Heartbreak and Hope - Voices from Nepal

Just a week after an earthquake devastated much of Nepal, the headlines have gravitated to newer, fresher, disasters. Such is life in the 24-hour news cycle and the accompanying national attention deficit disorder.

PK and I spent a few weeks in the fall of 2014 in Nepal with the founder and five members of the Bright Futures Foundation. 

BFF is a small non profit that helped build and staff a village clinic and also provided a top notch 12-year education to around 25 kids from impoverished Nepali families. It is safe to say that many of the relationships that developed over the past 14 years, both at the clinic and with families whose children were lifted from poverty, are as tender and enduring as any enjoyed within close-knit families.

Thus  it was that news of the recent earthquake was received with anguish. Earthquake victims aren't nameless, faceless masses, but loved ones. The flow of information between BFF, especially founder Catherine Wood, and Nepali people, has been at once healing and heartbreaking.

Below are messages and photos sent from Nepal, as well as pictures taken during happier times.

The following April 30 message was emailed to Catherine Wood by Samip Bhatta, the first student whose education was sponsored by BBF, and directly by Catherine and her husband, Michael. The Woods continued to support Samip as he received his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering. He now works for an airline in Kathmandu and is dreaming of a master's degree. He calls Catherine "mom" because the bond between them is akin to mother and son.  

Catherine asked for a photo, and this is what Samip sent of himself, his parents Anita and Raju and Grandmother. The Bhatta family is back in their home, but life is hard.

Samip's words, April 30, 2015 

Mom, everything is getting back to normal and so I'm sorry I couldn't email you on time since we were out of electricity and had no communication.I really can't imagine the day that shook the whole world. I was on my bed, grandmother was watching television and Raju and Anita were on roof to water the  plants. Then suddenly we got hit. I was completely blank. I didn't know what to do. I took grandma, then Raju and Anita followed me out of house.

Then it strikes again. This time i can see my house moving as if it is going to touch the ground. We thought this is over and our house is gonna go down. Our eyes were full of tears and we can't speak a single word. But thank god, Mom, nothing happened.  But my laptop and cellphone broke into pieces because they had been charging.  I asked my parents, it's not safe to stay at home so we headed to the street along with one floor mat. On the street I can see kids crying, families praying for their lives, and people's eyes full of tears .I cannot explain mom, ooh god ......

We just had one floor mat so i asked Grandma to sleep on it. We didn't eat anything expect biscuit and water. No rescue team NO relief. No food. No shelter. Mom, right now my eyes are full of tears. We don't have blanket to put on us .It was cold and it was raining too. We all prayed god, and we actually remembered you and Michael. We chatted and talked and tried to remember good things and actually recalled our times with you. The first night was over. 

It's early in the morning , still raining. Could not go back into house to grab some food because it's all wet and walls may fall down, so we just have to satisfy ourselves with water and some biscuit. Everyone is scared. And no food. Nothing. We were so hungry so i decided it's better to go inside and get some bitten rice and water and peanuts and jam. As we were eating, it struck hard again.This time our water tank was destroyed and i can see the leakage on tank.

Mom, just imagine no food no electricity no communication no shelter and no water for four days. But then things got better and we can at least drink water and eat some boiled potatoes.

Mom, everything is so expensive. Even one noodle costs you 50 rupees when actually its price is 15. And the Government is like a stone. They don't care about us.
Right now we are planning to fix the water tank since it's almost out of the roof and we can see some  serious holes. We need to replace it.  Apart from that everything is fine and don't you worry, mom. Nobody can challenge Nature. 

Samip and Catherine Wood, October 2014.  

Thank god you are there for us, even your email gives us force. Wanna hug you so tightly, mom.

Your loving son, 
Samip

KeshavThapa is BFF's only paid employee, the foundation's liaison with the school and clinic. A Kathmandu resident, he has a master's degree in population studies, an endless capacity for  handling myriad details, and a huge loving heart. He has gained the respect of all who know him, and that's saying something. Below he's speaking with BFF sponsors, October 2014.

 

The email below was written to me. I met Keshav in Nepal in 2002 and we became brother and sister in a two-hour ceremony filled with flowers, food and ritual. "Didi" is a term of endearment. I've lightly edited his email.

