This week, I finally got out my camera, well, my iPhone actually.   I had carried a camera and the iPhone to and from Rwanda, without taking a single picture.  My first months in Kathmandu suggested that the same would be true in Nepal.  In a heartbeat, all that changed. The perception of color is, for me,…Read more »

Thank you aniji. It’s our pleasure to help you. Personally, I’ve found you so kind and helpful than I had thought before. We’re really blessed to have you here. We’re sure our preparations won’t discourage you. We’re looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. It is I who am blessed to be here.  Thank you for…Read more »

It used to be that when I was sick or tired, or down-in-the-dumps, that I would seek out an action flick to give me a kick in the pants to get up and get going.   I called them my “testosterone” movies because they had to have male leads to wake me up.  In recent…Read more »

Well, today I had an experience that I can say with certitude I have never had before.   In the middle of a 20 day week of traveling tour in Nepal to deliver training workshops to Englishteachers, I had to pass through Kathmandu.  The fact is, you can’t travel anywhere in Nepal by air without going…Read more »

When I was in undergraduate and graduate school in California, I used to like to watch people.   There was a lot to see in Santa Barbara in the late sixties and early seventies, from beach “bums” to surfers, fraternity and sorority guys and gals, to nerds, although they weren’t called that back then.   I’d buy…Read more »

I checked into my hotel in Pokhara completely oblivious as to what awaited me just around the corner of time.  I had asked for a “deluxe” room and was given on on the corner of the building of the fourth floor.  Both walls of the corner had big plate glass windows.   The many who showed…Read more »

So I’ve noticed something funny — nonsensical — about myself when it comes to money.   I will stay home and eat in, rather than spend money to go to a restaurant, but I will not hesitate to pay for my cat to have her teeth cleaned to the tune of what it would probably cost…Read more »

I learned to remain active despite the great age when we are engaged in teaching students.  You are my mother’s age! This was the response of one teacher participating in the workshop that I did today to the question “what did you learn today”.    Of course, he himself really isn’t that old, given that he…Read more »

The darkness wraps us in its quiet arms as we cross the street to the park.    The silent stillness is palpable, punctuated only by the occasional headlights of late travelers.   It is difficult to believe that this place, just a few hours earlier, was a swirling mass of traffic, people, and dust.   As we…Read more »

So I finally got myself off my duff and dug out the Nepali books I brought with me so I could study the language.  If I didn’t know devanagari, the script used to write Nepali (and also Sanskrit which is why I know it), I’d be overwhelmed.    But I got tired of using my only…Read more »