, and she talked him into changing his mind. By the time he got to me it had become an easy interview. He gave me a big hug before he left the room. This is another example of how our refuge children's parents mess their children's lives up leading to their coming to our care in the first place. Thereafter, given the chance, they continue to do so.
The news on the international adoption process has been encouraging this week. It appears that the files at our District office (Lalitpur) were due to be sent off yesterday and there is a prospect of a committee meeting this week to begin to look at all the files. That's what I heard from the refuge where our child came from. But the locals would tell you anything to make you happy....
Sunday 25 November 2007
Sunday in Godawari
I shot this footage this morning of girls in my mosaic studio, peacefully chipping away at their artworks in advance of our forthcoming UK exhibition. They are working on subjects ranging from Saints (as depicted in the Irish Book of Kells) to UK football club logos. All of these girls are trafficking victims, sold once by their families into a life of every kind of abuse as “performers” inside Indian circuses. Now they are proving to everyone their real worth and they’re very happy. See:
This afternoon I paid a visit to our refuge just down the road to see four newly-arrived children. They are siblings of two girls who were already in our care, both circus returnees. One girl, Bipana, had been working in my mosaic studio but hadn't returned from the Dashain holiday (see earlier post on "Dashain problems"). Apparently she comes from a very poor family with very inadequate, drunken parents and she had felt compelled to stay at home 
to look after younger siblings. So our field staff retrieved Bipana along with the two siblings meaning that Bipana can return to the work that she loves and her two young brothers can go to a decent school. The other two children are brother and sister to Pramila. Their father has just died and the mother has been very ill, so again, in the absence of a safety net we have responded to a genuine need that will allow Pramila to continue her studies at school in Kathmandu. When I arrived at the refuge I found the children having a haircut. The girl looked worried. Given that the amateur hairdresser was refuge carer Dilu, I think her concern was probably justified.
Friday 23 November 2007
Resurrection
In my 16th November post "Rural Education in Nepal" I showed a photograph
of a Lime Swallowtail butterfly that I had found dead outside my house. Laxmi, whom we rescued from an Indian circus in April 2004, has brought it back to life in mosaic. I wonder if she sees a parallel with her own situation, the resurrection she has experienced in becoming a mosaic artist after the living death she must have endured inside the circus?
of a Lime Swallowtail butterfly that I had found dead outside my house. Laxmi, whom we rescued from an Indian circus in April 2004, has brought it back to life in mosaic. I wonder if she sees a parallel with her own situation, the resurrection she has experienced in becoming a mosaic artist after the living death she must have endured inside the circus?
Wednesday 21 November 2007
Kathmandu Zoo
My posts will be rather thin this week as Bev has had to go back to UK for a few days and I am left literally holding the baby. At fifteen months Alisha is quite a handful but a very delightful one at that. I have vowed that I will never complain about having a child. It used to rankle with me hearing others in the past sharing their difficulties with their children unaware of how greater was the pain of childlessness in some in their audience. One particularly thoughtless woman once told Esther that she was lucky not to have had children.
Today I distracted Alisha with a trip to the zoo, this being her first ever. I am not a fan of zoos at all but I do still remember clearly my first trip to the zoo and the positive impression it made upon me. Maybe this visit, and subsequent ones, will serve to imprint upon Alisha an awareness for animals at an early stage. The zoo was nowhere near as bad as I had expected it to be. OK, it was very Nepali with some animals in the wrong compounds - the buck deer (as depicted on our Christmas card mosaic) were labelled as being "barking deer". Other compounds had no guide signs at all. There was a very splendid mountain partridge (chukka), which I recognised from a previous mosaic that one of the girls had made, wandering around in another cage apparently unidentified. Some signs were in English, some in Nepali and so on...
Most shocking of all was the shrieking of the pupils in the visiting school parties that was potentially so disturbing for animals without any effort being made at teacher restraint. And in spite of the signs outside the zoo asking visitors not to tease the animals, clearly some teenagers were causing some provocation as they went along. Nepal is a very benign and easy-going place to live but this teasing seems to be endemic. It also seems to go hand in hand with stigma and what the animals have to endure at Kathmandu zoo mirrors a cruelty that in our experience disabled kids, street kids, prison kids and former circus kids have to live with in their daily lives.
Today I distracted Alisha with a trip to the zoo, this being her first ever. I am not a fan of zoos at all but I do still remember clearly my first trip to the zoo and the positive impression it made upon me. Maybe this visit, and subsequent ones, will serve to imprint upon Alisha an awareness for animals at an early stage. The zoo was nowhere near as bad as I had expected it to be. OK, it was very Nepali with some animals in the wrong compounds - the buck deer (as depicted on our Christmas card mosaic) were labelled as being "barking deer". Other compounds had no guide signs at all. There was a very splendid mountain partridge (chukka), which I recognised from a previous mosaic that one of the girls had made, wandering around in another cage apparently unidentified. Some signs were in English, some in Nepali and so on...
Most shocking of all was the shrieking of the pupils in the visiting school parties that was potentially so disturbing for animals without any effort being made at teacher restraint. And in spite of the signs outside the zoo asking visitors not to tease the animals, clearly some teenagers were causing some provocation as they went along. Nepal is a very benign and easy-going place to live but this teasing seems to be endemic. It also seems to go hand in hand with stigma and what the animals have to endure at Kathmandu zoo mirrors a cruelty that in our experience disabled kids, street kids, prison kids and former circus kids have to live with in their daily lives.
Sunday 18 November 2007
An Auspicious Day
The first consignment of mosaics left my Kathmandu mosaic studio yesterday en route to the exhibition that we will be holding in Skipton, North Yorkshire, UK on the 4th December. The excitement of the girls was tangible and sweet to witness. It must have been amazing for them to be preparing for such an event so soon after having been trapped inside miserable Indian circuses. The central exhibit will be the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism. For the unitiated, like me, they are:
two fish - symbols of happiness and utility
the white parasol - keeps away the heat of evil desires
two fish - symbols of happiness and utility
seashell - symbol of blessedness to the right
lotus - pledge of salvation and symbol of divine origin
vessel - treasury of all desires
victory - banner erected on Mt Meru, centre of the Buddhist cosmos
wheel - eight spokes represent the eight fold path
endless knot - mystic diagram representing endless rebirths
Whatever one makes of the religious significance of these, or otherwise, I think they look great and the girls have really excelled themselves in subject material that they can relate to. I am very tempted to buy these myself to celebrate the auspicious day when we complete our international adoption process with Alisha. That will be something that she too can treasure in later life and always have as a valued, and no doubt much-needed, reminder of her native land.
