citta travel notes

Bakrah eid - Jaipur, india

2008-12-09T01:21:00.001-05:00

Today is the festival of Bakra Eid celebrated in the muslim culture. In this festival families purchase and slaughter goats. It is a day to thank God for good fortune and to share it with less fortunate people.

According to the custom, meat has to be divided into three equal parts among the family, friends and poor neighbors. Delicious food, desserts and beverages are cooked and served on this festival to people who visit any Muslims house. Being a vegetarian, and not too keen on Indian sweets, I try to miss this event as all my Muslim friends homes feels inclined to treat me as a combination guest and sacrifice. A sort of “foie gras” hospitality you could say.
In the market here there are plenty of goats for sale for bakra eid. To help sell the goats the men owning the goats have named them after Bollywood stars. Sharuk Khan and Salman Khan are favorite names for the goats. It would be the equivalent of naming your sacrifice Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Maybe this is something we may want to introduce in Hollywood?

For those of you more interested, read on………….

Legend has it that Hazrat Ibrahim (Abraham) was asked by the Almighty Allah to sacrifice his son Ismail on Mount Mina near Mecca. That was the moment when Ibrahim blindfolded himself for carrying out the pronouncement of the God so that he wouldn't be able to see his son being killed by him. When he took off the blindfold, a lamb lay slaughtered on the altar and his son stood there unharmed. That was the message clear enough to make him understand that the God was testing his ability to sacrifice his will. This spirit of sacrifice is what truly underlines the spirit of Bakr-Id. Incidentally, the day also coincides with the day when the holy Quran was declared complete.
Festivities mark the first day, when people wear new clothes, offer prayers at the mosque, and greet friends and relatives. Special prayers are offered on all three days. It is said that the celebrations are carried on over three days to ensure that the entire Muslim community partakes in the noble of act of giving and sharing. Bakr-Id is celebrated all over India with much fervor, as it is in the rest of Islamic world. The name Bakr-Id, however, is most popular in India. In Arabic, the feast is usually referred to as Id-ul-Azha or Id-ul-Zuha.

new KG-1 Class in Juanga

2008-11-30T09:50:00.006-05:00

I was speaking to Govinda and the Headmaster of the school about the 3 acres of land the government required for us to be able to register a high school for the students reaching classes 7,8 and 9. During the conversation they told me some amazing news. 5 students in the Niali block region (including 100’s of schools) had accomplished to win scholarships awards for the State level of Orissa. Out of the 5 in our region, 3 were from our school in Juanga! This is great proof that the education we are providing in Orissa is a shining example of what can happen.

The new students arrived in KG-1 and I went to meet them and welcome them to the school. There were 36 more then adorable students with big smiles. What was really impressive was the fact that the majority of the new students were girls. This really made me feel that the communities trust the education we are giving students and feel safe with the school. I have been fighting to have more girls admitted every year, since they are usual kept at home to prepare for just marrying off. These subsistence farmers don’t have much reason to push their girls to be educated in the old system.

Marta Miquel works from an Ambulance

2008-11-30T09:40:00.005-05:00

A wonderful person named Marta Miquel from Barcelona was waiting for William and I when we arrived to Puri, Orissa. Marta is a friend of Albert Rigat, a young man from Barcelona who had visited the Hospital by chance on a visit to Orissa last year. She is a Doctor that works from an Ambulance for the Govt. of Catalan. For her work, she faces amazing challenges at random times of the day and night. On the suggestion of Albert, Marta wanted to see the Citta project in Orissa for a possible collaboration for around 5 months in 2009. She was hoping to take some time off of work and contribute to a place she felt could really benefit from her skills and help push her to new challenges as well. She was very happy to see that the hospital and surrounding area are definitely places she feels comfortable collaborating with. After some contemplation and consideration on the rooftop of the hospital as the sun rose, she had an Epiphany! The best use of her skills would be to do outreach while in Orissa to villages. Teaching them first aid and how to deal with patients prior to reaching the hospital in Juanga. The first or “golden hour” of care to a patient is crucial to their survival. Patients now arrive to the hospital with dangling limbs or on their back where the tongue can easily asphyxiate them prior to their arrival to the hospital. Marta wants to be able to provide small First Aid kits to the villages and William suggested he gets the Boy Scouts he is affiliated with in NJ to fundraise for such First Aid kits.

Riots in Kathmandu

2008-11-19T09:38:00.001-05:00

Ok, this has to stop being a tradition when leaving Nepal. William and I woke up with our schedule set. We woke at 7am to make some important communications to the U.S. (A.K.A. the Todoturkeyfestorama video, link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbdLtmj7zUQ

Then we were catching a quick breakfast, checking out of the hotel and heading to the women’s center in Bhaktipur to meet a candidate for the new production manager position and have a farewell lunch with the women before running to the Airport to head of to India. Well, that was the plan…..

We packed up at the hotel and asked Bikash, our Nepali friend at the Hotel to get us a Taxi since his price would be about equal to me bargaining for half an hour. He came back a little confused and said “No Taxi’s”. I figured we had to walk down to the central taxi stand to get one, so off we went. When we arrived at the taxi stand we saw all the shop fronts rapidly slamming shut. There was a wild mob of students heading our way throwing rocks into all the store windows that hadn’t complied with the strike demand. After witnessing a few good windows shatter, we decided to duck into FIRE AND ICE, a famous old pizza house owned by an Italian women that had married a Nepali man. The restaurant had become a staple for both expats and the previous Prince who suffered the harsh death and blame for the murder of his family (and his own death), under the present King’s slaughtering tactics to take the throne. I have to say, if you were ducking out of a riot, it’s was the best place to be near…..they had free WiFi.

We had to cancel our trip to Bhaktipur and I’ll try to interview candidates for the Production Job by phone from India. We barely made it to the Airport in time and off we went to India!

Meeting with the Citta Nepal Board

2008-11-12T09:30:00.002-05:00

I planned a meeting with the Citta Nepal board before I had to leave for India. Their were two knew members and I wanted to share some time with them so they knew more about Citta US. Not all members could make the trip since two of them live in Nepalganj on the other side of the country.

We had a nice afternoon together gathered in our office in Mahankal (outside Boudhanath). After eating loads of cookies and Tea we spoke about the upcoming year and what we all had envisioned for the organization. We spoke about the Humla project to a larger extent, since that is the largest project growing at the fastest pace. The board expressed their special interest in that particular project because everyone in Nepal is aware Humla is a difficult district to work and the poorest and most remote in the country.

It turns out that the secretary of the board is a scholar and teacher of the Bon religion in Tibet. He was fascinating to listen to. A Bon practitioner is called a Bonpo and it predates the presence of Buddhism in the Tibetan Himalayas. When Buddhism moved from India into Tibet it merged with the local practices of Bon. That is apparently where Tibetan Buddhism gets its colorful, shamanistic flavor.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Nepal

2008-11-11T09:33:00.001-05:00

I was very lucky to meet with a woman in New York this summer named Maggie Piper. She was a friend of the designer Lucy Barnes and when I took a batch of samples from the women’s cooperative over to her for viewing Maggie was visiting there as well. Maggie said she was actually moving, with her family to Kathmandu in the fall. I asked why? She said her husband, Robert Piper, was taking a position as the head of the UNDP in Nepal. So on this trip I called Maggie and set a lunch date to meet with them. Robert was as nice as Maggie and I feel they will bring a lot of grounded energy to Nepal in these fragile months leading to the countries new constitution. Actually, the UN in Nepal has taken a very important role in assisting the government in the process. I spoke with Robert about Citta’s project in Humla and the great progress we were making. I know there is a lot of interest in developing those regions now that the Maoist conflict has subsided and we have a wonderful foundation set up there already.

Robert asked what some of the major hardships or obstacles we are facing and I mentioned the exorbitant cost of flying medicines to that region from Nepalganj to Humla. I also said that I was aware that the world Food Program (WFP) had regular flights to Humla to drop off food for the “work for food” program they ran in the Humla Himalayas for the workers building the road to China. Robert said he would look into that with the head of WFP and get back to me.

On the following morning, Maggie and her friend Roberta Taman from justice reform (justicereform.com) came with me to the Women’s center. They both wanted to get an idea of what was happening there so they may be able to gather support from other contacts they have both locally and in their respective countries (Australia, Canada, France).

Humla Project Award

2008-11-06T23:10:00.001-05:00

This award was given to the most beneficial project in Humla region for 2007. There are approximately 130 organizations registered in Humla. It’s not easy to find even the slightest impact that these organizations are having in the region. I frequently ask around to see what work is being done and where, and the same one or two organization names always come up and then they are infrequent and not very extensive in their presence. I hope in the future that this recognition of the hospitals benefit to the region translates into support from within the country. DFID, USAID, and many different international orgs have funds for developing such programs. It would help us tremendously in our efforts to have their support.

Natural Dyes - lalitpur

2008-11-04T23:07:00.001-05:00

I went to visit a Fair Trade business called The Association for Craft Producers today in Kathmandu. It was a company set up by an ex-government official named Mira. In 1984, frustrated by government work for craft development, she wanted to start her own private Fair trade Company to employ people. Now they employ over 1200 craft workers and turn over around one and a half million annually! Their biggest client is 10,000 villages.

I was interested to see how they set up the company and how they dealt with some of the issues we face at Citta’s Bhaktipur Women’s center. I learned a lot from the tour about their structure. I was hoping to ask them whether they had any unused applicants for a production woman. We really need someone badly for that position. At the end of the tour I found the manager alone and pulled her aside to ask. The women looked at me confrontationally and said, “no, we are looking for one too”. I guess she may have felt I was there to headhunt.

