What do the Buddhist nuns of Debuche want in 2011? A stove. The communal kitchen has a big wood-fired hearth for cooking, so at first I wondered why they needed a stove. One nun explained that they spend so much time chopping firewood that it detracts from their...
On the way to Everest Base Camp, we always pass through a beautiful rhododendron forest where Buddhist nuns have taken refuge from the instability in Tibet. About 14 nuns live in a small community in the forest. Many of them speak only Tibetan, having crossed...
Our tea factory is being built as I write this, and I couldn't be more excited to see this project becoming a reality! Since 2002, we have worked with small farmers in the remote Himalayas to grow organic black tea on unusable agricultural land. After...
This spring we purchased new land for a permanent Children's Home. In our current farmhouse, we are two years into a five-year lease, but we haven't wanted to invest much in infrastructure on someone else's land. Our goal now is to build a permanent home, double our...
Sukumaya was still experiencing some difficulty this spring, so Neel brought her to Kathmandu to stay with his family for a while. It turned out that her problem wasn't possession by a forest spirit, but depression and fear about her future. At 14, she's not...
Good news from our Children's Home: The kids have made a dramatic academic turnaround. At first they were failing nearly all subjects. This year, all ten kids passed all subjects of their school exams, and four of them ranked in the top three of their grade! Way to go!
Ten kids meet ten quirky stuffed animal pillows...and fall in love. This spring Mountain Madness wanted to send gifts to our orphanage kids. I dutifully stuffed my suitcase with funny little stitched pillows, handmade by Girl Scouts, then stuffed them all again into a...
Common sense will tell you that a five year old child in any country can't kneel on a wooden bench for 7 hours a day, much less do so and stay focused on learning the alphabet. Nonetheless, in rural Nepal that's exactly what they're expected to do. Classrooms in Nepal...
The conflict of interest inherent in international development is that donor dollars perpetuate (and even exacerbate) more social and political problems than they ameliorate. International donors (e.g., USAID, its British counterpart DFID, and a wide range of other...
Creating a children's home in rural Nepal has been a wonderfully rewarding experience, but it's not without its challenges. We have faced issues ranging from low exam scores to mice--with varying success. (We have high exam scores now but persistent mice.) When I went...
The buzz in mountainous villages in our project area is TEA! As I made a short tour of tea farms and the new factory site last week, I continually met groups of farmers who were talking tea--how much they were earning, how much they were investing in the new joint...
Video: Dr. Seuss Comes To Nepal Ten children, two women, five goats and two cows--this is home for all of them. Our Children's Home feels better every time I visit. Krishna has turned from quiet and scared to curious and engaged. Suresh has become the proud oldest...