Saturday 17 November 2007
Charity Founders meet in Nepal
Whenever you hear of a charity with a personal name attached, it is often the case that there is a tragedy (usually a death) underlying its founding. Such is the case with The Esther Benjamins Trust, named after my first wife who died so tragically back in 1999 (see the link to the story of the Trust in my own words at the bottom of the page). Last evening I had dinner in Kathmandu with Richard Carss who is on a flying visit to Nepal. He founded the Zoe Carss Education Trust after the death of his daughter in Thailand in 1996. Just prior to her visit there she had been teaching as a gap year student (age 18) in Nepal. Uncannily - and we see so many of these overlaps - I discovered that the school that she had taught at is a mere 200 yards from my home here in Godawari.
Richard's UK-based Zoe Carss Education Trust now funds education projects in South Africa (Richard's wife is a South African) and in Nepal. For the last couple of years the Trust has funded our schools' capital development project in Makwanpur and adjacent districts. Funds have been spent on enhancements at under-resourced government schools in villages within those districts. But as I wrote in a previous post, I now have serious reservations about such activities, attractively tangible as they might be in a land where so much development funding seems to vanish into the ether. My misgivings are based upon the pathetic quality of the education in these schools and a fundamentally flawed rote learning system. We can't repair these deep fault lines and providing funds to such schools only seems to condone unacceptable standards. On an entirely personal front, I am no longer convinced that I wish to remember Esther (and now Zoe) through the construction of school compound walls and toilet blocks. Moreover, as charitable organisations I feel we should be at the cutting edge of social change, setting an example for others to follow.
I discussed with Richard my latest idea of setting up a special school in Kathmandu dedicated entirely to serving the victims of child trafficking. This would pull together two of our initiatives that are currently underway as pilot projects. In Bhairahawa we have been running educational bridging courses that are designed to fast track returnees (including the pictured girls) who have no previous education into school at a level appropriate to their age. This course was set up by us last May in response to the returnees' request for a proper education (rather than a half-hearted non-formal education p
rovision) and a wish not to join school and sit in class with infants. In parallel in Kathmandu we have been running an art workshop for returnees that has been teaching ceramics and mosaic techniques to older girls. This started in September and we have been enjoying the support of UK volunteer and professional potter Alex Hunter in this exciting development that will lead to jobs within the arts and crafts sector in Nepal. We see great merit in collocating both activities so that returnees have the option to mix their interests and see which pathway suits them better. A school in Kathmandu would be more readily accessible to Western volunteer teachers, both artistic and academic, and would put an appropriate distance between the students and their families in rural areas who only spoil their daughters' chances in life (again) by interfering in our provision.
I have shared this vision with Richard and we concur on the desirability of moving on to a higher level. It remains to be seen exactly what shape that partnership will take.
Sitting at the dinner table last evening and discussing our respective personal bereavements it inevitably became quite emotional. I was reminded by that once again of how gut-wrenching and fresh that sense of loss remains. But rather than being a pair of sad, inward looking people we find ourselves both here in a foreign land trying to make it a better place for some of the country's most vulnerable children. The human response to trauma can be quite paradoxical and perhaps it is our capacity to rise above this that sets us apart from animals and reflects the divine that is within us all, whether we choose to recognise it or not. The divine that happens to be saluted through the Nepali routine greeting of "Namaste".
Richard's UK-based Zoe Carss Education Trust now funds education projects in South Africa (Richard's wife is a South African) and in Nepal. For the last couple of years the Trust has funded our schools' capital development project in Makwanpur and adjacent districts. Funds have been spent on enhancements at under-resourced government schools in villages within those districts. But as I wrote in a previous post, I now have serious reservations about such activities, attractively tangible as they might be in a land where so much development funding seems to vanish into the ether. My misgivings are based upon the pathetic quality of the education in these schools and a fundamentally flawed rote learning system. We can't repair these deep fault lines and providing funds to such schools only seems to condone unacceptable standards. On an entirely personal front, I am no longer convinced that I wish to remember Esther (and now Zoe) through the construction of school compound walls and toilet blocks. Moreover, as charitable organisations I feel we should be at the cutting edge of social change, setting an example for others to follow.
I discussed with Richard my latest idea of setting up a special school in Kathmandu dedicated entirely to serving the victims of child trafficking. This would pull together two of our initiatives that are currently underway as pilot projects. In Bhairahawa we have been running educational bridging courses that are designed to fast track returnees (including the pictured girls) who have no previous education into school at a level appropriate to their age. This course was set up by us last May in response to the returnees' request for a proper education (rather than a half-hearted non-formal education p
rovision) and a wish not to join school and sit in class with infants. In parallel in Kathmandu we have been running an art workshop for returnees that has been teaching ceramics and mosaic techniques to older girls. This started in September and we have been enjoying the support of UK volunteer and professional potter Alex Hunter in this exciting development that will lead to jobs within the arts and crafts sector in Nepal. We see great merit in collocating both activities so that returnees have the option to mix their interests and see which pathway suits them better. A school in Kathmandu would be more readily accessible to Western volunteer teachers, both artistic and academic, and would put an appropriate distance between the students and their families in rural areas who only spoil their daughters' chances in life (again) by interfering in our provision.I have shared this vision with Richard and we concur on the desirability of moving on to a higher level. It remains to be seen exactly what shape that partnership will take.
Sitting at the dinner table last evening and discussing our respective personal bereavements it inevitably became quite emotional. I was reminded by that once again of how gut-wrenching and fresh that sense of loss remains. But rather than being a pair of sad, inward looking people we find ourselves both here in a foreign land trying to make it a better place for some of the country's most vulnerable children. The human response to trauma can be quite paradoxical and perhaps it is our capacity to rise above this that sets us apart from animals and reflects the divine that is within us all, whether we choose to recognise it or not. The divine that happens to be saluted through the Nepali routine greeting of "Namaste".
Friday 16 November 2007
Hello to International Adopters
The two or three visitors to my Blog of a few days ago enquiring about international adoption in Nepal (a pleasant change from Google search words like "sexual massage Kathmandu") has turned into a flood. Most notable has been all those readers from the USA who may have been sent the link to my Blog through an adopters' forum.