Didi, we skipped from mouth of death. It was unimagined events suddenly. At that time we were eating lunch,  but suddenly vibrate the home and we quickly run away on the ground and we saw everywhere clouds of dust because many houses were collapsed. Aaryan and Susma were crying. The electric pole was down and telephone lines, electricity line was cut off. So I was not able to call to any one. But after a few hours the mobile started to work so I called to Galaxy. (He lists the people he was able to contact and those he could not, and tells of continuing interruptions in cell service and electricity.)

 Fortunately my neighbors helped me to charge the mobile from their inverter so I was able to contact Catherine didi and my mama Karen (Moss) I feel so happy and relieved when I heard from them and I feel that I have people who are loving us from very far.

That night we stayed on the open ground without any shade or food because we could not get anything from our house due to the continuing earthquakes. But soon we made common shade and we feel quite comfort. But then rainfall came so it was unimagined difficult situation. (He tells about contacting people from the Bhotechaur clinic.)

Susma, Keshav, Aaryan

We returned home morning of 29 April, but again that night also have earthquake, but it was 4.2 and less affecting. This morning also have 4.5 earthquake centralized in Kathmandu.

I was just able to rejoin the landline telephone and internet cable. As of today’s news (April 30) around 6000 people died and 14,000 people found injured but still doing rescue in the far area of Sindhupalchowk district where 100 percent of mud houses are collapsed. (The Bhotechaur clinic is in this district.)

I estimate that around 15,000 people have died because many buses, cars and motorcycle were covered by landslides on the roads, so nobody knows how many were there.

Still do not know how many people are in the houses of many parts of Sindhupalchowk district survived because it is very hard to rescue even from helicopter because of rain and clouds in the mountainous area. 

School buildings, official buildings are also collapsed in the Sindhupalchow district. My family house in my home village is also collapsed and my nephew and her mother were covered but rescued after three hours. They are OK, no injuries. I heard that the wood (in the house construction) saved them.

Within Kathmandu Valley, all historical temples except Pasupatinath and Krishna Mandir in Patan, collapsed. Historical places and museums are also collapsed.   

The government has announced that all schools are closed until 14th of May. Now we are OK. But the possibility  of communicable disease is very high because of open defecation by the people who were in the open ground, dead animals etc. Presently we are having water problems rather than food shortage.

 Didi we have new life. We are ok because of your prayers and love. Susma and Aaryan are going to Susma's home village because there is no problem there now. I am thinking to go to affected areas with a relief material distribution team.

OK didi  I will write you again. 
Yours loving, Keshav, Susma and Aaryan 

Prajwal Simkhada, pictured with Aaryan Thapa, 6, Keshav's son, in Patan, Kathmandu, November 2014. He wrote the email below to a BFF child sponsor. Prajwal, in his mid-20s, is among the first BFF-sponsored kids to have graduated from the Galaxy school. Thanks to his education, he is an IT entrepreneur in Kathmandu. 

From Prajwal Simkhada 

I'm doing OK. The ground still shakes sometimes. There are cracks in my house, I feel so unsafe to stay here. My mother is at my uncle's house. I have asked her to stay there for as long as it takes and not to come back. I went to my school yesterday. We cooked some food and had planned to give it to hungry people who are out of help. Just as we were about to leave I got a call. A good friend had lost both of his parents and his house. So I told my friends that I would be joining the team the next day and headed for the hospital where his parents' bodies were kept.   Cremation scene at Pashupatinath in November 2014, when our guide said cremations continued around the clock every day. Traditionally, bodies are cremated with a few hours of death It was a tragic scene, we took the bodies to Pashupatinath for the cremation ritual. So many people are dead, there was no place for new bodies to perform the ritual. The place was so crowded. I feel like this is a bad dream and hoping somebody will wake me up. I feel very lucky to be alive and to know that people close to me are safe. Even though I cant feel totally relieved. I feel like the ground is shaking even when I'm walking, I get scared of loud noises. People are fleeing away as there might be shortage of food, clean water. Hospitals are flooded with people, very less room for people. I have promised to myself that I will stay here and do my best to make this place the way it was. We are receiving donations from many places, but all of our political leaders are corrupted and the needy are not getting any help. If you collect donations, I advise you never to send it to government or any government related organization. I'm so waiting for everything to be the way it was. I'm so happy that we are getting support from you and everybody. We have no hope that our government will be any help but you guys (BFF) are what gives us hope and make us feel that we do have someone who thinks about us and really are there for us. Thank you so so much, Alexia. I love you. Donations to the Bright Futures Foundation go 100 percent to the foundation's projects and the people it supports. Pre-earthquake posts about Nepal: http://ordinarylife-mk.blogspot.com/2015/02/giving-endless-gift-education.html Feeling the Love in Nepal Fear, the the Truth About Ziplines

Giving the Endless Gift - Education

PK and I spent most of November 2014 in Nepal with longtime friend Catherine Wood and a half dozen other US citizens, all committed to providing a rigorous well balanced education to impoverished Nepalese kids. Starting a decade ago with children in the early grades, each sponsor pledged to stick with one student until he or she graduated from high school. 

