Twinnegan's summer '08

2008-08-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

una got to the computer first. again. but it ok, i was buying a yak blanket... its the warmest comfiest thing ive ever owned i think, and reminds me of all the giggling nepali women who are all so beautiful. the houses in the himalayas are crazily perched just under the sky in places we couldnt believe. and now i understand the talent of sherpas who carried most of hillary's equipment up everest - they are so strong because thay have to carry everything slung on their backs for about 2 days up steep steep steps - we saw them carry door frames, blankets and curtains, a dozen chickens and even a fridge!!
now we're just floating about pokhara admiring our newly acquired calf muscles. buff!

(Una) 5 Days, one "Hill" and 35 leeches later....

2008-08-20T04:58:00.000-07:00

We've just come back from a 5 day trek in the himalayas and are now sporting calves as toned as Hungarian shot putters. On retrospect the hiking was do-able but at the time going up and down all those steep valleys was torture (with a view). The scenery was amazing - crashing waterfalls, precarious landslides and MASSIVE mountains. we were below the 8th and 10th highest mountains in the world ( around 8100m)
I loved seeing the tiny Nepali settlements perched on the mountainside with their steeply sloping rice paddys. The smells of cooking over fires and clucking chickens reminded of living with the Karen hill tribes in Thailand.
On our first night we stayed at this lovely guest house full of character run by 3 sisters who seem to spend all of their time laughing. We felt so at home huddled round their fire with spicy tea, and the laughter was flowing as we helped (or hindered) them to make Nepali steamed dumplings and rice pudding. We told them that we're coming back again when we're all married and bringing our husbands with us - and we weren't joking. The 3000 steep steps leading up to their village took us about 2 hours to drag ourselves up - and then we saw the school children canter up them in no time.

On the 3rd day we got up at 5am to climb Poon Hill - which is a very misleading name we think as it stands at 3210m (4 times higher than Northern Ireland's Slieve Donard!) We didn't get the spectacular himalayan views promised as it was so misty - but worth it anyway.

I dont think I'v ever been paralyzed with laughter so often in 5 days - maybe it was the lack of oxyen (25% less at 3000m than the Mountsandel road) or all the endorphins from the trek, but anna, lynn and i had to put a ban on making each other laugh so as we could at least attempt to get up the steep passes.

We're doing some R and R back in Pokhara - lynn is still going on about the wild monkeys we saw. We'll let you know if we decide to stay here for ever,
una. xx

(ps - photo to the right shows Lynn in midst of her bowel-adjustment to Nepal. "Still better than a nightclub"... I concur.)

(Lynn & Una) - we found each other!

2008-08-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

Una - so lynn was about the LAST person off the plane, but it was awesome to see her. We'v tried to ease her into the developing world but i think we ended up jsut chucking her in without a spade to dig!

Lynn - I've arrived! Plane was v delayed, but that turned out almost worth it because they put me up in a very VERY swanky hotel. sweet! i am now with una and therefore whole again. and sweating extraordinarily. its very hot.

Una - yesturday, we took an 8 hour rickety bus East to Pokhara - beautiful countryside (but also with a constant chanting coming from the Tibetan woman sitting adjacent to us). Pokhara is really lovely - its in the heart of the Annapurna Himalaya Range with a very chilled out atmosphere, no noisy traffic and lots of hiking/cycling/kayaking/beers by the lake...

Lynn - una got to the computer first and i have nothing else to say. im with una! and anna and its lovely, and i no longer have to talk to myself. or skin kangarooos. just eat LOTS of rice. yum!

Una - Going on a 5 day hike tomorrow into the mountains, we'v got a guide and a porter to look after us, we'll only be going up to about 3000m but i cant wait to see the himalayas up close! Anna and i have got on really well and its lovely to be able to include Lynn in all the fun. We'll be home in 2 weeks time to continue the adventures - only this time on white rocks beach instead of Nepal, so if anyone wants to join in, you'll know where to find us...

Lynn - yep. what she said. yay!

(lynn) una im coming!