No doubt like me you were beginning to wonder why it seems to be so difficult and painful to become a parent in every respect, why children (and sometimes aspiring parents) have had to stay in Nepalese children's homes in the meantime and if there would ever be light at the end of this particularly long tunnel. That light seems to be there now.
I now wish you everything that you would wish for yourselves and great joy in your adoptions.
No doubt like me you were beginning to wonder why it seems to be so difficult and painful to become a parent in every respect, why children (and sometimes aspiring parents) have had to stay in Nepalese children's homes in the meantime and if there would ever be light at the end of this particularly long tunnel. That light seems to be there now.
I now wish you everything that you would wish for yourselves and great joy in your adoptions.
Thursday 15 November 2007
Rural education in Nepal
I am about to host a visit from one of our UK funders, Mr Richard Carss, whose Foundation has been funding some of our work with rural schools in Makwanpur and adjacent districts. While we have been providing scholarships, his Foundation has been funding capital enhancements - classroom builds, toilet blocks, classroom furniture and the like. I intend to be totally frank with him in that I am increasingly of the opinion that we have been misguided in propping up a flawed system. And those who purport to support the existing system are often kidding themselves and others.
In previous posts I have mentioned the problems in village schools with huge classes, chronic under-resourcing and the routine rote form of learning that burdens children's memories pointlessly while stifling their creativity. Therein lie some of the intrinsic flaws. However, as part of a pursuit of the Holy Grail of increasing attendance and reducing drop out rates (especially for girls) incentives are used to motivate the children and their families that can totally backfire. I am currently refusing to fund any kind of a feeding programme in village schools in Rupendehi district as that fosters dependency (which once started is hard to break away from) and provides the wrong motivation to attend classes. I point to an example of how well-intentioned NGOs can get it wrong in an item that appeared in yesterday's Himalayan newspaper. It was reported that in one rural district an NGO has offered the incentive of two litres of cooking oil per month provided per child that attends classes. It seems that this has now become the only pathetic reason that families send their children to school. Children can keep repeating the same year at school over and over again, failing exams and without making any educational progress while continuing to receive oil. One mother said:
"If my daughter fails this year, we could get the oil for one more year. If she passes she will go to a distant school and there will be no one to do the household chores too. I will ask the teachers to fail my daughter this year."
So at the end of this programme (if the NGO can ever detach itself from it) the statistics will point to increased attendance of pupils and everyone, as I stated above, is fooled, including themselves. Indeed the "success" may become a paradigm for managing this endemic problem. Meantime the children will have achieved nothing, exploited by parents who seem to value them only in terms of a few paltry gallons of oil. This is why I believe we need to engage in something different and I will elaborate upon this in a later post.
In previous posts I have mentioned the problems in village schools with huge classes, chronic under-resourcing and the routine rote form of learning that burdens children's memories pointlessly while stifling their creativity. Therein lie some of the intrinsic flaws. However, as part of a pursuit of the Holy Grail of increasing attendance and reducing drop out rates (especially for girls) incentives are used to motivate the children and their families that can totally backfire. I am currently refusing to fund any kind of a feeding programme in village schools in Rupendehi district as that fosters dependency (which once started is hard to break away from) and provides the wrong motivation to attend classes. I point to an example of how well-intentioned NGOs can get it wrong in an item that appeared in yesterday's Himalayan newspaper. It was reported that in one rural district an NGO has offered the incentive of two litres of cooking oil per month provided per child that attends classes. It seems that this has now become the only pathetic reason that families send their children to school. Children can keep repeating the same year at school over and over again, failing exams and without making any educational progress while continuing to receive oil. One mother said:
"If my daughter fails this year, we could get the oil for one more year. If she passes she will go to a distant school and there will be no one to do the household chores too. I will ask the teachers to fail my daughter this year."
So at the end of this programme (if the NGO can ever detach itself from it) the statistics will point to increased attendance of pupils and everyone, as I stated above, is fooled, including themselves. Indeed the "success" may become a paradigm for managing this endemic problem. Meantime the children will have achieved nothing, exploited by parents who seem to value them only in terms of a few paltry gallons of oil. This is why I believe we need to engage in something different and I will elaborate upon this in a later post.
It appears that the word is getting out internationally about progress on the international adoption situation in Nepal. Over the last day or two I have been obtaining more hits on this site from overseas couples who are suddenly - and understandably - researching the subject. So for those who haven't heard the news, the 440 pending cases are now going to be processed with the case files re-opened last Sunday for the first time in months. Maybe within six months they will all have been cleared, but this latter statement is a guess on my part.
This morning I found the butterfly pictured right lying dead by the roadside. This beautiful creature is a Lime Swallowtail, apparently quite common in this part of the country. I
n fact, interestingly Nepal has an estimated 850 species of butterflies and over half of them can be found here in Godawari. The aim now is for us to perform an act of resurrection, converting this butterfly into a vital mosaic and presenting it our mosaic exhibition in Skipton, U.K. on the 4th December. How rewarding that will be!
n fact, interestingly Nepal has an estimated 850 species of butterflies and over half of them can be found here in Godawari. The aim now is for us to perform an act of resurrection, converting this butterfly into a vital mosaic and presenting it our mosaic exhibition in Skipton, U.K. on the 4th December. How rewarding that will be!
Wednesday 14 November 2007
Himalaya and Habula
The weather is now crisp and sunny in Nepal and the clear early morning air
affords spectacular views of the Himalayas as I walk the dogs down the Godawari Road. The dramatic scene from my front lawn this morning is pictured right.
affords spectacular views of the Himalayas as I walk the dogs down the Godawari Road. The dramatic scene from my front lawn this morning is pictured right.Each morning our guard/factotum Habula plays a key role in coordinating the four dogs before they pass through the front gate. He's a very lovely man, probably well past it when it comes to 
providing strong arm security, but his strength lies probably in his being a local man and in his friends and neighbours who therefore provide local surveillance. This service is vitally important as being Westerners we are automatically considered by Nepalis to be rich and are potential prey to thieves who think nothing of robbing at knife-point. One of my colleague's brothers was murdered in such a theft last year.
providing strong arm security, but his strength lies probably in his being a local man and in his friends and neighbours who therefore provide local surveillance. This service is vitally important as being Westerners we are automatically considered by Nepalis to be rich and are potential prey to thieves who think nothing of robbing at knife-point. One of my colleague's brothers was murdered in such a theft last year. Last week Habula was in great distress as his wife was admitted to hospital requiring surgery for gall stones. This simple man sat on the ground outside the house in tears as he talked to Bev, fully believing that his wife was about to die just like the young adult son he lost a few years ago. He was also concerned about the cost of the operation. We funded that in the end for the princely sum of £80 and she's now home and well. However talking to him this morning it emerged that the lady who had been in the adjacent bed to his wife had been sent home as they couldn't afford the surgery. It appears that there is provision for poor people to obtain hospital funding for such eventualities but illiterate rural people don't know how to access the funds. On the other hand well off people cheat their way through the system and get free surgery. C'est la vie in Nepal.
