Nepal: Local Women's Summit

It has taken me this long to write about my March trip to Nepal because in many ways I'm still digesting the experience (yes, that's a foreshadowing of food poisoning to come).  Returning back to work, everyone asked, "How was your trip; was it amazing?!"  Amanda and I challenged ourselves to come up with just talking points, her landing on: "It was a mixed bag" and me: "How much time do you have?"

Amanda and I were in Nepal to support and learn more about the nonprofit that supports Local Women's Handicrafts, a fair trade organization giving jobs to women by creating and selling textiles and other handmade wares in Nepal.  This effort is the heartchild of Nepali-born Nasreen Sheikh, who escaped a forced marriage and factory-slave labor as a child (Nasreen's story: TED Talk).  She is working tirelessly and with very few resources to empower the women of Nepal and give them financial independence. Thanks to our friends, families, and coworkers, we raised $5,314 to go directly to the organization before we embarked on our trip.  Still want to give?  By all means, do.  Or check out the store!

And how did we end up intertwined with Nepal?  Well, a good friend of Amanda's happened across the store a few years ago in Kathmandu, became an honorary member of Nasreen's family, and helped set up an American nonprofit to take Nasreen's vision to the next strategic level.  Amanda was asked to be a board member, and when this travel with a purpose event came up, she thought of me.  

On a Wednesday back in December I woke to find an email from her entitled simply, "Nepal in March?"  In it, she said, "Something kept pulling at me to share it with you, particularly because of your continued interest and commitment to women's empowerment -- in business and in life."  Had I ever desired to visit Nepal?  No.  Did I know much of anything about Nepal?  Also, no.  But I trusted Amanda, was interested in pushing my travel comfort zone, and she was right-women's empowerment is incredibly important to me.  I felt in my bones like this was coming into my life for a reason, and that I needed to open myself up to embrace it.  

There were spectacular highs and challenging lows.  Swirls of color in fabrics and powders under a grey sky of dust and smog.  Moments of peace and spirituality amidst a backdrop of chaotic traffic and abject poverty.  Frenetic dancing in the streets and on rooftops; those same bodies fully purged and laid out for days under the unscrupulous machinations of Nepali belly.

I want to share Nepal with you: the beautiful, the challenging, the enlightening.  I want to be fully honest, to share the lessons and the laughs.  I want you to come away with some small idea of what Nepal is like, and perhaps a sense of gratitude for what you have and activism for what others do not.  As you can imagine, this will take more than just one post.

To start, here are some interesting facts I learned before I went:

• It's the only country with a non-quadrilateral flag
• Nepal's constitution dates all the way back to 2015
• It has 8/10 of the highest peaks in the world
• The country boasts most national holidays of any country (36!)
• Nepal is 12 hours and 45 minutes ahead of San Francisco, CA

I thought reading the wiki page would make me feel more prepared!  Oh, I had no idea what was in store for me.

Kathmandu is an assault on the senses.  The roar of motorbikes and constant honking, cooing pigeons and chanted mantras.  Spices hang in the air: turmeric, coriander, and dust become one.  Stepping into our hotel always felt like a haven, the garden an oasis from the chaos of the street.

Garden of Hotel Moonlight, Kathmandu

Panorama from the hotel

Our first day we visited the Garden of Dreams in Kathmandu, one of very few public green spaces in the capital.  Nasreen told me it was her first time ever visiting; for her and for many Nepali, the $1 entrance fee is too steep to justify.  

Brenna, Amanda, me, Chandani, Nasreen, Shelley, and Paloma

Young Chandani was terribly excited to be surrounded by so many American women.  A bright girl with a promising future, Chanda was adopted by Nasreen several years ago and brought to live in the capital so she could get a good education.  Keep in mind Nasreen is only about 28 (she doesn't know exactly-births often aren't recorded in Nepal, meaning it can be hard to be recognized as a citizen in later years), so she was in her early twenties when she took on the responsibility of this young girl.  She's so full of life and promise.  We adored having Chanda with us on many of our excursions, and were glad to provide her with more exposure and new experiences.  She loves being in photos, and you'll see her in most of mine.

