last entry before home!

dear friends,
so sorry it's taken me a year to get back to the computer. time is so different here. i really am so in awe of this place, and i know i've only seen a breath of it. last week i got to go to a different school and speak with children about writing. i climbed the swayambhu stupa (also known as the monkey temple - man those guys are cute but fiesty) also saw a beautiful area called patan with incredible stupas, each devoted to a different hindu deity. most importantly i got to draw with soo, learn clapping games with bim and hari and watched all the children draw the world in chalk on the front steps of the orphanage.

the day is so different here....
people up before sunrise making fires in the fields to boil water.
roosters, dogs and cows roaming the streets.
there is a reason and a moment to pray every second.
the clocks are 15 minutes differnt from india to show their independence i believe.
word is there will be elections in the spring (which is the new year here) but not everyone believes that.
and 5:30 is usually when the electricity goes off for a few hours because most people turn their lights on then.

but the most humbling and heartbreaking lesson i'm learning (so slowly) from these amazing children is how unpredictable it all is. the future is so silly to plan on, and the past is so unknown.
i sat with a boy named sumba who showed me pictures that he had drawn - theya re all AMAZING drawers here and love to copy flowers and farms and birds out of their text books. sumba had drawn all of the zodiac signs as well and quite beautifully. he pointed to acquarius and said "this is me" to which i replied "oh! whenis your birthday."
"no," he said. "i don't know."

these children are astounding. they have no idea about their pasts. they have a faint thought of the future. but what they know is now. this moment. today they got new socks. today sasku's hair is standing up straight and that is a reason to laugh and right now, it is a privilege to be able to have this experience and to share it with you in what i hope is a relatively coherent dribble. i will be home soon, which thrills me, but already my heart is weepy missing these amazing moments.

i'll be in a yoga center for the next two days and then on a plane for a few more but i hope to add to this blog and get a lot of pictures on my website when i get home. if i don't talk to you before then, merry and happy and love to all!

xoxooxo,
a

gab - names changed because there are still factons terrorizing the villages and kidnapping and the children are under close watch