Bev has just spent ten minutes on the phone to the new outgoing Nepalese Ambassador to the UK discussing the adoption interests of the three sets of British nationals, selves included, who are currently living in Nepal. He readily agreed to meet with the three prospective mothers. It then turned out that she had actually been given totally the wrong number and had been making this arrangement with a policeman. No doubt he spotted a possibility to make a few pounds from our intentions and felt that goddess Laxmi had indeed visited his home over Tihar.
Tuesday 13 November 2007
Predatory parents
The fall out from the Dashain holidays continues. We had anticipated problems arising for our girls when they returned home for their annual visit to their no-good families. Three have not returned, one of them getting married and another engaged. Today, the mother of a fourth girl turned up at the Kathmandu hostel were the mosaic girls stay, looking for money off her daughter Maya (name changed). Maya had gone home for Dashain with a lot of money in her pocket and now the greedy mother wanted more.
Maya's story began in April 2004 when we rescued her from an Indian circus in Kerala. Her family background was dreadful - no known father and a mother involved in the sex trade. After a great deal of thought we decided to take a risk and return her to her mother (at the time family reunifications being top priority) but we discovered soon afterwards that her mother had promptly sent her off into domestic service (slavery) in Kathmandu. So the field worker who had rescued her from the circus had to rescue her a second time, this time from a house in Kathmandu. Maya then came to live at our children's refuge and attended school for a couple of years before beginning my mosaic training last October. She is a brilliant artist and has been rewarded very well financially for her efforts. Now the mother who has spoiled her life twice stands to spoil it again if we don't take action. Maya is very happy to give her money though, perhaps in an attempt to buy love and some kind of family connection.
After some discussion this morning with fellow carers I have decided that the girls at my studio who will sign contracts with Himalayan Mosaics at the start of next month will agree to how their wages are managed during the term of their contracts. They will pay for their keep and receive a modest amount of pocket money. The remainder will be locked away in a savings account until completion of their contract. If they need anything urgently in the meantime then it will be only by agreement of the employer (me).
It is difficult to anticpate everything over here, but that should keep the predatory parents at bay.
Maya's story began in April 2004 when we rescued her from an Indian circus in Kerala. Her family background was dreadful - no known father and a mother involved in the sex trade. After a great deal of thought we decided to take a risk and return her to her mother (at the time family reunifications being top priority) but we discovered soon afterwards that her mother had promptly sent her off into domestic service (slavery) in Kathmandu. So the field worker who had rescued her from the circus had to rescue her a second time, this time from a house in Kathmandu. Maya then came to live at our children's refuge and attended school for a couple of years before beginning my mosaic training last October. She is a brilliant artist and has been rewarded very well financially for her efforts. Now the mother who has spoiled her life twice stands to spoil it again if we don't take action. Maya is very happy to give her money though, perhaps in an attempt to buy love and some kind of family connection.
After some discussion this morning with fellow carers I have decided that the girls at my studio who will sign contracts with Himalayan Mosaics at the start of next month will agree to how their wages are managed during the term of their contracts. They will pay for their keep and receive a modest amount of pocket money. The remainder will be locked away in a savings account until completion of their contract. If they need anything urgently in the meantime then it will be only by agreement of the employer (me).
It is difficult to anticpate everything over here, but that should keep the predatory parents at bay.
Monday 12 November 2007
Mosaics at an exhibition
The girls in my studio in Godawari, Kathmandu, are working flat out to meet
a mosaics exhibition deadline. Our old friends at Namaste-UK Ltd (http://www.namaste-uk.com/) visited the studio last month and were so taken by the work that they immediately offered to stage an exhibition in Skipton on the 4th December. That is excruciatingly tight, but we've pulled the stops out to not only deliver the goods but also to produce some new designs. These include some Tibetan themes like the jewellry and carpet motifs pictured right. I will be giving a talk at the exhibition and we're crossing our fingers that it will be well attended by potential buyers and give Himalayan Mosaics a great early 
boost.
But of course these days you don't have to leave home to attend an exhibition. London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse are now very kindly hosting an exhibition of our mosaics through Second Life. If you haven't signed up for Second Life you can get a flavour of this initiative here:
http://www.ffw.com/news/2007/nov/art-exhibition-realsecond-lif.aspx
a mosaics exhibition deadline. Our old friends at Namaste-UK Ltd (http://www.namaste-uk.com/) visited the studio last month and were so taken by the work that they immediately offered to stage an exhibition in Skipton on the 4th December. That is excruciatingly tight, but we've pulled the stops out to not only deliver the goods but also to produce some new designs. These include some Tibetan themes like the jewellry and carpet motifs pictured right. I will be giving a talk at the exhibition and we're crossing our fingers that it will be well attended by potential buyers and give Himalayan Mosaics a great early 
boost.But of course these days you don't have to leave home to attend an exhibition. London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse are now very kindly hosting an exhibition of our mosaics through Second Life. If you haven't signed up for Second Life you can get a flavour of this initiative here:
http://www.ffw.com/news/2007/nov/art-exhibition-realsecond-lif.aspx
Sunday 11 November 2007
Prosperity in Nepal
Last night was a noisy one, with drums and singing going on in the village above our house until daylight (and even a bit beyond). All of this was on the eve of today being the main day of the Tihar festival and no doubt the rumpus represented a final drive to encourage a visit from Laxmi, the goddess of prosperity. Having a goddess of prosperity seems a bit of an odd concept within a religion. It certainly goes totally against the drift of other main religions, like Christianity and Buddhism, that postively eschew wealth (at least in their teachings if not in practice). It also strikes me as being rather simplistic to assess prosperity in terms of rupees; a nation's true prosperity lies in its values and how it manages those at the bottom end of society. From what I have seen here this nation is very poor in that regard. It also seems that it is optimistic in the extreme to expect a goddess to arrive and deliver "prosperity" in whatever form one wishes to intepret that term. Prosperity, be it financial or social, has to be worked for and in respect of the latter a sea change in attitudes within society is an absolute prerequisite.