I'd also been to Nepal with Catherine in 2002, soon after she started the student sponsorships by sponsoring a spunky little kid named Samip. 

A highlight in 2002 was spending a morning with Samip and his parents in their humble home, eating a delicious meal prepared with love for a woman who had changed their world. 

Same thing in 2014, but even better because Samip was all grown up and graduated and love and gratitude were thick and sweet in the air. And the food prepared for our visit, in Catherine's honor, was the best we had in Nepal. 

Samip, now in his twenties,  reads aloud a  heartfelt message from his proud father, Raju, left, written to Catherine, who made Samip's education and ongoing success possible. Not a dry eye in the house!  Raju's message is below.  Jeff Bossler, photo.

Samip, age 8, on the day
he met Catherine Wood.
.

When Catherine Wood looked into young Samip's bright eyes 15 years ago, she saw his future. As a child of loving but poor parents, he was condemned to receive only the most basic public education. After grade six, because his parents lacked funds for school uniforms and supplies, he'd be working the streets and markets to help his family score the basic rice and lentils.

But one fateful day in 2000, the then-small boy was on a bus trip, which had been organized by a non profit organization. He had the great good fortune to sit next to Catherine, who was in Nepal fulfilling a Rotary initiative to re-establish a village health clinic.

Samip captured Catherine's heart. It killed her to realize that within a few years, Samip's education would trail into oblivion. Like hundreds, thousands, millions of poor children in the third world, he would subsist on a few dollars a day, his dreams would die, and those bright eyes would dull.

Free universal quality education is not happening in much of the third world.  In myriad countries populated by millions of children, quality education is available ONLY to children whose families can pay. Aside from an outlier here or there whose brilliance and hard work—and at least one piece of providential luck— elevate them, education is the key to escaping the hand-to-mouth routine.

                   Samip's parents devote a wall in their tiny home to honor their
                   only child's academic achievements. This shrine (partially pictured)
                   dominates their combined bedroom/living room.

Samip is a blessed man. He's bright. motivated, and much loved. But he also enjoyed once-in-a-lifetime good fortune when he caught Catherine's eye.




Raju's letter to Catherine. Didi is a term of endearment, meaning roughly, "sister".

Didi, I feel so happy, welcoming all BFF’s members to my small house. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for always standing next to my family and especially Samip.
It was 2000 when Catherine didi first visited Nepal, and didi visited our house too. She saw everything and felt our pain. After a month I got an email from her and didi decided to give scholarship to Samip. Didi, you became father and mother to Samip. You actually cared and loved him like your own son. We just gave him birth; you are the one who raised him up. My salary was not enough even to run my family. It was like a dream for me, seeing Samip going to good school and achieving good education. It was very hard for me to pay Samip’s tuition fee. Sometimes I borrowed it from my friend. My life was going through darkness until you came like a god. You took all our darkness and spread happiness into us.

Samip continued his education in the Phillipines and graduated with a BS in aeronautical engineering. Catherine and her husband, Michael, attended the ceremony and also paid expenses for Samip's proud parents to attend.

Didi, we never rode an airplane. Me and Anita were out of this world when you said, "Raju and Anita, you’ll attend Samip’s graduation ceremony." Didi, I don’t have any word to express my happiness. I think god for sending an angel who took care of everything. Thank you so much didi and Michael for always being there for us and Samip.

Samip, now employed by a Nepalese airline, donated his first paycheck, all of it, to the Bright Futures Foundation.

Samip shares a photo book Catherine created to chronicle his educational odyssey. He's surrounded by student sponsors from the USA and, on the right, Keshav Thapa, the Nepalese who manages the sponsored students. A number of sponsors have pooled resources to make sure Keshav's six-year-old son also receives a quality education. Others pictured, left to right, Kathy Kraus, Charla Rolph  and Jeff Bossler.

