Transition

Once again it’s been ages since I’ve posted.   Thank you so much to all of you who voiced your support and best wishes for Jonathan’s continued progress.  I just spoke with Gianetta, his mom, last night and his borderline-miraculous recovery is continuing.  He is now able to walk with the help of a walker, feed himself completely independently, and is even getting some sensation back in his left arm and fingers which have been numb for weeks and which the doctors said would never recover.  Clearly, Jonathan is a singular individual who is defying everyone’s expectations, and I continue to be awed by his progress. 

Thank you also for your kind words for my family about my grandmother.  My mom and aunts are working heroically to take care of all the necessary arrangements, and it is hard for everyone to prepare the family farm to be sold.  To mark that milestone, the entire Kemner clan will be gathering at the Farm over Memorial Day for one final weekend of celebration and remembrance.  I can’t think of a better way to honor Grandma and the place that has been so central to our lives.   

Since my last post I wrapped up my final two weeks in Nepal with dear friends Terra and Lindsay (more on that in a minute), survived the 24-hour flight back to DC, spent a couple whirlwind days in Alexandria with my parents, and drove back to Asheville to begin settling back in and looking for work.

The good news is that now I have access to Internet that isn't glacially slow, so the pictures will come fast and furious.  Here are a few from the two weeks Terra and Lindsay were in town.  Lindsay's flight was delayed by a day, so Terra and I bummed around Kathmandu waiting for her.

Terra is a trooper and hauls her bags to Pashupatinath

The best Indian food of the trip at Garden Kitchen. The saag (greens) are unreal.

The Vishnumati River through Kathmandu. Environmentalists, brace yourselves.

Swayambhunath (the "Monkey Temple").  See next picture for explanation.

 

Lindsay took the bus to Pokhara to participate in a Gaky’s Light class, and Terra and I came up a day later. We did a bit of sightseeing (site seen?) around Pokhara our first day in town.

Boat ride across Phewa Tal to hike up to the World Peace Pagoda

The Annapurnas from the World Peace Pagoda

The three of us survived the surprisingly strenuous three-day Poon Hill Trek, billed as the “second-best view in the world”…although no one knows what the BEST view is.  

Catching the early morning local bus to Nayapul to start the Poon Hill trek.  Americans are tall.

3,800 stone steps are brutal on the legs...going up AND coming down.

View from the rooftop of our guest house in Ulleri.  Annapurna South and Hiun Chuli in the background.

Water buffalo obstacle course

Sunrise at Poon Hill

We also visited Kaskikot and stayed with the ever-wonderful Aamaa.

Local bus from Nayapul to Naudada

Aamaa's water buffalo's calf greeting the morning

The one shot I've been wanting the entire trip

Lindsay, Gaurab, and Terra: sunrise on Annapurna South and Fishtail in Kaskikot

Breakfast at Aamaa's--my mouth is still watering for her dal bhat.

Perfecting the art of eating with our hands

Terra and Lindsay hauling water for Aamaa

Hauling water

Beautiful Aamaa with her American guests

After just five short days we hopped on the bus back to Kathmandu.   

Riding in the cab of the bus during the seven-hour trip back to Kathmandu.

Driver and company

This is the main road through Nepal. Note the dirt surface and pile of rocks--no wonder the drive took seven hours.

We spent one more day in the capital and visited Kopan Monastery, a beautiful Tibetan Buddhist haven overlooking Kathmandu.

Front of the gompa and Kopan Monastery

Altar inside the gompa

Tumbling monks at Kopan

Lindsay and I hopped on the plane home later that day.  Terra stayed one extra day before heading back to San Francisco.  It has been so wonderful to be reunited with my family and dear friends.  Re-entry has been very difficult, but in different ways than I expected.  First of all, I feel like I haven't been able to communicate even one tenth of my experience to anyone.  I have approximately 2,500 pictures to sift through and I don't want to subject anyone to a marathon "vacation slide show."  I have countless stories that I want to share but don't know where to start, and I know that I won't be able to make anyone fully understand what those stories mean.  Other travelers I have talked to have confirmed this is pretty much the way it is with long-term international travel.  You don't travel for others, you do it for yourself.  And there's just no way to help someone else fully understand what a place is like.  So I will keep trying, with that understanding.