This was Remembrance Sunday and the occasion was marked at The British Embassy in Kathmandu in spite of the general disinterest of The British Ambassador who, as anticipated, was absent from the ceremony. The service was held in the open air and I was delighted to see extra chairs having to be brought in to accommodate the numbers that attended. The Gurkha officers and soldiers looked splendid in their Service Dress and slouch hats; they were displaying an admirable collection of medals, reflecting a huge amount of service to the Crown. And the padre spoke well, the criterion of that being that he kept my attention from drifting unduly on a day that in its nature lends itself to mind wandering.
That said, I did find myself thinking a lot about a lad called Gordon Turnbull, killed in 1943 at Anzio (south of Rome) while fighting with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at the age of 23. Gordon was my father's cousin and 24 years ago while on holiday in Italy I made a pilgrimage to his grave. That visit was particularly poignant as at the time I too was in uniform as a young Army captain, I was also 23 and I believe the first member of the family to pay respects at his grave in 40 years. At the time of his death Gordon was unmarried and I had thought that was the end of it all. That is until this year when I dipped into "Genes Reunited" on the internet and found a lady mentioning his name and seeking relatives. I responded and it emerged that Gordon had fathered a girl before joining up; that girl had been adopted out and forgotten about. She had lost her roots, a loss that must have seemed very final after her father's untimely death. She has suffered severe depression and is now in care back in Northern Ireland. However I have been very pleased to make indirect contact with this hitherto forgotten second cousin through her daughter and to start to broker links between her children and their cousins that I do know of from within the family. This all illustrates that a soldier's death sixty four years ago is not necessarily in the past and as well as remembering that sacrifice we must also remember the legacy of loss that so often continues to this day.
On a brighter note, the Kathmandu refuge children came to my house yesterday to perform song and dance ("Bhailo") as part of the Tihar festivities. Seventy of them - former street children, prison children and circus children - turned up along with a few of their carers. It is amazing and hugely rewarding to see how they have matured (some have been with us for almost seven years now) and exude confidence and joie de vivre. For me, that's what the charity is all about. Here's some of the footage that I recorded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0CdZ_BWxA
This was Remembrance Sunday and the occasion was marked at The British Embassy in Kathmandu in spite of the general disinterest of The British Ambassador who, as anticipated, was absent from the ceremony. The service was held in the open air and I was delighted to see extra chairs having to be brought in to accommodate the numbers that attended. The Gurkha officers and soldiers looked splendid in their Service Dress and slouch hats; they were displaying an admirable collection of medals, reflecting a huge amount of service to the Crown. And the padre spoke well, the criterion of that being that he kept my attention from drifting unduly on a day that in its nature lends itself to mind wandering.
That said, I did find myself thinking a lot about a lad called Gordon Turnbull, killed in 1943 at Anzio (south of Rome) while fighting with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at the age of 23. Gordon was my father's cousin and 24 years ago while on holiday in Italy I made a pilgrimage to his grave. That visit was particularly poignant as at the time I too was in uniform as a young Army captain, I was also 23 and I believe the first member of the family to pay respects at his grave in 40 years. At the time of his death Gordon was unmarried and I had thought that was the end of it all. That is until this year when I dipped into "Genes Reunited" on the internet and found a lady mentioning his name and seeking relatives. I responded and it emerged that Gordon had fathered a girl before joining up; that girl had been adopted out and forgotten about. She had lost her roots, a loss that must have seemed very final after her father's untimely death. She has suffered severe depression and is now in care back in Northern Ireland. However I have been very pleased to make indirect contact with this hitherto forgotten second cousin through her daughter and to start to broker links between her children and their cousins that I do know of from within the family. This all illustrates that a soldier's death sixty four years ago is not necessarily in the past and as well as remembering that sacrifice we must also remember the legacy of loss that so often continues to this day.
On a brighter note, the Kathmandu refuge children came to my house yesterday to perform song and dance ("Bhailo") as part of the Tihar festivities. Seventy of them - former street children, prison children and circus children - turned up along with a few of their carers. It is amazing and hugely rewarding to see how they have matured (some have been with us for almost seven years now) and exude confidence and joie de vivre. For me, that's what the charity is all about. Here's some of the footage that I recorded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0CdZ_BWxA
Saturday 10 November 2007
A short film from Bhairahawa
Last evening there were a series of power cuts as a result of the feeble local grid collapsing under the overload of the system by people illuminating their houses for Laxmi. Even if Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, were to be enticed into people's homes and lives it seems that the local power supply's failings could undermine any attempt at their attaining the desired prosperity. The power cuts also prevented me from uploading a video I took yesterday of the children rehearsing a dance. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVpmzyC463A
The boy who is dancing, Akash, is one of two brothers that we found outside Tansen jail away back in October 2000. They were sleeping rough and getting food through the bars from their imprisoned mother. Akash is now a tremendous all-rounder, great academically, at sport and also at dance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVpmzyC463A
The boy who is dancing, Akash, is one of two brothers that we found outside Tansen jail away back in October 2000. They were sleeping rough and getting food through the bars from their imprisoned mother. Akash is now a tremendous all-rounder, great academically, at sport and also at dance!
Friday 9 November 2007
A visit to our refuge children in Bhairahawa
Today I paid a flying visit to Bhairahawa in the southwest of Nepal, close to the Indian border. It's where our work started out eight years ago before it expanded to Kathmandu and Hetauda. It remains home to 28 school age children (rescued from prisons or life on the streets) at the so called "White House" refuge and another 25 former circus children in the "Blue House" and "Red House" who are a little older. This latter group are undertaking a fast track course that will take them from 
zilch 
education to joining class 8 (about age 14) in a couple of years, essentially joining school at a level more appropriate to their age.
zilch 
education to joining class 8 (about age 14) in a couple of years, essentially joining school at a level more appropriate to their age. At the White House I was pleased to meet our four latest arrivals - two girls who are sisters of a former street boy that we'd been caring for and a boy and a girl that we have just brought from inside Tulsipur jail in the far west of the country. Assisted by the Director of our partner organisation, ex British Army Gurkha Gunraj Gurung, I was able to mount five mosaics at the buildings, mosaics that had been made in by Godawari studio and commissioned by supporters in the UK (www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/commissionamosaic.htm). The kids were clearly thrilled by these.
