{"id":1162,"date":"2017-04-17T00:41:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T04:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1162"},"modified":"2017-04-17T00:41:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T04:41:50","slug":"what-is-it-about-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1162","title":{"rendered":"What is it about Nepal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m sitting on a rooftop in Boudhanath, Kathmandu.\u00a0 Tibetan prayer flags blow in every direction.\u00a0 Though the sounds of motorcycles, the hum of electric tuk tuks, barking of dogs, honking of every kind of vehicle, children playing are amidst, it is the deep echoes of Buddhist chants on speakers from a nearby monastery that resound the most.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been in Nepal for a week; we are scheduled to stay yet another week.\u00a0 Nepal had not been on the top of my list of destinations.\u00a0 It was Maya\u2019s vision that brought me here.\u00a0 What was it about Nepal?\u00a0 She surely was drawn to the Indian culture upon our trip to India in 2014.\u00a0 She fell in love when we visited a girls\u2019 residential school called Binipani.\u00a0 Maya was just 13 \u00bd at that time. \u00a0When she was 14 years old, she read a book that took place in Nepal. \u00a0She had always been a book vacuum.\u00a0 Many books didn\u2019t even make it on her \u201creading lists\u201d as she always read well beyond the requirements.\u00a0 I had known that she read a book that moved her deeply about the treatment of girls in Nepal.\u00a0 It took us a while to find the book; and we finally did. \u00a0I found \u201cSold,\u201d so hard to read.\u00a0 The story was horrific; I cannot imagine how our profoundly empathic Maya had coped with the images, culture and feelings.\u00a0 It is the story of far too many girls; one would be too much.\u00a0 This is what had motivated Maya to graduate from high school in three years, and come to this country as soon as possible to be of service.\u00a0 She had a vision to stop the sexual trafficking that is so prevalent here.\u00a0 So here I am.\u00a0 Along with twelve others, some who knew Maya and other who did not.\u00a0 For a variety of reasons, we all felt moved to go on this journey.\u00a0 And a journey, it is.<\/p>\n<p>I have Maya with me always.\u00a0 Did she leave some of her cells in my body from carrying her for nine months?\u00a0 I know that she left her heart with me, and took a big part of my heart with her.\u00a0 What part of me has my own lens on?\u00a0 What part is that of Maya\u2019s?\u00a0 What part is my work?\u00a0 And what is hers?\u00a0 What does it mean to be doing work in Maya\u2019s name?\u00a0 I continue to carry Maya.<\/p>\n<p>I am challenged to find the thread of this very rich tapestry to share.\u00a0 There is so much, so very, very much!\u00a0 With my mind swirling, the best that I can express is a few moments from this intense time:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The light in the eyes of the children at Khushi Ghar, a home that is run by the Himalayan Children\u2019s Charities (a nonprofit that we love). We\u2019ve had a couple of visits so far.\u00a0 And will have another long day tomorrow, visiting children in more remote regions.\u00a0 This organization does life changing work.\u00a0 There is so much work to be done!<\/li>\n<li>I feel my loss so deeply. I can only imagine the loss that these children live with.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve been greatly disturbed by learning of the tradition of \u201cKumari\u201d. These are living goddesses.\u00a0 Girls are chosen at a young age and are revered until they menstruate.\u00a0 During those years, she does not interact with anyone but family, lives in a dark area of a palace and cannot put her feet on the ground.<\/li>\n<li>Thanks to seven-year old, Jonah, we discovered a \u201cSinging Bowl\u201d shop. At first, it was simply fun, watching the water bubble as the bowls resonated.\u00a0 \u00a0 If our bodies are 70% fluid, what would happen with the singing bowls vibration on our bodies?\u00a0 I had a chance to experience the vibrations of the bowl on my head, and then later, throughout my body.\u00a0 It was a transformational experience.<\/li>\n<li>The poverty is overwhelming.<\/li>\n<li>The kindness of new friends is overwhelming, too.<\/li>\n<li>Monkeys, monkeys, monkey! \u201cMaya\u201d and \u201cmonkey\u201d will be synonymous forever.<\/li>\n<li>Being among so people of so many different cultures.<\/li>\n<li>Worshipping and spiritual practice to me seems to be the glue that keeps this society together. Temples, shrines, Stupas are everywhere.\u00a0 They are alive with people at all hours of the day and night.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am trying to make sense of it all.\u00a0 What is my work?\u00a0 What is our work?\u00a0 For now, I will end from where I began.\u00a0 With the prayer flags blowing, prayer wheels spinning and chanting in the background.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Due to technical difficulties, I\u2019ll post photos at another time.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m sitting on a rooftop in Boudhanath, Kathmandu.\u00a0 Tibetan prayer flags blow in every direction.\u00a0 Though the sounds of motorcycles, the hum of electric tuk tuks, barking of dogs, honking of every kind of vehicle, children playing are amidst, it is the deep echoes of Buddhist chants on speakers from a nearby monastery that resound&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gifts-since"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p720L0-iK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1165,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}