There's more. As a result of encountering Samip, Catherine founded the Bright Futures Foundation (BFF) to sponsor poor Nepalese kids at the Galaxy school in Kathmandu. The foundation also supported, with Rotary International for a time, a health clinic in Bhotechaur, a mountain village not far from Kathmandu.

Her 2014 Nepal visit was bittersweet, marking the end of a 10-year run with the clinic, which was always planned to become self-sustaining. The remaining 10 BFF scholarship students will continue to be supported by their individual sponsors until the last one graduates in 2021.

Keshav Thapa, BFF's man-on-the-ground in Kathmandu, has the full attention of Mark Minnis, Kathy Kraus, and Jeff Bossler, who sponsor, or have sponsored, BFF students at the Galaxy School.

The bottom line is that 22 bright young people have been given the opportunity, though a rigorous education, to move beyond poverty. They have options. They have futures to create rather than sliding into a vast underclass. 

In return, each sponsored student has pledged to:

•  study hard and earn good grades
•  never abuse a woman or child 
•  help support a girl's education.

As everywhere in the third world, and even in so-called advanced countries, girls are often denied education in favor of boys, or shut out just because they're girls. Eight of the ten BFF sponsored students still in school are girls. 

More than a decade later, Catherine is still engaged in Samip's
future, which may include earning a master's degree in the USA. 

The takeaway of our magical morning with Samip and his parents:

It took one person to take the plunge to support a child's education. Whether Catherine envisioned it or not, that led to her forming a non profit organization that eventually financed an excellent education for 22 youngsters, many plucked from remote villages, some of which had sold girls into human trafficking.

Just 22? Yes. Just 22 young people whose lives have been taken off the poverty track and elevated to where they can choose from options where few, if any, existed before. 

Catherine at the Bhotechaur clinic with one of her many admirers.

The Bhotechaur Health Clinic, initially a Rotary project, also benefitted, as Catherine and the BFF board felt an obligation and a desire to see the clinic continue to develop beyond the Rotary commitment. The rural clinic now serves an area that is home to about 50,000.

But the longtime big winners are the sponsored students and their families. And thanks to the pay-it-forward clause in student sponsorship, other disadvantaged young people are also bound for glory. All because 15 years ago, Catherine visited Nepal and left part of her heart in Kathmandu.

A BFF sponsored student comes forward to accept an academic award at the Galaxy School.

Several mothers of sponsored students traveled from distant villages to attend a meeting with Catherine and BFF members to see their children receive academic awards. None of them speak English, so one of their daughters translated the ceremonies. That girl's delighted mother is on the left. One of the mothers here learned that her son is not up to snuff, and unless his performance improves, his sponsorship will end. The mother cried later, knowing that her 13-year-old boy may end up on the streets like his older brother.

What does it take to sponsor a child's education in the third world? 

• A big generous heart
• Understanding that educating young people is critical to improving developing countries and, hence, the world.
• Believing that one person, or a group pooling their funds, can lift a child out of poverty and hopelessness. This child could be the next Ghandi or Nelson Mandela or Malala. Or Samip. 
• Sponsoring also requires connecting with a reputable non profit organization (NGO) that provides a conduit between the sponsored child and the sponsor, as BFF  will continue to do until the last of the foundation's sponsored kids graduates in 2021. 

I know there must be hundreds of worthy NGOs managing educational sponsorships, but the only two I know personally are the BFF and another whose founder I have come to know, admire and respect over the past couple of years. That would be Frances Dixon founder and executive director of Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala

What about the financial commitment?

BFF sponsors committed to $2,000 annually, some for as many as 10 years. When tuition increased by $500 at the Galaxy school, the foundation made up the difference with fundraising.

Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala has sponsorships starting at as little as $250 a year for primary and elementary students still in public school, and up to $2,500 annually for students in the two-year Maya Jaguar high school in the northern highlands of Guatemala. (This compared with an annual average $12,000 per pupil cost of public education or more in the USA.) 

PK and I were the only members of our small traveling group in Nepal who were not student sponsors. Meeting the kids and some parents, seeing the benefits, experiencing the students' gratitude and the pure joy of their accomplishments, converted us. We're now sponsoring a young Mayan through Adopt a Village in Guatemala.

I'll be writing more about this as PK and I are planning to drive to Guatemala late this year to visit the remote Maya Jaguar High School and the Adopt a Village "headquarters" in a remote mountainous region accessible by 4X drive only.

We have a Toyota truck and a Four Wheel camper. We're going.  I can't wait.

