big thrill diving!

i haven't been able to post for a while due to internet restrictions and lack of programs on hotel computers, but i had a great experience while still in borneo. the reason we went to this area is because our dive masters in thailand told us if they had our budget and time they would make their way to this place. who can argue with the dive instructors?! we made our way across the peninsulas which turned out to be a lot farther than we realized...the map never looks that big...and finally arrived in semporna, which is the base for diving a world famous site called sipadan. people flock here all year round for the copious sharks and turtles along with fantastic muck (macro) diving. they only allow 100 permits (divers and snorkelers combined) onto the site a day and those are gobbled up by the 4 or 5 scuba centers pretty quickly. it used to be open and there were even a couple rudimentary resorts there, but the government stopped that due to over use and destruction that was happening. the coral reef is such a fragile environment and with all the boats and people, sipadan was beginning to show significant damage and wear. however, typical to many developing country's governments, they saw an opportunity to monopolize the place and after sending the 2 small resorts off the island, came in with a huuuge barge, ready to build thier own resort and have sole rights. well, the barge wound up getting stuck on the reef and they couldn't unload anything for several days...yes, tons of damage was done to the coral and it made headlines (complete with photos of stranded barge) in the malaysian papers forcing the pre fabbed resort back to the mainland for good with a lot of bad press. geesh. in any case, we were on a waiting list and were very lucky to 'get the call' the night before. we had dived mabul island and kapalaii, which are nearby and were ready. sipadan is like a huge monolith coming up from the depths. so many big sharks and turtles come to this location because of the depths and food sources. also, this is where jacques cousteau filmed "turtle tomb" a long time ago. we got into the 29 degrees celsius (super warm!) water and descended into stunning azure water. since it was a more special experience and we would dive 3 times that day, i decided to try my hand at an underwater camera. it was quite challenging, but i'm happy to have had it. i got a lot of good tips before diving, but still there are just so many variables! as soon as we went down, there were white tip sharks swimming below us and green and hawksbill turtles off in the distance. it was so amazing and surreal! on one dive we went to the giant cave that is 'turtle tomb' and hung around the massive entrance for a few minutes just watching the activity. apparently, there is no light inside and it's easy to get disoriented even with a torch, so we didn't go in...and didn't want to... but there are hundreds of turtle skeletons inside. after 3 dives we were exhilerated and exhausted, but feeling very fortunate to have been granted the opportunity to dive this place. truly amazing. take a look at my photos below. at one point i got up reeeally close to a 'sleeping' turtle and then it came out of its nook right up under me! it was all i could do to get out of its path! crazy. hope you're all well. love, j

my sipadan photos

orang utans in borneo

orang utans are cool...plain and simple. they are not in a rush to get anywhere, do anything...they just hang out and enjoy kickin it. with such expressive faces though, at times, it's hard to look into their soft sweet eyes. these guys are, as the pictures show, much more used to humans than their long nosed relatives in my previous post. they've either been abandoned, born in captivity, orphaned or whatever other usually human based offense against them has occurred...but the sepilok rehabilitation center is true to its word and has re-introduced many of the primates back into the wild. some return regularly, some never again and some never want to leave the comforting platforms stocked with food! but, they are all well cared for and given their own space and time to do what they want. it's a great place. there are two feeding viewings per day the public can attend and loads of people show up, but the orang utans don't mind and even one came onto "our" platform as if it was no big thing. of course, we were all maintaining the posted silence requested, and even as the gentle beast jumped up on the platform and began walking on two legs...like a drunk man...across and hopped up the other side, people slowly moved out of its way and respected its space while only letting out a few gasps while broadening many eyes! it was great, but at no moment did we feel threatened or did the orang utan...it just casually walked off into the distance wondering why we were all looking at it! we are, once again, so fortunate to see these animals as they near extinction in the wild. beautiful...truly lovely animals. they climb through the branches and ropes so gracefully and quietly, often times clutching a baby or piece of fruit in one or two of their hands or feet. one not so delicious trait about them is that they vomit up their food and then re-eat it...that part was gross, but even with that, they were generous and let the others eat, too!! lol! i loved watching them and can imagine why some people would want them as pets with their pensive gazes and calm nature. unfortunately, most of them wind up mistreated, however unintentionally, and the lucky ones wind up at places like this. hope you're all well and enjoy the photos! drop me a comment when you can. lots of love, j

orang utan photos

up close and personal with jimmy durante monkeys

...or, they're also known as 'dutch' monkeys...or, probiscus monkeys. they're only found in the wild around this part of the world--borneo, malaysia--and we have been making our way overland across the peninsula to a dive town in the southeast. this sanctuary, in sepilok, was a great stopping point! we took a taxi waaaay off the beaten path about 30 minutes down a dirt road...well, past an oil palm plantation...more on that later. we were allowed to go in for their afternoon feeding time, otherwise, one wouldn't really get to see them as they live pretty deep in the reserve. as a worker made loud calls, you could see them working their way closer and cautiously. she called for a good 15-20 minutes before the food was brought out onto the platform and we could see them hanging around. one even came across the man made planks to be first one in line. these monkeys don't have contact with humans, but there's been land set aside for them to live. it's quite sad...there are oil palm plantations all over the place here which produce palm oil. it is malaysia's number one export and a huge money maker for them, but slowly, they are eradicating all the wild primates living places. the same is true for orang utans which i will post about next. there aren't many of either of these monkeys left and conservationists predict that there will be none in the wild in about 20 years...bummer. as we've been traversing the peninsula of borneo, we've seen tons of oil palm trucks with full harvests and hours and hours of passing plantations. man can be so stupid sometimes...geesh. the probiscus monkeys are really cool though. they're super strong and very powerful. males are distinguished by their thick fur 'jacket' it looks like they're wearing, along with bare skin resembling tighty-whities. when one comes and wants to make a show, he shakes the branches of a tree or pounds his four feet while running on the feeding platform. they're very loud and vocal. males bark at each other to establish dominance and will bare their teeth to each other. the females stick close to their troop 'leader' and he keeps a close eye on them. since the males are constantly erect with their bright red penis, they can mate quickly and at will...which was frequent while we were there! ha! oh my... it was a very interesting afternoon watching these unusual creatures. when the food was gone off the platforms, a few younger boys hung around for a few minutes playing, but mostly, they quickly lept back into the jungle and out of sight. oh, and they were fed pancakes and green melon looking fruit cause they can't digest much sugar and prefer starches. i'll include a link on the side of the blog if you're interested in learning more or donating. word of mouth is a good start at conservation... love, janice

probiscus monkey photos

more photos from diving ko haa

photos from diving

scuba diving in thailand

well, first christy had to get her padi certification to see if she would even like it! prone to liking control and not being scared or nervous, i wasn't quite sure, but she came through the course with minimal discomfort and was a trooper the whole time. while she was in class for 2 days i was roaming the beaches, getting massages, exercising, riding around on a scooter and just plain chilling. her first dive was nerve wrecking, but she got through her skills and moved on to her second dive with a little more comfort. day 2 i joined them and my first dive i did with a cool guy, paul, from ireland...love the irish! and then the second dive when christy only had a few minutes of skills to do, i joined them for the fun dive. the photographer who took all the photos is phil north of liquid lense out of england. he's great and i only included a fraction of photos he's given us. i put a lot more on facebook if you're a 'friend' of mine, but in general, the photos are fabulous and he makes us look a lot more graceful than we are! christy describes her underwater pose as something resembling a frightened kitten...while you're supposed to be streamlined, arms up under you and relaxed! lol...she did great and i was so happy to be back under the warm, turquoise water. the coral's beautiful, the fish are fantastic...some of the things we saw are puffer fish, clown fish, lion fish, scorpion fish, eels, nudi branches, barricuda, cuttlefish and tons more. it's such a peaceful feeling to be breathing underwater if you can get past the horror of it all! ha ha...the breathing from a respirator is almost meditative, i feel. and, believe it or not, you can hear the fish eating off the coral--it makes a crackling noise. good times and beautiful water! i'm so fortunate... love, j

as for the photos in the next posting, the first one is of us...me on the left, c on the right. 2nd one is us swimming, c in foreground, me farther away. 3rd one is of me doing a boat entrance and the 4th is of the islands we dived around called koh haa which means 5 islands in thai. stunning!