After visiting the Association for craft producers, I jumped on the back of a motorbike with Wanda’s assistant Raju. Raju is a master weaver and belongs to a school in Lalitpur called the Nepal Srijanatmak Kalaghuti. The founder of this weaving school was an elderly Nepali woman named Urmila. She lives half the year in Canada and the other half in Kathmandu. On the upper floor of the building there was large room that functioned as an office/ atelier for Ms. Urmila. There were two old couches lining the corner of the room near the windows. I was on one, and Urmila on the other. Across the room was a large half-done weaving in silk of the standing Buddha. The loom was quite tall and rose half way to the ceiling. A young, fragile girl sitting cross-legged in front of the weaving was busily tying away the varied golden naturally-dyed silk threads on the lower portion of Buddha’s robe.

Urmila was not hesitant to spill her life story. It was one of those grand stories that unfolded through a never ending soft smile. All her memories had clean edges and where slightly elevated to just below mythic. She told me she was one of the youngest girls to be sent to the Gandhi Cotton weaving houses. Her and six or seven of her girlfriends (accompanied always by one male, of course) would take their long weekends and travel to different parts of India. Urmila and her friends would be a guest of another Gandhi weaving center and food and lodging was not a problem. They would come up with an excuse every weekend away saying that they were sick with a fever or some common illness to extend their stay another day or so. She said this was an exciting way to see most of the country at a time when people didn’t travel as much. After that it was the Beaux Arts in Paris, New York working at a weaving house, and separating her time between Edmonton Canada and Kathmandu at the weaving center. She hesitated after telling me the New York portion of her story. She strained to remember where in New York it actually was. Eventually, lemongrass tea was brought to the table and Urmila sent the young student to fetch her address book to recall where it was in New York she was working. The address book showed up and even that had a story about it. She paused and said “this book was begun in 1963”. I, of course, was able to add to the story that that was before I was born. She found the address on 23rd street and put her mind to rest.

After tea I was given a tour of the center. The weaving looms, students and the dye house were fascinating. The center grew its own Silk-worm farm and the cocoons were stored in giant jars to be sorted before use. The natural dye selections of Onion, pomegranate, tea, ect. were incredible! I made a deal with the school to do small dye batches for our women’s cooperative in Bhaktipur and eventually help set up and train our women to have our own dye house in the center.

Getting out of Humla

2008-11-01T01:39:00.001-04:00

Well, I thought getting into Humla was difficult. Getting out was much more difficult! Renu Chetri (the Journalist) Decided to leave wed. The 29th of Oct. She had a new job as senior Journalist at the Kathmandu Post starting on the 1st. The week we were in Humla was Tihar celebrations, which is a very big religious holiday for Nepali’s. Every day seemed to have another theme to it. Well, from what I could see, the overall holiday theme for the local men were drinking and gambling in the streets. Come to find out it wasn’t only Humla that had this festive atmosphere. In the early hours we all sat on the hospital porch drinking Black tea filled with Pepper and said our goodbyes to Renu. The conversation continued and we reminisced about all the adventures and stories we heard from locals. Slowly, realized the flight was much too late. Dr. Yeshe called the tower and asked what the problem was and if there is a flight. They didn’t know the answer. We stared at the horizon for a few more hours. The flight never appeared over the Himalayas Wednesday morning.

The next day David, Yeshe and I were also heading back. No flight! We got word that due to Tihar all the pilots got drunk and the planes never left Kathmandu. We got a phone call from the tower later on Thursday and they said definitely there would be a flight by next TUESDAY! We also were hoping for a random helicopter to show. Every day we took a walk to a new corner of Simikot, but never far enough away to prevent us from running back to catch a plane the minute we heard something on the horizon.

Finally, Saturday morning we got confirmation a flight had left Nepalganj and we had seats on it! We were all sad to leave Humla, but a refreshed to actually have a flight out. I guess it’s better then having drunk pilots driving the plane?

What's wrong with this picture? Humla

2008-10-31T23:16:00.007-04:00

We heard that that a Government office was providing rice supplements to some of the Humla mountain people in central Simikot today. David Driver (the filmmaker) and Renu Chetri (Journalist for the Kathmandu Post) were eager to see what it was about. We all went into the market and met with the lively crowd gathered to collect some rice for the upcoming month. Women lined up to the left and Men to the right. In the center was a group of around 8 people ranging from a young girl to a middle-aged man. This group transported the rice from the Tibetan border to the Govt. Center in handmade Yak-wool Bags tied to 90 Goats! The goats circled about as the team untied them and poured them into larger Govt. Sacks. They were paid for each Kilo they transported.

The goat group was very photogenic and didn’t mind having their picture taken. One young boy just stared as I photographed him. So when David came over and said, “I would love to interview one of the goat team” I said this boy looks interested and calm.

We approached the boy. He had a turban wrapped around his head. His jacket was so warn the sleeves deteriorated mid arm and by his wrists was no more then Nylon threads. We asked his age and he said 16. The girl on the team looked 8! I showed him a few pictures that I took of him. I asked if he ever saw a camera. He shook his head no. I asked if he liked it and he smiled shyly and shook his head yes.

We questioned him about the difficult journey from Tibet and such difficult work at 16 yrs. old. He shrugged his shoulders and said it was all right, quite comfortable. We tried every angle to see show how difficult it was for him and his team to traverse the mountains in the cold, with the lack of food and clothing, sleeping outside. We tried everything. He said it was fine. He had some food, sometimes not enough, but that was OK. He said his family life was fine in the village and he was glad for the work. He faced each question with a solid calm that said, “I don’t have a problem”. So what was ours? Trying to prove he was unhappy without the things we considered comforts? I left that conversation learning more then he did from us.

Begger's Dance oct 29th 2008

2008-10-29T01:01:00.000-04:00

In the morning I was sitting outside in front of the hospital with David. We heard some children, singing, coming from the fields towards the hospital. When they came into sight I saw a line of about 12 kids ranging from around 13 down to 7 or 8. The oldest and tallest in front played a two- sided drum hanging from his neck. He also led a song. The line went from tallest in front to shortest at the rear. After each line sung by the Drummer the others all chorused in between “dau Shiray”. They continued singing as they entered the Hospital Gate as the parade circled around David and I, dancing as they walked. We asked Yeshe what was happening. He said its part of the Tihar celebration this week. The children go around and beg for food or money. It seemed similar to our Holloween celebration. Yeshe said the leader with the drum would sing things like “ you have come all this was and built a prosperous hospital” then the chorus piped in “give some to us” “you have great karma to have the ability to do such things” ……“give some to us”. It was actually very charming and the children put a lot of effort into their dancing. After a few rounds someone emerged from the kitchen with a plate of uncooked rice and the leader produced an old duffle bag that she poured the plate of rice into. The group, dancing and singing in line moved back out through the gate towards the village.

Beggers dance oct. 29th

2008-10-29T00:55:00.000-04:00

Humla Journey Oct 27

2008-10-27T00:50:00.002-04:00

While in Humla I took a walk to a few of the staffs villages. David Driver came along as well to get interviews in the homes of the staff. It was a long 3 hour walk to the village of Langdu. Due to the altitude change David and I were a bit winded. We came to Champel’s home and met his wife, mother and some other aunties and children in the dark, windowless, smoke-filled kitchen that served as the center of the home. The only light was from a hole over the stove. It took awhile to grow accustomed to the dark. Pema, Champel’s 3 year old girl, came in both crying and growling. She had just fought with the neighbors kid over a branch of berries and from the looks of it, lost.
After the interview we were treated to Humla hospitality. Food was prepared and we were served a small Yak Butter tea. And for all you information buffs, Yeshe Said it was incorrect to call it “YAK” butter tea as the female of the species is called Dee. Yak doesn’t provide milk! Also, we were given a bowl of Tsampa (Barley Flour) to accompany the tea. Then I watched, as tradition dictates, Champel’s mother placed three equidistantly spaced dollops of “Dee” butter on a shallow brass bowl’s rim before filling it with Chang (Tibetan Barley Beer) and presenting it to each of us. Then we were served steamed dough and cooked cabbage.

While we were sitting there Champel jumped up and looked out the window and said excitedly, “My brother is back from Tibet”! We ran down and met his brother and three horses carrying sacks of Flour. We all went back inside and again gathered around the kitchen fire. The Chang kept pouring.

While sitting there, I asked Champel about his children, and if his brother was also married. Yeshe smiled hesitantly, he said, “Michael you know its tradition here for a wife to marry up to seven brothers”. It turned out Both Champel, 22 and his brother, 19 were married to the same girl in the kitchen. I asked how Champel knew which child was his? Champel was shy to answer and Yeshe said with a little laugh, “The wife knows”!

After Langdu we traveled another hour and a half to Yeshe’s village, Baruashe. We had another lunch and more chang. Bad idea to drink chang THEN do Yeshe’s interview. In the dark kitchen we had to have two young men hold up flashlights as David Filmed Yeshe. It was a funny interview and Yeshe came across more like a political leader trying work a crowd into a frenzy. We did a few takes and I think David got what he needed. The female leaders of this Buddhist community showed up before we left and tradition says they should offer us chang from their homes. We siphoned all the different changes into a plastic jug that looked like a gas container and headed home via Simikot. We reached the hospital before dark. We settled into the kitchen around the fireplace and …….drank more chang. There was a lot of longwinded stories that night.

Meeting Tiwari Basu Oct 21st

2008-10-21T00:43:00.000-04:00

Dr. Yeshe (from Humla) and I met with the Kathmandu based engineer Tiwari Basu at Java Café. Wanda Vivequin from Canada, is responsible for the funds that came from the trekker Toby Mollins of Montreal Canada. She had hired Mr. Basu to make the best possible plans for the new extension on the Humla Hospital.

