Here We Go Again!

Hey Y'all,

We are packing up and heading back to Nepal next week. Despite what is seen in the news and implied on government travel advisory websites, our trusted contacts in Nepal say that the trip is doable, although it will likely be without some staple creature comforts Carmen and I have come to know and cherish.

I wish I could say I am not worried, but I am feeling pretty uneasy about the whole situation. I think it is just pre-travel nerves getting to me, amped up by the stress of uncertainty with some beloved individuals here at home. Packing is a big job in itself, but with the unstable/food shortage there, compounded by family life here -- kid's school activities coming up this week, packing them up for a long three and a half weeks without us, as well as balancing shiftwork, and dealing with our backyard veggie crop from the garden and greenhouse, I am feeling like I am going to buckle under all the pressure. My body is sending me signals too; I can't sleep (which is not unusual), and I am coughing up a storm.

I also should mention that I have been feeling totally inadequate. How do I get myself into these types of things? Am I really up to the tasks at hand? Sometimes I feel very alone in all of this. Then a few of you offer to help with something and I just feel so insanely grateful. So thanks a million to those of you who have reached out and offered support.

I am certain that all the love and prayers I can get will help me through this time...that and the thought of seeing these guys again.

We're back on the path

Wow, I was just skimming over my older blog posts. It is fun to pick up where we left off almost 5 years ago.

I really think traveling is an addiction. That is the only real explanation as to why we are attempting to head back to India and Nepal with our youngin's.

The two kiddies will have to toughen up in so many ways and I am already proud of them because the past few months have been transitional enough with moving cities.

Let's play catch up here and set the background...We decided in late 2011 that some things in our lives needed to change. Carmen was feeling unfulfilled with his job and because both of us have toyed with the idea of how we would ever contribute professionally to the "greater global good," he decided to resign from his position as an EIT and take some sanitation courses for developing countries. I wanted to make some changes too, namely add a new member to our family of three. Both of us decided it was time to see the world again from the wanderer's perspective. So, simultaneously we agreed to the proposed changes and in a few months time Carmen had quit his job, I was pregnant and we were planning for our grand adventure of 2013.

We roughly decided that since I was due in September, we could safely commit to some oversea's "fact-finding" in sanitation in January and it would be a perfect follow-up to the courses Carm was taking. A vague opportunity presented itself in Kolkata and we started to envision a trip that included India and Nepal.

I am a mantra person, so I started a prayer in my head that would hum along as I was washing dishes or   throwing a blanket across the bed. My mantra was "Lord, prepare me." I know it sounds strange to use a buddhist method of praying a Judeo-Christian prayer. But I just do what works...and since the past 4 months have felt like a rigorous boot-camp in endurance, patience, sleep deprivation, and trust, I think my prayers were heard...

I wouldn't normally be so worried. We've been there before.

But maybe every parent knows how it feels when you have a dream you can't give up on, to integrate children into something out of the ordinary, well some say it is selfish, others say it's good for them. I say it's a fine art and it takes knowing yourself and your kid to work through the details. And I hope, in the end, my kids can say that along all the bumps of the dusty roads they were held tight and knew they were loved. and the worst case scenarios, those horrible moments of tantrums and projectile vomiting and so on, well, good thing they don't remember anything before the age of four. maybe there's a reason for that? so that we parents can have a few years to figure out how to parent them without doing too much damage.

So, here comes more adventure...scheduled for the end of February we will be landing in Kolkata to begin what will ultimately be a trip to India, Nepal and the Philipines...I am so excited!

Marcie's Paintings

Land Ho

Finally the day that we have been waiting for for over a year has come. Land has been officially purchased for the orphanage!!!!

Now we can start talking about building. Currently a proposal for a budget is being discussed. After that we will hear details about construction.

Carmen and I are still working out how we can establish a fundraising network here in Vancouver. We still don't know too many people here so it's not easy. I'm hoping to seek out some churches or individuals who are supporters of Mission of Mercy already...but I don't even know how to start this process.

E-mail me if you have any suggestions!

moving forward bit by bit.

We just recieved the minutes from a meeting that was held in Bandipur between our friend Depak and the people that will be "on the ground" overseeing the development of the Orphanage project. Depak is still in the process of securing land for the Orphanage, but everything else is coming together in terms of administration.

the setting.

Imagine flying to Nepal. On a stuffy plane for 26 hours, you land in the city of Kathmandu. You leave the airport in a taxy and take in the sites of a busy Asian city. The buildings are aged, the streets are littered, there are potholes here and there. If you rolled down the window you would most likely take in the smell of burning plastic as people are trying to get rid of their garbage...

The Babies

It turns out I was not pushing out a baby Wednesday December 30th at 1 pm. I was holding him in my arms, though.