tiger temple outside of bangkok

you can google it for more info, but basically, it was GRRRREAT...said like tony the tiger for emphasis! i loved the place cause this thai monk (who's in one of the pics) started a sanctuary for the bengal felines and over the past 14 years has bred over 40 tigers and put them back into the wild. he rescues any animal that he can and so within the grounds there are all sorts of beasts roaming around. in the morning, the tigers are led down to the river on chains where they can play and swim for a while. then, they are led to lunch and then back into a canyon, where the photos are taken, so tourists like us can come in and be photographed with the kitties. we have to pay an entrance fee and then depending on what photos you want, an extra fee, but it was so worth it. i actually got to have 2 different tigers on my lap just out of shear luck. i asked the monk to take a photo with me and he whisked me away and, as on my facebook video, gave me a second chance to have a massive, heavy and very sleepy head in my lap! amazing! their fur is quite prickly and we were instructed to keep our touches below their head and to be firm and not light with our pets. they are not drugged, just sleepy and are treated very humanely...squirt bottles of water are used to correct behavior and train. i totally loved the place...and then you could walk around and see other tigers of different ages, as well...and maybe nibble on their ears from behind when they weren't looking! ha! oh, and the one shot of me with a fully awake and upright tiger is walking it down to the canyon after lunch. we had to line up, give our camera to the guides and stay behind the tiger. i actually got sprayed with cat pee pee which is deemed good luck...and smelly! luckily, my guide took the brunt of the tiger's squirt... oh, and it was reeeally hot there that day...i was wearing a tank top, but because it's a buddhist temple, i had to cover my shoulders. all i had on me was a cashmere sweater cause the a/c inside vehicles and buildings can be extremely cold. doh...i was sweating my butt off, but it made me feel for the tigers who can't take their sweater off the minute they leave. all for now, love, j

yakman feeding our yaks in sikkim, india

india UGH!

...well, at least the trekking in the wet and cold and the noise and bazillion people in the cities...other than that it was fun! our friend (my old peace corps buddy), anita came in for 3 weeks for the 'india leg' of our trip. we started in delhi, flew to bagdora where our guide met us and drove us into sikkim. the trek started out great with a beautiful day. we were "making a lot of sweat" as the tour guide said, so were down to short sleeves and shorts early into the trek...despite the leeches which we had to fend off with our trekking poles...eeks... day one was the highlight of the trip weather-wise though. our first night we realized our tents were virtually made of cheese cloth with a (thankfully) very durable fly. although bigger than our lil' mongolia pup tent, it was cold and didn't retain much heat. our sleeping mats were as thin as a mouse pad and my sleeping bag had a big tear on the inside. ok, so i'm used to sleeping in my clothes while trekking...and wool socks and scarf, gloves and hat. thankfully by the second night they told us they had 2 "hot water bags" for us to take with us at night into the tent...too bad there were 4 people, but it was one time i'm happy to say i'm bigger and stronger! : ) day one lunchtime, also, by the way, saw me step into some soft moss and fall backwards while yelling some really profane language...into a big healthy crop of nettles. not only did i get nettle stings all over me, but i also busted a bone below my right ring finger...fun. i was ahead of the pack, but luckily our guide was showing us where we were having lunch...the small path on which i slipped and so was close by cause i couldn't even get back up. picture an incline board of nettles...i needed a hand to get up so of course i reached out my right hand for assistance not realizing yet, that it was broken. ugh. so, some of the other highlights were christy's 40 mysterious, huge, welt-like bug bites all over her torso, anita's altitude sickness at 4,300 meters, quite a bit of rain, no place to get warm and dry, and slippery, yak poopy trails. now i'm not totally complaining...we had a lot of laughs in between our slips on our butts and made a nice new friend, sachi, who's from india. she's great and helped us pass the time in a positive way. the food was great, our porters and guides were very patient with us and all in all we had a good time, but were happy to stroll back into yuksam a day early and stay at the poshest place in town! it's good to be done with trekking for a while.

then we went to darjeeling where we soaked up beautiful views without having to trek, sipped on darjeeling teas, shopped, ate good indian food and saved a sweet little starving street puppy with the mange. time well spent.

next, we were in calcutta for a few days. we flew in and immediately the honking started as soon as we stepped foot out of the airport and didn't stop until we were back at the airport to leave. ugh. the streets of calcutta are everything mother theresa said. we went to her home and saw where she lived and then died after 40 plus years of service. geesh, what a woman. an incredible life. saw a few other sites and ate more good bengali food before making our way back to the airport to say good bye to anita and head back to thailand. we had a great time with anita for 3 weeks and were sorry to see her go. we were also truly thankful as she transported a 50 pound bag back to albuquerque for us. huge relief!! thanks anita!!

now we're in bangkok and trying to figure out our next move. i'll post about that soon, but also hope to put some more pics online as the internet is much more available now. much love, j

tashi delek

...which is hello in tibetan. we spent a long 3 weeks in the chinese province of tibet and it was some tough traveling. good, but physically draining. we spent several days in lhasa before heading across the country to mt kailash. backing up a little bit, though we took the "genocide express" up into lhasa from xining and our friend emily cautioned us that she got really sick and was puking in the bathroom due to altitude sickness...c and i, however, slept through the night and woke up expecting to go over 16,000 feet passes, but we had already been over them and had no affects. hooray! once in lhasa we were tired and our room on the 4th floor took the wind out of us every time we had to climb the steps, but after a couple days that subsided, too. lhasa is so interesting. of course, the chinese are shipping han chinese as fast as they can into the region and they now outnumber the tibetans by over 2 to 1. they've built roads, railroads, nice infrastructure, a nice airport and have "chinafied" everything they could in that gaudy neon lights and chinese pagoda style entrances as much as possible. for example, outside THE most tibetan building ever, the potala palace, which is all crimson and white with some black accents, they have added a green and yellow pagoda entrance way and big chinese lion statues on either side. it looks so out of place. and, across the street, there is a huge, phallic like military monument to the "peaceful takeover of tibet" that has to be guarded 24 hours a day to eliminate vandalism...go figure. everywhere we went along the trip east to kailash where tourists would stop (are allowed to stop) there was a similar monument across from the monasteries. there's so much to say about this trip...the tibetan buddhist faith seems to be alive and well despite the constant armed military presence in lhasa and all of the many, many checkpoints along the roads. every day there were hundreds of pilgrims doing prostrations in front of every buddhist monument/monastery (most of which were rebuilt after being destroyed in the cultural revolution...luckily they spared the potala palace) and everywhere in lhasa there were buddhists circumambulating whatever they could whilst spinning prayer wheels. smoldering incense and juniper could be smelt throughout the city and a constant humming of chants/mantras by people moving around you, heard. the visuals are spectacular...minus the chinese tour groups snapping photos of tibetans despite their attempts to shield their faces. it was obvious the chinese and tibetans don't get along so well and the chinese shop keepers are just trying to make a living, but have been given many incentives by the government to relocate there. such as, they get tax breaks, licenses to open businesses, a relaxed 1 child policy, relocation allowances and more...why wouldn't they want to make a better life for themselves...they do not know the whole truth, that's for sure. so the tibetans boycott the chinese shops and i did my best to do the same, but because the chinese outnumber the tibetans, it's difficult. another lovely fact is that the chinese have instilled a mandarin or cantonese only policy at the tibetan universities. no classes or degrees can be done in the tibetan language so they make it difficult for the tibetans who want a higher education...especially since they don't speak the chinese language (mandarin) in the first place. ugh.

