Republic Day

Today is a very special day in Nepal, the celebration of the first Republic Day.
It has been a year ago that the Monarchy was abolished and replaced by a Republican system. There are several events planned, among them, this morning the recently elected PM Madhav Kumar Nepal laid the foundation stone of the Republic monument, at Ratna Park in Kathmandu.

Nepal no O Globo

Olha que legal! Saiu uma reportagem sobre o Nepal no jornal O Globo.
Interessante para quem quer saber mais sobre o país, a cultura e atual situação política.
http://oglobo.globo.com/viagem/mat/2009/05/28/alem-das-montanhas-religiao-cultura-historia-atraem-turistas-ao-nepal-756073290.asp
Enquanto isto estou super atarefada, cheguei de viagem na quarta e, provavelmente viajo novamente hoje e só volto na segunda. Estou indo para a região do Parque Nacional do Chitwan, visitar mais uma biblioteca, Jhuwani.
Tudo aqui é super interessante e diferente, está sendo uma experiência muito boa! As vezes indescritível...
Ontem jantei na casa da Sanjana, diretora da READ Nepal, ela é Newari, e nos ofereceu um delicioso jantar Newari. Newari é uma das etnias do Vale de Kathmandu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newar_people Foi uma noite inesquecível, conversando sobre os hábitos e costumes do Nepal e saboreando comidas simplesmente deliciosas!! No jantar também estavam presentes o pai e o marido da Sanjana, Bob Reno, Diretor da READ Global na Asia e Toni Neubauer, fundadora da READ Global. Pena que fiquei tao entretida no evento que me esqueci de tirar fotos... mas a noite ficará gravada para sempre na minha memória...

More Pokhara...

On my second day of work, I woke up early to go back to Pokhara where we would spend the following night. Going back on the same winding road, we had again the chance to enjoy the scenery and even stop for some wonderful pictures of the valley and Mt. Macchapuchhare.
Arriving in Pokhara, we checked in at Hotel Barahi, a wonderful hotel located a half block away from Phewa Lake, in the heart of the tourist district of Pokhara. Then, Indra and I stopped for a delicious lunch at a Thakali restaurant in downtown Pokhara According to http://www.visitnepal.com/nepal_information/people.php the origin of Thakali is Thok Khola, a high valley in central Nepal along the Muktinath region. They have Mongolian features, a fair complexion and narrow eyes. Thakalis are divided into four major groups: Gauchan, Tulachan, Sherchan and Bhattacan. Their religion is a mixture of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jhankrism. They are known for their hospitality, good salesmanship, and cleanliness. Some say that when it comes to daal-baat, no-one does it better that the Thakalis of lower Mustang. As traders between India and Tibet, the Thakalis adapted dishes and together with local favourites, created a culinary tradition of their own. And I have to agree, the food was awesome! (I guess I already mentioned that Daal baat is delicious, right? but I can't say it enough... it really is! :-)

After lunch, we hit the road again towards Syangja, a district south of Pokhara, to visit the Laxmi Memorial Community Library in Putali Bazzar.
The road was again unbelievably beautiful: mountains, valleys and small communities along the way.

The library and community center are very nice and located at the heart of the village.

As their sustainability project they have storefronts, some rooms to rent, a meeting hall and they are currently in the process of building a radio station that will serve the community and generate additional income to sustain the library and fund additional community projects. I believe this radio can become a great asset to the community!

Once a again Flat Stanley and I checked the books in English, Hindi and Nepali. Flat wanted to check out a English Nepali dictionary, he thought it might come very handy in our current predicament...

Now Flat Stanley also wants to learn Hindi so that he can read the newspaper covers that Josh's posts on his blog... as if Nepali wasn't enough.. :-)

The children section was also lovely, full of toys, books, games and an inviting video area. It really is a very conducive environment for learning while having fun! Again I was grateful for the opportunity to visit the library and meet members of the community. I only wish I could speak Nepali so that I could talk to them directly... Indra was very good in translating everything and helping me, but I would have loved to be able to understand them and tell them how happy I was to be there.