Wanda leads amazing treks into the Himalayas. Since Simikot is one of the places she travels to she has introduced many trekkers to the benefits that Citta Nepal’s hospital is bringing to Humla. Wanda has also brought hundreds of donated hats as well to help protect the people of Humla from the harmful raise of the sun at such an altitude. She distributed them through the Hospital.

Mr. Basu had laid out plans as well as he could with the information provided by Wanda and myself. When Yeshe met with Basu before my arrival, he added a few rooms he felt were necessary, so an upstairs was put on the plans. The budget was now way over what we had planned to spend. The meeting with both Yeshe and Basu was a struggle between budget and design and what Yeshe wanted this tour de force new medical facility to be. In the end there was a good compromise and the top floor was left off and the bottom floor was extended 13 ft to accommodate a delivery ward. The x-ray lab and equipment rooms were left off and Yeshe said we may be able to accommodate this in the new structure that was being built at the moment.

Bhaktipur womens center - 20th Oct.

2008-10-20T05:08:00.001-04:00

Women’s center, Bhaktipur - Oct. 20th

I visited the center and spoke with the manager Prakash about some new orders that were sent over with me by different clients. The women are on Dasai break (their big holiday season of the year) and should be back to work in about two weeks.

I also visited Binod Raya, who is the president of Citta Himalaya. We spoke about a young lady who they want to join the center. Her name is Chandran, she is 24 and has a young boy of four. Her husband drowned to death at 18 and now she does whatever she can to get her little boy food. She has a dream to get her son into school. Chandran’s family has a small shop on the roadway but with little stock they make just about enough to sustain the child with some noodles each day. Of course I agreed to hire her and she also agreed to an interview with David Driver for the documentary.

Also, another funny moment at the center is Buddha laxmi. She has worked for us for about a year doing piecework and hasn’t been offered a fulltime position yet. David Driver while compiling different women’s stories interviewed her as well. She told him her story. Her husband died of alcohol poisoning and she was left with her two children. After her husband died, she became a burden to her family. Now, working at the Women’s center she feels an independence and hope for her family’s future. She says she feels a new voice and is much more open then she use to be.

After the interview Buddha Laxmi came back to the center feeling encouraged from telling her story. She came through the door where Prakash and I were discussing the new orders and broke out into a strong, confident soliloquy! She said she was previously in such despair, now she is very happy working at the center. She said it’s close to her house and she can check on her children easily. She doesn’t want to go to the fields for hard labor again. But the problem is, she feels a lack of security and wants to know she has a monthly income. I agreed and told Prakash (the manager of the center to give her a permanent position at the center.

Kathmandu - 19th Oct.

2008-10-19T05:03:00.004-04:00

I reached Nepal from Delhi with William Purcell. William is a volunteer joining me on this trip to spend time with each project office. He will help explain and implement better communications systems between each project office and us. Sounds easy, right?

After getting a room at the Mustang guest house in downtown Thamel (2.50 a night!), I made my way to the java Coffee shop with William and met with David Driver (The documentary filmmaker working on a Documentary about Citta projects and its beginnings, you can see at Wayoflife.dpdriver.com), his wife Anne and Dr. Yeshe Lodoe.

We set plans to visit all the programs. We are visiting the Women’s cooperative in Bhaktipur tomorrow and then the following day I will take William to see the Citta Nepal office in Boddhanath. The Bouddha office services Humla Hospital and Gaikhur clinic. We also discussed what day to leave for the Humla region. Maybe on the weekend? I really am look forward to spending some time at that project to better understand what is happening there.

One of the most important reasons I came to Nepal this time is to meet with a Nepali engineer that is drawing up plans to utilize the large contribution from Canada to create a new operation room and sterile space for pre and post operation patients in Humla. The Engineer plans to travel to Humla when Yeshe and I are there. The hope is if we are all there together, we can finalize plans faster. We can also set a time line for the development plans and see what can be accomplished before the harsh winter sets in!

The political situation here seems quite stable and there are many tourists this season. The Maoists are an integral part of the government now. The Maoist presence can be seen in the evening when the army is stationed at the corner of each street and the shops are forced to close at 11pm.

The road less travelled: Gaikhur Clinic

2008-02-08T00:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I set out for the second time to visit Citta's clinic in Gaikhur, Gorkha district, Nepal. I needed to see how it was running, assess the future needs of the community, and visit with the community leaders. To start with, I'd like to recall our first attempt to visit Gaikhur clinic a few weeks earlier. My sister Teri (who's on the Citta Board), Lina Bertucci (a photographer from New York who was in Nepal photographing the women in the Bhaktipur center), Karuna Mala (one of the women from the Center, originally from Gaikhur, and whose son was still in Gaikhur deathly ill with a fever), and I, all braved the riot ridden, unstable environment to get there. To explain unstable, Nepal has been facing major power cuts, up to eight hours a day. The lack of electric needed to be supplemented by generators for restaurants, hotels, etc. But now, due to Nepal's inability to pay its debts for diesel fuel imports from India, they have drastically cut Nepal's fuel supplies. The country is now paralyzed for most the day since there is no fuel for the generator's either!

Teri, Lina and I set out in a Jeep borrowed from a Nepali school organization in Bhaktipur. The Jeep had been donated by a Norwegian organization; due to fuel costs it just sat unused. The school staff thought if we could fill the tank, we can use it. On the way out of kathmandu, we passed kilometers of empty vehicles cueing for the entire day just to put a few liters of fuel in their tank. Not luxury vehicles either, but transport vehicles for goods to supply the country, local buses for people to get to work and Ambulance. After climbing the intense hairpin turns in the road winding out of the Kathmandu valley, we were on our way! Three hours later, and three flat tires later, we were nearly to Gurkha when traffic came to a complete standstill. We could see the traffic line into the horizon ahead of us. Hundreds of people were abandoning vehicles and started walking. There is only one road through the country. We overheard someone later say there was an accident between a bus and a truck. The truck driver demanded payment for his vehicle, blocked the road with cement, and sat on it. Then groups gathered, tensions mounted and riots broke out. We had to turn back, leaving Karuna Mala behind. She broke out in tears from fear her son was alone sick, and decided to continue onwards by foot. We were on bated breath the entire way home, hoping our bandaged and glued tires would hold until we reached Kathmandu.

Yesterdays visit to Gaikhur was organized by Dr. Yeshe Lodoe Lama (the Doctor from Citta's Humla hospital and the president of Citta Nepal). Also joining Yeshe and I was a young man named Morton from Denmark who worked for a Danish Organization in Kathmandu taking care of children from Gorkha district. Morton was sent to visit our facility in Gaikhur. Yeshe scored us a 4X4 Vehicle that could withstand the rough terrain. Due to fuel shortages the owner demanded 8500 rupees (135.00) to use the vehicle and its black market filled tank. As we left Kathmandu again I was shocked at how little traffic there was on the road and how unpolluted the air smelled. Yeshe revealed there was a strike in the southern part of the country due to political unrest and all roads were closed in the Southwest of Nepal for the day. For once the strike worked for us! We drove unhindered through the beautiful valleys. After three and a half hours we left the paved roads. Now we had to climb the mountain's newly built dirt route to Gaikhur. The young driver, Hari Tamang, was driving fearlessly over the ruts, rivers and blockages.

We were nearly to the top of the mountain when we met a hairpin turn unlike any other. Hari flew around and came to a halt, unable to turn so sharp. He backed up to make the turn when Yeshe yelled out "enough, enough, OK, OK." but Hari didn't flinch, he was in brave mode and inched back a little further. I could feel the vehicle start to slide slowly backward so I turned back to see behind the vehicle. There was a sheer drop off a steep, terraced slope. I immediately jumped out of the car and everyone in the back of the vehicle looked at me like I was out of my mind. Then everyone felt the car slide again. In seconds they abandoned ship. The wheel's were miraculously two inches from the vehicle rolling off the ledge. Luckily, there was a winch on the front of the vehicle; the motor, of course, didn't work. We quickly unwrapped the cable from its drum and tied it to a tree on the hill side. The cable kept the car from falling of the ledge. Villagers started to gather, half of which were completely drunk on local Raksi wine and quite a nuisance. It took a few hours to secure the vehicle. In the struggle to get the vehicle on solid ground the brake was somehow compromised and didn't function anymore. We left it behind and ventured to the village by foot. The digging, hauling of rocks to put under the tires, and the unwinding of the greasy winch left me filthy and hours delayed for a one day meeting. We were all a little disturbed when we gazed over the hill into the abyss that may have been our permanent home. I also noticed the vehicle was aptly labeled in big letters on its side, OFF ROAD.

I arrived to the clinic and met with Kedar. Everything there was working wonderfully at the clinic. All the surrounding communities relied on this facility for medical support. Dr. Yeshe saw patients with Kedar and we discussed the clinic and its upcoming year. But time ran short out and our near death experience had no light at the end of the tunnel.

The sun was quickly setting and we needed to get down the mountain by foot. We ate Dahl and rice at a neighbor's home and started down the stone path. As the light dimmed we used our cell phones as torches to light the steep path. We reached Turturre, at the base of the mountain in complete darkness. Everyone was asleep. We finally awoke some jeep driver and convinced them to take us to Dumre, the next town 28 kilometers away on the main truck road. There we could find a bus or another vehicle to take us to Kathmandu. The driver agreed to take us for a large sum of money due to the fuel shortage. Nearly three quarters of the way Dumre we stopped. The driver put his head on the steering wheel and began to laugh. We asked what was so funny?......... they ran out of fuel. We waited on the roadside until another vehicle passed and they also agreed to take us to the next town, for the same large sum. The driver was 13 and the attendant, bijesh, was 10?