kailash was another story. being up in the mountains at such high altitude was tough. we were both really tired and struggled up drolma la (tara's pass) it was 15,800 plus feet and i was suckin wind the entire way up. the crazy thing is that people...really dedicated people...do the entire trek in prostrations, like an inchworm crawling their way along the rocky, and sometimes marshy, path. we at least had to go faster than them, but at times that was even hard!! we both had trouble sleeping at such heights and had really wild, vivid dreams, but little other side effects of ams other than slight headaches. we did well physically, but were just sooooo tired. also, we were soooooo tired of eating instant noodles cause that's about all they had to eat in such remote areas. nepal sure has their trekking routes stocked for tourists. this was much different. 52 kilometers in 3 days...usually at least 8 hours a day...plus, 3 days of looooong driving across the country to get there through crazy, washed out roads. the chinese are paving a lot of the stretch, but it was intermittent with poor roads in between. we had a great driver in an old 4x4 land cruiser who carefully guided us through some of the worst road i've ever encountered! we have some video and i'll try to post it soon...along with pics.

so, needless to say, upon returning back to lhasa, our final 3 days were spent chilling at a great coffee shop owned by a guy from ohio, sipping lovely cafe drinks and eating delightful pastries...we are only human and need some westernization every so often! : )

oh, one other great point to mention...so, the dalai lama is forbidden in tibet...no pictures, no mention in any of his buddhist sect of monasteries or in his potala palace...nothing. also, no tibetan flags are allowed anywhere. but with the dalai lama, christy has a video of him teaching on her ipod. one night she was talking with our tour guide, tenzen, who is a devout buddhist and a really sweet, gomer pyle like, 32 year old man. we felt safe with him and didn't worry about the spies or being turned in by him, so she asked if he'd ever seen his holiness on video or heard him speaking. of course he said no and his eyes lit up. she set him up on the foot of our bed with the ipod (which i bet he'd never seen in the first place) and he watched the 10 minute video riveted...still as a statue, except for the tears rolling down his cheeks. at the end, he took the headphones out and gave the ipod back to christy. i asked him if he liked it and he said, of course! it was such a beautiful sight to watch him watching his spiritual leader...the feeling that overcame me was so overwhelming and inspiring and what tenzen felt certainly dwarfs that...truly one of the highlights of my trip.

another day, christy went to pabonka monastery, but i stayed back in town for some mental health. she had about 7 small photos of the dalai lama in her wallet and put them on the altars and as donations...which is illegal, but she thought the monks could hide them and keep them safe. for the rest of our time in tibet she was nervous the authorities were going to come and get her...convinced the hidden video cameras had caught her in the act! she made it out, though, unscathed, and now we're in bangkok doing spa and medical stuff...oh, and 3 movies! it's certainly down time before we head to delhi to meet up with an old peace corps friend of mine who's flying in from albuquerque to meet us for a trek up in sikkim. after this trek though, it's sun and beach city from here on out...relaxing and scuba diving and imbibing the ocean breeze and all it has to offer!

lots of love; hope to hear from you...xo, j

heading to tibet

...now there's a place i really never thought i would go, but then again, every where in asia i've been so far i never imagined visiting, so what the heck! we've had to acquire special visas to cross into the province and most chinese tell us it's a 'dangerous' place to go due to the news their fed, but actually i'm excited to be back in the high desert. the train alone should be a trip. our host in xining, emily--a friend of christy's from ann arbor who's living here, took the train and wound up puking in the bathroom due to such high altitude. it crosses a couple 16,000 ft passes en route to the 12,000 ft capital, lhasa. it'll take us 27 hours by train and apparently it's a shorter train due to the weight restrictions on the permafrost and demands on the engine. tickets are tough to get this time of year because many chinese students are traveling as it's their summer break and it's tibet's high season. i just can't imagine there will be as many people there as there have been in other chinese cities...packed every where you turn! i've added a 'link of interest' on the train and it's easy to research, but it's the highest train and goes through the highest tunnel in the world. it was an architectural wonder just to build the thing in such extreme conditions and isn't open all year round. since the olympics they've opened a 5 star, luxury train as well. ...we won't be taking that one! : ) we will be up there for 20 days though and covering a lot of ground despite the long sounding length of our trip...i think we'll be in the car a lot again, but thanks to the chinese and unlike the russians in mongolia, the roads are paved...whew! we've come to xining because christy's friend emily is here and to help acclimatize slowly. it will be the highest either one of us has ever been and we expect to feel some symptoms of altitude sickness but are doing the best we can to prep ourselves with homeopathic herbs, water and time. emily has lived here for a year and loves it. she's working with a ministry organization trying to help prostitute tibetan women rehabilitate into other professions. she wants to open a half way house and do many other wonderfully loving things. she has the heart of mount everest and has always been drawn to the tibetan culture and people. she's now studying chinese. last night we went out for a traditional hot pot meal, which is a big cauldron of oil divided in two: spicy and non, where you add veggies and meats to cook and then scoop it out with chopsticks being careful not to scald anyone at the table with flying drops of oil. good stuff. we leave for the train station in about a half hour and hopefully will be there by 2 or 3 pm tomorrow (thurs). i have lots of stories to tell, but so little time! another place we'll be seeing and attempting to circumambulate, is mt. kailash. it's another nice place to research...the history and spirituality is unprecedented. i wish all of you well and hope to have a good trip. Be in touch...i'll be back blogging from bangkok early the second week of september. love, j p.s. my sister vickie's getting married on the 28th! congratulations to her and mike! ...and sorry i won't be there.

photos from xian and the terra cotta warriors

photos from the sights of beijing

REPOSTED: more mongolia photos

REPOSTED: some shots of mongolia

hong kong and beyond

our last day in hong kong and we'll spend the next two nights on trains en route to xian to see the terra cotta warriors...yes, we suck, james! : ) i'm excited to see them and know i'll be enthralled with the whole place. and now, we have a contact there who'll meet us...a friend of our new friends in mongolia! hooray! but, hong kong has been a great reprieve from censored life in china. it's funny cause all the book stores have tons of books on china that are banned in mainland china. we bought a few and hope to read them before going through immigration in beijing... we'll have to ditch our buddhist/dalai lama stuff before heading into tibet, too. but alas, it has been nice discovering hong kong...it's really a fabulous city with tons to do and see and ...buy! ee gads...we were looking for a small pocket computer where we could word process blog entries and connect to wireless cafes, but it was all too confusing so we opted out. i did get a nifty double lens attachment to my current lens though. just screwing one on makes it more of a wide angle lens and by putting both on turns it into more of a macro...pretty cool, so i'll have fun playing with that! christy's out buying snacks and food for the upcoming train rides as our 24 hour trip here we were sadly under prepared and resorted to eating train food. now we're gonna rock it out... : ) yesterday we took a ferry over to macau to see the island. we only had about half a day there, but walked around, went to a museum and saw some local sights. there was this interesting phenomenon of "sheet meat" as christy calls it...i guess it's just a huge, piece of paper size, sheet of beef/chicken/pork jerky. they were offering samples and of course we got sucked in. but they also made lovely cookies and ginger candies, etc. really fun to sample things and we wound up buying some as a host gift for our friend in xian, and, of course, for ourselves to enjoy on the long train ride. we're leaving soon and heading back into china though for another 3 weeks....including tibet, so i'm not sure how much contact i'll have via internet. i hope you're all well and everyone's looking forward to the school year starting! for me, it's weird not to be at an in-service sooomewhere...but i'm adjusting... : ) lots of love, j