Back in Pokhara, we went for dinner, drinks and debriefing in the lovely Cafes, bars and restaurant along the main road in the central lakeside area.

It was another perfect day at work!

My first day at work

After 6 days enjoying and exploring Kathmandu, on Monday my work with READ Nepal officially began. And what a way to start a project!

I woke up early to catch the first flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara for a three day tour of READ libraries in the area. I went with Indra Bahadur Bhujel, program officer for READ Nepal and Bob Reno, Asia Managing Director for READ Global.

Pokhara is only a 25 minutes flight away from Kathmandu and it is major tourist destination. The city is located around the Phewa Tal (Lake Fewa), there are lots of restaurants, bars, cafés and shops, as well as many attractions from the Peace Pagoda and Varahi Mandir to paragliding and boating on the lake. Pokhara is the starting point for the famous treks in the Annapurna Range, so all over town you can meet trekkers either coming or going to the mountains.

Unfortunately on Monday, we had little time to enjoy any of that, after all we were there for work, not tourism. As we landed in the small airport of Pokhara we were greeted by our driver for the next two days and headed to our first destination: Myagdi Community Library. Before hitting the road, we briefly stopped at the scenic Boomerang Restaurant and ate a delicious breakfast enjoying the peaceful view of Phewa Tal.

I strongly recommend a visit to Pokhara and I hope to go back in the future to enjoy more of this wonderful town!

After breakfast, we started our journey to Beni. From Pokhara to Beni it is 73 km of narrow and winding road, and the beauty takes your breath away in every turn. Along the way you can see Mt Machhapuchhare (Fish Tail Mt.), countless small pagodas, temples, prayer flags and terraced fields. The journey took almost three hours, in paved and rough unpaved roads.

Along the way, I also practiced my Nepali skills talking ( or at least trying to talk) to Indra and our driver. They were so patient with my endless questions! I have a long, long way to go before being able to understand what they say, but I am working hard and I hope at least to be able to minimally communicate before this project is over! Nepalese people are so nice that I feel sad to miss the opportunity to directly interact with them...

Arriving in Beni, we checked-in in our Hotel and went to see the Community Library. Beni is the starting point to an alternative trek that leads to Jomsom, so it is a small town but very busy due to the trekkers and mules caravans coming and going to Mustang region.

Visiting this library was a great experience that allowed me to know a little more about the work READ does in Nepal. Thanks to Bob and Indra, who patiently answered so many questions, I have learned a lot!

I fully enjoyed every moment of it. Flat Stanley visited the library with me and enjoyed seeing the kids playing at the Children's Area, he tried to read some books, but like me, he still has a long way to go before understanding Nepali and

being able to read a book in Devanagari... :-)

We ended our day at the hotel, eating Daal Baat and sipping some Apple Brandy (produced in the mustang region), talking about READ work, learning nepali and nepalese culture and planning the activities of the following day. This is how work should be, hard and enjoyable! It was an awesome start!

I fell asleep listening to the sound of the Kali Gandaki river, right outside my window. I had to pinch myself to check if I wasn't dreaming... but then I realised that this was, in fact, a dream come true! I only wish I can come back some day to trek all the way to Jomsom and beyond...

Swayambhunath

Mais um dia de passeios e muita caminhada. Esta stupa é muito bonita e vale a pena subir os 219 degraus para chegar nela. ( será que são só 219.. me pareceu mais...)

Sightseeing in Kathmandu

I have been in Kathmandu for almost a week now. I love going to Thamel and Durbar Square and every place in between. The city is always full of people and in every alley and corner there is something unexpected. The contrasts are huge! This is a very unique city!


I put together some of the pictures I took in these past few days, they do not tell the whole story but they give an idea of what Kathmandu is... to experience the smells and sounds you would have to be here!


