Refugee Camps

Our original intentions were to volunteer for a whole month at the refugee camps in Nepal. Unfortunately the IOM (International Organization for Migration) who was running the camps doesn't accept volunteers.... who would have thought they wouldn't "let"us volunteer?? Julia tried for months before we left to get the information we needed- but she got the run around, so we just showed up anyways =)
They really liked us at the IOM office and said it was fine to visit. So we did. Quite an experience! Some of these people had never seen a white person in their lives! Which was evident by their responses. Funny story: We were all sitting inside one of the huts and a women brought her baby into the room and it took one look at Christina and it's eyes widened in horror of her very white face and it BURST into tears!! Haha everybody had a good laugh.
Long story short- these refugees were kicked out of Bhutan 18 years ago and have been living in these camps ever since. There are about 91,000 of them total. The camps we visited (2 of 7) had around 15,000 each. There is no hope for them to go back to Bhutan and the Nepal government doesn't want them there.... so their only option is to resettle in a 3rd country- which is how they end up in places like Oakland California where Julia works for a non profit that helps them find jobs, get medical, an apartment, etc.
So, we brought the gifts for them from their relatives that have resettled in California, talked with them, had a lot of great conversations- some of them speak some english- the rest we could only communicate to thru smiles and hugs... and our own learned Napali words such as "Dhanyabat" which means "Thank you"
They served us larger than life portions of food. In their culture it is an insult to not finish your entire meal. It was enough food for me to eat breakfast lunch and dinner combined! There were times where I was getting nausias because I was reallllly stuffed but had to keep eating! It was delicious food - rice and bok choy and dal and potatoes and chicken... mmmMMm. They served us warm milk strait from the goats udder that tasted like macaroni and cheese! LOL
They were incredibly hostpitable to us. It was a little overwhelming and not what we came there for! We came to serve and instead ended up being the ones gettiong served! They were delighted by their foriegn guests... fascinated by their new visitors from America. They told me I looked like Brittany Spears and asked me if I knew Tom Cruise!!
They have no running water or electricity. Their large families live in small huts made of bamboo and palm leaves. When a family leaves to resettle (its a loooong process of paper work) the IOM knocks their huts down and turns them into gardens.... mostly growing lettuce.
We visited for 1 week.


This is us inside one of the families huts eating a form of ramen noodles with fresh cilantro- you should really try it!

One of the families had a friend who was a tailor and he made us each matching shirts, by hand, took our measurements with a tape measurer and everything! Talk about custom fit. UN-BELIEVABLE. One of the coolest gifts I've ever gotten.

The children followed Christina everywhere . She is the most exotic of the 3 of us- being 5ft 10 and very fair complexion- blonde hair blue eyes. People are very short here, even the men, Christina could count on 1 hand the amount of guys that have been taller than her.

Playing with the kids... you can see some of the huts in the backround

They only have one size bike here!! SO funny to watch these little kids that can't reach the peddles so they sit not on the seat but in the bars!

Thanksgiving in Nepal

Too bad they don't celebrate Thanksgiving everywhere in the world! Most of the day I was like "oh yea- it's thanksgiving?" Ironically though- we did spend the day celebrating and with family and with exchanging "thank you's!"
We visited one of the 7 refugee camps here in Nepal. They are all people from Bhutan who got kicked out about 18 years ago. Julia who works with refugees from Nepal that come to America organized for us to come visit here, bringing gifts from their family members in the US to them here in Nepal. THEY FED US SO MUCH FOOD! So yea, it was a feast. I cannot write enough about how amazing it was to visit here! I will post more about the refugee camps later- we have been visiting them all week.




These were some of the family members we visited
We walked around and visited their schools and some of their different places of prayer and temples. To my right is the hindu priest that gave us a blessing with Tikka (the red dot on the forhead-each of us our first time) and put leis of marigold around our necks- how special!


This was taken in a classroom for adults learning english- many of them will be resettling in America. We sat in with them for a photo. I was thinking.... how awesome would that be to have class sitting barefoot indian (ha ha ha) style in a palm branch hut- I love that- call me crazy. I think I was born for the islands, I'm still very fascinated by tropical life.
Cheers! We had some beer to celebrate on the rooftop resturaunt of our hotel.... and our most expensive meal yet- over a thousand rupees!!! Which is equal to $20 US dollars. Tina threw it all up too, what a waste. Just kidding Tina I love you!!! I'm glad your better now!