Sweet, playful Chandani

Since I've done most of my traveling in the west, I've seen a lot of churches, but haven't been to many Buddhist or Hindu sites.  Visiting the Boudha Stupa, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, we learned about how many pilgrims, especially Tibetans, would stop there along their spiritual journey.  Something that will always stick with me (since I'm a rule-follower) is that you must always move clockwise around the stupa.  If you miss your mark by 10 degrees, you better go around again!  I learned that this is called circumambulation: the act of moving around a sacred object or idol.  Moving clockwise around the stupa, there are hundreds of prayer wheels, which one spins (again, clockwise) to accumulate wisdom and merit (good karma) and to purify negativities (bad karma).

You call that a prayer wheel?

At Pashupatinath Temple, we participated in a ceremony where we may or may not have become Hindu.  I honestly don't know.

At a traditional Nepali dinner

Our favorite things to order were momos and the Thali Set

The next day we visited Nasreen's women's center, which was so full of joy and photo ops that I'm going to write a separate blog post on it!

Nasreen made sure to schedule our trip around the Holi Festival.  She described it as a festival of love, akin in importance to our Christmas.  It's a vibrant celebration of color, the triumph of good over evil, and forgiveness of resentments.  People spread colored powders on your face while wishing you "Happy Holi!"

But, as often happens with these sorts of things, many have taken it too far, "spoiling the love" as Nasreen put it, and using it as an opportunity to easily cross social boundaries and perhaps touch people (in the name of Holi) in a non-consensual way.

Squeaky clean the morning of Holi, before taking to the streets

Feeling sufficiently warned by Nasreen and shielded by glasses, hats, and coconut oil, we headed into the fray.  (There was a lot of research and discussion about the proper headware.  We vacillated between turbans and baseball caps.  Finally, we settled on the caps.)  We spent the whole day around Durbar square, the hub of the action in Kathmandu.

People are creative with their color tactics.  Colored water from toy guns catches you unawares, water balloons, or hell, buckets of water torpedo down from the rooftops.  It's like a city-wide game of paintball.  

Look how gorgeous!

A few blocks in, you can still see skin

Rooftop lunch break

Check out the crowds in the square below

Respectful giving of Holi blessings

Amanda's Holi hurricane

The stages of Manda's Holi hurricane recovery 

 Shelley was apparently a very popular target

There were definitely overwhelming moments, like when the crowd surged with packs of color-wielding teenagers or someone opened a hose in a narrow alley.  We had Chanda with us and so were trying to protect her, keep the group together, and refrain from completely ingesting all the powder.

Holi war faces

Please note Nasreen in the background, without a smudge of color

Inexplicably, no one got lost 

End of the day, full coverage

A few quotes from Holi:

• "I got Holi in my coffee." -A
• "Look at my follicles!" -K
• "So we're back to turbans?" -Honestly, probably each of us at some point

Dinner after several showers

We tried our best to find moments of stillness and reflection, often meditating or doing yoga on the hotel's rooftop.

On our way out of Kathmandu for a one-night stay removed from the chaotic city, we stopped at Bhaktapur Durbar Square, to see where the historic monarchs used to reside.

With Nasreen

Delicious cafe at the museum

The best momos of the trip

We were equal parts giddy and centered about being out of the city.  We could see the Himilayas!  They were far away, but still.  And there were trees!  And flowers!  And fresh air!  The stillness was refreshing.

Amanda's and my cottage for the night

The beds required a certain amount of climbing ability

That night I had a dream that Nasreen had created a unique experience for women to come to Nepal, wear Nepali clothes, eat a vegetarian dinner and fancy local chocolates, get a haircut, and finally ride in a Ferrari with trash can seats.  This isn't like a fancy version of bucket seats.  I'm talking Oscar the Grouch, round tin trash cans that you get inside of, in the front seat of a Ferrari.  Totally unique Nepali experience, right?

For me, the highlight of our time at Namo Buddha was our morning yoga/reiki session.  Amanda, who is currently completing her yoga teacher training, led us in a wonderful morning practice, and during shavasana, Nasreen offered us each reiki.