Namaste

Delicious food

Food in Kathmandu is very, very tasty!
Mitho chha as I have just learned in my Nepali language lessons.

Nepalese people eat Daal-baat (translation:lentil-rice) twice a day, lunch and dinner.

The Nepali Thali has been my favorite choice for lunch and momo's for dinner. Nepali Thali is basically Daal-baat with the option of meat or additional vegetable. I have already tried

Nepali Thali with chicken and mutton and both were delicious!

Momo's are tibetan dumplings and you can also choose the filling, I have tried chicken and buffalo (they call it, buff momo). Both delicious!

Flat stanley is also enjoying all these meals with me and if it goes on like that he will not be flat for long... :-)!

These pictures were taken at Trendy Cafe, a restaurant just around the corner from READ.

Traffic in Kathmandu

It is a miracle that things work so well as far as traffic goes here in Kathmandu. The streets are really narrow, they are almost always two-ways, there is almost no sidewalks and no traffic lights. And there are lots of people, animals and vehicles of all kinds in the streets.
All they have are horns, practice, skills and, most of all in my opinion, a lot of luck.

Nepalese drivers are very good and space seems to have different properties here in Kathmandu.
From my ride from the airport to the office yesterday I was amazed by the traffic. There are lots of motorcycles, and I can't blame them for that, it is for sure the best means of transportation here.
In the afternoon I decided to walk around the neighborhood. What an adventure! Then I could see traffic issues from a different perspective.

The amazing thing is that everything works! And after a while you get used to walk in the middle of the street with all vehicles horning at you and it becomes such a great and fascinating experience! There are always a lot of people walking and nobody seems to care about all the cars, motorbikes, tuktuks and bikes and the lack of sidewalks. After 10 minutes I also got used and found walking around a very rich experience!
This morning, as I was reading the news a found this article, it explains a lot.. and I can't wait to travel next week and experience it first hand!
http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/2009/05/20/220

Aproveitando Kathmandu

Até agora está indo tudo muito bem.
O dificil é nao falar e nem entender nada do que eles falam... nem ler dá, pois é tudo em Devanagari... estou uma completa analfabeta...
Hoje começo minhas aulas de Nepali, pelo menos um básico já iria me ajudar bastante...
Estou morando na casa onde é também o escritório da READ ( estou trabalhando de casa ou morando no trabalho, ainda não sei...). O quarto é ótimo, tem geladeira e microondas, mas com tantas opções de restaurantes e lanchonetes em volta, acho que nem vou usar eles muito.
Aqui também na casa, tem uma moça que mora com as duas filhas, uma de 2 e outra de 4 anos. Pena que ela só fala nepali, então nossa comunicação é bem precária ... (isto porque sou otimista :-) ) Mas ela me trouxe jantar ontem e chá hoje de manha. Ela é muito simpática, estou doida para poder conversar um pouco com ela.
O meu jantar ontem foi uma comida tipica, chamada momo (nao tenho a menor idéia de como se escreve, mas é assim que fala). É uma delicia! Parece Gyosa. Se não estivesse tão cansada teria tido a idéia de tirar uma foto para mandar para vcs.
No almoço, o pessoal aqui do escritório me convidou para ir comer com eles em un restaurante, comi Nepali Thali de frango. Thali é o nome que eles dão para refeição. Vem uma travessinha de arroz branco, uma travessinha de frango com curry, uma travessinha de verdura refogada, uma travessinha de molho de lentilha e uma saladinha. (dever ter a versão prato feito tb, ainda nao sei..) É muita comida e dá para dois, ainda bem que o povo aqui não faz cerimonia e o que nao consegui comer eles comeram. Estava uma delícia!! Ainda bem que o restaurante, chamado Trendy Café (nada nepalés não é mesmo, a vantagem é que dá para eu ler e entender o nome! e o cardapio não é em devanagari), é na esquina, posso repetir sempre que quiser.
A tarde também saí para uma volta e como falei (na entrada em ingles, abaixo) a experiência merece um blog exclusivo... aguardem...
As flores que estão nas fotos que inclui abaixo são do jardim da casa e eles me deram em um bouquet como boas vindas assim que cheguei. Nepaleses sao de forma geral muito simpáticos, prestativos e calorosos!

