Holidays!

Well, My dear sister Kelly came to visit me in the begining of October and we had a wonderful time. She came to Gularia, the town i am working in, for a while and saw the life i am leading now. She and i spend a fair amount of time with my friend Surendra(in the photo)in the times that I was not working. And he even kept her company when i was on the job some of the time. We then went to the Bardiya National park for a weekend and stayed in a lodge and took a nice long day hike in the jungle. We say monkeys, impressive birds, dear, a family of wild boar crossing a river, a quick glimps of a rhino's butt, crocadiles, etc... we also saw many tracks of boath wild elephant and tigers! Then i took a few days off and spent them with Kell in Kathmandu. We went to see a few sights, spent the day with one of the families that i have lived with ("the best day ive had here" kelly said), and went to my old school that i attened back in 2007. All in all it was a wonderful trip and it did us both good to spend time with eachother again. And ill have you all know that we were serious and mature the whole time and did nothing wierd or silly or had any shinanagins.

And shortly after this wonderful visit and break from the stress of my job, I came home to La Crosse for my best friend Tyler's wedding. The day of the wedding was what everyone hopes it will be. The weather was wonderful, the cerimony went off without a hitch, mothers were crying, no one fainted, and we danced up a storm at the reception. (this particularly references me and my mother rockin it as we did the twist)It is allways such a happy ocasion to be at weddings and think about people just loving on eachother. I am not looking forward to going back to work feeling very rejuvinated and ready to put my nose back to the grind-stone.
Much love to all.

Pictures below

Ok so i finally got some pictures loaded on here. And it took about 6 hours with the internet I have so I hope you enjoy them! =) The first one is of me and my homestay brother Dinesh, whom I became very close to. I went with him one day to AB News television where he works as a digital editor. The second picture is of me and Dinesh's son. He is incredibly cute and one of the two little kids who live in the house i stayed in. I played/parented him every day while i was there and just went back to visit them yesterday. The third one is of my homestay mother and father. There are actually 9 people in this family but seeing how long it takes to get pictures loaded you might have to meet them at intervals. And the last picture is of our "yard" during the wheat harvest. After much convincing they let me help with the harvest. After the wheat sat out in the sun (as in the picture) we beat it on a slanted rock until all the grains were separated from the stalk. It was quite strenuous and I loved every minute. Ok thats all for now

pictures from the village

July Update

I have been trying to upload pictures here,but I just cant seem to find internet fast enough here to get it to work. I will keep trying though and hopefully get some visuals to you guys. I hope you are all doing well. I am doing fine, myself. I am back in Kathmandu for some training and a bunch of meetings. It is the monsoon right now and all of our partner organizations are busy planting their rice patties and doing little Human Rights work so we took the time to do this further training. It is nice in some ways to be back in Kathmandu, mainly weather and visiting people, but i miss Bardiya already. I was just starting to get settled in and make some friends so I am eager to return. The work is challenging but good. I cant write any details on here for security reasons,but I have done some personal accompaniments, lots of security analysis, written lots of documents for various people and things, met several people both Human Rights Defenders and authorities in several places in Nepal. Mostly we work in the Midwest around Bardiya, but i got out to take a field trip to a district in another region recently. I am really enjoying getting a new view of Nepal by spending so much time outside of Kathmandu.

Thats all for now, but I will try to add pictures before too long.
~Patrick

Nepal Situation Update

The political situation in Nepal is at a heightened state at the moment. The new government has promised to draft a new constitution by May 28th but the parties are currently at a deadlock. Because of this the Maoists are holding massive protests in Kathmandu. There are several hundred thousand people who have flocked from the rural parts of Nepal to the City to join in this protest. The Maoist leaders have said that the purpose of this massive protest and Bhund (enforced stopping of all vehicles and closing of many shops and businesses)is to pressure the government into writing the constitution as well as the current Prime Minister stepping down. They have declared an "indefinite" bhund and strike. So what will happen in the coming days is uncertain. The protests began two days ago and have thus far been peaceful. there has been some Cadres demanding "donations" of food or money from people.
PBI is monitoring the the demonstration, but as I am still in the language training portion of my job I am staying in a village outside Kathmandu. THe village is not far from the city but from here you would not know anything is going on at all. My organization required us to stay in the village the first few days to see how severe of a threat the situation would be to our partner organizations and us. But after the first few days of peaceful protest they have lifted our restriction somewhat. So although tensions are high the current situation is a relatively peaceful one for Nepal and even more so for me, safely tucked away in a village. Although I have to say it is difficult to not be working in the field right now. But for now I can only just focus on my language which is coming along quite well. I will keep this blog updated on the situation as often as I have Internet access until it dissipates. Love you all.