Surprisingly, I haven't felt overwhelmed by the physical aspect of re-entry.  The pace of life in the U.S. didn't feel particularly shocking.  The thing I have noticed the most so far is how isolated Americans are compared to Nepalis.  For example, the smooth, pothole-free, lane-line-painted American highways with the cars flying along silently were a far cry from the moon-cratered, dusty, noisy, chaotic Nepali byways with everyone honking constantly.  This juxtaposition made me realize just how CONNECTED Nepalis are to each other, in every aspect of daily life.  From spending their free time sitting in front of the shops watching the street, to constantly communicating with at each other by honking or shouting at each other from across the road...Nepal is a social country.  Compare that to the U.S. where we barricade ourselves in our well-insulated houses, drive our giant vehicles trying not to make eye contact with the people driving next to us, and basically ignore those we pass on the sidewalk.  There are many aspects of life in the U.S. that I appreciate now more than ever as a result of this trip: 24-hour electricity, climate-controlled buildings, hot running water, ready availability of toilet paper in the bathrooms.  But I hope a lot of the little adjustments I made while I was in Nepal continue to stick as I re-integrate back here.

I plan to compile a photo gallery of “Nepal in 100 Pictures.” Stay tuned.  I hope you are all well. Lots of love!

Beautiful Lives

Hi Everyone, Happy 2013.  I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that the new year is off to a good start.

It's been quite awhile since I posted, and a lot has happened in the meantime that has dramatically changed the nature of this trip.  I am not exactly sure how to communicate everything that has happened or what the experience has meant to me or the others involved, but here is my best shot at it, for now.

As you know, I left right after Christmas with brand new friends Lali and Jonathan for a three-week trek on the Annapurna Circuit.  We planned to be on the trail until last Wednesday (January 16), but the universe had a different plan for all of us.  On January 5, ten days into the trek and just one day before we were supposed to cross Thorung La Pass, Jonathan fell off a treacherous stretch of trail and tumbled down the side of the mountain we were traversing, fracturing his skull and causing a massive open head injury.

The accident happened too late in the day for a helicopter to safely evacuate him, so our group of ten--along with five local Nepalis--had to move him by makeshift stretcher to a guesthouse in the closest village 20 minutes away and keep vigil with him for the next 15 hours in below-freezing temperatures, at 14,000 feet elevation, until the helicopter arrived the next morning.  I will remember that night vividly for the rest of my life--both the horrible uncertainty about Jonathan's condition, as well as the incredible displays of strength, compassion, and selflessness from every single person on the mountain that night.  Everyone played an important role and did it beautifully, whether it was holding bandages to his head to protect his skull and staunch the bleeding, chanting and reading medicine Buddha texts to him, cracking jokes to lighten the mood, playing games to keep him (and the rest of us) awake, checking vitals and administering painkillers, or simply contributing body heat to the unheated room we were camped out in.  

The next morning Lali (the other member of our original little band of three) and I flew with Jonathan in the helicopter to Kathmandu, where he underwent emergency surgery to remove the many bone fragments pressing on his brain.   He tolerated the surgery well and spent the next three or four days in the surgical ICU, then was transferred to another ward to continue recovering.  His mother flew in from Canada as soon as she was able to, and the three of us were with him at the hospital nearly every day for the next week and a half.  He and his mother are currently flying back to Calgary where he will continue recovering.  All my positive energy and thoughts for a safe, uneventful journey home are going with them.