The Orphanage

Throughout the past 7 months in Vancouver we kept constant conversation with our friends in Nepal, as well as with the Director from Mission of Mercy Canada to try and see if there was a way that foreign (Canadian) funds could find their way to that little Village in Nepal that stole our hearts.

In theory it seems like an easy thing but unless we could establish a partnership with an NGO with "roots" in Nepal, it would be next to impossible to get an Orphanage running from over here. So our friend Dale from Mission of Mercy searched high and low for many months to find a suitable NGO.

New Beginnings

Carmen and I returned to Canada with our hearts set on moving to the exciting city of Vancouver. Little did we know we had a bean on the way. When we found out I was pregnant we decided to take the risk and try to make a life in this new city. It was hard at times- We were both unemployed for five months. We were broken into once and robbed once, we went through some other unexpected events that challenged us in different ways. We found a little Church called Grandview Calvary Baptist in East Vancouver. We came with no expectations and always left filled with so much peace and hope for our uncertain future.

reflecting...

Hi everyone!

The plane leaves in just over 12 hours. Carmen and I are in a bittersweet mood, packing and thinking.

We've had an amazing past few days, starting our Nothern Thai experience way up there in Chaing Khan, which is a quaint little river town. Then we hopped on the bus to Chaing Mai. We enjoyed the laid back atmosphere in comparison to the bustle of Bangkok! The beautiful garden city was welcoming and atmospheric. It was in that city where we checked our e-mail to recieve a note from my sister that said "Hey, you guys are coming home!" When she was able to change our flights for us. What a funny turn of evens for a family member to tell us when we are coming home! So after that we knew we had just 10 days left to savor "the good life" before reality sets in...

a smattering of tidbits...

Hello!

Before going on I need to apologize for the bad grammar this blog will have.

I am writing on a foreign keyboard and Èthis is what happenès when I try to add the right symbolsÉÉÉ!!!

...Where did we leave off...I think we were in Vietnam, heading into Laos via a 24 hour bus ride. A memory that is very thankfully distant...lets just say, we ended up on a cargo bus and that is how we were treated. I was appalled at times - seething - Carmen was the calm one. (I can not believe how rational and understanding he can remain after 26 hours of no sleep whatsoever. I on the other hand, I need a little grace in such circumstances.) The time spent driving was about 13 hours; the other 13 or 14 hours were spent waiting - waiting for the border to open, waiting for cargo to clear through customs, or waiting for the drivers to finish off their rounds of shots.

3 weeks later...

Hello all,
We have spent the past 3 weeks enjoying Vietnam. We have had a wonderful time here. Tonight we are hopping on a bus with a plan to ride for 24 hours to reach the capital city of Laos.

We started our Vietnam experience in Ho Chi Minh city. With 8 million inhabitants owning 3.5 million motor bikes, rush hour is totally crazy. It is a good thing we had 5+ months experience stepping off the curb into chaos before we reached this city or else we probably would have spent the whole of our trip on one side of the street. I had to cringe and grab Carmen's arm every time he said "ok, come", leading us into a sea of havoc, with more motor bikes than I could ever count whizzing all around us. Carmen got a postcard depicting the madness, an aerial shot showing a street in rush hour traffic with hundreds of motorbikes in rows of 15-20 bikes across. Add people and rickshaws and a few other vehicles, and you get a lot of honking, a lot of craziness! There are a few traffic fatalities everyday in the city and it is no wonder why. It is the law to wear helmets, but for some (very odd) reason, children are exempt. They ride helmetless on the bikes with their parents.

Cambodia

Hi everyone,

It is a sad thing to have to say our time in Cambodia is quickly coming to an end. We just received our Visas for Vietnam and we are planning to head out early tomorrow morning for a new adventure in a new country. I will just give a quick re-cap of the places we've been and all that we've seen.

Siam Reap
We first crossed the border from Thailand and headed to this tourist town that is the starting point for trips to Angkor Wat. Although it is possible to see Angkor wat in 1-3 days we decided to take the whole week just to relax and re-coup from 3 intense days of sight-seeing. We rented bicycles and rode them almost the whole way around the 22 km loop that connects most of the main sites. Angkor Wat is the most well-known name for what is actually a huge complex full of ancient temples and cities that thrived during the Angkor period, which was about 10th or 11th century AD.

Thailand Exposed

Right now we are about 5 km away from the border to Cambodia, getting ready to cross over tomorrow. We are loving this hotel, with Cable TV, Internet, and lots of interesting books, only $10.00 a night. We are enjoying the prospects of menu entrees such as "boiled snake head". Carmen, of course, is happy that this place has newspapers and BBC Global news. He was also impressed with the fact that the Remote Control in our room apparently surfs channels on its own.

