Greetings from Katmandu

Every day we shift and change, really ten seconds at a time. There is no normal. Yesterday we had a wonderful breakfast of hot cereal mixed with muesli and a big pot of nepali tea in the beautiful garden setting at the Katmandu Guest House. Each morning there are new people to watch. Some on business, some hiking, some drifting through, some just being. Last weekend we were in the Annapurna mountain range of Phokara where we learned of The Three Sisters; potent Nepalese women who are housing, educating and offering unprecedented opportunities for homeless women and girls.

The weekend before found us with Joanna Gilles of Hogg Heaven Foundation at a cleft pallette camp in the rural town of Chitimaya. By mid afternoon we had popped in on a boys orphanage in Dokala surprising them with our project and they in turn gifted us with their enthusiasm, warmth, joy and curiosity.

This morning we begin at 9 am. We take our tools; three plaid plastic bags bought from a street vendor filled with brushes, colored pencils, paper and paints. The paints we have mixed from poster pigments we purchased in the market. These we have poured into plastic jars. The lids unfortunately leak so every night when we return we clean the same pots we have cleaned the night before. This actually generates onlookers asking us questions about who, what, where and how we are doing so really whose realities are we shifting? The schools and orphanages we visit have no art materials so every place we go we bring, we gift and we receive. Talk about generativity!

The children from the elementary school we are painting with today stand out in the sunlight in their playground and sing for us "we shall overcome" A favorite protest song from the 60's, how did they know? Honestly I was out in the kitchen and in the back classrooms setting out paints and brushes when I heard them singing, these sweet ardent voices and I came running out to see them all in little rows and the tears just rolled down my face. Interesting in a country where the Maoists have just won the election. As lunch time rolls around they begin grinding pungent spices and garlic and soon we are presented with morsels of the most mouth watering chicken curry I have ever eaten.

From there we wend our way to a boarding and day school that runs an ashram for street children in the afternoon from 4 pm till dusk. We set out paper and paint on a cement floor and in come the children, 37 at a time. And how they love to paint! Kelsey takes their photos, one at a time, as they proudly hold up their creations. And as they say, "namaste," they slip out into the night with our colored pencils hidden deep in their pockets. We giggle, they giggle, there is no point of view.

We are invited to the boarding school to share a meal of chapati, okra, rice and onion curry. The children dance and sing and the yogi takes himself so seriously as he preaches endlessly on the importance of peace and love and friendship and happiness. Oh where is Peter Sellers when you really need him? And so we return home, to our guest house late in the evening. Home to the pleas of rickshaw drivers, to the children of the street who follow you for a cookie or a coke or a smile, to the infinitley patient hawkers of tiger balm and pashminas and beads and baubles, to the tired bar songs pouring out into the streets. Who knew a shower could be so orgasmic? Another day is put to rest in Katmandu.

What else can we generate in this land of endless inquiry and what else is possible? Tomorrow we meet with Choice Humanitarian. Tuesday we fly to Brisbane.
Big hugs to all
Kelsey and Susan
Generating beyond all boundaries from www.portraitsbeyondboundaries.com