china makes me feel creepy

...and i don't know why, but perhaps it's that i just finished teaching (and learning...just ahead of the kids) about the cultural revolution, the long march, the 5 year plan, and the fact that mao killed more of his own people during that time than all the casualties lost during world war ii, combined from all countries involved! ...some 40 million are the estimates. but, all that aside, i've never been in a country that censors its people. i had never been blocked from facebook and my blog before, but now know what it must have felt like...albeit on a grander scale...when the journalists were being blocked during last year's olympics. the city of beijing is beautiful, but it's all so new and fresh and clean that it felt artificial. i can't say enough niceties about the people, however and that's what gave me the best feeling. people were friendly, polite, hospitable and unobtrusive. a friend i made while working in nepal...wenddy house elementary school...now lives in beijing. her name is miao...like the cat sound...and her fiance, well, we never did figure out his name, so just called him 'yo' and later gave him the english name of 'jackson'. but they came to our hotel 2 different nights to pick us up and take us out. the first night we ate at a local joint and the first thing plopped on the table was tripe...eww, but i ate some anyways and with the sauce it wasn't bad...reminded me of namibia and the goat 'parts' i was 'honored' to sample for my birthday. we had delightful conversation and once you get them out of public ear shot, they will tell you that they would like a democracy and more freedoms. people from one province cannot travel to another province without great difficulty. even miao...she lived in the province beijing is in and she had to get special permission to come into the city. seriously... i guess it's to try and control everyone flocking to the cities and creating kathmandus all over the place, but still. for her to have gone to nepal is a really big deal...most chinese never leave their district. the second night they researched and took us to a beijing duck place. peking style food which was delicious. we enjoyed our time with them, but it was short cause she just got a new job and works till past 6. she has an hour and a half bus ride to and from work every day so we didn't want to keep her out late, but she made such a nice effort getting together with us. she is really a sweetheart and we adore her fiance...very cute. i wish i could post photos, but am having trouble condensing my files. while in beijing, we also did a lot of sight seeing. beautiful architecture from the ming dynasty was fun to imbibe, but once again, the creep factor rolled in with tiananmen square and mao's mausoleum. we walked forever just to get in the line to see his corpse lying in state...i'd say a few miles by the time we followed the hordes around the building and through the well roped off and watched area. people were like fanatics pushing and running ahead any chance they got. it was crazy like a rock concert...but it shows how the people revere mao and there's still such a cult following as china continues to progress at the expense of some of its people and environment. everywhere you went there were souvenirs of the place, but also tons of mao items. don't get me wrong, i'm not naive and understand the u.s. is no angel either and has its past...trust me... eventually though, we headed out of china and are now in hong kong for a few days. it's refreshing and alive and enjoyable. hope your days are too. gotta run. love, j

more mongolia photos

some shots of mongolia

back in u.b.

...and happy for it! the last few days of driving were very rough...bumpy and long, so it was nice to pull into the capital and sleep in a normal bed that was bigger than my entire tent's footprint! ahhh...the good things in life. but, our time was wonderful and beautiful and memorable. the people of mongolia's countryside are so friendly and hospitable it's hard not to have a good time. we were warmly received at every ger and offered the traditional milk tea and hard, fermented cheese, and even, sometimes we got yogurt, meat and freshly baked bread. the people don't have that much, so it was very sweet to receive anything. meg prepared us ahead of time to bring some gifts for the ger owners...things like soap, candies for the kids, batteries, candles and even some cigarettes for a little old, 82 year old woman who's been smoking unfiltered, rolled cigarettes most of her life, but buzzes around, inside and out, her ger like a bee. she was happy to receive some fancy, filtered, city folk cigarettes! : ) once again, i can't upload photos and am beginning to wonder if i'll have trouble all throughout my travels... : ( really, i'd just like to get that trekking photo of me off the header! ...i'm very happy to be out of kathmandu and it feels like forever since we've been gone after only about 2 weeks! our stuff got shipped home from the 'du 3 days before we left and we were told it would arrive last week. christy just received an email saying that ktm customs has just cleared the shipment, but needs our arrival date back in the u.s., our flight # and point of entry...uh...we don't have that yet...crap...and they won't release our shipment until we give it to them. every extra day in the 'du our stuff sits, the less likely it all will make it home, so we're a little anxious about that. i knew i shouldn't have put my external drive that backs up my computer with my computer...ee gads, i can't even think of it...all my photos... but, mongolia's been good, except now christy has a bit of a bad belly, so we're taking it easy and lying low till it passes. we hope to go to what's called the 'black market' which is one of the biggest markets in asia. i'd like to get a traditional mongolian deel (pronounced 'dell'), which is what all mongolians wear...especially in the countryside, but they are like smoking jackets made from a variety of different fabrics and weights. i'd like a shiny, silky one to use as a bathrobe! they're really beautiful and come with a sash you wrap several times around your waist. well, that's all for now...i hope you're all well. thanks kim and sue for the comments; keep reading! lots of love, janice

heading to see reindeer herders

for some reason the reindeer herders have struck my interest and fantasy. perhaps it's santa claus or their mystique, but i can't wait to see them. we have to travel to the northern part of khovsgul lake which is close to siberia to catch them while they're down for the summer. apparently they're the least friendly of all mongolian people and a little shy, but come out to make a little money from tourists. we've been having a wonderful time in mongolia so far and have made two lovely friends who are traveling with us. nirmala is an indian woman and her american friend glen have kept us company, laughing and well taken care of. verrry nice people and the kind you hope to keep in long term contact with...we already have a place to stay in nirmala's hometown, hyderabad, india if we find ourselves there and the hospitality is reciprocal. glen is an old time skateboarder dude who is so sweet and interesting. we are very fortunate. and then you add up meg, our awesome guide who is taking great care of us and oggii, our fearless driver, we are in good hands and very comfortable. i prefer sleeping in tents as opposed to the gers for the simple factor of fewer bugs...let's just leave it at that! : ) but, the gers are very cool and interesting. all the land in mongolia is government owned and public so people can just pick up their ger and move wherever and whenever they want in the countryside. people usually move several times a year and return to the same areas depending on the time of year. it's unbelievable how many livestock we see, but also a few wild animals here and there. we've seen a fox, vultures, lots of beautiful birds, bugs..., wild horses re-introduced recently, herons, furry ground squirrelly things, etc. the other night i got really sick after having fallen asleep for a couple hours. as i stepped out of the tent to hurl, the sky was amazing and i was a little happy to be sick to give me the excuse of being outside. the temperature was perfect as i rebuked everything inside me from both exits...it makes you a little sweaty...lol... but strangely, even as i had to get up another time to be sick, i was a little bit happy to be in such a beautiful environment with the lake right there. no one was up and it was so still and dark and quiet...well, except for my sounds, but still...it was a very odd experience. i hated being that sick, but loved being outside to do it and not confined to a gross toilet somewhere. the view was that spectacular!!! 180 degrees of stars and the milky way flowing through the middle of it. after a day of being uneasy, i feel much, much better and am back at full strength. we head out in about an hour for a 4 hour drive north to hang out at the lake and then after 2 more days will make our way back to ulaan bataar. mongolia is really beautiful and has been surprisingly easy...except for the terrible roads, but you get used to that. i hope you're all well and sorry about the lack of communication...my internet time is limited. i will try to upload some pics from u.b. in a few days. lots of love! j

mongolia rocks!