2008-08-08T02:46:00.001-07:00

ah. una that was so nearly so good...pity you're the third finnegan. sad goodbyes and 8 hour journey back to city on wednesday. i was going to hitch a lift with the weekly food lorry that passes by, but then government person happened to be up for a funding something or other so that was a bit more comfortable, although involved alot more bluffing and government speak. gradually seeing the landscape change from red red rock to grey grey concrete was horrible, until grey filled up every corner of my brain and i finally burst out crying when i got out of the car and smelt city and petrol! i felt like a girl. a GIRL. urgh.

una n anna i will see you in kathmandu. mwah!
over and out.

4th Finnegan feels forelorn;- farewell family, philantropy and forgein friends....

2008-08-06T04:11:00.000-07:00

That alliteration took me a whole bus journey - I'm now floundering for feeble fillers ;o)

Despite my host family still not being able to pronounce my name even slightly, we only have 2 days left here in pepsi cola. I'll miss the family atmosphere, although maybe not so much the constant questions, demands from the children for attention and the 6am wakeup calls.
At the health clinic family planning day is definitely my favourite. All the women come in for contraception and its such a party atmosphere with laughing and jokes (until i muck up one of their Depo injections and have to stab them twice with a blunt needle).
After much insistence from our ten year old Nepali little-sister, anna and I went to the village tailors to get some Nepali clothes made. Either the language barrier was too big to cross or the wee woman was crap at her job - but neither anna nor myself could get any of the tops pulled down past our broad Western shoulders despite numerous measurements. At least i can steal Lynn's clothes in 5 days time when she arrives. Iv now decided my decision to only bring minimal clothes was a bad one. (I recently discovered that Anna brought 3 times the amount of bottom halves than i did! And then she slags me off for wearing dirty shorts!)
Other recent happenings include a trip to a national park (no bears - just alot of thunder and rain), a "halfway feast" at an Australian restaurant where a group of us ate so much food we were fit to burst (and then we ate carrot cake straight afterwards), and helping out with the Sisters of Mercy for the final time. We saw the orphanage the sisters also run, i might raise money for them during my Great North Run - but its time they need, not neccasarily money.

Enjoy the Olympics onslaught on TV, and look out for the 7 nepali athletes that managed to qualify! In a while crocodile.......
x

(pictures show Anna and me on top of a bus, "D-Day" at the orphanage ("De-licing day") and a Sister of Mercy)

(lynn) - ah. cant stand interviews.

2008-08-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

thought i should maybe write something even if its crap cuz ive just realised how pathetic i am at this blog business (and that it has 72 views - una was that all you?). well, i hate words. especially counting them incessently to check if ive reached 12,000 yet. blargh. apart from that, im having a ball. felt like part of the community yesterday when we were all sitting round the fire, cooking kangaroo (kangaroo celebrations happen once in a while for no apparent reason, except nowadays its often because travellers/tourists are passing through) when some of the elders started berating me on how awful my bread baking skills were and i had to work on that 'directly' if i ever hoped to get a boyfriend. ah well. the chairperson of the community also said that his grandfather, who was a witch doctor, now has an eagle spirit, and will watch out for me when im at home and check im behaving myself and if not 'well, bad things will happen'. somehow that made me more nervous than comforted.

but eagles, or 'wildus' here are INCREDIBLE. theyre massive and theres so much space and sky (and always good sunsets) that they must just be having the best time of it. i've decided i want to be an eagle. we climbed wayanha/ mt mckinley, the other weekend and the views were the best id ever seen (even though we werent v high, about 1050m), i could see half of australia, and almost to ireland i think. someone had left a notebook and pen in a bottle under a stone so we had fun reading all the messages people had left ... there were only a handful of people who had climbed it recently.

heres a cool photo - its a rock carving - just a circle (which represents a water hole) but it looks like the rock must have split ages ago ... just reminds you how long the aborigines have been living on this land - 40,000 they say. its in a gorge with hundreds of rock carvings made by many tribes walking through, i think its a bit of a cross roads because nearby is a huge ochre pit that the Adnyamathanha use to make paints and dyes.

so leave here on wednesday, then fly to nepal on sunday whoop! any last minute orders from australia? aboriginal paintings? boomerangs? witchety grubs?! i have like minus space in my rucksack though! maybe v v small models of boomerangs...