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If you want to know more about sponsoring, please contact Frances at Adopt a Village in Guatemala.

Feeling the Love at a Government School in Kathmandu, Nepal

This is one of my all-time favorite photos of PK, taken in a situation we could not have imagined. That's the great thing about foreign travel. It is not unusual to end up in a "situation you could not have imagined."In this case, it was our second day in Nepal, and members of our small group were the guests of honor at a school's graduation ceremony, and PK had just been warmly introduced. The ceremony had, in fact, been POSTPONED for four months in anticipation of our visit. Well, not "our" visit, but the visit of one person. That would be Catherine Wood. Going to Nepal with Catherine was kinda like going to Mexico with the Pope. At every place she's touched in Nepal, she and her entourage are treated like royalty. How did this happen? I'll keep the story short, although it spans nearly 14 years. I will say that our most poignant and meaning-packed experiences in Nepal occurred because we were riding on her coattails, errrr, cape. I plan at least one more post about Catherine's work in Nepal.  More "graduation" photos below.

Catherine Wood being greeted at the Bhotechaur Health Clinic, 2014.

Catherine Wood may seem like a typical fun-loving blond with better than average smarts, but she's not at all your standard pretty woman. She's one of a handful of extraordinary people I know personally whose determination, diligence, leadership and love have profoundly changed lives for the better.

In 2002 I accompanied her to Nepal, expanding my world view, and stretching, at that time, my resources. For Catherine, the trip was key for cultivating cross-cultural relationships and laying the groundwork for longterm change. It was her third visit on behalf of the Rogue Gateway Rotary Club in Grants Pass, of which I was a member, to form an alliance with the Rotary Club of Kathmandu to rebuild, as a medical clinic, a crumbling building in a village called Bhotechaur. Our 2002 trip included hiking seven rigorous miles to the village with an architect to take measurements and confer with village leaders.

Catherine tearing up at sunrise atop the clinic this year, in what may be her last trip to Nepal.

In addition to the clinic, Catherine in 2002 was also at the front end of a separate project that began a year earlier when she was captivated by a bright 10-year-old boy named Samip, whose future she could not bear to contemplate if he, like too many Nepali children, didn't get an education. She founded the Bright Futures Foundation, which continued to support the clinic once Rotary funding ended, and also provides, through sponsorships, a top-notch private education to impoverished kids from Kathmandu and nearby villages. To date, six young people have graduated and another 12 are still enrolled at  the Galaxy School of Kathmandu. (More about this in a separate post.)

The year 2002 was also the occasion of a casual visit by Catherine, and incidentally, by me, to a "government school" in the neighborhood where we were staying with a Nepali family. Government schools are supposedly free, although families must purchase uniforms and school supplies. For most children, however, education stops after grade six, and many families can't afford even primary education.

The school principal showed us, with great pride, small dim classrooms with uniformed kids packed together at long tables with few books or other school supplies. At that time, an open trench carried waste from the school's toilets through a tiny playground. That feature is now absent, I was happy to note. This is the school where we attended, with great fanfare, the 2014 graduation.

What the school needed most, Mr. Nepal told us in 2002, was a computer for record keeping. Catherine and I put our heads and dollars together and delivered to Mr. Nepal the school's first computer.

Over the next 12 years, Catherine returned to Nepal annually (at her own expense) to shepherd along the clinic, oversee the sponsored kids in private school, and improve the public school presided over by Mr. Nepal. Through her foundation, the school was provided a computer lab, books and equipment for a science lab, a sound system for the auditorium, and scholarships for 50 girls for one year.

To say that Mr. Nepal and his school community are grateful to Catherine and the Bright Futures Foundation is an understatement. I'll let pictures tell the story.

That's me, overcome with emotion talking with Catherine, who knew what to expect but was still teary-eyed. The moment our small group entered the room, a thunderous roar issued from the students, staff, and parents. It went on and on. I got the seat-of-honor next to Catherine because I was with her the first time she visited the school. Other than that, I was completely unworthy. (Photo credit, PK.)

Bright Futures board member and Michigan resident Polly Hudson reacts to being introduced. Polly is a longtime Bright Futures Foundation board member who has taken a crucial leadership role as Catherine, for family-related reasons, steps away from the helm.

Jeff Bossler, board member and former student sponsor, from the state of Washington, reacts to being introduced. Following our introductions, the graduation ceremony began, and PK and I were stunned to be called up to the stage! Everyone in our group was, in turn, to perform graduation tasks No photos of PK or me, but I was able to capture the emotions when others in our group were called upon so unexpectedly.

