I had the privilege of attending the unofficial opening of Ama Ghar's new house at the end of last month. The day was full of meeting friends and family, eating and of course dancing and singing. The Ama Ghar family has been waiting almost two years for the new house to open, and their dream will finally come true by the end of this month. The unofficial opening included close friends, donors, board members and volunteers. A major milestone in the history of Ama Ghar, almost in it's 10th year of existence, all attendees absolutely glowed with joviality making the day one to remember. Considering that each attendee was witnessing the fruits of a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money, it's not surprising that everyone was in such high spirits.
The house is an inspiration to whomever has the pleasure of viewing it. Not only aesthetically pleasing, using many traditional Newari architectural design elements, it's design also incorporates features to guarantee the safety and sustainability of all who inhabit it. For instance, instead of being built on one foundation the house is split into three sections, increasing the houses chance of survival in the case of an earthquake. The house also was designed with an extensive water collection and filtration system. The house uses gutters and reserve tanks to help insure that water supply is never scarce, and extensively filters all waste water before it is re-introduced into the environment. Solar power will also be utilized, in place of gasoline run electricity generators, in cases of power outages which are frequent during the winter months. To witness these developments, which one hopes will set an example of sustainable development in the surrounding villages, has been a privilege for me. Photos of the event, as well as of the house, are available for viewing and download on my flickr page, located in the Nepal collection, under the Everyday Ama Ghar and Unofficial new Ama Ghar opening sets. Hope you enjoy. Until the next post… cheers.
Healthy food for hungry souls: This is the message that NGO Curry Without Worry promotes, and it couldn't be more clear. On Tuesday, the 16th of November, I had the opportunity to document this fantastic organization's first every food drive in Nepal. Started by a group of San Franciscans lead by Sharwan Nepali, the organization has hosted a free food drive every Tuesday in San Francisco for the past four years, accompanied by music, dancing and singing. "I had a dream to bring Curry Without Worry to Kathmandu at the time we started the program four years ago in San Francisco", said Sharwan. The menu consists of five soul warming items, with Quanti, a nine sprouted bean traditional Nepali soup, as the signature item. 
The day began at 10 a.m., preparing the massive amount of food for cooking. "In San Francisco, we serve about 200 people on average. Our first event here in Kathmandu attracted about 300 people, plus feeding the 50 boys who live at Paropakar Orphanage", said Nepali. In San Francisco, the organization currently rents a near by Baptist church for cooking purposes. Here in Kathmandu, the organization utilizes Sharwan's old home, Paropakar Orphanage, to cook the food. From there, the food is transported in a truck to the serving sight, which is located at Hanuman Dhoka in Kathmandu Durbar Square, a historical venue to say the least. Serving is usually scheduled to start roughly at 3:30, but can start as late as 5:00 in some cases. Following in the tradition of the San Francisco chapter, word of mouth is the only utilized form of advertising for the event. "We believe that word of mouth is the best method of advertising. It saves money and gives the event the intimate, village-like-gathering feel we're looking for", said Sharwan.
Beyond Curry Without Worry's goal of donating free food to those in need, the event is designed to provide a venue for the community to gather. One of the greatest results of this interaction is that people, regardless of their background or situation, can find or give help. In this sense, the food acts as a medium; a medium in which it's participants may transfer ideas, establish new relationships, and spread the good will that the event produces. Who would predict that the result would be anything else? When good food hits the plate, and dancing, music and laughter are abundant, you can't help but dive into the "human fire place", as Sharwan likes to put it. Now, almost into it's third week, that fire place is growing rapidly with no end in sight. I hope that some of you will one day be able to come and join in the festivities. As for myself, you can bet that I'll be there every Tuesday for the rest of my stay here in Nepal. As per usual, photos are on flickr, under the Nepal collection. Thanks for reading.