(Una) canyoning, orphans, holes in feet and more rice..

Only one more week of volunteering left!
Anna and I went canyoning yesterday - 5 hours of absailing down pretty powerful waterfalls in the nepalese jungle with guys who make their living leading montain climbing in the everest region. Times like that when you think "crap - nobody else in the whole world knows where i am right now". We brought along two other European volunteers along - one for his aryian-like looks for protection, and one for the comedy factor (balance worse than Jamie Wilson and pathologically afraid of leeches).
The Volunteering is going really well, we'r getting regular customers at the health clinic for wounds needing to be cleaned out. The other day we went to a special needs school ran by a guy from northern ireland that Anna's mum (vagualy) knows. It was a fantastic place, and when we got there, a team from Belfast were there. The Northern Irish banter was immediate and a nice wee break for us. It turned out that i had travelled with one of them before on a youth peace conferance to Wales as well - you can't escape your past at all - even in nepal.
I'v visited two hospitals in the past week, its been really interesting, and the maternity ward of one stole my heart immediatly. I saw 2 hour old babies the size of your hand. i dont know why im in med school, i definitly want to be a midwife instead.
Last weekend i got a bit sick, and the lay health beliefs of my host mum were pretty annoying ("no cold water, cover your head while you sleep, its all because i walk too far"!). I tried to placate her but i way prefere abiding by my own lay health beliefs instead.
Im spending as much time as i can at the orphange - the kids are really good fun and love the one-on-one attention. Also, the dedication of individual volunteers here is so inspiring. Take care in whatever your doing, and lets hope the transport strikes end here pretty soon. xx

An struggling culture ...

Nunga udnyus! mmm yeah.. wee bit of a belated post, but alls good and ive settled into Nepabunna and am having a ball! So im living in an Aboriginal community of 54 Adnyamathanha people, 7 horses and lots of udlu and munja (kangaroo) and amazing eagles. i love the eagles. And i cant think of anywhere more in the back arse of nowhere. the big open spaces are AWEsome. and im quickly learning some foresight when it comes to shopping - i ran out of bread and milk last week but hopefully someones going to the nearest shop (an hour away on a dirt track!) next week sometime!! tuna tins it is.

I've been doing work on the protected area and learning lots of plants and their uses and dreamtime stories and yesterday they said id learnt enough language and plant uses that they might initiate me to the first level! whioop! so i might come home! only joking. half.

Its also kindof a little bit sad cuz this is the heartland of their culture and biggest remaining group (54!) and despite alot of v v inspiring elders, the older people are sometimes so sad at the younger peoples apathy and disinterest in their knowledge (which is immense) and the last ever initiated elder died in 2002. so all his knowledge is lost forever - bec knowledge has to be earnt here, so like they only tell you stuff about the land once youve reached a certain spiritual maturity (bec land and spirituality are so together). And kids are being kids and watching tv and it makes me think about all those questions about merging cultures and the infinite dilemmas about what values and habits and rituals and priorities to keep and what to leave behind and what to change and what to preserve and I guess theres no right answer but you wanna say 'STOP! throw away your tvs and go out into the bush and remember and have fun and stop being zombies!!!" but obviously you cant do that bec you dont know what its like from their viewpoint and you may well just be being naive. But they cant live like they used anymore and eat traditional bush tucker even if they wanted to because white settler pastoralists' sheep have eaten all the food and they reckon more than 70% species have become extinct since explorers arrived in 1788.

so there we go ... that is the view from where im sitting at the minute!
xox

ps. theres currently a 10year drought, and the land and farmers are really struggling. Lots of people are praying, and doing rain dances, and hoping ... so if any of those are your thing, please join in.

(Una) Sunset on the snow capped Himalayas...

Im just back from a 2day stay in a wee village up in the himalays - we stayed in "Hotel at the end of the Universe" and thats no exageration. For 6 of us staying in a big room with panoramic views - it was only 2 pounds! We had our first look at snow capped himalays through the monsoon clouds, and sunrise and sunset we were well worth the trek up. (also our first experience of leeches - see the photo above) . At around 2500m it was definitly high enough to feel the decrease in oxygen. Myself and the other volunteers are getting very stingy - to the piont of refusing a meal for 3 pounds last night, instead opting for a big meal at a cheaper guest house for under a pound.
The past week Anna and I have been volunteering in a health clinic in a very poor community - lots of infected wounds, stomach upsets, and not enough medicine. We even saw a man with a tape worm larvae in his brain. We'v also been taking the opportunity to volunteer at other projects. We worked with the Sisters of Mercy (Mother Teressa's gang) in the centre of Kathmando at their home for the destitude - their dedication was so inspiring. It was pretty hard seeing people with medical conditions completly treatable on the NHS but here, no chance.
The volunteer organisation we are with has just started up a tie with a closeby orphange. We are completly gutting it out as the conditions arent exactly what you'd want your little brother being brought up in. I got electricuted a few times while washing down the windows. The ridiculous thing was that it took 3 electric shocks in a row for me to realise that the shooting pain down my forearm and involuntary spasms could be avoided. The bus ride there and back on top of a rickety bus zooming round mountain corners was a definite highlight.
We have lots more plans for travel, but maybe some more volunteer work should get fitted in first. Namaste, xx

(Una) - I'm here!

i've arrived! So Anna and I are staying with a lovely host family close to the volutneer centre we are working for. The name of the town crakcs me up everytime - "Pepsi Cola Town Planning", basically because a pepsi factory sprung up here 5 years ago then they planned to have a town surrounding it. We'r getting used to the squat toilets, rice three times s day, ample use of hand gestures and hot humid temperatures. I'm still waiting for for a good view of the himalayas - but we are plannig lots of day/weekend trips to do exciting things that im sure will bring us closer. I start in the health clinic next week, now we'r learning Nepalese and seeing Kathmando - which is nice as its easing us in. Enjoy your summer's, and lynn, goodluck negoitiating kathmando airport by yourself, that'll be a laugh and a half. una. xx

Una To Nepal....

So I'm off to the himalaya's in a few hours - eek! Im going with Anna (a friend from school) to work for a volunteer organisation in a health internship programme for 4 weeks. We're being based in the Kathmando valley and will be working in the community health clinic helping with vaccinations, water hygeine education and whatever needs doing. We then have just over two weeks of enjoying all the Nepal has to offer - at which point Lynn will be meeting us (fingers cross we find each other !) I can't actually think of anything I'd rather be doing this summer, so its all worked out.

(Lynn) I've arrived safely!

hello hello ... im all safe down under! arrived a week ago in adelaide and have been busy busy sorting out stuff to go up to the outback tomorrow. Had a bit of a stressful day when i found out there is absolutely no way to get up to the Aboriginal community Im staying with for 5 weeks - no buses no planes no trains no lorries I could find. Thought my degree was down the drain until eventually found someone whos happening to be driving up there tomorrow. phew, im so lucky!

so went off to kangaroo island for a few days and saw lots of firsts - pelicans (they really are al arms and legs and beaks), kangaroos all over the show (the island is size of wales, has 4,500 people, 1 million kangaroos and 1 mill koalas!!), wallaby, echidna, cool hovering kites and big eagles. Also saw beautiful beautiful beaches (almost as beautiful as the north coast!hee hee), slept under the stars (south hemisphere gets to see the milky way EVERY night.humph), oh and saw penguins! theyre so comical ... and a southern right wale - apparently numbers went down from 100,000 to 26,000 within 15 years of white setters arriving in 18th century. so thats me so far!