(Una) canyoning, orphans, holes in feet and more rice..

2008-07-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

Only one more week of volunteering left!
Anna and I went canyoning yesterday - 5 hours of absailing down pretty powerful waterfalls in the nepalese jungle with guys who make their living leading montain climbing in the everest region. Times like that when you think "crap - nobody else in the whole world knows where i am right now". We brought along two other European volunteers along - one for his aryian-like looks for protection, and one for the comedy factor (balance worse than Jamie Wilson and pathologically afraid of leeches).
The Volunteering is going really well, we'r getting regular customers at the health clinic for wounds needing to be cleaned out. The other day we went to a special needs school ran by a guy from northern ireland that Anna's mum (vagualy) knows. It was a fantastic place, and when we got there, a team from Belfast were there. The Northern Irish banter was immediate and a nice wee break for us. It turned out that i had travelled with one of them before on a youth peace conferance to Wales as well - you can't escape your past at all - even in nepal.
I'v visited two hospitals in the past week, its been really interesting, and the maternity ward of one stole my heart immediatly. I saw 2 hour old babies the size of your hand. i dont know why im in med school, i definitly want to be a midwife instead.
Last weekend i got a bit sick, and the lay health beliefs of my host mum were pretty annoying ("no cold water, cover your head while you sleep, its all because i walk too far"!). I tried to placate her but i way prefere abiding by my own lay health beliefs instead.
Im spending as much time as i can at the orphange - the kids are really good fun and love the one-on-one attention. Also, the dedication of individual volunteers here is so inspiring. Take care in whatever your doing, and lets hope the transport strikes end here pretty soon. xx

An struggling culture ...

2008-07-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

Nunga udnyus! mmm yeah.. wee bit of a belated post, but alls good and ive settled into Nepabunna and am having a ball! So im living in an Aboriginal community of 54 Adnyamathanha people, 7 horses and lots of udlu and munja (kangaroo) and amazing eagles. i love the eagles. And i cant think of anywhere more in the back arse of nowhere. the big open spaces are AWEsome. and im quickly learning some foresight when it comes to shopping - i ran out of bread and milk last week but hopefully someones going to the nearest shop (an hour away on a dirt track!) next week sometime!! tuna tins it is.

I've been doing work on the protected area and learning lots of plants and their uses and dreamtime stories and yesterday they said id learnt enough language and plant uses that they might initiate me to the first level! whioop! so i might come home! only joking. half.

Its also kindof a little bit sad cuz this is the heartland of their culture and biggest remaining group (54!) and despite alot of v v inspiring elders, the older people are sometimes so sad at the younger peoples apathy and disinterest in their knowledge (which is immense) and the last ever initiated elder died in 2002. so all his knowledge is lost forever - bec knowledge has to be earnt here, so like they only tell you stuff about the land once youve reached a certain spiritual maturity (bec land and spirituality are so together). And kids are being kids and watching tv and it makes me think about all those questions about merging cultures and the infinite dilemmas about what values and habits and rituals and priorities to keep and what to leave behind and what to change and what to preserve and I guess theres no right answer but you wanna say 'STOP! throw away your tvs and go out into the bush and remember and have fun and stop being zombies!!!" but obviously you cant do that bec you dont know what its like from their viewpoint and you may well just be being naive. But they cant live like they used anymore and eat traditional bush tucker even if they wanted to because white settler pastoralists' sheep have eaten all the food and they reckon more than 70% species have become extinct since explorers arrived in 1788.

so there we go ... that is the view from where im sitting at the minute!
xox

ps. theres currently a 10year drought, and the land and farmers are really struggling. Lots of people are praying, and doing rain dances, and hoping ... so if any of those are your thing, please join in.

(Una) Sunset on the snow capped Himalayas...