While Jonathan was in the hospital here, I was blown away by the outpouring of love and support for him from every corner of the world.  He is an incredible person who is uniquely connected to people, and his ability to touch people's lives has been really evident as I watched him interact with his visitors, family, and even his nurses and doctors.  He had an almost-constant stream of visitors, many of them fellow students from a month-long course on Tibetan Buddhism he and Lali completed at the Kopan Monastery just before the trek.  Every single member of our new Annapurna Circuit “family” was also able to visit Jonathan: Jon, Jon, Alex, and Guy from the UK; Julio from Columbia; and Jaime from Mexico.  We are forever bound together by this experience, and I am so grateful to each of them and can't wait for a reunion somewhere in the world in the not-too-distant future. 

Despite the severity of his injury, the extreme conditions under which the accident occurred, and the length of time (30 hours)between the accident and his life-saving surgery, Jonathan has been making remarkable progress.  The entire right side of his body has been paralyzed since the accident because the injury occurred to his left brain.  But in the past four or five days, movement has been returning to his right hand and toes bit by bit--cause for tears of joy and happy dances in the hospital room!  His sweet, easy-going personality has re-emerged and every day we see more and more of the Jonathan we know and love. We are all in awe of his strength and his remarkable spirit.  He has a monumental task ahead of him, but I am fully confident that he has what it takes to heal his body and use this experience to grow and even benefit those around them.  He is a miracle, pure and simple.

There is no way for me to understand how the experiences of the past two weeks have and will continue to impact each of us involved.  Doubtless, we will all be changed in profound, even fundamental, ways, although I don't know what those ways are yet. I personally have been pushed to my absolute limits; I have been at rock bottom at points, and at others have been more deeply aware of the strength and goodness of human beings than ever before in my life.  I have experienced the spectrum of human emotions in richer ways than I have ever before. All of these things have been an incredible gift, even if they don't come wrapped in pretty packaging.  I'm sure I'm going to continue processing everything long after I return home. I am so grateful to every single person who has had a hand in getting Jonathan to the point he is today, and also to those who have helped keep me going when I needed a shoulder to lean on myself.  I am particularly in awe of my new Canadian mom (Gianetta) and American/birthday sister (Lali) for their strength and compassion in caring for Jonathan.  

In addition, my own grandmother passed away on January 9, in the farmhouse she had lived in for 62 years.  Her passing was very peaceful and she was surrounded by her four daughters.  I believe it was the most lovely way she could have left us, but it's been heartbreaking for me to be so far away and not give her one last hug or attend her funeral.  It's also been hard to not have more time or energy to focus on and honor her, but I feel incredibly blessed to have talked to her on the phone from halfway around the world the night before she passed.  That one last opportunity to tell her how much I love her is something for which I will always be incredibly grateful. I am blessed and honored beyond words to call myself her granddaughter.

Please keep Jonathan and his family in your thoughts and prayers.  Please also keep my family in your thoughts as we continue to honor Grandma's life and make arrangements for the farm. 

Since life is always a mixture of joy and sadness, I wanted to leave you with some pictures of the beauty we were surrounded by on our trek before Jonathan fell. But Nepal internet isn't cooperating so I will have to share them another time.  I will also post again when I have time, although two friends from the U.S. are flying in tomorrow and I'm sure we will keep ourselves very busy for the next week and a half until we fly home. 

Be well! Love and gratitude.

Merry Christmas from Nepal!

Love and blessings to all of you for a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

I feel truly blessed to have every single one of you in my life--my heart is full today!  Last night (Christmas Eve) I found myself on the shore of Phewa Tal, singing Christmas carols by headlamp with a group of new friends.  It was surreal, and made me think of all of you back home.

I have always believed that life has a way of providing just what you need at the right time, and I am being strongly reminded of that today.  As many of you may know, one of my major hopes for this trip was to do some trekking--specifically, to trek the Annapurna Circuit, a 21-day loop around the Annapurna Conservation Area.  The way my volunteering schedule and the course of events have unfolded, it was looking less and less like I would be able to go on an extended trek at all.  But yesterday, at the very last possible moment I could have squeezed in the three-week trek I've been dreaming of for six months, some wonderful new friends materialized and offered to let me join them on the AC!  My mind is still reeling at how, when you set an intention and stay open to opportunities, everything works out--often not how you anticipate and usually better than you could have planned yourself.  I am feeling an incredible amount of awe and gratitude right now.