The White House children were all of school today as this is Day Three of the Tihar Festival. Day One and Day Two involved worship of the crow and the dog respectively. Today it was the turn of the nation's cows to receive a tika on the forehead and a garland. And after dusk the goddess of wealth, Laxmi, is worshipped and Nepali houses are festooned with lights (fairy or candles) in an attempt to entice her inside their dwellings. Children go from door to door singing and dancing, the so called "Bhailo", for which they receive modest amounts of money from appreciative neighbours. The White House children were rehearsing this afternoon and are aiming to raise enough pocket money to pay for a picnic for themselves.
Thursday 8 November 2007
Tihar concerns
Today we asked our staff member, former circus girl Anita, to make flower garlands for our four dogs. To outsiders that may seem like evidence that we've finally cracked after three years of living in Nepal and that we are now engaged in eccentricities worthy of Zsa Zsa Gabor or Paris Hilton. But no, this is day two of the five day festival of Tihar which follows hot on the heels of Dashain and is the equivalent of Diwali, the festival of lights, in India. Day one sees the locals worshipping the crow and they leave out food for them to enjoy. Day two, Kukur Tihar, has the nation paying homage to the dog population 
with dogs receiving garlands and tika symbols on their foreheads. Like many things in Nepal that all feels a bit false given how little interest is paid in dogs for the other 364 days of the year. Worse, dogs are the victims of mange and horrible injuries that everyone ignores. Stray dogs are stoned, beaten and teased. From our own monitoring of the road between here in Godawari and Kathmandu we are all too aware of how many are killed by reckless drivers. I remain haunted by the sight this day last year of a garlanded dog lying dead in the middle of the road.
Monday 5 November 2007
Birthday mosaics
The Kathmandu mosaic studio re-opened yesterday. Two other girls haven't returned after the Dashain break. One, Bipana, who had been struggling somewhat, has stayed behind with her family. Another, Bishnu, has got engaged. I doubt if either of them will come back to us.
It is quite a challenge to keep the studio girls' interest going, especially if one is wor
king to favourite designs that can become repetitive (sadly a business requirement). So I work hard to give them some variety. Yesterday we held a special children's lunchtime birthday party for the daughter of one of my expatriate friends in Kathmandu. Six children spent about four hours with us making their own individual mosaic pieces to keep. As children's hands tend to be a bit too small to hold the cutters and too weak to cut the tiles the studio girls ended up doing most of the work. Although this is fun it is also a source of income to the organisation. There's no such thing as a free lunch....
king to favourite designs that can become repetitive (sadly a business requirement). So I work hard to give them some variety. Yesterday we held a special children's lunchtime birthday party for the daughter of one of my expatriate friends in Kathmandu. Six children spent about four hours with us making their own individual mosaic pieces to keep. As children's hands tend to be a bit too small to hold the cutters and too weak to cut the tiles the studio girls ended up doing most of the work. Although this is fun it is also a source of income to the organisation. There's no such thing as a free lunch....
Friday 2 November 2007
Dashain difficulties
Each October we reunite children who are in our refuge care in Kathmandu with their families for the main Hindu festival of Dashain. We see this as being the bare minimum that we can do to maintain the family contacts that are so important in Nepalese society. It´s always a nerve wracking time for us though, for in doing so we expose the children and teenagers to family agendas that may not necessarily be in their best interests. Village families have little comprehension of the progress that their youngsters are making with us and they can spoil that success by pushing children in other disastrous directions. Last year we only just managed to stop a father sending his very talented son back to the exploitation of the circus, no doubt for a few dollars in return. Under our care that boy is now not only doing really well at school but also has become one of the top gymnasts in the country. I wouldn´t be surprised to see him in a future Nepal Olympic team.
This year we had a mini crisis over Priya. She was one of the two girls that I started training in mosaic art this time last year - an initiative that has now been extended to 16 others in my Kathmandu studio. She quickly became a top artist, having the perfect combination of skill and speed at her work. But her vulnerability is a case in point. She had returned from the circus to find both of her parents had committed suicide. Her aunt duly packed her off to another kind of slave labour inside a Kathmandu carpet factory and we rescued her from there in July last year. Last month she, like many other kids, wanted to go "home" for Dashain and of course we couldn´t stop her as she´s a free person. Then we received the news that she´d got married (she´s barely sixteen) to a boy that she knew from the carpet factory. That seemed to be the end of her short career and this otherwise totally uneducated girl appeared to be rejoining the cycle of poverty from which she had so briefly emerged. However it seems that all is not lost as we have since heard that she is very happy to be married and will set up home in Kathmandu. She also wants to continue with her mosaic work and I am very glad to agree to that wish. Hopefully having a good income - no doubt better than her husband´s - will help with the stability of the marriage. In the harsh reality of daily life in Nepal a wife who has economic value will be valued all the more.
This is the last day of my holiday in Spain. It has provided a break from the chaos of living in Nepal and allowed me to find some time to relax. I have also found the creative space to plan the future of my new company "Himalayan Mosaics" and develop some fresh directions for the Trust. It´s really been just what the doctor ordered - or more correctly what my wife Bev ordered. I am now ready for the fray once again.
This year we had a mini crisis over Priya. She was one of the two girls that I started training in mosaic art this time last year - an initiative that has now been extended to 16 others in my Kathmandu studio. She quickly became a top artist, having the perfect combination of skill and speed at her work. But her vulnerability is a case in point. She had returned from the circus to find both of her parents had committed suicide. Her aunt duly packed her off to another kind of slave labour inside a Kathmandu carpet factory and we rescued her from there in July last year. Last month she, like many other kids, wanted to go "home" for Dashain and of course we couldn´t stop her as she´s a free person. Then we received the news that she´d got married (she´s barely sixteen) to a boy that she knew from the carpet factory. That seemed to be the end of her short career and this otherwise totally uneducated girl appeared to be rejoining the cycle of poverty from which she had so briefly emerged. However it seems that all is not lost as we have since heard that she is very happy to be married and will set up home in Kathmandu. She also wants to continue with her mosaic work and I am very glad to agree to that wish. Hopefully having a good income - no doubt better than her husband´s - will help with the stability of the marriage. In the harsh reality of daily life in Nepal a wife who has economic value will be valued all the more.