Now for those of you who, like me, are pretty new to the concept of reiki, you should know that at its core it is energy healing.  Practitioners of reiki either hover hands over you or gently lay hands on you (and some do it from afar) to channel energy between you and them in an effort to cleanse and heal.  What I was initially taking as another opportunity to embrace my Year of Open became a transformational spiritual experience (yes, I know how hyperbolic that sounds).

At this point in my year, I had experienced an emotional therapy massage in Mexico and two workshops with a Mexican sha(wo)man in Nepal.  I'd been stacking my reading list with books on mindfulness and spirituality. I had seen first-hand the power of putting things out into the universe and receiving back positive change and blessings.  Let's just say I was ripe for a reiki reckoning.

Nasreen offering reiki to our group

As I lay on my mat in complete surrender, eyes closed, I could sense Nasreen coming over me in color.  As if the back of my eyelids transformed into a lava lamp, a brilliant shade of deep blue began to pulse between my eyes.  As Nasreen moved around my body, hovering her hands over me, the blue orb moved with her.  Calmly, a blanket of purple swept over me, and I associated personally with the color, as if the blue represented Nasreen, and the purple was there for me.  Eventually, the orb became a yin and yang of blue and green, intermingling as she moved not only around me, but around the room, the purple continuing to hover just above my consciousness.  All throughout the experience, I didn't feel the desire to gasp and gab to the others about what I was seeing; instead, I felt profound awe and presence.

Highlight of breakfast: yak cheese

At breakfast, I shared my color experience, and of course the reiki master and sha(wo)man nodded knowingly.  Looking up the colors, I found that blue/green are associated with calm and healing, and purple with spirituality, sensitivity, and intuitiveness.  This one pivotal experience, paired with now knowing several reiki practitioners, now has me exploring the practice myself.  Sometimes it just feels like the universe is trying to tell you something.

Funny how excited we were about this shot 

of us with the mountains in the background.

Much better views were yet to come!

"Throw your TP in the trash or we'll dismember you"

Altar for Paloma's workshop

Me with Saheen, Nasreen's younger sister

Beginning of hike to Namo Buddha Temple

The last few of what was literally 1000 steps

At the temple, we got to witness the afternoon prayer, where the monks chanted and sang, as well as had their afternoon tea.  Surprisingly, most of the monks were underage, as young as four.  We learned that many families make an "offering" of one child to the monastery, where they are sure to be well-fed and receive a good education.  The large main temple was so colorful and ornate, with lush hangings, gold, and fabrics in every direction.  I wish I could show you, but no photos are allowed.  The boys filed in and knelt, giggles escaping as they settled in for prayer.  It was all so well-practiced, with different people performing various duties, from gong-ringer to tea-pourer.  They even brought around doughnuts and milk tea for the guests, welcoming us into the experience.

I'll get into the food poisoning in a future post, but just know that whatever took us down happened at Namo Buddha.  After about a day and a half of not leaving our room back in Kathmandu, Amanda and I braved the city streets with Nasreen (who was also in recovery) to attend sound healing.  We figured if there was one thing we could do that day, it was lay horizontal on a mat.  

This had already been planned, but healing was especially important that day!  For two whole hours, this man played the singing bowls around us (and apparently on us - I later saw a photo of him ringing one on Amanda's forehead - I was on a completely different level at that point and had no idea), the tones and vibrations meant to bring our bodies back into balance.

It mostly felt like a really deep nap.  We were so depleted from the food poisoning, that literally anything would've helped!  I would love to experience it again, perhaps when I'm in a less fragile state.

The rest of our final afternoon in Kathmandu was spent at the Local Women's Handicrafts store, picking out souvenirs and gifts.  The women make so many beautiful items!  I was particularly in love with their cashmere scarves, wool blankets, and colorful rugs made of recycled saris.  If you're someone I exchange gifts with throughout the year, just know that you're most likely getting something found in this room:

Panorama of (just one room in) the store!

Flanked by sisters Nasreen and Saheen

More to come about our day at the center, Amanda's and my trip to Pokhara and Chitwan National Park, and trickier parts of Nepal.