At home in the Village

So these days I am staying with a Nepali family in a village studying Nepali. I have a few more weeks to get my Nepali language on track to use it in my human rights work. And I feel I am on track to to just that. I am staying with a wonderfully warm and very large family. In one house I have a grandpa, a mother, father, two older brothers, their two wives, two nephews, a sister (who visits and stays there often), her two small sons, and two cows. luckily the cows do not stay in the house though. it is most defiantly a matriarchal household. Every mealtime my mother sits with pots of delicious Nepali food around her dolling it out to each family member and pestering us all to eat more to no end. Sometimes I must resort to defending my plate from her loving addition portions of food.
I have gotten close to both my older brothers. Dinesh is 29 and we speak at length in Nepali about everything under the sun in the evenings. We sit outside as the sun goes down talking and complaining about how our stomachs hurt from eating too much of mom's food. This time each night does more for my language improvement then anything I think. My other brother Manoj and I joke around a lot and are always picking on each other. His son, Susant, who is 6 often joins in too. Manoj often takes me around on the back of his motorbike to places I would not otherwise find and introduces me to many of his friends and extended family.
The village itself is full of cows and goats and fields surround it. It is on a hillside so the fields are terraced with the jungle reaching up the mountains behind us. And it is true jungle mind you. No one goes out at night because of the jaguar. I am eager to begin my work, but this family is so wonderful and life in this simple, farm based village suits me so much I am already feeling reluctant to leave even though it is not for some time.

Freetime

I have a bit of time here in Nepal before my contract with PBI officialy begins. I am spending that time readjusting to life in Nepal. I am currantly staying with my Nepali homestay family from my study abroad here two years ago. It feels like coming home in some ways. I spend alot of my days with my homestay brother who is my age and many evenings playing on the floor with my 4 year old nephue. Who has lost none of his cuteness since I last saw him when he was two. Very wild and laughing all the time. I am most likely not a good influence. =) My Nepali has come back to about 85 persent of what it was and I think by the time I begin my language course on April 4th I will be back to where I was,or better. I have been hiking in the mountains arround Kathmandu, visiting temples and monistaries, and visiting old friends here. In fact I am off to meet the director of my old study abroad program for some tea when I finish this post. I had a meeting with PBI yesterday and met the Kathmandu team, my language teacher and got alot of pre-deployment material. So now I have some homework to keep me busy. I am enjoying my freetime but am itching to begin this work that I have been preparing to do for so long. Farewell for now. Much love to you all.

Photos from Training in Spain

My schedule

Tomarrow I am leaving my good friends here in London where I have been visiting for the past week or so. I am flying to Kathmandu. I will begin my language training for PBI April 4th so I have some time to cetch up with my old homestay family, teachers, friends, contacts, etc.... before my course starts. This will also let me get my feet wet on my own and help me rekindle my Nepali language skills. Then the language training will commense along with a new homestay to help with learning more Nepali. Then I will officialy join the team in Bardiya (a rural district in Midd-West Nepal) on June 1st. My contract will be for one year from that point ie: until May 31, 2011.

Hot Chocolate

So Ive been zipping arround London with Trev and Anna for a few days now stopping at pubs, visiting parlement, shopping in open air markets, people watching and lots more. On one of these adventures we stopped in this little cafe for lunch and this wonderfuly sweet Italian woman talked me into trying her special hot chocolate. She said that I couldnt possibly not enjoy it and if I did i would not have to pay. So I tried it and it tasted somewhere between liquid chocolate, chocolate pudding and heaven desolving in my mouth. When i exclaimed my enjoyment through a shamble of words and "mmmmm" sounds she said that when little kids get her hot chocolate and cant finish it all she puts it into a to-go cup and they eat it later chilled like pudding. I took her up on her offer and went to get the rest of my mug put into a to-go cup. The other shop workers put it into the new cup and then topped it off completly with more chocolate. "to make me happy" the guy said. And it worked. Although it took me three days to consume all that sugar.