We finally reached Dumre on the main road and saw a very dented over-decorated "local" bus coming at us. It was heading to Kathmandu! There was something depressing about such a dirty, broken down bus draped with plastic flowers and paintings. It was like bad makeup on an old clown. We didn't have much choice and jumped through the door as the bus slowed down. There were no seats and we had to climb over large canvas wrapped boxes filling the central passageway. Morton and I were told to sit in the back. It was eight people across and barely enough room for five. Every time the bus hit a bump, which was frequent, I could feel my spine jolt like it was a separate entity in my body. Also prevalent on this bus, was the unfortunate habit of not well travelled villagers to vomit on you. They seem to try synchronize this habit with hitting large potholes. I jumped up to avoid one such outflow in the dark. I thought maybe I could use this event to gain leverage to finding a better seat.

At the next rest spot I spoke to the conductor. By rest stop I mean a small thatched hut on the roadside with a fire to make tea. Everyone tried to get the prime seats on the wooden bench huddled around the fire. There was just enough room for the women working there to keep the tea flowing. The stops were so frequent that the three hour trip to Kathmandu was scheduled to arrive seven hours later! I found the conductor in the back of the hut with his army friends drinking DUM (a Nepali brand of whiskey). I asked him first why so many stops? He spoke some English and said "the people are too poor to get a room to stay in Kathmandu, so whatever time we leave, we arrive at 6 am. It kind of made sense, but it was excruciating to experience. I told him I was vomited on and I would like to move to a real seat if possible. The story didn't seem to phase him. He just asked me "you like like Bob Marley?" I think he was asking me if I would like to smoke something with him. He was so drunk I decided to just go back and sit on the people in my space in the back of the bus until we reached Kathmandu.

When I arrived to the hotel, I was so exhausted I decided not to go the center in Bhaktipur as planned. Sushila, one of the women of the center called me, I thought, asking where I was. What she asked was, "what should we do?" Apparently, there was a police curfew in Bhaktipur due to someone getting killed the previous night. Riots broke out. Sushila said the situation was dire and the women wanted to leave before things turned even worse. Suddenly, the phone line cut and I've been unable to reach them since.

I just thought this little chain of events was a nice insight into the fabric of the Nepali situation at the moment.

July 26th - Gandhi Book Launching, London

2007-08-15T13:20:00.000-04:00

We made to London on time and met with the filmmaker David Driver, Edu Bores (President of Citta Spain), his niece, Massarrah Danial (coming from Switzerland), Irmgard and Subroto.

The benefit was due to the inspiring efforts of Barbara Schwepcke (board member of Citta Deutschland). Barbara is German, but lives in London. She created and runs
HAUS Publishing in the UK (http://www.hauspublishing.co.uk/) , and the quality of her books are amazing! So its no surprise that when Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Prof. Rajmohan Gandhi finalized a biography on his grandfather, he chose HAUS to publish it! Barbara asked Rajmohan if it was all right to contribute all the proceeds from the book launch in London on the 26th to the Orissa Project (affiliate of Citta in the UK) for assistance in Juanga and he was more then happy to do this.

When I arrived Barbara took me directly upstairs to meet with Mr. Gandhi. He was tall and slim, had a permanent smile on him. I congratulated him on the book and he congratulated me on the work in rural India. The event went well and all them 50 books had sold out during the first few minutes after the question and answer period with Prof. Gandhi. I don’t think Barbara could have carried more then 50 books, as they are around 4 inches deep and quite heavy. I think the maximum someone could comfortably carry away were two books.

One notable event at the benefit was a question raised from the audience, notable not as much for the question as the person asking it. Mr. Owen Humphreys (the grandson of the Viceroy to India at Gandhi’s time) stood up and asked a question about the possibilities of Gandhi having anger management issues. Supposedly after hearing that partition plans were being finalized and going through he stated, “let India have its blood bath”. Prof. Gandhi’s response was reasonable saying that these dynamic figures were not speaking to be quoted in history textbooks, and they were emotionally charged political discussions being led. By the life Gandhi lived, it is obvious he wasn’t being flippant about the outcome of such an event. He must have been highly frustrated and concerned over the developments in front of him. Mr. Humphrey’s joined us as well as many others for drinks at Barbara’s and her mothers home in Kensington after the benefit.

July 16th - Humla

2007-08-15T13:07:00.000-04:00

We made it safely to the hospital and I was able to meet with the staff and see the work being done. I was glad to see that there were many women and children being brought to the hospital. That they felt comfortable to come. Also I saw many groups of people coming to the hospital…. old, young, women, men. I asked if these were entire families coming to the clinic to accompany someone. Yeshe said that sick people from the remote villagers form a group and travel together for safety! I can imagine the difficulties to travel even when you are well but if they were seriously ill and unable to walk, I wonder how they are brought to the hospital?

I was also amazed to find a young student doctor from Austria working at the hospital. His name was Stefan. He is a third year med student and was having an amazing experience working at the hospital. He got a long well with the staff. The pharmacist and he would play long games of badminton in front of the hospital to pass the time in the early mornings or evenings. One of the most amazing things he had learned was how to be flexible with what’s available. “You never seem to have the exact medicines for every ailment like at home,” he said, “so you have to find ones that may do the work in a more general way”.

We walked through Simikot that evening and met with a lot of the local govt. leaders and people that needed to see I really existed.

The next day I woke early to get some video of a few patients, the visiting doctor and interviews with all the staff. The flight was due to come at around 10am and I had to make the decision to take the flight if it actually comes or risk one more day. If the plane was unable to come the next day then we may be trapped in Humla for up to 10 days! I decided with the benefit in London with Prof. Gandhi, and the fact that I had all the brochures for the event printed in Delhi to be hand carried…I better take the flight.

The flight came on time and we made it back to Delhi with enough time to take the flight. I say “we made it back to Delhi”. I wish I could say it was as easy as that. From Nepalganj we had to pass through the border by rickshaw and do two lots of paperwork sitting in sweaty government offices trying to be polite to government workers holding the stamp in hand to allow us to leave Nepal and then again to enter India. Any chance they get they would love to complicate matters and drag the day on to make their life more interesting. I wasn’t giving them anything to latch onto. “Yes Sir” to every question, small talk and smiles get you through relatively unscathed. At the Indian border Donnie and I grabbed a taxi and traveled for around 4 to 5 hours to reach the city of Lucknow. We went directly to the train station and found that the reservation office was closed half day on Sunday and we were left to try finding a ticket to Delhi ourselves. We went to the “current” booking office and they were no help at all. The man behind the counter was not into talking to us and all he could say were “NO TRAINS” and “ALL TRAINS FULL” and along with the excruciating heat and hundreds of desperate travelers pushing from behind I gave up the one sided argument and an old man told us that we could take a “luxury bus” to Delhi. I took his advice and we raced by rickshaw over to the bus terminal and found the not-so-luxury bus there waiting to leave. It at least had AC but the metal seats were covered in a shredded vinyl thinly stuffed with ratty foam. There was a TV as well and it played vintage Amitabh Baachan films form the 70’s endlessly all night long and the sound was so loud that not even the cockroaches on the floor could sleep. Donnie and I sprawled out on the back seats. Even though the back of the bus bounces on the potholed roads worse then an amusement park ride, there was only one or two others ever brave enough to venture that far back so we could spread out for the 12-hour journey overnight. Well due to traffic, and a busted engine in the middle of the night the 12-hour journey turned into more of a 15 and a half hour journey! My back was spent. We arrived at Shashi’s by rickshaw sweaty and broken, but at the end of the journey. We cleaned up and had some tea and all was well.

July 13-15th, 2007 -flight into Humla

2007-07-22T05:34:00.000-04:00

Donnie, Dr. Yeshe Lodoe, and I all took a flight to western Nepal. We were going to take an 18 hr. bus across the country due to the high cost of air travel internally in the country. We were forced to take the flights to Humla because there is no other way to get there (no road communication). Dr. Yeshe suggested we take the flights across the country because there have been recent protests and strikes and the bus could hit danger and be retained for some time; also, the trip is painful. We would have to take a bus with cracked windows hard seating and foam seats partially revealed through its over warn plastic covers. The bumps on the road alone would give your spine a workout and the wear and tear on the body would have probably slowed us down considerably.

We had a small plane that seated around 20 people and we reached the city of Nepalganj around an hour later. Nepalganj is located in the southern part of western Nepal. The city borders India and resembles it in climate. Hot, humid and dirty. Nepalganj is very much a border-town and outpost. It deserves its name many trekker’s give it as “Nepal-Grunge”. We checked in a low-cost hotel and waited for morning to attempt the flight to the capital of Humla, Simikot. When we checked in I had asked the hotel staff if there was any barber they new that would do a massage for back muscles (common in India). They never answered, and I never bothered to raise the question again.

In the morning we packed at 5am and reached the airport in the dark. There were two other foreign groups waiting to travel to the sacred mountain, Mt. Kailash. Due to the monsoon moving in, there were four days of flights cancelled. This is not unusual and the flights to Simikot, Humla are sporadic at best and depend on so many variables. Rain, clouds and wind are all exaggerated and subject to impetuous change in the Himalayas.

The airport terminal resembled an abandoned cement bus terminal. It is mayhem in the main lobby. Everyone dripping form Sweat trying to pry their way into the favour of the airline people moving about so as not to be crushed by the unrelenting mob. We met with Shoba, a nurse from the Humla hospital that came to see her sister marry a week earlier and has been trying to return since.