but the internet speed is painfully slow which is a lesson that you can't have everything...but we're in khar khorum which is the old ghengis khan (chinggis khaan) capital of mongolia. it is beautiful. gently rolling hills with tons of livestock...they highly outnumber people in this sparsely populated land, but blue skies are plentiful and warm and friendly people in the countryside abound. our first night out we stayed in a ger...or yurt...a hand made spoke like, round structure. drying meat hung on the side and freshly squeezed cows milk was fermenting into yogurt. people know our tour guide, meg, who's spent a lot of time in the u.s. and has great english and her own off the beaten path style of guiding. she makes relationships with ger owners and then brings people there, so it's authentic. the people are so hospitable, giving you whatever they have, which is usually some sort of dairy product...dried cheese (sour), milk tea (sour), yogurt, butter and other high cholesterol items. the people are constantly moving and doing physical labor just to survive, but are still chubby from all the milk fat and meat. tons of horses, goats, sheep and cows keep them well fed and outfitted. it really is an amazing lifestyle out in the wide open wild. all land here is government owned so people just pack up their gers and move wherever they like based on their livestock's needs. the sky is so incredible during the day and night...the stars go on forever. last night we camped surrounded by a half circle of rocky mountains. we hiked to a really old monastery that was spared by stalin (most were destroyed), and had a wonderful time just being out in nature. oggii, our driver is a big, stocky mongolian man who wears a jaunty baret and has one front gold tooth. he's a character, but is lively, funny and says a few choice english words to stay in on things. he drives his russian van/jeep around like a bat outta hell, but somehow i feel safe with him. it's all good. i want to upload pics but this internet is too slow. today i got to hold a mongolian eagle on my arm! it weighed about 7 kilos...so amazing! but, now my time is up and i gotta go. we are heading back out into the steppe to camp again tonight. i love the wide open spaces and quietness of it all. i'm really happy here! oh, and mongolia is one big toilet...to animals and people...just pick a place and go...except by the holy places, that is! hope you're all well. i'd love to hear from you...thanks for the comment barb! lots of love, janice

on the road

after a frantic final two weeks of packing, shopping, saying good bye and organizing, we finally made it out of the 'du in one piece...well, two if you count both of us. the realization only hit us as we were on the nice korean air plane. it took off and we left all the dirt, filth, stink and chaos behind. i'm glad to have spent 1 and a half years there, but that was enough. that place is difficult to live in and we had many luxuries...i can't imagine being local and poor. tough. we touched down in seoul korea and spent 2 days looking around...mostly in the rain. we were so tired though, that our efforts were pretty lame from a tourist stand point. but the food was really good and we rested a lot!! so now we're in ulaan bataar, mongolia. the flight to seoul was about 7 hours and then another nearly 4 to here...i was surprised at the distance. and u.b. is a crazy mix of russian, mongolian and outlaw! lol! it's way more developed than kathmandu which has left me somewhat bitter...ha ha...but happy at the same time. we leave this morning for 15 days out in the steppe. we've hired a driver and russian jeep and a 26 year old mongolian woman who spent a semester as an exchange student in florida will be our guide. she's extremely fluent, gets sarcasm and was recommended in lonely planet, so we should be set. we'll have a jeep full of food and will explore the countryside during the day and stay at night in gers. two other westerners are joining us for the first 9 days, but then will go on their way. i haven't been able to upload photos yet, but will at first chance. wish us well and we'll certainly be back in contact when we can. take care and hope all's going well with you! love, j

my last ktm blog entry

so the movers are here as i write...a sleepless night left us fully packed and ready, but nervous about the weight of our shipment. we shall see, but i won't be able to write it until because they will take my computer for the final tally! it's amazing how much stuff you accumulate and add that to what you've already brought over, it can be obnoxious. it's nice to think you don't have much 'stuff' until you try to move it! thankfully christy's work is paying for it, but they don't know how much our load is either! : ) it's friday morning and we leave monday afternoon to begin our journey. it'll be strange to be in the apartment without much stuff, but also very freeing! then we will just have to worry about our traveling bags and cramming the remaining items in our bags. 

yesterday, as i was riding on the back of a nepali guy's (christy's colleague) motorcycle without a helmet, mid day heat, on the ring road which is total air pollution, i looked up and saw the mountains and got a  little nostalgic. nepal is a tough country with tons of problems and very little hope for the foreseeable future, but certain aspects i am going to miss. it may take me a while to figure out what those are, but i have always enjoyed being a minority and living simply, and the culture here and spirituality can't be beat!

so, the movers continue packing my not so simple seeming stuff and i have a sense of contentment knowing it will be out of our hands in a couple of hours. whether it will arrive back in our hands in santa fe, where we're having it shipped, is a completely different question!!

i will be in touch on skype, email and will even try to blog as i can. the first couple weeks we will be in mongolia and i doubt there are too many internet connections out on the steppe. but, know we will be fine and i will be happy to see the reindeer herders coming down from russia for the summer! 

take care and drop me a note when you can and leave comments so i will be encouraged to blog! lots of love; hope you're all having a great summer!  j

second half of trek in photos

snapshots lukla to khumjung

my summit!!

FINALLY!!!!! after 6 days of hard climbing, i fi-i-i-i-nally made it to renjo-la (la is pass in nepali)...i misspeak in the video half out of delirium, and call it langden pass, but langden is where we went to try and stay that night...on the other side, a few hours down the mountain. up until a few years ago, this pass was closed by the chinese because tibetans were fleeing via this route and there was 'illegal' trade happening, according to the chinese. i think they were just trying to stay alive when the chinese cut off supplies to tibet... but, in any case, only a year ago, the path leading down the mountain was literally a scramble; there were no steps. according to a guide book, you should attempt it only if you were adventurous in spirit and sure footed! even today, it's challenging, but thankfully we did it in the summer time and there was minimal snow...and people had prepared the trail very well. i can't imagine attempting this in the winter...   this trek was the most difficult physical challenge i've ever had. i mean, to be up at over 17,000 feet may not seem like that big of a deal, but the oxygen is so thin, your legs feel like cement. the most unbelievable thing to think about though is, even as high up as i was...everest is over 29,000 feet, or over 8,800 meters. crazy to think i was only, barely, half way there. and i flew into lukla and started at over 2,000 meters...it gave me a whole new perspective of the whacked people who even attempt to climb everest. nuts. those mountains don't mess around! and the symptoms i had from altitude were minor, but still very uncomfortable. i had a piercing headache in the second video, but as i descended, it got worse and my stomach started to get upset. the wind had picked up considerably and choesang is convinced this directly impacted my sudden and drastic change. by the time i had reached the furthest point of the trail on the video, an hour later, i felt horrible and it was all i could do to keep going. i knew i just needed to get doooowwwn. after a couple hours of nothing but descending, i was exhausted and hurting. i told choesang i needed to stop and try to eat something, but felt nauseated; it had already been over 4 hours since my meagre toast and that's all i had eaten. feeling defeated, i sat right on the edge of the trail in some mossy grass and chewed on a small fruit snack, hating every second of it. the view was amazing at that point; we were right in front of another set of glacier lakes, the sun was shining, and there was no one around. after swallowing the snack, i told choesang i had to lay down! he just looked at me, but sat quietly on the trail next to me keeping watch. i put my head down, closed my eyes and dozed for about 10-15 minutes. when i sat back up, i was feeling much better and could resume trekking. we still had a couple hours to go, but i knew i could make it, whereas before that moment, i had some doubts! once again, we didn't see anyone else on the trail for our over 7 hours out that day and actually had to descend further than langden as the all lodges were closed there. if you can tell in the photo, i am kinda puffy in my face. that was another symptom of altitude; i had been retaining water for days. despite it, i was trying to keep well hydrated--3 liters, at least, a day. but, when we started descending, my body started releasing it all and i had to stop and pee about 10 times those last few hours. it was kind of funny, actually...i would yell ahead to choesang that i had to go again and he would amble down the trail a bit, out of view. since absolutely no one was around, i just squatted right next to the trail...it couldn't have been any easier for me! : ) finally though, after a looooong, day, we wound up at the rinky dink, dirt floored, 3 roomed namaste lodge at 4,200 meters....we had dropped nearly 1,000 meters. i was so happy to arrive at this place! we sat in the kitchen and the woman owner prepared dal bhat and tea. it was dirty, buggy, ratty and drafty, but i had my best night sleep there of the whole trip and enjoyed myself immensely...i had made it! whew. 