This is the last day of my holiday in Spain. It has provided a break from the chaos of living in Nepal and allowed me to find some time to relax. I have also found the creative space to plan the future of my new company "Himalayan Mosaics" and develop some fresh directions for the Trust. It´s really been just what the doctor ordered - or more correctly what my wife Bev ordered. I am now ready for the fray once again.
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Kathmandu sex lady
I am interested to note that my Blog which has now been running since July has had a total of 1,156 visits. The feedback I receive indicates that a good few of these hits are from readers who are probably researching sexual liaison potential for a forthcoming visit to Nepal. The tell tale sign is the search words that they use in Google which leads to my site; one reader from Delhi has just googled the words "Kathmandu sex lady". So I now make good use of such words in my labels in the hope that those with unhealthy intentions (in every respect) just pause to think for a nanosecond on the consequences of their actions. I hope they think of the vulnerable village girls who are being so ruthlessly exploited by pimps and gangs. I hope they think of the children who are now being criminally abused in Kathmandu massage parlours. And I hope they think of the burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis that hangs over Nepal and the contribution that they might be making towards that. If they want a fuller picture then I refer them to my Blog post of 6th September.
Above all, I hope they stay at home.
Above all, I hope they stay at home.
Monday 29 October 2007
"Today is occupated"
Today it´s day six of my two week break in Spain and I´m in Toledo. I deliberately booked myself into a decent hotel that offered business centre facilities as I´ve a bit of catching up to do on the work of the charity. But the receptionist has just told me that in respect of the business centre "today is occupated". So I am confined to use of the internet which is better than nothing.
For the first part of the holiday I was joined by my friend Kathleen "Kik" Kimball who I´d the pleasure to meet on my mosaic course/holiday in Florence last year. Kik is from New Hampshire and a very talented artist who specialises in fused glass techniques:
http://www.cp-kik.com/About.htm
On this link Kik is the artist on the left of shot; she doesn´t like having her picture taken (as I´ve discovered over the past few days!). Kik also has more than a passing interest in Eastern art and is a Feng Shui Mater:
http://www.waterdragoninc.com
As you might guess from all of this Kik is an inspirational individual and has been tremendous company as we explored Cordoba and Granada together. A great deal of her time during the holiday has been given over to helping me with thoughts and designs for my "Himalayan Mosaics" project. At this critical juncture that has been time very well spent and I´ll be forever grateful for that.
For the first part of the holiday I was joined by my friend Kathleen "Kik" Kimball who I´d the pleasure to meet on my mosaic course/holiday in Florence last year. Kik is from New Hampshire and a very talented artist who specialises in fused glass techniques:
http://www.cp-kik.com/About.htm
On this link Kik is the artist on the left of shot; she doesn´t like having her picture taken (as I´ve discovered over the past few days!). Kik also has more than a passing interest in Eastern art and is a Feng Shui Mater:
http://www.waterdragoninc.com
As you might guess from all of this Kik is an inspirational individual and has been tremendous company as we explored Cordoba and Granada together. A great deal of her time during the holiday has been given over to helping me with thoughts and designs for my "Himalayan Mosaics" project. At this critical juncture that has been time very well spent and I´ll be forever grateful for that.
Sunday 21 October 2007
Dubious blessings
Today is the tenth and main day of the Dashain festival. It’s the day when the father of the family gives tika (a red splat of dyed rice on the forehead), jamara (barley shoots tucked behind the ear) and his blessing. This is accompanied by a modest cash gift to the recipients. Nepalese astrologers advised the nation today that the “most auspicious” (auspicious is a greatly-used word over here) time to deliver this is at 10.47 a.m. Not being into astrology - or the Hindu faith for that matter - I went ahead and delivered my rather questionable blessings to the children at the refuge at 9.00 a.m. This gives some semblance of family life to the 50 or so children who have no relatives to be with at this time. For most it’s a bit of fun and all benefited to the tune of 10 rupees each (about 8p). However two of the children were in tears, with the ceremony no doubt reminding them of their being abandoned or unwanted by natural family. This made my presence there all the more important. It also reminded me that our facilities can never substitute for a “home” and should only ever serve as a safety net for kids who would otherwise be on the streets, vulnerable to being re-trafficked or at risk of further abuse.
Saturday 20 October 2007
High as a kite
This weekend sees the Hindu festival of Dashain reaching a peak and the slaughter of goats assuming biblical proportion. This is the highlight of the Hindu year and normally comes at the end of the monsoon and of the harvest, although (no doubt thanks to global climate change) the harvest is a month overdue this year. Aside from its religious significance, Dashain is a time for family reunions and general merry-making. Many of our refuge children are reunited with family members just for the festival, the bare minimum in maintaining those family connections that are all important in Nepal. We buy the children new clothes for the homecoming, this being a custom and the girls especially love to show off their finery. Other children have nowhere really to go to and for them we organised a camp in the hills above Godawari. Arguably they'll have enjoyed a much nicer time than some of those who went back to families.
There are a couple of other Dashain customs that I have come to enjoy. One is the flying of kites, the sight of which I will forever associate with our first arriving to live in Nepal exactly three years ago. The second is the use of large, rather rickety-looking, swings made out of bamboo poles. Children rise to quite frightening heights on these structures that are known as "pings" and their use is not just an act of fun. As per the kite activity, the ping journey symbolises leaving earth and taking one's thoughts onto a higher, more spiritual, plane.
Our Kathmandu refuge children have constructed a ping in the open ground outside the children's accommodation block and this is shown on the right.
Snakes alive!
Back in Kathmandu the petrol queues are no shorter than they were when I left for UK ten days ago. But then again it's been like this for months. A driver will queue for four or five hours for ten litres of petrol and then rejoin the queue for a second allocation. The problem has arised because the Nepal Oil Corporation which imports fuel from the India Oil Corporation hasn't been paying its way. The saga began a couple of years ago when the Nepalese Government tried to introduce a petrol price hike (that would reflect the true import costs) that led to riots in the streets and the Government having to back down. The trouble is that no Government subsidy has been paid to the Nepal Oil Corporation to compensate in the shortfall in the price at the pumps, meaning that a substantial debt has accrued. Now the India Oil Corporation has had enough and reduced the flow of petrol across the border.