After several hours we were told again the planes flights were cancelled for the day and we traveled back to the Hotel to sweat it out. After a few hours we were told by a close inside contact at the airport that a helicopter has been scheduled to rescue a group of Indian tourists trapped in the Himalayas, due to the monsoons. We were revitalized and prepared everything for quick departure. But in the end the helicopter was recalled by Kathmandu due to the weather.

The next morning at 5am we again prepared and waited for the jeep to collect us and take us to the airport. It didn’t show. The airport staff didn’t answer the phones. There was an eerie stillness everywhere. Since its a rare occurrence to not even start the daily ritual, going though the motions of a mock flight, Dr. Yeshe and I had deduced there was definitely no one leaving Nepalganj today.

After we had resigned to the disappointment of another day in Limbo the hotel phone suddenly rang in the room and we jumped to hear who it might be. It was the front desk; they had called a blind Muslim man who is apparently the local massage therapist. I thought “well, if we are to sit here all day in the heat this may be a way to waste some time”. The front desk boy walked up the stairs slowly, leading the blind Muslim man who gripped his forearm for direction. They came to the room and he touched my face. “Salaam Allahcum” he said. I turned and lead him through the door of the room. He said he wanted 100 Nepali rupees (1.50US) and a FANTA. I said we could get him the Fanta when we were done, no problem.

Just as I lay down and the blind man stated to crush my neck. He then started with the stories of how he has been blessed with 10 children, but no food for them (I knew where we were going with this conversation, it wasn’t relaxing). Suddenly, Dr.Yeshe came running in and said, “the airport just called, there is an opening in the sky, there may be a plane, we need to go!” So in frenzy I paid the blind Muslim man in full, while rushing to get my things together. He took the money but kept grabbing for my arm and still made it known he needed more money to feed all his kids. And he still wanted his FANTA! So Yeshe and Donnie rushed down the stairs. I trailed slowly behind them with the blind man on my forearm. When we got down to the front desk my bag was swept off to the taxi and I sat the blind man down and asked for a FANTA from the front desk. I turned to se the waiter hand it to a young boy, also Muslim, sitting next to him. I realized the Fanta was a rare and wonderful treat for one of his many children that accompanied him to work daily. It also explained why such a strange demand was so important to him.

We made it to the airport to the usual frenzied crowd and it seemed more real then not this time and large bails of goods and strapped crates were being thrown over the counters so it seemed we were going.

Yeshe said to sit away from the desk as he negotiated to get us some seats. The possibilities went back and forth. It was possible, then we couldn’t get seats, then again one seat was possible. Abruptly, Dr. Yeshe called the owner of the airlines. The owner was aware or the Medical project in Humla and was a friend of Dr. Yeshe’s. He told him we have a medical team that needs to go to Humla to give medical care and then handed his cell phone to the Airline counter staff. “Yes sir, yes, sir….” the airline man said staring at the floor with such intensity. He handed the phone back to Dr. Yeshe and said we were on the flight and two Humla people were pulled off. I felt bad about the turn of events but with only a few days to meet the staff and get back to London for the Benefit with Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi, I couldn’t risk it.

July 8th-12th- womens center, Bhaktipur

2007-07-17T14:28:00.000-04:00

I visited the Women’s center in the old city of Bhaktipur (near Kathmandu). There were two volunteers from Spain that had worked at the center for around six weeks. Alejandra and Ester. Neither of them knew each other but got along so well they even made plans to travel together after their sty at the center. They had done a lot of wonderful things with the women and Alejandra came up with some great ideas for brochures and getting the center more connected to the local tourists passing through.

The center also had several new women from the area that are from very desperate situations. The women are not yet permanently employed but “training”. We pay them daily and provide some food for lunch. Some of the women bring children with them because they have no family to look after them in their absence. One young girl (pictured here) came with her mother and had so much fun running around and playing with some big sized Knitting needles, she passed out for the rest of the day next to her Mom. Some of the children seem to suffer from sickness a lot and I was worried about one women’s child that had some fever and I was concerned about the working condition for the other women.

I proposed to Prakash (the manager) that he use one of the empty rooms on the floor below us for the children. We could build a crèche where the children can play and be looked after by one of the women who is not busy that day on any particular order. Also, I am trying to solve the issue of healthcare for the women. At the moment they have a nice discount at Scheer Memorial Hospital, in Banepa. The hospital has a contract with us to keep the accounting for the women’s project. They do a wonderful job of it and the hospital is quite well equipped, but it’s an hour’s ride away for the women on bus and it is very complicated for them to be able to get there especially with children in tow.

On one day it was the birthday of one of the new women. Since I was present, I thought I should do something nice for her and the others. I asked Prakash if I could buy a cake in the area and he said actually one of the women’s husbands just passed away and they are unable to eat eggs. So we decided on to large ceramic bowls filled with the famous Bhaktipur Yoghurt being sold by people in the streets. Dessert also turned out to be a little complicated, as the women have definite ideas (caste, length of time at the center, ect) as to who can sit with whom and who eats first. I asked all of them to join me at the table. The request produced an embarrassed shuffling around the table before they finally all dipped in. I would hope they eventually leave the caste structure outside the center someday as they grow to know each other better and the way we all relate to them with a sense of equality and equal responsibility in the centers success!

July 3-5th, 2007 - Government Torture???

2007-07-10T00:33:00.000-04:00

I spent the last few days following every venue possible to speak to Ministers of the State of Orissa. As usual, the timing was a little of. It is assembly time and this is when the government is really taken to task for the expenditures (A.K.A. corruption) of the last years budget!

Every morning at 6am, in a suit and button up shirt, I drove to the capital of Bhubaneswar from Puri in 100-degree humid heat. Then the dance begins…I sat outside (with my friend Dr. Lenka who had access to the ministers) and we waited for a sign the minister was washed and had his tea and ready for the public. ”Sit here” as I would be pushed into a dirty chair in a crowded room with nothing more then a slow moving fan overhead. Then suddenly with without a sign I could decipher, everyone would jump up and nervously shuffle around the door waiting to be chosen to enter the next room. Dr. Lenka would grab my arm and pull me into the room ahead of everyone mumbling “come on, come on” as if we would miss the crack in the door seconds later and it would be sealed forever.

This exact scene would be played out countless times over the next three days as we attempted to grab moments with the ministers and possibly have them schedule a meeting with the chief minister at some point.

But Each Minister was very different in Personality. The first Minister I held “audience” with was the Power minister. His home was nicely kept but Spartan in design. As I entered the large living room where he sat glued to the newspaper (probably reading of scandals he was being accused of at the moment and had to defend that day) all that was hanging on the wall was a life size picture of him dressed in traditional garb, looking like a memorial to himself.

He could barely take his eyes off of the newspaper and long parts of the conversation were long silent stretches of him reading the news. Us waiting patiently for his next words that were usually an answer to my question “ We really need the government to provide proper electric and a road to the hospital for us to grow and support healthcare in the state” The answer, in a low and monumental tone was… “We will do, we will do”

HOW? Not sure….

Then in between waiting for this minister and that we were ushered into side offices and asked to type up request letters to meet the Minister or have an appointment with the Chief Minister. It felt more like a contest of endurance for some bizarre TV reality program then a meeting.

The meeting with the Health Minister was the most noteworthy! He is basically from the tribal areas and when we entered the office it looked closer to a trashed crack house in New York about to be shut down by the city then a government ministers home and office. He was VERY religious and the home was filled with picture of Hindu gods on the floor propped against the wall covered in fresh flowers, red powder and rice thrown all over. This means he goes through a rather extensive “puja” (prayer ceremony) every morning. He and his assistants were very nice and apparently very incompetent (surprised). His assistant, Hari, did actually produce detailed HIV/AIDS information that I requested for the state. But again, he was completely embroiled in the “Assembly Fervor”.

IN the end I was unable to meet with the Chief Minister but he did say that he could meet me much easier next time I returned. Maybe in the cooler season we can have a much more constructive conversation.

After that I went to meet with UNDP (United Nations development programme). I wanted to see what they might be able to help us with. Come to find out the director was an old friend of mine from the Cyclone time when he was the head collector of Cuttack city in Orissa (very high post) and he actually visited the hospital a few times! So he suggested until we get the road completed we take the use of an empty hospital that the government had produced just for show on paperwork, in the nearby village of Pahanga. This was a great idea because we can have much more access for patient to consultations and testing there and then send them to Juanga for operations. So I started the process to see if it’s possible.

My suggestion would be to put ultra-sound and x-ray and pathology there with visiting doctors (gynecology, surgeon) on the days they come to examine. Then all operations are referred to the main hospital in Juanga.

Off to Kathmandu……

July 1st , 2007- Hospital in Juanga India

2007-07-08T01:54:00.000-04:00

We drove from the Bhubaneswar train station directly to the Hospital. We were planning on spending one day at Puri beach to kind of acclimatize after the 24-hour train trip across India but Govinda told me Sunday was the busiest day at the hospital and we had several visiting doctors there for the day. We arrived after dark and the next morning the patients started to show up early. There were around 60 patients waiting in and around the hospital entrance and due to the visit of a gynecologist, Dr. Tappan, there were many female patients waiting.

There was an operation today at the hospital in Juanga that is worth noting. It was a 40-year-old woman from a village around 15-20 kms. Away! Her mother accompanied her to the hospital. She was suffering from an ovarian tumor. The family was extremely poor and her husband had abandoned the women with two children. The husband was a labor worker and just never came home. She moved back in with her widowed mother in the village of Galadhari. They are landless and get their food by one son who is doing labor work as well. Labor workers gets around 60 rupees a day (1.50 USD) and the rest of the family eat from this. It’s hardly enough to survive. So the mother was hesitant to seek medical attention for the growing tumor for fear of throwing the family into a debt that would ruin all their lives for at least this generation.