Flying to Kathmandu...

This is how my journey begins...
At the Little Rock airport, I requested that my checked luggage be sent directly to Kathmandu but was informed that it could not be done because I was flying in two different airlines…
After heartbreaking farewells, I embarked on my first flight from Little Rock to Houston. Arriving in Houston, I found out that my checked luggage was missing… not a good start…
Fortunately, I am always positive and I chose to interpret it as sign that what had to go wrong had already gone wrong, so from that point on no more problems would come up…
After registering the missing item complaint and having tons of trouble explaining how addresses in Nepal work, I concluded that the best way to retrieve my luggage as soon as it would get to KTM was to go to the airport and pick it up myself…
Being persistent, I decided to wait a little longer and see if my luggage would come on the following flight from Little Rock, the Continental attendant discouraged me saying that the system indicated that my luggage had been load to the flight that I had come in. I decided that the inconvenience of waiting some additional 30 min at Baggage Claim area far outweighed the benefits of having clothes to wear while in Kathmandu. My persistency paid of and to my relief and great joy, my luggage has finally arrived. I was late for my check in at Qatar Airways but very, very happy!

Off I went to the Qatar terminal and without any more problems safely boarded my flight from Houston to Doha, Qatar.
The 15+ hour flight was really good, besides an excellent service, it was only half full, so I had extra seats to stretch and comfortably sleep.
The lay over at Doha airport was also uneventful, although for some reason the internet connection was less reliable that I hoped for. Doha Airport is nice and spacious and with many amneties.

From Doha to Kathmandhu the flighted was packed, not one seat empty. Thankfully this flight was much shorter and I was seated beside a 24 year old nepalese that attends college in Minnesota. So I took the opportunity to learn more about nepalese culture and history. It was a very good and interesting conversation. The food was again great, although by that point I wasn't sure if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner... three different time zones can really be confusing..

The descent in KTM is so, so beautiful!! The mountains, the fields the buildings is a very pretty combination.

At the airport, I was scanned and interviewed by health officials, thankfully I had no fever and they only asked me to get in touch in case I developed any sintomes while in Nepal.

Pushpa, from READ, was waiting me at the airport and we took a taxi to go home. I will be staying at READ office. So I am working from home! :-)

Traffic in Nepal is crazy and I hope to blog about it in the future... it was a fun trip home.

READ office is very pretty and my room is very confortable with two windows for a really pretty garden.

Life is really good!

I am missing Raquel and Flavio in every step of the way, it is the first time that stay more than three days away from Raquel and when I think about her I have a really hard time figuring out how I am going to manage this aspect of an otherwise very exciting endeavor.

Last days in Little Rock

Namaste!
It has been a crazy week... lots of fun and lots of work! Exciting times, enjoying my family and getting ready for Nepal.


On mother's day, Raquel had a ballet recital, what a wonderful mother's day gift!




During the week, Raquel and I colored Flat Stanleys, read books together and watched all the videos of Flat Stanley around the world (posted by my awesome classmates). It was so much fun!














On Thursday, it was Raquel's graduation. Flavio and I were so proud!! Time really goes fast!














Now it is packing time...
It is finally sinking in... and with a vegeance.... Did I really think it through when I signed up for this?!?
I am excited about the summer but so, so, soooo sad to leave Flavio and Raquel behind.... I wish they could come with me....Life is full of tough choices and I only hope I made the right one...
I am leaving Little Rock today at 3pm, Houston at 8:30pm, stopover in Doha, Qatar for 51/2 hours (lots of time to read and study my Nepali phrasebook :-) ) finally arriving in Kathmandu at 8:30 am May 19th.
Kathmandu time is 10hrs and 45 min ahead of Central daylight savings time and 8 hrs and 45 min ahead of "hora de Brasilia".
I will write again from KTM!