So I will be leaving in two days (Thursday the 27th) for a three-week journey through the heart of the Himalayas.  If everything works out, I will cross the highest pass in the world (17,700 feet), walk 190 miles, and make some incredible new friends along the way.  I will probably not have access to Internet so I will likely be out of touch until I return around mid-to-late January.  Please keep our little band of trekkers in your thoughts and pray for good weather and safe passage!

Lots of love to you all!  Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

Pokhara

After so many pictures of the beautiful area around Pokhara, I figured it’s time to share more about the city itself and day-to-day life there.  I am staying at the Vision Nepal Children's Home, a sweet, clean little spot just off one of the main roads.  It's a simple space, and I’ve had to get used to some things like daily 10-hour blackouts, questionable reliability of running water, showers so cold my scalp aches, doing laundry in a bucket of cold water on the roof of the building, and using my headlamp after 6:00pm.  But the volunteers’ room has beds that are comfortable enough, a lovely little balcony overlooking the neighbors' garden, and an actual toilet instead of a hole in the floor with a bucket of water—amazing what feels like a luxury these days!  

The Vision Nepal Children's Home

View from the children's home--dodging street cows and buffalo is a daily occurrence

The neighbors' place--check out the incredible garden (and monster haystack)!

The kids are great too--there are currenly six of them, ranging from age 5 to 13.  They are tiny adults in many ways and help look after each other.  But they are also still definitely kids--I've loved our impromptu Gangnam Style dance parties and Nepal football YouTube clip screenings.

The kids (left to right): Amrit, Amrita, Didi (Nepali for "big sister", the house mother), Ajay, Babu, Sanjay, Arjun

 

Welcome artwork the kids gave me on my first day at the children's home

The children’s home is a short 10-minute walk from Lakeside, the "touristy" district of Pokhara along the edge of Phewa Tal, where most travelers stay.  There you can find Baskin Robbins ice cream, shops selling "North Face" trekking gear (authentic?  probably not), and just about any type of souvenir or kitschy knick-knack you can think of.  You can rent a boat and tool around on Phewa Tal or relax at a lakeside cabana and drink mango lassis like I did one afternoon.  I find myself wandering to Lakeside almost daily, for the familiarity of seeing scrambled eggs and sausage on the breakfast menu (since I'm eating dal bhat two meals every day at the children’s home), to satisfy my craving for coffee (since I drink tea everywhere else), and to use the Internet cafes when the wireless network at the children’s home isn’t working.  As time goes on, I find myself gravitating more toward the Nepali Thakali or Newari restaurants, rather than the cafes with Western food.

Boats for hire on Phewa Tal

Lounging lakeside

One of many ways to get around town

Lord Shiva chilling at the lake

Lakeside is the site of the annual Pokhara Street Festival, a five-day affair that ends on New Year’s Day and features street food , music, and lots of vendors selling stuff.  It’s purely a tourist attraction, but I’m looking forward to checking it out and seeing how the sleepy Lakeside atmosphere will be transformed.

Lakeside decked out for the Pokhara Street Festival

Lakeside is a very commercial district and isn’t a true representation of the rest of Pokhara. The other side of Pokhara is very industrial, and I pass very few foreigners as I make the 45-minute trek from the children’s home to the office downtown where I teach English on Saturdays.  The stores here sell buckets, mops, and  mattresses instead of pashminas, prayer flags, and trekking poles.  The outdoor food  markets are beautiful, with food carts overflowing with produce, spices, and dry rice.  On any given day I can watch bricks being cut, cement being poured, cabinets being built, blankets being sewn, and motorcycles being repaired right on the sidewalk.

Pokhara sidewalk industry

Life these days feels pretty good--a solid mix of relaxing, volunteer work, meditation, hanging with the crew at the children's home, and exploring.  Christmas will likely be celebrated by taking the kids to the park and cooking a special dinner--I am lobbying for momos.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!