Darjeeling

I had no idea the swastika was originally an Indian symbol for well being and life. It's been freaking me out so see these "nazi" symbols everywhere!
We bought matching earmuffs @ the market! Mine are chickens (which started the whole thing) Julias are mice and Christinas are pigs. People were laughing at us all day- well- we were at the zoo that day so it was semi appropriate. I think I want to give mine to my brother kenny... he's sort of notorious for his chicken costume =)
The "Darjeeling Ltd" train station- abandoned unfortunately. It is no more than a play ground for children and a trading ground for adults- sort of like a farmers market. It had 150 years of good service.
Buddhist Temple
Chasing birds....it was sort of a dare haha

Darjeeling Sunrise

We got up at 3:30am to take a jeep ride to this place called Tiger Hill that is great for seeing the sunrise- with a view of the Himalayan Mountains.


glorious
Oh my gosh it was sooo embarassing- all these people kept asking to get pictures with us... whyyyy... I'm not sure? I guess because we are white and they hardly ever see white people (which is just a fact of life traveling here- you're gonna get stared at) All it took was 1 person around us to ask for a picture with us... and then everyone exploded and was like "miss! Miss! I want photo too! Can we take your picture?!" It strait up turned into Paparazzi. It was so bad and we were getting so ambushed we had to say "SORRY NO MORE PHOTOS" and we pushed our way thru the crowd fast and moved to a completely different area. We all agreed we would NEVER want to be famous! so bizzare.
yay
The sun was hitting the peaks... you could literally hear the people gasping and awe'ing. There were hundreds of people on the hill that morning. We saw Mt Everest! It's not the highest looking peak in the pic- bc it is actually further away and sort of behind these mountains-it was more of a triangle in the distance- a guy next to us helped us see it. I beleive I read a fortune cookie before coming here that said "soon you will be on top of the world" Pretty close! haha

Reminds me of watching the sunrise on the top of the Haleakala crater in Hawaii...because there was a thick layer of clouds like this

Gangtok

Julia and I had a romantic getaway together to Gangtok (which is couple hours away in a different state called Sikkim) and left Christina and a kitty at the hotel in Kalimpong. It was very clean here and good for trekking.

Ugh unfortunately I can't rotate photos on these computers- but this was taken at a really epic pastry place that we stumbled upon. (verrry rare in these parts!)
All of the houses are practically on top eachother on the mountainsides
Where are we- London??? It felt like it one rainy afternoon
This was taken from the jeep during out ride up
Again, can't rotate... but this pic is def worth posting anyways. "STD Booth" is another name for phone booth how funny is that? "Julia go sit inside!!"

Kalimpong

Baby chicks on the side of the road
Dogs Dogs everywhere.... did you know their are more stray dogs roaming the roads than their are cows or any other animal!
Look closely and you will see... YES...thats a cat on our bed!! She's eating porridge off of our room service tray. We adopted a kitty while at our hotel... it kept following us. It kept Tina company while she was sick in bed.
This is one of the temples, there are sooo many everywhere. Kalimpong is up the in mountains. Its a very quiet peaceful town. It was so misty and foggy there that unfortunately we couldn't see how beautiful it was in the distance.
While in Kalimpong we spent time with some of Julia's clients (she works for IRC resettleng refugees in America) families. We brought them gifts from their family members in the US.... they recieved us very kindly (I find foreign hospitality to be unlike anything in America!!) and cooked us dinner, served us tea and desserts. Indu- the girl in pink all the way to the right picked us up when we arrived in Kalimpong and showed us all around town. She's adorable and lovely.

Fruit market- they don't have grocery stores here. Actually we did find one but it didn't have much to do with food, ha

An old temple near the beach, I took this pic from a really high bridge

marketplace

most cramped jeep ride ever! The more people you can squeeze in a jeep the cheaper the rate... bring it on! The 3 of us plus some guy with a baby were in the back seat. 13 people were in this regular size jeep. Hah- do any of you remember when we squeezed like 12 people in my moms little Geo Tracker??

View from a boat ride. Can you see how polluted it is?? This was taken on a very clear day. Nothin but grey skies.