2008-07-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Im just back from a 2day stay in a wee village up in the himalays - we stayed in "Hotel at the end of the Universe" and thats no exageration. For 6 of us staying in a big room with panoramic views - it was only 2 pounds! We had our first look at snow capped himalays through the monsoon clouds, and sunrise and sunset we were well worth the trek up. (also our first experience of leeches - see the photo above) . At around 2500m it was definitly high enough to feel the decrease in oxygen. Myself and the other volunteers are getting very stingy - to the piont of refusing a meal for 3 pounds last night, instead opting for a big meal at a cheaper guest house for under a pound.
The past week Anna and I have been volunteering in a health clinic in a very poor community - lots of infected wounds, stomach upsets, and not enough medicine. We even saw a man with a tape worm larvae in his brain. We'v also been taking the opportunity to volunteer at other projects. We worked with the Sisters of Mercy (Mother Teressa's gang) in the centre of Kathmando at their home for the destitude - their dedication was so inspiring. It was pretty hard seeing people with medical conditions completly treatable on the NHS but here, no chance.
The volunteer organisation we are with has just started up a tie with a closeby orphange. We are completly gutting it out as the conditions arent exactly what you'd want your little brother being brought up in. I got electricuted a few times while washing down the windows. The ridiculous thing was that it took 3 electric shocks in a row for me to realise that the shooting pain down my forearm and involuntary spasms could be avoided. The bus ride there and back on top of a rickety bus zooming round mountain corners was a definite highlight.
We have lots more plans for travel, but maybe some more volunteer work should get fitted in first. Namaste, xx

(Una) - I'm here!

2008-07-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

i've arrived! So Anna and I are staying with a lovely host family close to the volutneer centre we are working for. The name of the town crakcs me up everytime - "Pepsi Cola Town Planning", basically because a pepsi factory sprung up here 5 years ago then they planned to have a town surrounding it. We'r getting used to the squat toilets, rice three times s day, ample use of hand gestures and hot humid temperatures. I'm still waiting for for a good view of the himalayas - but we are plannig lots of day/weekend trips to do exciting things that im sure will bring us closer. I start in the health clinic next week, now we'r learning Nepalese and seeing Kathmando - which is nice as its easing us in. Enjoy your summer's, and lynn, goodluck negoitiating kathmando airport by yourself, that'll be a laugh and a half. una. xx

Una To Nepal....

2008-07-08T01:31:00.000-07:00

So I'm off to the himalaya's in a few hours - eek! Im going with Anna (a friend from school) to work for a volunteer organisation in a health internship programme for 4 weeks. We're being based in the Kathmando valley and will be working in the community health clinic helping with vaccinations, water hygeine education and whatever needs doing. We then have just over two weeks of enjoying all the Nepal has to offer - at which point Lynn will be meeting us (fingers cross we find each other !) I can't actually think of anything I'd rather be doing this summer, so its all worked out.

(Lynn) I've arrived safely!

2008-07-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

hello hello ... im all safe down under! arrived a week ago in adelaide and have been busy busy sorting out stuff to go up to the outback tomorrow. Had a bit of a stressful day when i found out there is absolutely no way to get up to the Aboriginal community Im staying with for 5 weeks - no buses no planes no trains no lorries I could find. Thought my degree was down the drain until eventually found someone whos happening to be driving up there tomorrow. phew, im so lucky!

so went off to kangaroo island for a few days and saw lots of firsts - pelicans (they really are al arms and legs and beaks), kangaroos all over the show (the island is size of wales, has 4,500 people, 1 million kangaroos and 1 mill koalas!!), wallaby, echidna, cool hovering kites and big eagles. Also saw beautiful beautiful beaches (almost as beautiful as the north coast!hee hee), slept under the stars (south hemisphere gets to see the milky way EVERY night.humph), oh and saw penguins! theyre so comical ... and a southern right wale - apparently numbers went down from 100,000 to 26,000 within 15 years of white setters arriving in 18th century. so thats me so far!

Lynn To Australia...

2008-06-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I'm off to Australia today for 6 weeks to do my geography dissertation ... all about conservation strategies that acknowledge indigenous peoples rights and the survival of traditional environmental knowledge ... etc ... i'm excited!

2008-06-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

"An adventure was about to happen..." A.A.Milne