Have been doing inductions, language lessons and some sight seeing. Last night we had dinner at Nepali Chulo (where I went last week with Barga and Candy) with the entire group of 70+ of us plus 20+ Nepali students. I was sitting with the Australian Ambassador and his wife as well as getting to meet Anuradha Koirala, the founder of Maiti Nepal, which was so amazing to actually meet such an inspirational woman.
I can't remember if I've already written about what we're doing for the next few weeks but I'll do it again now anyway. Tomorrow we travel 12ish hours to Maiti Nepal's Itahari facility. Maiti rescues trafficked children and women from brothels in India and provides healthcare, shelter, training, support... Whatever they need. Last year they rescued 3600 women and children. Unfortunately around 30% have been infected with HIV, not to mention the torture (burns, acid burns, beating, starvation, cuts, forced abortions), and the usual 5-50 clients per day that are forced upon them. Anuradha started Maiti Nepal over 20 years ago and I'm yet to think of a more worthy cause to support. I've said it before but, watch the documentary "The Day My God Died" if you can handle it. It's all about Maiti and Anuradha.
The Itahari facility where we'll be stationed is a training centre for girls that have been rescued at the border before they're sold into a brothel. Maiti has staff at the border trained to recognise girls that may be getting trafficked (usually the staff members are women who were once trafficked themselves) and intervene and rescue the girls before they cross the border to India. We'll get to go and observe this as well.
We're gutting and rebuilding the amenities block at Maiti Itahari and painting (possibly a mural) the girls dormitories. That will be for just under 2 weeks, then we'll do a 4 day trek and then head back to Bhaktapur and Kathmandu just in time for me to fly home. Complete technological blackout until the 20th.
Today we visited the Maiti Kathmandu headquarters and I was completely overwhelmed. We ate lunch and had a lecture on the work they do and what they're fighting against followed by a tour of the facility. There are about 200 children there and they were just so precious and adorable and so excited to see us. As the guests of honour there were some dance performances by some of the children. When the younger girls got up to do a very groovy dance called "dance for life" which had music set to it about beating HIV/aids etc, all 200 children ended up standing and joining in the dance. They were all so happy and dancing all around us and I was just blown away.
Afterwards we visited the Pashupatinath Hindu temple where they hold their cremation ceremonies on the ghats. It's a bit like a mini version of Varanasi. There's also the oldest hospice in Kathmandu there (about 100yr old) where people can go and live the end of their days right next to where they'll be cremated. I saw a woman being carried into the building on a stretcher and just found it really morbid and wrong in some way... Like it's great that they have such a facility but watching it, it kind of felt like "there you go, we'll just stick you in here til you die and then there's not far to take you to be burnt". One of the other groups here will be doing construction/repair work on the roof of the hospice over the next couple weeks as the whole thing is leaking onto everyone dying there.
There were a couple of people being cremated when we arrived and we saw another two bodies being prepared while we were there. The first part of the cremation requires the head and the feet to be washed with the river water. At one point a body was brought over to the ghats on a stretcher. It was wrapped in a floral bed sheet and wearing a khaki green beanie. They were waiting there for a while and I was wondering what the hold up was; it seemed so strange for the body to just be there and everyone casually standing around and people going about their business nearby. Then another body was brought over on a stretcher, except this one was wrapped in saffron fabric and covered in flower petals. Turns out the first body had to wait for the more well dressed body to be washed first. It just seemed so wrong to me that there was still a hierarchy in death; that somehow even some dead bodies are more important than others.
Our group went out to dinner at a woodfired pizza place tonight. Last western food/food not prepared on a camp stove for 3 weeks. So full. Will I ever get sick of goats cheese salad? Doubtful. We went and did a stock up of snacks for the trek/general snacking.. You really can get anything here. I managed to find a big bag of Cadbury's chocolate eclairs (my childhood favourite because grandad would have them in the glovebox of his car when they came to visit) which made me very happy and there may or may not be a bottle of 75 proof Nepalese spiced rum in my bag for probably the coldest New Years celebrations of my life thus far.
We'll be in tents for the next 3 weeks so I'll come back to an Australia with a renewed appreciation for walls and a bed. I just took the longest and hottest shower I could manage.. "The Last Shower". Won't be that many happening over the next couple weeks considering we're gutting the bathroom there, so it's just a camping shower (that we'll have to boil water for first). Anyway.. Have to be up at 4:30am to pack, eat breakfast and get on the bus. We've got to try and beat traffic out of Kathmandu otherwise it'll add on 2-4h to our trip.
So.. This will be the last blog until probably at least the 20th! Happy New Year everyone. Lots of love xx
P.S kiss my ass 2013!!!
Location:Expedition beginnings
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