The tumor had grown to 4.2 kilos and needed to be removed for her to lead a tolerable life. The operation was a great success and everyone was amazed at the tumor sitting there outside the Operating theatre. But Dr. Tappan said he had seen far, far worse cases in these regions of persons living in poverty leaving them to extremely advanced stages.

After the procedure was over, I entered the office and the discussion of payment between Govinda (the Managing Trustee), Dr. Tappan, and a few other staff. This same procedure would have cost the family around 20,000 rupees (500.00 USD) in any other nursing home or hospital in the nearest cities. But do to the visiting Specialists charge and the rate of medicines we would usually have to charge at least 5,500 rupees (137.00 USD) But due to knowing her condition and after a long heated discussion about villagers having to pay something for the work, we all agreed on charging her 500 rupees (12.50 USD). Most village women, out of pride, wear a sari that was gifted to them at a wedding and tucked away in their mud huts in a plastic bag as a prized possession, only to be worn when they need to enter an official engagement like a government interaction or a hospital visit. This old frail women, dressed in nothing more then a tired thread bare sari, reached for a knot and small lump in the cloth holding all the money they could borrow to visit the hospital. I watched her hands trembling and the anguish on her face as she desperately untied the knot to reveal the waded up bills hidden in her sari. She handed the 500 rupees to the clerk in the office and then sat curled up on the bench in the entrance hall, quietly with a blank stare. I found this very unusual since her daughter was just operated on and Indian villagers can’t bare to be alone or leave others alone, especially at times of crisis. I knew what weighed on her mind was that even the 500 rupees would place an incredible burden on the families future and stability. I went up to my room and took out 300 rupees (7.50 USD) and reached around the corner and tapped her on the knee. She looked up and I handed her the rolled up notes and she gave back both combination of a smile, a look of shock and confusion. I placed my finger over my mouth and gestured for her not to tell anyone. She peered around to see if anyone was looking, then turned back to me and shook her head in agreement with a more confident smile.

I realize why the hospital wanted the patient to pay at least some of the costs. We can’t possibly afford to give everyone free care (presently, we barely raise enough funds for salaries). Also in some cases, villagers need to feel responsible for their care and take their medicines properly and understand what we tell them they need to do to get well. Many times if they pay something they are more apt to do this. But I do feel in the future it would be good to have some funds available for just such cases as this when they arise. As it is, I don’t know how Govinda and the staff deal with and function in such a poverty-stricken region and continue to maintain a stable healthcare for the villagers.

Delhi June 27th , 2007

2007-07-03T13:09:00.000-04:00

I landed in a very humid, hot New Delhi around 11:30am with Donald Purcell (a volunteer coming along to help out this trip). Both of our luggage had been lost somewhere between New York and India. We were told they would notify when they were located.
We took a taxi to my friend Shashi’s house and had a bite to eat there. I headed downtown on the recently built Metro to Connaught place. This area of Delhi is a series of white colonial building s set in three rings with roads in between them. One side of the outer ring has a slew of printing shops. I went to “Kohli printers” to get an estimate for brochures I needed to get printed for a London benefit. The brochures are for the Orissa project, UK’s benefit on the 23rd of July and will be held at the Nehru center in Mayfair, London. The benefit is at a book launching for Gandhi’s grandson, Prof. Rajmojan Gandhi. He wrote a book on his grandfather and it is being published by HAUS BOOKS. Lucky for Citta, the owner of the publishing company, Barbara Shwepcke, is on the German Citta board! All the proceeds from the sales during the launch are going to the Orissa Project in India.
In the evening I met Donald and Shashi at the City Square mall in Rajgouri Gardens. It’s amazing to see the recent outbreak of malls responding to the rising middleclass in India! In just a year or so there seem to be an uncountable number of prefabricated corrugated steel and glass warehouse buildings, each trying to outdo the other with stranger shapes and grand entrance halls. They look as if they were conceived on computer software and then rapidly constructed, rising out of vast empty lots surrounded by piles of dirt, packs of wild dogs and ponds of stagnant water laced with Garbage.
We went to the top floor of the mall to find a place to eat. Shashi recommended TGIF’s (thank god its friday) for a snack. Sitting in the large American-style booth we could hardly talk with the classic rock music playing so loud. If it wasn’t for one oddity I noticed at the next table, I wouldn’t have guessed I was in India at all. Sitting at the booth next to ours was a middle class family. Young father, his wife, and their two children. They were dressed in a very western style and sat there, bored, like they eat there every night. Standing in front of their table was a young women. She stood there thin, stiff, and preoccupied. She was holding two balloons and a child’s hat. I asked Shashi about this awkward situation and she said the families sometimes bring their servants out to look after the children. After I knew that it was painful to see her standing there unable to sit at the table with the family she cares for, due to her status.

This picture was taken through the back window of the car!

Gurgaon June 28th, 2007

2007-07-03T12:53:00.000-04:00

We made our way by car to Jaipur, Rajasthan today. We passed through the new futuristic call center city developing just outside Delhi. There seems to be a competition to produce the most herculean modern building with the most unique shape to express the bravado of your companies success. Some buildings look like mammoth glass boat hulls or some bizarre Science experiment filled with odd shaped office cubes.

And we passed the cantonment area of Delhi (the army area) Shashi told me stories of how she use to live there as a child and go to school there. Previously, her family was posted in Adampur, Punjab. She said during that time around 1965 Pakistan they had trenches dug in front of the houses on the grounds and when the siren sounded the mother would take the children in her arms and pace up and down the trench for hours. She said that during one of the air-raids the boys in the hostel all gathered in the trench. One late-comer realized he could not fit in and was told to lay in the grass. Some time passed and no planes were spotted or heard. Feeling confident ne young man in the trench decided to run to the outhouse to pee. After he emerged from the trench the young man stretched in the grass took no time to squeeze into the empty spot. After the young man finished peeing he retuned to find the Pakistani bomber planes had moved in to the air and stretched out in the. By chance, a bomb managed to fall directly into the trench and killed all the young men in it. The only one to live was the young man that was still stretched out in the field next to the trench.

London meetings

2007-01-23T12:10:00.000-05:00

I met with Sharon and Marie Keegan about fundraising and future fundraising ideas. I am just getting the blog going again so lets see if I can do this

Bhaktipur

2005-11-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

David and I spent the night in Banipa because the next morning we had planned on visiting Baktipur to see some buildings that Binod had scheduled us to see. So Fylvia, Stuart, David and I went off to see what was there.

The first place we saw was so amazing I cannot even describe the perfection this building had for our program. The building was close to the front gate of the old city and just off the side so it was quiet. It’s four stories high and has a storefront on the ground floor. The back of the building open to a little courtyard filled with a Buddhist shrine. The top floor has a large kitchen room and outdoor patio for the Women to eat on…this place was perfect. But there were more to see so we ran from place to place and nothing even came close to the first option and it just made me realize how more and more this way definitely the place to take. And when I heard the rent I nearly cracked a smile but contained myself. Its around 14,000 rupees or 190.00 a month!

Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

David and I traveled back out to Banipa to share Thanksgiving dinner with the people at Sheer. They made a fantastic setup with a long table and candles and torches everywhere. The food was traditional and very welcomed after so much rice and watery dhal! Sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and Pumpkin pie were among y favorites.

Gaikhur Orphanage

2005-11-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

The children in the Orphanage are growing so healthy and big! They weren’t at the “lets climb all over Michael phase” anymore. They were all seated in groups of three on the lawn reading and doing math homework! It was so nice to see them growing up and studying but didn’t realize how much I would miss the chaos of them running around the yard.

Santa Sighting !

2005-11-23T21:52:00.000-05:00

David, Bhishma, and I traveled by car to the clinic in Gaikhur. We left around 7:30 am for the grueling bumpy ride out of the Capital. The car we rented had a year-round plastic santa hanging from the mirror and my first feeling of the holidays here! We arrived at the base of the mountain in Tuture around 1pm. I sent Bhishma on one trail to Gaikhur that would enable him to collect the possible staff we wanted to interview. David and I took the steep more direct route and we all planned to meet at the clinic after around one and a half hours. When we got to the Clinic I saw the newly renovated building that Bhishma’s father helped us construct(pictured above). It was very well done and there are extra rooms added to the back that are perfect for classes for women on family health, nutrition and other issues.

The top mic is of some of the locally trained healthworkers that I was able to interview while there.

Meeting with Fylvia and Stuart

2005-11-22T21:50:00.000-05:00

I met with Fylvia Kline and Stuart from Sheer at a coffee house in Kathmandu. We went over ways we can work together. I described the Women’s center we had in Baluwatar and they said “why there, its too expensive” They suggested Baktipur which is a beautiful old city outside Katmandu about a half hour. It gets all of the tourist foot-traffic and it known for its Art and architecture. Also, they said it very safe for the women and since its outside Kathmandu it’s far cheaper to run a program there. They know a very wonderful man there named Binod; he is willing to help us in Baktipur if needed. I agreed and felt it would be a good place to re-establish the center.

David Driver arrives

2005-11-20T21:49:00.000-05:00

David Driver the filmmaker from California arrived this afternoon and is ready to start filming the projects as we move around Nepal and India. We discussed the possibility oh making a small movie for the school with footage he has like he has done for us at the Women’s center and the Hospital.