Thailand, and Max (to the max)

I'm happy to report that from our end of things, the past few weeks have been refreshingly uneventful. We have arrivedi n Phuket today (pronounced PHOO-KET) and have just spent the past few weeks in Bangkok and then jumping from beach to beach to beach all the way down the coast. It has been for the most part totally relaxing, refreshing, and wonderful, to say a few words. There is nothing like laying on soft golden sand in the heat of the warm sun, or frolicking in a sparkling ocean. That said, Carm has decided that he is not totally a beach bum, and would mostly rather enjoy the shade and a good newspaper, or an exhilerating motorbike ride (yes, moms: we did).

We had such a great time in Bangkok, arriving from Kathmandu it was a huuuge difference...like travelling 200 years into the future (especially form where we were on the Nepali homestead).

Fat Camp (to the max)

This Blog is Officially Dedicated to Nella and Nich and Josh.

So.

We got a suggestion from one of our friends to go see some glaciers while we are in Nepal. This sounded simple enough to Marcie. Carmen, being the amazing and wonderful Husband that he is, obliged her into thinking that this would all be as easy as it seemed in her pretty little head.

WELL, 135 Kilometers later, we are happy to say we have come and gone through some of the most awe-inspiring terrain we have ever seen, and we have arrived back in Kathmandu relatively unscathed...

Back on the Bandipur Wagon

Hello to all our long-lost friends and family,

We left our placement in Chitwan and headed to Bandipur, where we visited the same guesthouse for the 4th and 5th time! We have made it good with that family--the first day we returned they invited us to eat dinner with them and I think they were very proud of our accomplishments in learning Nepali.

The next few days we spent with our new friends, who we are currently in the works of helping them to start an Orphanage. We had such a good time with them too. We helped them to carry firewood and cook a traditional Nepali meal (which, after weeks on end of training in a wooden Nepali Kitchen over a bamboo fire, Marcie has been able to turn some serious tricks.) We just get along with them so well it's hard to believe we come from such far away places on the globe.

the size of marcie's kidneys

hello!!!
well have we got a great new years happening. the first day (which i should not be telling you about--we have decided to officially delete it from our calender) so. really, pretend with us: this is all fictional. I'll just tell you for fun.

So, January 1st when we were at our volunteer placement. Getting ready for bed and Carmen said he was cold. Which was not that unrealistic of a thing to say. It gets down to about 12 degrees C and in a concerete house with no heating, it's cold. Anyways, then he started to shiver violently. It got a little intense and especially because he is not that dramatic of a guy.

merry christmas!

Hi Friends and Family,

We are so happy we finally once again have had the chance to get in touch with our family through some short but wonderful phone calls and also even through this blog--even though it by no means replaces seeing your faces, we hope you know we are thinking of everyone at home every day, especially at Christmas!

We have had a very unique and memorable first christmas together! We spent a few days in pre-celebration with our friends and "family" that we stay with in a small village. We knew it was up to us and the other foreign volunteers to bring on some christmas cheer- and so at the health post we threw a "christmas party" for the staff with oranges, coconut cookies and tea made from a (very stinky) kerosene stove that had to be "pumped" by hand.

hello loved ones!

Hi everyone!

It is so good to finally be able to sit down and spill some beans (and cook them later), about life in general...we have very limited internet access, and when we do have computer it is pre-historically slow...so if our e-mail responses are non-existent or three-lined at best you know why!

It has been about three months since we were married and left, it feels like so much longer, especially now that the pace of our trip has slowed to match "Nepali time"...or, more precisely "Nepali Farmer's time"...

It's been a while

Wow, the time goes fast. Carmen and I are complaining about cold...this business of hovering around 20 degrees Celsius is not what we have been used to! We have spent the majority of the last few weeks in Kathmandu, gearing up for what is going to (finally!) begin early tomorrow morning. We are going to head over to Chitwan to begin our Volunteer placement. We have taken a few language classes and are now barely capable of saying hello, how are you. Oh and I know the word for Grandpa.

this amazing world

So, our last main stop in India was Varanasi. We were both so happy this amazing city was saved for last, as it proved to be a climax of sorts, requiring all our previous India experience to get the most out of this city. Mark Twain said about Varanasi, when he visited, something along the lines of "...older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together..." and while the buildings, painted over and built up for the hundredth time look similar to any other Indian city, you know there is something different about this place when you head to the river.

We've spent quite a bit of the last few days at ease exploring old palaces and forts. We stayed in a few places that resemble castles and learned lots about history. these weeks can be best described in pictures which we are excited to get the chance to share. soon.
We've been to "the white city", "the blue city," "the golden city" and "the pink city", which were all painted these colors for various reasons related to different historical and cultural events. needless to say, rooftop views have been awesome.