Luck and Timing

We had our annual volunteer conference a bit over a week ago. 45 volunteers in Nepal and the VSO office staff all congregated in Nagarkot to update ourselves about development in Nepal, share experiences and learning, and to have some fun.

I was one on a team helping to organize and facilitate at the conference - at ton of fun. As I was helping with the opening session, I wanted to start off the 4 days together with a poem, but hadn't had any time to look for anything.

30 minutes before we started I did a hectic google search. What kind of poem might be fitting? And came across the poem below. It is perfect, I love it. A poem written by a Newari writer that uses nature imagery to talk about human nature. Newars are one of the indigenous groups of Nepal....they have been living on this land for a long, long time.

The photos above are from a trip to Bhaktapur, a Newari city that uses tourist fees to protect the cultural heritage and traditions and to keep up the city. When you visit Bhaktapur, it feels like you have a window into how people have been living consistently for 500 years or more. Save for little clues every once in awhile (like an advertisement above a shop) that reminds you of this other world we are more familiar with.

Elijah and I visited Bhakapur as our last day together before he left to go back home to Uganda. As we sat in a cafe drinking hot chocolate, ducking from the torrential rain that means the monsoon is on its way, we watched women walk across the main square gathering water from the well. Bucket by bucket. Catching up on the latest gossip. Others rested at their local shop under the eaves, patiently watching the rain and waiting.

We also happened to come on a day when they celebrate one of two main annual festivals. The whole city was alive and vibrant as men and boys pulled chariots through the city and everyone came to observe. It felt like such an honor to witness this ceremony and practice of bringing people together, calling in the rain, celebrating the new year. What lucky timing...

The Restless Urge For Equality

by Purna Bahadur Vaidya

Before moving water rounds itself
and rises ever so slightly
with an eye to sorting out where the land slopes
where depth lies

Encountered, the world gives it flow, direction, speed
As always water's intention is to fill and raise
Where boundaries create you & me
where between yours & mine walls rise --it revolts

Gathering strength it flows,
and wherever it flows
as day follows day walls collapse,
boundaries are dismissed

In the absence of boundaries and walls
we see wider land --where water calmly, naturally, moves on

This struggle tells me
that the character of the land is uneven

Tempered by the speed of the flow
my own innate desire
is the equality I seek