Sheer Memorial Hospital

2005-11-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

Yeshe and I went to Baripa to visit Sheer memorial hospital. It’s a grueling one-hour taxi ride on the truck route to Tibet and the pollution there and back was nauseating.

The hospital rests on a hill just outside the center of Banipa. An American doctor that just came to help out built it around 50 years ago. At that time they’re where no other doctors in that small city. Now Banipa is a large city and the Sheer memorial hospital has grown to be one of the most respected and helpful in Nepal! We discussed the programs Citta is running in Nepal and they were more then happy to provide any assistance they could.

Fylvia (special projects coordinator), Stuart (an Australian that works at the hospital doing assorted programs and teaching) spoke of the women’s center and they wanted to do something like this. We were all excited about working together. They said they would help us monitor it, keep the books, and provide assistance where needed. Since they live here and are very anxious to have work in other special projects to keep them engaged in development this could be a good synthesis!

Lunch meeting about women's center

2005-11-17T21:44:00.000-05:00

Ingrid Chiron, Bhishma, Yeshe, and I met to discuss the reopening of the women’s center and how to organize the new staff and what it would take in their experience to get it to work properly. We spoke about all the problems faced by the lack of certain staff and of course slow funds arrival. I think we all agreed on every point and I was able to draw up a more comprehensive outline of what each administrative staff member needs to be responsible for.

Dinner with Female Journalist

2005-11-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

I met with my friend Sunil for dinner. He wanted to introduce me to a journalist that was from Nepal but rather famous in the challenges she brought to the society here and for the issues she raised for women. Recently she won an award form Japan from a foundation that honors women in Asia that work diligently under dangerous situations to further the position of women’s welfare in their region. We had a fantastic conversation and she had many wonderful stories to tell about the wok she was doing in remote areas, covering news situation that no one else had the guts to tackle.

After dinner we left Sunil in a taxi. The journalist and a documentary filmmaker friend of hers and I headed down the street towards home. After around five minutes we got a call from Sunil on the cell phone…his taxi passed the police station and he saw a girl form one of the “Dance Bars” being dragged half naked into the station. They explained that the police do this occasionally and take a women form the bars and rape her repeatedly through the night!

So we quickly turned around and walked across town to the Police station where we met Sunil waiting outside the steel barbed-wire gates. The journalist had a video cam in her nap-sack that she pulled out, turned on, and held next to her head. She walked up and questioned the young policemen leaning over the sandbagged bunker holding rifles pointed at us. They laughed at her. After seeing the video cam on and with our continued presence they stood up and took notice.

The journalist demanded that we see the prisoner to make sure she was safe. The guards brought out a string of police that had no idea what to do with us and eventually after continued arguments, called the police chief to the station to speak with us. We continued our demands and pressure until we were able to see the prisoner. The young girl was safe. The journalist took names of all the men in charge and we told them we will ask the girl in the morning how she was treated. Then we left, hoping this observation would at least protect one girl from a torturous night in the hands of the police.

SEVA meeting in Biratnagar, Nepal

2005-11-15T21:41:00.000-05:00

Yeshe has been quite pro-active in developing the hospital and on one occasion he traveled to Biratnagar for a meeting of all the NGO’s working in the Karnali Jung (5 Districts in the remote north-west region) out of all of them he spoke of the fact there is 120 NGO’s working in Humla itself and only about 2-3 have any visible development work happening at all! He was asked what the greatest health problem facing Humla was. He told them cataracts are a big problem and we were in need of some training or assistance on this matter. So SEVA stepped up and said they would train three staff members in June, July, and August to treat cataracts.

Yeshe provided me with the several new articles in the paper on the Hospital. He is quite the PR man! One of the full-page articles headlines were….”First Hospital in Karnali Jung”. That was quite impressive given the size of our organization, and the extreme poverty and remoteness of those five districts. Also given the fact that Kathmandu is the hub for every major organization for South-East Asia (UN, Red Cross, USAID, DFID, and a million more) and no one seems to have paid any attention to the poorest regions of the country?

Meeting with Yeshe, Kathmandu

2005-11-15T21:39:00.000-05:00

It was nice to see Yeshe and he was all decked out in his city duds! He is quite enthusiastic and tried to explain all the misunderstandings we may have had with his information or work. He told me they needed some equipment like a sterilizer. At the moment they are using a “Momo cooker” (Tibetan Dumpling) as a sterilizer!

He also tried to explain the need for a raise for the staff someday…. The rate to keep someone in such a remote region is higher and I confirmed this with others here. Anyone with an education would of course leave the region on the next flight out! The only people left are the desperately poor, those who take advantage of the remoteness and rake in money through government corruption and the few like Yeshe who feel like making some difference with the education he received and providing a future for his home District. The staff payments in Humla now are low and they receive none of the usual benefits of that other skilled workers in Humla get like a remote pay and Dasai peski (a religious festival yearly where everyone receives the equivalent of one months salary as a bonus).

I told Yeshe we are in no position right now to raise the salaries (till the Citta foundations are stronger) and that we will consider it in the future.

I also tried to drill home that we couldn’t keep spending beyond our budget! He keeps saying we cant run the hospital on less then 2000. / Month. His reasoning is that the extra 500 a month tends to go between donated medicines and also stocking new items form cases seen at the hospital that we were unable to treat.
Its hard to deal with the reality that we have to turn so many patients away due to lack of medicines available, but we can only work within what we have. Unfortunately, he had spent the extra 500 a month on the three months preceding our organizing of the budgets and that came to a debt at the wholesale pharmacy of 1500.00 dollars!

Arrival in Kathmandu

2005-11-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

I arrived in Kathmandu and took a taxi to a lodge in Thamel. It was a surprising 4.00 dollars US a night and had a bathroom and hot water! I went to Bhishma Panta’s (President, Citta Nepal) shop in Thamel to see what was happening.

Everyone was huddled around a newspaper. After we all said hello I asked what the fuss was this time…Maoists? Royal massacre? Etc…you never now here. The front-page news was that the government has declared a new “Code of Conduct” for Non-government organizations working in Nepal.

The government is trying to regulate what is being done in the country, supposedly to clamp down on misuse of funds and corruption. What would happen is more government involvement, which means paying more bribes to get papers to move, and more government control. So everyday it’s been the headline as it evolves. The latest pictured here is a threat by the Ngo communities to severe ties with the government Social Welfare council…how they can pull that one off would be interesting.

Journey to Delhi

2005-11-13T21:44:00.000-05:00

The Journey back to Delhi was a great reminder the joys of budget travel in India! I took a bus at 10pm from Jaisalmer reaching Johdpur at 4am. Then standing in a line (which looked more like a riot scene from the film Ghandi) I scored a ticket on the 6am train to Jaipur (the capital of Rajasthan). I arrived in Jaipur at 11am and went by rickshaw across town to the bus station and got the next ticket to Delhi. After arriving in Delhi at 6pm I had to fight for a rickshaw in a sea of traffic to get to Shashi’s house around 7:30. I had a good night sleep before leaving for Nepal the next day.

Jaisalmer fort visit

2005-11-12T21:39:00.000-05:00

Perk time!!!!!! I was a guest of the Maharaja of Jaisalmer at the Palace. I had walked into the room they always provide for me and was able to PLUG my laptop in and work! Consistant electricity at last followed by loads of filter coffee!

I went to the Fort Palace and met with Ragivhir Singh ji ( the head of the fort palace and the aid to the Maharawals). The space they have suggested if we are interested is quite nice. I saw all the rooms and took plenty of pictures so we can get a feeling of what’s there. The girls in this region suffer greatly for lack of education and equal social standing. Its wouldn’t be an incredible amount of funds to provide a center for these girls to feel like they have a future and to convince families that they are more then one step up from the sheep in the yard. Also, it would be a feat to get the Maharawals (Maharaja and Maharani) to actually link themselves to the poor in their area since they are god-types and usually require these people to give them gifts not the other way around.

The first picture is Ranimahal, the place suggested for the school.

Saati in the dessert kingdom, Jaisalmer

2005-11-12T21:32:00.000-05:00

The hands pictured here were the hands of the wives of previous maharaja’s. Imprints left behind as they were forced to commit “Saati”. In Hindu law, after the death of their husband they were forced to join, showing their unending commitment to him, by being thrown in to the funeral pyre as he was cremated. This handprint they left was their last gesture of presence in this life.

A girl’s school created in this structure would be a great symbol of the changes taking place in the Indian society.

Kalron Village visit, Rajasthan

2005-11-10T21:37:00.000-05:00

I visited the villages of Kalron where the work is being done (or not done) by the Tharr dessert women for Armani exchange. Everyone is ready to work and not much moves unless I show up then time seems to have seamlessly evaporated in between my last visit and now. Sitting in huts surrounded by flies and kids with matted hair and crusty eyes shitting in front of the hut without making an effort to squat next to mom (veiled due to her Islamic law) and me trying to create a “yoga mat bag” for New Yorkers venturing to Armani Exchange for the right gift for the Holiday season. I have to admit feeling a bit over stretched and futile in this situation. All of a sudden the world seemed quite vast and these women couldn’t have seemed further from the destination and reality of the bag they were sewing.

visit to old folks home, Jodhpur

2005-11-09T21:36:00.000-05:00

While waiting to meet with the Maharaja, I was also introduced to friends of his who had opened the first “old folks home” as it use to be called and they still call it in India. They provide care for Elderly that have been abandoned, some beaten, by their children. It was impressive to see a husband an wife dedicated to funding and running such a facility privately.

