Nepal An Inconvenient Heaven

After my 2009 experience in Nepal, I was determined to return and so I did. My work and my desire to know and help these people were far from over. Plus, I just became part of something bigger and better than my small goals and dreams in Orange County, California. I felt compelled to go back and make a difference. Every fiber of my body was feeling my connection to Nepal. The experience had already changed me. For one, after fifteen years since my father's passing, I finally mourned and cried and put him to rest in those mountain scenes that reminds me of his beloved land in the Bakhtiari Mountains of Zagros in Iran.
Secondly, was my meeting with the founder of Read-Nepal, an organization, dedicated to helping the leprosy affected and disabled Nepalese. I promised I would help him with his medical clinic of this small community-base rehabilitation center. His place is trying to first treat and also empower the men and woman of Nepal to make something of themselves so that they can be healed and learn a craft to be able to sustain themselves.
Thirdly, my mission with the nonprofit organization called Rescue Humanity was just established. I met beautiful volunteers who took time out and chose to spend their vacation and financial recourses to go to the remote villages and do something with their time and talents and this is called giving unconditionally.
So the 2010 mission was established. Every day at work, all I could do was to talk to clients and show them the pictures of my experiences in Nepal. The orphans and abused young girls who were sold to circuses in India was a sad image of Nepal that was so real and could not be denied. The truth was, Nepal changed me forever, and my mission was to help change the life for Nepal in some small way. Nepal gave me a perspective to life as it is in most parts of the world. It gave me a good physical distance between the lives of Hollywood’s influence and that insight must have attached to my ultra-fat ego already seeking to sooth all kinds of anxiety.  Thus, I ended up taking medication.
So, there was no surprise that when I came back I had a glow to my face and my soul was revived.
My trip at the end of October and at the beginning of November 2010 started by staying for a few days in Hong Kong and seeing the fancy rich elaborate side of the East that Nepal is never capable of being. I loved that city and all the night life it had to offer to me and my fellow volunteer friends en-route to Nepal.
Katmandu was the same as the year before, filled with tourists, who included mountain lovers, who came to climb Mount Everest and mountains like it. There were also curious first-time Europeans that find the currency extremely cheap and they most likely were going through Asia from India to Tibet. Their pilgrimage reminds me of what Buddha did some hundreds of years ago before them.   Buddha and his teachings are very apparent in India and you can see its effect in the kindness of its people. Then there are people like us, the ones who work for different NGOs, UNICEF and the UN. Volunteers who have made a vow to do whatever it takes to help these beautiful people to have some opportunity and to have access to some education and better health.
Our medical and dental camp this year was set up in mid Nepal, close to a region called Pukara. We set our two day trip that included a scary flight ride with a plane as well as a car ride to where we would set our camp for the next few days to work. This region was lush and green and the river ran through it. The sky was filled with stars like a Persian carpet designed for the God of Himalaya. I slept in a tent, washed in the river, and met the most beautiful people on this planet. I worked so hard for the next three days that I could sleep for weeks after we came back. We tended to near 4,200 people. These people would travel days and hours trying to come to us and wait in the heat of the sun just to be seen by our staff. I am so proud of our local and international volunteers and doctors whose only intention is to give and receive nothing but a small hand gesture of gratitude. After returning from the camp, I decided to have a glance at the mountains that bring people from all areas of the globe. I went on a sunrise mountain tour; it is a long three hour hike to a peak filled with spectators and a view that screams the orgasm between sky and earth. Upon my return to Katmandu, I was set to go back to the leprosy clinic and meet my friend Raj Kumar. I found this small man accidently on my last trip and I found his mission and his desire to help his other leprosy infected country man infectious. I knew Raj was ill from our conversation in Facebook. He had to go through transplant surgery.
The clinic was looking the same; few basic rooms to tend to the ill and couple of rooms to train the better ones to learn to sew or fix shoes and to be able to support themselves.   Raj Kumar had also e-mailed me and asked me to help him provide the necessary tools much needed for the clinic. I was so sorry, I was empty handed. All I could get were some little lab blood test tubes and give the cash that I saved. I asked him if he was able to get anything on the list and he looked at me with a painful gesture that the answer was negative. I said to Raj, “What do you need desperately on that list. Let’s go and get it right now.” He wanted the lab equipment such as the microscope and tools to draw blood and clean the wounded areas.  So we went to the part of town that is known to sell medical equipment.
The whole year back in the states, I was thinking of the concept of our wasteful life and our excessive lavish lifestyle and how I could start saving some change for a change. How much I could really save if I had a jar made of love for my daily changes, or every time I went to valet my car. I could park free and put that money towards my cause. So back in Katmandu, here was my chance to put my money where my mouth was and get Raj his much needed supplies. To my surprise, the entire items he bought added up to be exactly what I ended up saving the whole year. Wow! I could cry at that moment. We took pictures with his new Chinese-made microscope and were proud of ourselves. Change for change was now possible.
This year Raj’s leg was amputated, but his heart and his desire to complete this clinic has led me to be more determined than ever to help him finish this project. This year in April, I will be turning fifty. I have made my birthday to stand for something and want to help others to help me make a difference. So, I will have a fund-raising birthday party bash. All my clients and friends and family are to come and see some of my photo exhibition, listen to some good live music, and watch videos of some of my work in Nepal. They are requested to donate whatever they want or can to my cause in lieu of a present. I figure, I have everything a woman can ask for -- my health and my heart. The best gift is the gift of sharing and I will personally deliver this gift and help complete Raj’s work in this life time. Nepal calls me to do more and be more and I really hope you all are able to find your own Nepal in this beautiful planet and have your soul smile like mine did after doing something that is bigger than me. Namaste.