view from above and behind gokyo

after a not-so-bad day of trekking, we ate some lunch...yummy pasta with veggie sauce, and chilled out for a little bit. the lodge owner told us we should climb up 15 minutes behind the lodge to see the Nga glacier. we took his advice and the result is this video. the view was unbelievable! looking out over gokyo was a stunning view with the glacial lake, but on the other side of the ridge, really looked like something from the moon. you could hear the ice cracking and chunks of frozen debris and rocks would fall into the pools. there was no visible life whatsoever. it was like two completely opposite landscapes and i found myself afraid of the glacier's harshness. i was really happy i could walk back down to the comfort of the gokyo resort lodge! ...until the next day when we had to climb over the pass... i'll post that video soon. originally, i wanted to climb up to gokyo-ri (ri is peak in nepali), but after some discussion with the lodge owner, we decided to try the pass. actually, it went more like, the lodge owner and choesang discussing it and choesang lighting up like a christmas tree with delight when he realized the pass was possible...i felt i should at least give it a try. he was so excited to be up that high and that close. so, again with the lodge owner's help, we had a guy who was working at the lodge and was going down to namche the next day, collect our 2 bags of goods left behind and take them to namche for us. it worked out perfectly as we didn't have to go back to machermo. and that way, choesang could carry all of my other stuff, as well...camera and water, cause i knew i was gonna struggle up that mountain!

yakitty yak, don't get in their track!

after a much needed mostly-day-of-rest, we headed back up into the mountains. midway between machermo and gokyo, we came across this herd of yaks. they are massive animals who are mainly used for milk, work, meat and wool. they do very well at high altitudes whereas cows, horses, mules and buffaloes do not. they are pretty tame, but still intimidating with all of their fur and horns. i have photos of a tiny baby sleeping in the grass that was only a couple days old and the mother was comfortable with me being only a few feet away...she was just chomping away on all she could eat. some had bells which echoed through the hills and some even had prayer flags tied around them for optimum blessings. their herder was the only other person we saw on the trails the whole day. the hike, thankfully, wasn't very difficult. after a nervous and largely sleepless night for me with mild altitude sickness symptoms, it was refreshing to have a nice, gradual climb and rewarding to have some different scenery in the form of glacial lakes. every day out is a great day, but can be grueling and mentally challenging.

khumjung and the mountain marathon

because as you ascend and gain altitude, it's very important that you go slowly and allow your body to adjust to the change in pressure and oxygen, we were told to hang out in the namche/khumjung area for 3 days. we spent one night in namche and then hiked about an hour and a half up to khumjung as we had heard there was a half marathon and festival up there. curiosity got the best of us and thankfully, because as we strolled into town with a bunch of tibetan women, the runners were soon approaching. in the first video i try to explain what's going on, but as you can see, an older gentleman quickly takes over the camera duties! he was so funny and genuinely was trying to communicate with me. the runners arrived shortly thereafter and the third video shows the winner. what was so fun for us to observe (i was hanging with 2 german trekkers...and choesang) was all of the older people mixed in with the young. this was a community event and people came up and down from villages all around to observe this event. typically at a marathon in the states, you don't see too many older people just hanging out...well, here, the elderly tibetan women were so enjoyable to watch. they were having so much fun absorbing the environment and their enthusiasm was contagious. we hung out in khumjung for the afternoon and spent the night. the next day was the sherpa festival, but it got started so late that we had to go. by 11:00 they were still doing 'introductions' which in nepali culture, can take hours! so, up the trail we went heading for dole (doh-lay). 

namche bazaar

amazing porters

lukla airport

since school was so crazy at the end and any teacher i've ever talked to needs a break when the final whistle blows, i decided to go up into the mountains. several of my friends at school said gokyo was the place to go. it's off the beaten path, better than everest base camp and holds stunning views of mountains and glacial lakes. i was game, but couldn't find anyone to accompany me, so was just going to fly up to lukla and get a porter/guide from one of the lodges up there. it's quite common just to hire someone on the spot. well, the evening of the last day of school, we were invited to a private dinner going away party for the friend i went to thailand with, alex. she invited her best friend, peter and he invited his girlfriend and two other friends. amongst those two other friends was a young nepali guy whom he has 'adopted' and taken care of for years...long story. well, choesang wound up being very thrilled at the opportunity to go with me and so it was set. we left tuesday, miraculously after only a 2 hour delay, and made it up to lukla with plenty of time to trek to the next town. unfortunately, two friends of mine from lincoln had tried the whole weekend to make it up, but flights were cancelled, so they changed their plans. the first few days were refreshing and exhilarating to be up in the mountain. i think i was so glad that the crazy flight was over, i saw life a little differently! lol... the flight was something, for sure and i was happy to touch down! notice in the video how short the runway is and that it is on a steep incline to help the plane decelerate after landing. the flight that crashed last october didn't keep its nose up far enough and slammed into the edge of the cliff. the pilots know the route and mountains so well because they fly without radar; it's all by sight. when clouds come up unexpectedly though, it gets tricky. a week later, when i returned to lukla to fly out, i took this video. people had been stranded because the airport was clouded in and closed for 5 days. that morning i got up at 4:30 to complete the last couple hours of trekking just in case the weather was clear enough to fly. since it had been raining, i was hopeful the clouds would move out. upon my arrival in lukla, however, a couple people i met on the trail were there and had been for several days. i was bummed to find out it was very drizzly and visibility was extremely poor. i mean, you couldn't see the building across the road! needless to say, i was very very fortunate to be able to fly out that same day. we hung out at a lodge for most of the morning, ate some breakfast, watched a movie and then later that afternoon, after some yeti flights were canceled, the clouds cleared right out and agni...my airline...and yeti resumed flying. it was like all of a sudden we looked outside and you could see the view on the video. we heard agni was taking off, so we hustled down to the airport to check in. with so many people ahead of me though, i was hesitantly optimistic. yeti and agni hustled 4 flights each in there and cleared out the back log. luckily it's the off-season and the back log wasn't very much. peak season would have seen hundreds and hundreds of people waiting and with only 12-16 passengers per plane (depending on size) it would take a long time to get caught up. there is a trek to get out, but from what i've read and heard, it's really brutal, all straight up and straight down, takes 5 days and when you're done...you've climbed the equivalent of everest! no thanks...i was willing to relax and wait for the planes! : )  whew!