Italian movie in Jodhpur

2005-11-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

I left for Rajasthan and my first stop was Jodhpur. I had a meeting with Gravis, an organization that provides aid to the drought stricken communities of Rajasthan. I work with them to provide a link between Christina Ong who owns Armani Exchange and the women in the Tharr dessert that live barely hand to mouth and need the skill training and work to survive.

While in Jodhpur, I was spotted by an Italian film crew that asked me to be in the film. They were filming in the Jodhpur Palace (Umaid Bhavan) and I was able to meet with the Maharaja of Jodhpur to discuss his relationship and ideas about the Maharaja of Jaisalmer. It was interesting since Jodhpur already has many educational facilities in place spurred by the royal family and they invited me to come by and see them anytime.

The film was fun and brought in enough money to eat, travel and stay in hotels for the duration of my Rajasthan visit….so that was nice (:

Arrival in Delhi

2005-11-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

I arrived in Delhi to the smell of that eternal “unauthorized burning” smell of smoke that permeates everything there. You forget it after an hour or so but the initial “Hello India” when you get off the plane reminds you of all the olfactory fun India provides.

I stayed with my friend Shashi Kiran who works for the Health department in central government of India. Shashi has an amazing story. Her mother had an illness that affected her skin. Shashi told me the syndrome’s name, but I can’t remember it. She took care of her mother as the skin on her body shrank and cracked around her. It was years of pain for the mother who at the time received little treatment or information on her condition from the Indian medical system. Shashi never married and dedicated her life to the last years of caring for her mother. What she experienced has left her very caring towards those in pain and in underprivledged conditions. In 2001, she saw a TV news program in India during the time of the cyclone that Destroyed the coast of Orissa and gripped the emotions of the country. The news program was about the incredible ineficiency of the government relief efforts. They spoke about a positive aspect of the relief work being done by citing the work of the Juanga Hospital. She was so taken by the hard work she saw the hospital doing in such conditions she packed up donated medicines from several companies and headed out to Cyclone stripped Orissa to find the Hospital! She found it and Govinda and since then has visited occasionally with donated goods and medical supplies. She is also contributes funds annually.

London Orissa project meeting

2005-11-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

I stayed with Irmgard and Subroto Sircar. David and Jane Gosman, Irmgard and Subroto and myself are the board members of the Orissa project UK that was set up eons ago (around 1998) to help fund the hospital in Juanga. They have provided a majority of the funds in 2004 to keep the hospital going. They are presently without funds in the account as we exhausted them previous to the mailer we did in the US this year.

They are not exploring any new fundraising at the moment but wanted to schedule me to meet with all the previous donors and those interested in future contributions in December on my way home. Hopefully that would spur some funds I their account. I’ll see what I can do about changing a dirt-cheap Kuwaiti Air ticket…

Olivier to the rescue.

2005-11-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

We spent most of the day running around to different friends of Olivier’s to collect the funds needed for the month of November salaries. We met some very interesting people that want to contribute in the future. One women says she has a large company in Germany and said if we were there she could contribute more…. so I told her we have a newly set up board and all the legal papers in place in Germany, we just haven’t started any fundraising yet.

Citta meeting held

2005-11-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Citta meeting was held in our favorite place…the lounge at the Hotel Omm!
We spoke about the creamfield crisis and the need for money and Olivier came suggested a few friends that were going to give eventually anyway so he would ask them.

Also, we spoke about the need to remove the present Secretary, Maria Pillar Casanova, from the board. She is incredibly busy with her new job and invisible in between meetings. She will be replaced by the ever-active Sonia Ba !

Edu has arranged a large Christmas basket, which he raffles off to friends every year to raise finds for the school. It’s his donation and the tickets bring in around 5,000 euros for the holiday season.

We also included Inés in the meeting. Inés is a magazine and book graphic designer and works with clients like colors Magazine. She has donated her time to make the base book using photos and graphics from the school and India. The book will be printed and manipulated by artists as I described earlier. She gave us a set date of December 18th to have the book moquette complete. Then we can schedule the printer and the artists for early 2006.

I will send you all the technical notes from Sonia’s minutes when I receive them.

2nd meeting with Emascaro

2005-10-28T16:00:00.000-04:00

At the second meeting with the web company Emascaro, I met with the Diego, the creative design dude as well. Toni (owner) and Miguel (in charge of corporate responsibility) and Diego told us what they are willing to provide and the timing.

By the end of November, Emascaro will produce a web-spot for the holidays. This is a short commercial that shows the school and hospital and asks for donations. This will be useful for mailing out during December. I asked them to produce it in English as well and they said they would try to accommodate us.

By the end of December they will create the necessary web page information to enable us to start the School Sponsorship program that Sonia Ba (Secretary of Citta Espana) is eager to organize. In the future we can duplicate this program in the US if we decide to.

Then by the start of the year they will organize the data base and internal workings for the website so we can post Budgets, internal newsletters, information on programs for volunteers, as well as other information we wish to post. We can also change and update the website ourselves with a new user friendly system Emascaro has developed where we only need to key in a password to upload images and information on the site! All areas of the database will be locked and information only accessible through passwords.

Lunch with Grupo Tragaluz

2005-10-26T16:20:00.000-04:00

I met with Grupo Tragaluz. This is the company that has sponsored the Gaikhur Clinic project. The company owns many of the best restaurants and hotels in Barcelona. Grupo Tragaluz took an idea they saw in London and implemented it in Spain. They put an extra euro on every hotel and restaurant bill providing clients the option to take it off if they don’t want to give. Obviously, not many clients remove it. I provided a complete report and proposal for the clinics set up and one year’s expenses. The total came to 8,000 euros, which they agreed to fund. They also will continue to fund the following years running costs provided they have plenty of wonderful pictures and updates to show on their website.

Concert funds

2005-10-25T15:19:00.000-04:00

Jose, Olivier and I met at NEGRO restaurant for lunch. Jose is the owner of the concert production company that pledged 1 euro per ticket to Citta Espana from the Cream field festival. He explained that the funds, approximately 35,000 Euros, were held up by his company. He was waiting for other bank funs arranged to arrive before he could release the contribution to us. Since he didn’t give us a specific time for the contribution to be handed over it seemed like the delay was just an unfortunate setback for the funding scheduling that I had hoped would bring us through the next three months.

On a positive note José said next year the three festivals he was having he would do the same giving 1 euro per ticket. Last year he said the three concerts sold 200,000 tickets!

Artist Book: Database meeting / Barcelona

2005-10-24T02:00:00.000-04:00

After meeting with the volunteers Sonia Bermudez (Right) Edu (Left and Olivier (Middle) met to create a database of artists for the Citta Barcelona Artist book.

The book will be based on images from the school in Juanga. 20 artists will be given 25 books to manipulate. Ines, who is a freelance designer for COLORS Magazine here in Spain and a publisher named Jocobo, who is the owner of a printing company, will design the book base. The artists selected are some of the most well known artists here in Catalan. There will be a fundraiser and benefit next year in a contemporary art space here in Barcelona.

Volunteer meeting, Barcelona

2005-10-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

On Sunday night, Sonia (Left) and Edu (right) met with three female volunteers and volunteer boyfriend (in between) that are planning on visiting the Juanga school in the summer of 2006. The three girls seemed very excited and from the first meeting they seem quite capable of handling the Juanga situation and they are sending along CV's so we can see what their training and work skills are. Then we can maximize on their visit. The summers are brutal…HOT and WET, so they’ll get a very different experience to the winter months when I usually suggest volunteer’s come.

Take Care

Web meeting/ Barcelona

2005-10-21T15:32:00.000-04:00

I met with emascaro in Barcelona (www.emascaro.com) and they are a web company looking to help non-profits to organize through their new interactive website constructions. What they do is set up a user friendly website that is restricted but you can log on and upload images and change texts wherever you (I) am!!! They are also interested in an internal database construction on our website through which we can access budgets, newsletters etc....

The first thing they would like to do is create a webspot that we can mail out to people for christmas. They will do it in English and Spanish so we can send it out in Germany, England,US and Spain! they will create this by the end of November. Then they want to create the school sponsorship program database. This will only be in Spain at the moment and in the future they will expand it to the US. One step at a time.

Then in the beginning of the year they will get Government funds here to create an entire database for us so I need to figure out what we need to post.We still have control over the database and website from the US side but they will construct the viscera.

Emascaro company is very excited and have PLENTY of wonderful ideas! The owner, Tony Mascaro, wants to be on the board of Citta Espana and we would love to have him onbaord (he's the man sitting on the right side of the picture with Glasses) Take Care , Michael

Brunch/ Barcelona, Spain

2005-10-17T10:01:00.000-04:00

Sunday afternoon I had lunch at Christina Gabas's (interior designer) home in Barcelona with Olivier Selpechure (Citta Espana,Vice President), Edu Bores (Citta Espana, President) and Diego Fortunato (Graphics for Citta Espana-like the powerpoint presentation). Along with lots of kids that looked more like Kate Moss than Shirley Temple! Plenty of Rioja wine and Alex (a Thai restaurant owner from Tarifa) made us some wonderful Salmon and curry sauce...too much information?

Even though it wasn't an official Citta Epsana meeting, I was briefed on many issues because it was the first time we saw each other. The following was spoken about:

-The Creamfield Concert contribution has not arrived to the account yet. José, the promotor of the concert needed to delay on his gift a short while and we said it was fine. The same concert promotor has offered two other concerts this year with one Euro per ticket (of lesser attendence) but still VERY good for us just the same.

-three people (one couple and another individual) are interested in visiting the school in Juanga and they want to meet with me to discuss possibilities.

Other ideas about meetings and events were discussed, but nothing worth bringing up until a meeting occurs.

Take care