Training is over

The training ended yesterday and we have all left to go our seporate ways. At the conclusion of the training PBI-Nepal welcomed me to the team, which means I did not botch the training. So thats good. =) So now I will spend a while in Europe until my deployment on March. 20th. I will be visiting some friends and traveling a bit. I will also arive in Nepal a bit early to cetch up with my friends there and my old homestay family. I will have an intensive language course in a village outside of Kathmandu for two months or so begining March 20. I will be living with a family in a village for this time and I am quite eager. Well that is the update for now and I will be writing again before to long. And probebly from Nepal!

training

All Right! Training is going great. I am forming a pretty good understanding of the realities of my coming work and feel as though I am on track for being prepared. I have a few days left and am kinda sad about that. I feel the training is very intense but very good. I feel that the people I am here with are quite exceptional individules with a great deal of Moral Strength and dedication. All in all it is being a very fruitful experience and I feel full of life as I move one step closer to the work for which I have been preparing to do for so long. farewell for now all my loved ones.

Article in my local Tribune

In case you are tired of reading about violence, here is a story about non-violence.

That doesn't mean pacifism.

Also, it doesn't mean violence is absent from the story, but quite the contrary. In a story about nonviolence, violence is almost always a part of the story. It's just not the whole story because there also will be people countering violence with a peacemaking force called nonviolence.

The main character of this story is 23-year-old Patrick Robbins, who is really just one of many characters doing this work around the world. But since he's a local fella -

La Crosse-born, a Central High grad - his story makes the larger story more relevant.

OK, so next month, Patrick will be leaving La Crosse for job training in Spain, which will include nonviolent tactics. Then in mid-March, he'll go to Nepal, where he'll work with Peace Brigades International, an organization that uses a tactic called "protective accompaniment" to shield local human rights workers from threats by military, political or other power structures.

Patrick will spend his 15 months in Nepal doing the simple yet courageous work of being with people who are under the threat of physical violence for their effort in rectifying human rights abuses.

Peacebrigades.org describes the tactic like this:

"The accompaniment volunteer is the embodiment of international human rights concern, a compelling and visible reminder to those using violence that their actions will have repercussions nationally and internationally."

Accompaniment works on several levels.

By obviously coming from a foreign country (Patrick is Caucasian with long hair and will not be mistaken for a Nepali), the volunteer's very presence deters violent actions by serving as a sign of international support. At the same time, the volunteer can serve as a witness, or even a physical obstacle, should someone attack or detain the human rights worker. More broadly, the volunteer is connected through Peace Brigades to a network of international organizations and individuals that respond to reports of violence with diplomatic or economic pressure, or with stories in the media.

Since 1981, Peace Brigades hasn't lost a single volunteer.

"They don't advocate for this group or this political party or even this organization," Patrick said of Peace Brigades. "We're just here to make sure you don't kill them."

Patrick majored in conflict resolution at Salisbury University in Maryland, graduating in spring 2008.

In fall 2007, he studied abroad in Nepal, where he researched grass roots peace-building efforts and volunteered for an organization that worked with internally displaced youth, many of whom had been tortured or whose family members had been killed during the recent decade-long civil war there.

While in Nepal, Patrick also met a lawyer from Advocacy Forum, which investigates, files and seeks to prosecute cases of torture, disappearances, killings and other human rights abuses in that country.

It is one of three groups in Nepal that Peace Brigades helps protect.

"This is their lives," Patrick said of the local people he'll be working with. "They're raising their families in this. They don't get to go home like I do after their job is done. ... Part of what makes this so powerful and makes it work is the fact that you're voluntarily going into this situation and sharing the fear with these people."

Indeed, another aspect of the accompaniment model is that it strengthens the international peacemaking movement. The local human rights worker feels she is not alone in her work. After his 15 months of volunteering, Patrick will come home with on-the-ground experience in peacemaking.

"The more I learned in my studies about the field of peace studies and conflict resolution, the more I found out about organizations that do just incredibly inspiring work," Patrick said. "There are so many more than I ever thought."

In La Crosse Tribune on Sunday, January 24th

Let it Begin

Training begins in Barcelona on Feb. 20th!