up up and away

i'm leaving tomorrow for a week and a half up in the mountains. hopefully the weather will allow to fly into lukla this time so i can head up into the everest region and gokyo for 11 days. i should be back around june 26th if all goes well and i will certainly blog about the experience upon my return. just wanted to let those of you that rely on the blog know that i'd be away on purpose this time and not just because i'm way busy. school ended on friday and i'm going to do this trek before leaving nepal and to unwind. i've heard it's beautiful and not to be missed. i will be taking a friend of mine's adopted nepali brother, if you will...choesang; he'll be my guide and porter. christy will remain in the 'du working the remaining weeks of her contract. eventually, july 13th, we will fly out of kathmandu to start our travels. we may peek back in on a lay over, but will no longer live here and will have all of our things shipped home. gotta run, but wanted to say hi and see you later this month! xo, j

clusterfuck

yeah, you heard me and you know the expression...nothing, and i mean nothing could be a more appropriate expression for kathmandu sometimes. ok, so like last thursday...when i took all of my 9th and 10th grade students (50) plus eight chaperones on a field trip to the former palace that's been turned into a museum. it took a while to pull it all together as i made sheela call someone at the palace and guarantee that we would not have to wait in a god awful line outside for hours before entering. she had to insure that we could all go together, they have english guides, that they wouldn't gouge our foreign kids price wise. i arranged the transport, got wonderful nepali staff to help chaperone, told the kids to pack lunches for the buses and all of that logistical teachery stuff. our principal wrote a letter informing the palace that we were a school on a tour to allow us to be admitted into the front gates; we did everything sheela's pre-conversations instructed. we were all ready to go, loaded up and heading off in a three bus caravan. we were eating our lunches when all of a sudden the nepali adults on the bus overheard on the driver's radio that the third bus had been in an accident. WHAT?! we were four minutes down the road! we pulled over and waited, thinking that it would be quickly cleared up, but noooo, this is nepal and it turned into the above mentioned title. after wolfing down my delicious tuna sandwich, i walked back to the scene. traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see because people were stuck behind him. gawkers coming from the other direction had slowed down to create even more congestion. by now, motorcycles were riding on the sidewalk and luckily i could walk on the street to get the 100 yards back. upon arrival, i see a pretty big dent in the front of the bus. the motorbike that our poor driver, chet, hit after its driver passed from the wrong side at breakneck speed and in the bus' blind spot before careening in front of chet and slamming on his brakes, was behind the bus...i'm not sure how it got there. there were tons of pedestrians and people out of their vehicles all waving their hands, talking and pointing. the translation i got was that it was chet's fault for hitting the bike and the driver of the bike thought he had a broken arm and his pedestrian had a broken back. both were sitting in the back of a taxi...i kid you not...and one of our chaperones, rajeeva, had to go with the "victims" to get medical attention. the injured wanted to go to the most expensive hospital way across town, but rajeeva insisted on a closer and respectable hospital. neither one turned out to have really serious injuries, thankfully, but lincoln had to pay for all the bills and repair the guy's motorcycle. rajeeva had to make sure to get the doctor to sign off on the patients and insist that no further treatment was necessary otherwise they could come back at a later date claiming more injuries and money...happens all the time here. the bus that was involved in the accident could not move...not because of damage, but because the keystone traffic cops at the scene wouldn't allow it to leave despite having all of chet's information, the bus' plates and make/model, etc. speaking of plates, one of the chaperones on the bus in the accident said that when the injured passenger and driver looked up after the impact and saw blue plates on our bus (diplomatic), their eyes grew wide and their injuries suddenly became more severe. for real. after an hour of street madness, another bus finally came to replace the stranded one. traffic was so heavy though that it took a half an hour to go a half a mile! in any case, it came to our rescue, but then we had to transfer the kids. OMG...i literally had to stand on the sidewalk as a barrier between the crazy ass stream of motorists up on the sidewalk and my students who wound up having to walk in the gutter to get to the bus waiting behind. geeesh...and the motorcycles were beeping at us! i finally got back on my bus, all hot and sweaty from being in the sun and nervous, and we made it to the palace 20 minutes later. it was a total clusterfuck, to say the least. one thing that was very surreal to me was that i was the ONLY adult westerner. i hadn't even realized it until that moment, but all the other staff with me was nepali. i couldn't understand what was going on except for brief translations, but i felt like i had to show my white face on the scene and seem official. ...very, very strange feeling. but my colleagues were great. they remained calm, knew what to do and knew what to expect from the other people involved so no tricks could be pulled. i was very impressed by the way they handled it all...and happy i wasn't alone!! next, i'll tell you about the actual palace museum tour itself--kah-raaaayzee! lol! sorry for the delay in posts; i've been swamped and exhausted from the end of the school year. 3 more days...hooooooray! love, j

heavy hearted

the only time i wish i wasn't living overseas is when there's a sad turn of events back home. i can handle being here for birthdays, parties, celebrations and fun kinds of events much more easily than the difficult times. there's always a trade off, ya know? yes, it's hard to miss the good times and see friends and to watch their kids grow, but it's when one of them is suffering that i feel the biggest yearning to be stateside. perhaps this is because of my own loss and knowing what that feels like, but to me, during hardships is when you learn the most about yourself and it's when people get real. my close friend kim's father just passed away and i found out from a generic mass email. if i was home, i would have been there and i don't like the fact that i'm not...  my parents were both fairly young when they died, and i was the first of most of my friends to be orphaned, but now the rest of my friends' parents are starting to slowly go and it's a devestating time when that happens... several other friends have lost parents during my time in nepal and there's such a disconnect due to the time difference and distance. if this would have happened this time next month, when i'm out of school, i would seriously consider going home. i just can't though, now with the end of the school year upon me. i guess you take the good with the bad, but today i feel like being in kathmandu is NOT "what i really, really wanna do..." please say a prayer for my friend kim, her mom and her family...all my love, buddy! i'm with you in spirit. XOXO, j

full moon at buddhist boudhnath stupa

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY CHRISTY!!!

...join the club! : )

they come...and they go

the coup threats are still...sort of...impending, i guess, but no one really knows for sure now that the prime minister, prachanda has left the building. we don't think he will be gone for long and that his resignation is simply a measure to embarrass the president and to drum up support from his young maoist cadres to come into the valley and open up a can of whoop ass. one can expect the unexpected from nepal in general, but now, without a government, all bets are off. the embassy staff have their 'GO' bags packed, but we here at lincoln have been given no such directives. life goes on at school as if nothing much is happening and even our nepali staff is left dumbfounded. it's all uncharted territory for them, as well. if we did have to leave, however, we would go to bangkok and try to teach through cyberspace. that would be a good time, for sure. i will continue to keep you posted on the situation, but thanks to those who've voiced concern.

on another topic, my sister vickie has announced her engagement! she and her 'shawty' mike are getting married on august 29th. unfortunately i don't think i'll be in attendance, but i am really happy for her and think they will be two peas in a pod! mike is very active in the community, is very sociable and funny, loves harleys and has a tea pot collection. what's not to love?? : ) congratulations, sis...and let me know when i have to get the rest of my stuff outta your house. my plan is january!

another engagement that was announced before vickie's, is her daughter, jennifer. my niece will marry 'the man of her dreams', the wonderful adam, next april. i should be back in the states by that time and living in new mexico. a short trip to chandler, arizona will be a delight to witness the first of my nieces/nephews tie the knot. it should be a fun time!