School is over...

... , at least for now, and all my attention is now on my IPSP in Nepal!
10 days and counting and there is still a lot to be done!
But before jumping to the next phase it is time to be thankful for the great experiences at the Clinton School this past year! I will surely miss all my classmates, classes and professors. The lessons learned will be with me wherever I go...

It is very exciting to see all of us going to different and exciting places. Our pictures in the map look really cool. I wish all lost of luck and success!
Namaste!

Mudando o nome...

Em homenagem a todos os emails e comentários recebidos, resolvi mudar o nome do blog - "Namaste!" é sem duvida mais interessante e significativo do que "Viviane in Nepal". Vcs nao acham?
Para que todos se beneficiem das contribuições do Marco e do Julio vou incluir parte das contribuições deles.

Namaste, se a Globo estiver certa, significa: “O Deus que habita em mim
saúda o Deus que habita em você”. (agradecimentos ao Marco Tulio com
assistencia da Globo)

Namastê ou namasté (em sânscrito: नमस्ते, [nʌmʌsˈteː]) é um cumprimento ou saudação falada, bastante comum no Sul da Ásia. Namaskar é considerado uma forma ligeiramente mais formal, mas ambas as expressões expressam um grande sentimento de respeito.
Utiliza-se na India e no Nepal por hindus, sikhs, jainistas e budistas. Nas culturas indianas e nepalesas, a palavra é dita no início de uma comunicação verbal ou escrita.
Contudo, o gesto feito com as mãos dobradas é feito sem ser acompanhado de palavras quando se despede. Na ioga, namaste é algo que se dirá ao instrutor e que, nessa situação, significa “sou o seu humilde criado”.
Literalmente significa "curvo-me perante ti"; a palavra provém do sânscrito namas, "curvar-se", "fazer uma saudação reverencial", e (te), "te". ( agradecimentos ao Julio com assistencia da Wikipedia http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste)

Os dois estão oficialmente contratados como meus acessores na publicação do Blog e demais assuntos referentes ao meu projeto no Nepal. Namaste!

Changing the name

Following a lot of curiosity and interesting discussions triggered by a recent salutation I used on one of my emails to my family, I decided to change the name of my blog for the first time... ( I am wondering if this will be the last...)
Namaste is a very beautiful word and the common salutation used in Nepal ( and south Asia in general). Although its origin and meaning have religious significance, coming from Hindu and Buddhist traditions, it is widely used with a more secular undertone.
From http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/namaste/ I found this definition:

Namaste is a composite of the two Sanskrit words, nama, and te. Te means you,
and nama has the following connotations:
To bend
To bow
To sink
To incline
To stoop

...

Hence by performing namaste before an individual we recognize the divine
spark in him. Further by facilitating our partaking of these divine qualities,
namaste makes us aware of these very characteristics residing within our own
selves. Simply put, namaste intimates the following:
"The God in me greets the God in you

The Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you"

In other words, it recognizes the equality of all, and pays honor to the
sacredness of all.

This is a great theme and inspiration for my experience in Nepal, it appropriately describes the attitude that we all should have towards life and all people we meet along the way. It is a powerful reminder of all that unites us and all the possibilities present in each encounter in our lives.

I truly hope to incorporate these values and attitude not only in the next three months but in everything I do.

Namaste!

The beggining...

Today I begin my blog... not much to post yet because I am still in Little Rock and not even sure if the situation in Nepal will allow me to go...
But I am trying to be positive... in 2 weeks I will be arriving in Kathmandu! I can't wait!
In the meantime, I have yet to finish my final projects..