This morning we moved a box of toys from our upstairs store room in advance of transferring it to the children's home. Fourteen month old Alisha was fascinated with the partially opened box. Bev noticed her fiddling with the masking tape that had secured it and then with a large rubber band that was attached to the tape. Alisha was stretching it as if it were a bungee. On closer examination Bev realised that it was a little toy snake that she remembered having purchased some time ago. But then the "toy" snake moved...oh yes, it was alive. Heaven alone knows how the creature got into the house but it has been released now and Alisha has survived to tell the tale - one day!
This morning we moved a box of toys from our upstairs store room in advance of transferring it to the children's home. Fourteen month old Alisha was fascinated with the partially opened box. Bev noticed her fiddling with the masking tape that had secured it and then with a large rubber band that was attached to the tape. Alisha was stretching it as if it were a bungee. On closer examination Bev realised that it was a little toy snake that she remembered having purchased some time ago. But then the "toy" snake moved...oh yes, it was alive. Heaven alone knows how the creature got into the house but it has been released now and Alisha has survived to tell the tale - one day!
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Qualified support
The suitcases are packed and I leave at 5.30 a.m. tomorrow for the return journey to Kathmandu. The last two days have seen very useful meetings. The first one yesterday was with a supporter who's helping us to establish our presence on Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/). This is a virtual world which I found rather chilling on first encounter. But actually it is very exciting and clearly has massive potential, offering another way to connect with supporters; this medium is already being used by some of the larger charities. The second meeting of the day was more conventional and I had a really useful chat with the Trustees of another charity that is prepared to fund the medication and clinical care required to manage HIV/AIDS. This isn't an issue for us at all at present but I expect that when we get to grips with the problem of trafficking of children into the Kathmandu sex trade it will be inevitably - and tragically - be very high on our agenda.
During this visit I also picked up some supporters' letters from my London office. One lady sent us a donation for our art workshops for circus returnees but wrote:
"Can you not bring them to do things through the schools to lead them all lots of jobs (sic) in our country - a more realistic life style?
I feel that you will fail in the attempt you are making and should help them by concentrating on training that will lead to jobs.
Please try to think of another way."
Some initiatives do indeed fail, others enjoy a degree of success (and even that is a huge achievement in Nepal) while others really take off. It's quite hard to predict which particular outcome one will experience and the only option is to keep trying. But for our art and mosaic training I am very confident of great results. This is already bearing early fruit. For example see the response to our online mosaic auction as of today:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/auction.php
During this visit I also picked up some supporters' letters from my London office. One lady sent us a donation for our art workshops for circus returnees but wrote:
"Can you not bring them to do things through the schools to lead them all lots of jobs (sic) in our country - a more realistic life style?
I feel that you will fail in the attempt you are making and should help them by concentrating on training that will lead to jobs.
Please try to think of another way."
Some initiatives do indeed fail, others enjoy a degree of success (and even that is a huge achievement in Nepal) while others really take off. It's quite hard to predict which particular outcome one will experience and the only option is to keep trying. But for our art and mosaic training I am very confident of great results. This is already bearing early fruit. For example see the response to our online mosaic auction as of today:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/auction.php
Monday 15 October 2007
Things that do not pass away
Earlier this year a supporter in Kathmandu, Anneke, invited me to write an article about the Trust for Mensa Israel - Anneke being a member of Dutch, Finnish and Israeli Mensa associations! The article has just been uploaded to the Trust's website and explains in my own words why I set up the Trust and how it has taken an uncanny direction. A direction that is most appropriate as a memorial to Esther Benjamins. Here's the link:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/assets/pdf/philipandebt.pdf
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/assets/pdf/philipandebt.pdf
Sunday 14 October 2007
A Christmas initiative
The Trust is now offering distinctive charity Christmas cards. Nothing exactly innovative about that apart from this initiative offering a dual unrivalled benefit to charity. First of all, thanks to sponsorship from UK engineering company Ramboll Whitbybird (http://www.whitbybird.com/), we are offering packs of 10 with 100% of the purchase price (£4.50) coming directly to the Trust. That's unbeatable. Orders can be placed through the Trust's website at:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/christmascards.htm
The second benefit is through an online auction that is linked to the cards. The cover of the card shows a mosaic made by Rina whom we rescued from an Indian circus back in 2004. Recipients of the card will be able to bid for the original mosaic, with bids closing at noon on the 20th December. So there's the chance to buy someone (or yourself) a truly unique last minute Christmas present. You can find the auction site here:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/auction.php
Good luck!
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/christmascards.htm
The second benefit is through an online auction that is linked to the cards. The cover of the card shows a mosaic made by Rina whom we rescued from an Indian circus back in 2004. Recipients of the card will be able to bid for the original mosaic, with bids closing at noon on the 20th December. So there's the chance to buy someone (or yourself) a truly unique last minute Christmas present. You can find the auction site here:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/auction.php
Good luck!
Saturday 13 October 2007
Sir Ben Kingsley
I watched Sir Ben Kingsley being interviewed on "The One Show" yesterday evening. We were over the moon to have had this very charismatic man present our Radio 4 Charity Appeal on behalf of our Circus Children Project a couple of years' back. You can still hear the original broadcast through the hyperlink on the bottom of this page on the charity website:
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/pact.htm
One of the highlights of my life was watching Sir Ben carry out the final amendments to the script before the broadcast and to see how he seemed to work himself physically into what he was about to say. His effort was well worth it as the appeal raised in the region of £23,000, one of the highest responses ever. Before he left the studio I was touched when he turned to me and said "As the father of four healthy children it has been my privilege to have done this for you".
I was very pleased to learn last evening that he has just remarried and I hope he finds the happiness that he so richly deserves.
http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/site/pact.htm
One of the highlights of my life was watching Sir Ben carry out the final amendments to the script before the broadcast and to see how he seemed to work himself physically into what he was about to say. His effort was well worth it as the appeal raised in the region of £23,000, one of the highest responses ever. Before he left the studio I was touched when he turned to me and said "As the father of four healthy children it has been my privilege to have done this for you".
I was very pleased to learn last evening that he has just remarried and I hope he finds the happiness that he so richly deserves.
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