i end my teaching position on june 12th and not a minute sooner. as with any teacher, things will be crazy until that time, but i'm so thankful for my job and the opportunities it has presented. i definitely was in the right place at the right time. afterwards, i'll have a month to kick around waiting for christy's contract to end mid july. she wishes it was a much earlier date, but will persevere with her crazy nepalese colleagues. at least they don't have her in the basement by the generator anymore... our plans after that are to travel around north and southeast asia for several months before returning stateside when either our money runs out or we hit the december holidays. we intend to settle in the albuquerque/santa fe area where her parents recently moved; we both have always liked it there. perhaps that will be an easier place to visit for some of you?! : )

so, a brief update on everything here, but know we are safe and happy, yet ready to leave in 2 1/2 months. to me, it feels like i just got here and can't believe how the time has flown! all things have been great for me! ...well, except for the dysentery and ghiardia, but hey, you can't have everything!! what's up with you? what are your plans? lots of love, j

prachanda resigns

uh oh. we don't really know what that means, but today he went on national tv to announce that since the president has created a parallel power structure, he is resigning to preserve democracy. hmm...ok. again our school had an early dismissal to avoid the demonstrations and protesters, but nothing got very heated. some burning tires and rocks thrown, but that's an every day occurrence here anyways! something's gotta give eventually and when it does, we have evacuation plans and a list of things to pack for our GO bag. it's 8:30 monday evening and so far, school's still on tomorrow despite more scheduled demonstrations. prachanda is too wily a character who thinks everything out to the last detail; we know we haven't heard the last of him. plus, he loves power too much and wouldn't fight from the jungles for 10 years just to give all this up so easily. tomorrow's a new day and will bring another chapter. i'll keep you posted, but check out bbc and nytimes again...nepal news once again made front page headlines. take care, love j

up-to-date news

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/

cut and paste the above link for a nepalese news website that's updated remarkably fast. things are certainly moving here. the general of the army was sacked and one of the parties in the government has walked out. major protests took to the streets, but so far nothing has been terribly violent or military assisted. there are rumors of a 'curfew' imposed, but as of 8:30 sunday evening, that has not happened. i haven't heard anything from school either, so fully expect to be business as usual tomorrow. apparently, there will be more rallies at the central ratna park around 4, so we possibly may have another early dismissal. as you can tell by the articles, tires were burned in the streets and people were marching and gathering, but from our balcony, we could still hear wedding bands playing in the streets, so unless you're right in and around the demonstrations, life was still going on largely untouched. christy and i were out walking around doing some shopping, but kept a close tab on things with our friend audra who works on the media side of a peace building and civil society branch of usaid. she lives for this stuff and has her finger on the pulse of things with all of her inside sources. she was texting us throughout the afternoon and we walked up to her apartment (she lives 2 floors above us) and got the low down this evening. we shall see how things unfold...

other articles are as follows: (sorry about having to cut and paste...i don't know how to make them links. anyone know how??)

Nepal Communists Quit in Protests--BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8031622.stm

Key Party Quits Nepal's Coalition Government--New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/03/world/AP-AS-Nepal-Army.html?hp

peace and love, j

rabi's also an artist

so, the boy in the photos a few posts ago, whose coming-of-age party i went to has been making me laugh lately and so i thought i'd share. you need to know that rabi is the sweetest, most gentle, most studious, most delightful young man and never an ounce of trouble in class. he is always paying attention, never messing around when i'm trying to teach, always has his homework in, always there, etc. and, he's not a nerd...the other kids love him cause he's so amiable. his little brother, kabi, however, is a little bugger who is easily influenced by his peers, loud and obnoxious on the bus (i'm on their route), will play tricks on his friends, etc. the night of his coming-of-age party, his friends were slipping him whiskey and cokes and by the end of the evening, after just a couple, he was puking in the bathroom! lol! it's funny how two kids from the same parents can be such polar opposites...like me and barb, i guess!! ha ha. in any case, rabi thought i was coming to the ceremony of this religious ritual and got nervous. he went up to sheela, my wonderful t.a., and told her he was nervous that i was coming because he was going to be naked...he only wanted me to come to the party afterwards. sheela couldn't believe her ears and asked him why he would be naked? he said that's what his friends told him...turns out rabi is, ...also...gullible! but, he was nervous for me to see him in his birthday suit! i guess i can't blame him, but still thought it was cute. since his party, his hair has grown back quite fully. i left one bit out of my previous explanation of the event...he had his head shaved, all but one plug the thickness of a pencil. this is done out of respect because the only time a man can have his head fully shaven is after each of his parents die. so, even now, he still has a little tail on the back part of the crown of his head. today, i was sitting next to him grading and listening to kids' presentations on this "poetry in music" assignment we're doing. he had a notebook out and was doodling. i glanced over at one time and he was drawing the puma logo off the back of the kid's shirt in front of him. another time, i casually caught a glimpse of a tank rolling over some soldiers; one more image was that of a traditional nepalese hut. he was doodling, but paying attention because he would laugh and emotionally respond at appropriate times so i let him go. the last time i glanced over at his notebook, however, he was flipping the pages and turned accidentally to a full page, large, erect penis! i couldn't help but laugh! he immediately closed his book, looked down and said "sorry, ms. kosman." i wasn't offended in the least, cause that IS what boys draw...along with tanks and guns and other boy things...but he was soooo embarrassed. he put his notebook away, set his pencil down and folded his hands trying hard to now make eye contact with the speaker despite his down turned head. i didn't say anything to him after that, but noticed his beautiful brown skin turn a shade of red i didn't think was humanly possible. awww, poor kid! too funny! i think this actually makes him even more one of my favorites! xo, janice

coup schmoo

so, last wednesday went off without a hitch. we, at lincoln school, got a tip from the embassy that the army commander (royalist) was going to be sacked and that might set off a wave of military unrest. the army would overthrow the maoist leaders in place. we were sent home early through an 'emergency dismissal' and told to keep close to our phones in case a bandh (strike) was called for the next day. we took back roads to avoid the site of a major rally, but while still on the main road, we saw people marching down the streets with maoist flags, organizing for something. on the extremely bumpy side dirt roads, however, people seemed to be quite unaffected. i got home and happily kept a low profile, but christy, who hadn't received my e messages, was in thamel...the touristy part of town, for her buddhist gathering. she said nothing was abnormal there and she made it home without any problems whatsoever. late that night i was alarmed to hear sirens and several helicopters (which i've never heard here before) flying back and forth. we live near an army base and the police headquarters, and i assumed it had something to do with one of those. in the morning, however, i woke expecting to smell burning tires, but all was calm and life on the streets seemed normal. having heard nothing from school, i walked to the bus stop and saw people gathered around a small table loaded with daily papers. surely there would be some news of this on the cover of the "kathmandu post?" nope. its headings were as benign as any regular day. what gives, i thought? i got to school and our director told us that although the public had heard inklings of what was happening or supposed to happen, it was not public knowledge. we got a leak from the united nations who have kids at our school. it helps to know people in high places, i guess. we were told that the potential for a coup is still very real, but that too many external (india) and internal (other party) pressures made the maoists decide not to dismiss the army commander. apparently he's supposed to retire in 4 months anyways, but the maoists have thousands of their rebels holed up in really poorly maintained contonements in the forests and the mountains waiting to be integrated into the army...but the army won't have it. that's a big reason the maoist leader, prachanda, wanted to get rid of the commander. he's too loyal to the former king and his army listens to him and doesn't want to come together with maoist rebels they've been fighting against for the last 10 years. i guess i can't blame them. well, in may, it will be a year since the constitutional assembly has been established after the election last year. that will be the next point of contention, supposedly, and word on the street is that if it's not finished and finished to the maoists satisfaction, there will/could be another coup planned. it's strange to know that there was in fact a coup planned, but it didn't go through and most people didn't even know about it...and still don't! yikes. one interesting tidbit is that on wednesday morning, the royal security guards came and got the former prince's kids from lincoln. they knew before anyone that something was about to go down. however, those kids have not been back to school since...hmmmmm... we don't know what to think about that! but, in any case, i am safe and in good hands. lincoln's on the ball and very protective and christy and i are both registered with the u.s. embassy. should anything happen and they need to evacuate people, the embassy security will come and get us...they have our gps coordinates. we may not have much time to react, but we will be safely escorted outta here. we have a short list written of things we would want to grab in case we have to GO! perhaps it sounds a little scary to some of you reading this, but know that they're not targeting tourists and i feel largely unaffected except for the excitement at school. life goes on and everything is just fine. how are things with you??! : ) lots of love, j