 Oregon resident, Kathy Krause, who sponsors a student at the Galaxy School, participates, as we all did, in the graduation ceremony. Her job—bedeck grads with scarves.

After a dozen or so diplomas were handed out, we were treated to
impressive student performances before the ceremony resumed.

Board member and student sponsor, Charla Rolph, left, prepares to apply a bindi, a red dot, to a student's forehead. The bindi is traditional mark in some Asian cultures applied to the middle of the forehead of both women and men . It has multiple meanings, all of them positive.

Another student performance. These two wowed the audience with a Nepalese version of hip-hop

Bonnie Bossler, Orcas Island, Washington,  helps with the scarf detail.

Catherine Wood applies a bindi.

In the audience, beautiful young girls.....

And a beautiful elder,  enjoy the moment.

And like parents and friends everywhere, the phones came out for graduation photos and videos.

Previous posts about Nepal:
Fear, and the Truth About Ziplines

Costa Rica—lessons from a journey south

Paul toasting our good fortune to be at Cabinas Jimenez on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica in December 2010. 

Note to readers: This post includes numerous links, which, if followed, could direct you toward journeys far deeper than my little excursion to Costa Rica leads you. I travel where I can, when I'm able, and in comfort. But my son's journeys are wider and deeper and challenging in every way. If you have time to follow only one link, choose the Great White Explorer. It can transport you to explorations you may not know exist in this day and age.

When I started this post long after returning from our Costa Rican respite, it was raining like hell here in Southern Oregon. February 14 shattered the 1904 rainfall  record in the Rogue Valley and interrupted weeks of balmy days when winter plantings vibrated with springness, and when we uppity Northwesterners looked toward the hideous Eastern blizzards with curiosity and said, "Oh, poor things!" But. Here's winter again.  And now I'm looking back to Costa Rica, where PK and I escaped for most of December 2010. Ahh. It was glorious. But.

We had been there only two days when our son, Chris, emailed us to say that his African kayaking expedition leader. Hendri Coetzee, had been killed by huge crocodile on an African river. Chris was two feet away, and another kayaker, Ben Stookesberry, was close by. A lengthy piece about this tragedy is the cover story in the March 2011 edition of Outside Magazine. (This is a 9-page piece profiling the amazing Hendri. It is well well worth your time. Hendri was charismatic and an outrageous adventurer. His is a riveting story, despite the tragic ending. It's almost as if he saw it coming.)
If you lose your child by a crocodile snatching, it's no more grief-making than by any other means. Car accidents. Diving mishaps. Bicycle crashes. But to us, this news was disturbing beyond belief, perhaps because we'd gotten to know Hendri though his writing on his Great White Explorer blog. The guy was an incredible writer and an extraordinary person. And partly because we felt guilty.

Hendri was taken. Chris lived, and we were grateful he did. Nearly three months later, we're still in wonder and so incredibly thankful that our son is alive and has moved on to his next adventure. Because what else could he do?

Hendri, rest in peace. Please accept the profound regrets of your companion's mother, and I know I speak for his father as well. We're grateful that Chris knew you, and know he loved you and will never forget. He takes many lessons from you. And so do we.

And so we moved on, as parents of survivors can do. (Had Chris been the crocodile's meal, we would still be muddling in a corner.) The next few weeks were a wonder of sights and sensations taking our minds off the tragedy. Two things stand out. One was our stay at a B and B called the Erupciones Inn at the base of the Arenal Volcano. The other was a lesson in letting go with good friends Catherine and Michael Wood, our Southern Oregon pals who live several months a year near Mal Pais on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula.

The story: This Costa Rican dad raises Arabians. His wife runs the Erupciones Inn, a bed and breakfast at the base of Arenal Volcano. I took this photo (and more) from the patio of our modest accommodation. The little guy is two years old, and on his first "round-up-the-horses" mission with his father. Seeing this strong yet gentle parenting was somehow comforting to us, fortunate to be the parents of two incredible young men. 

The story:Here's Catherine Wood napping in her hammock on a lazy Costa Rican afternoon.  In her non Costa Rican life, she's a whirlwind. She works tirelessly for the non profit she founded, Bright Futures Foundation. But CR time is laid back. She reads. She refreshes. She and Michael play dominoes and entertain friends. They get plenty of hammock time. She's younger than me, and I have NEVER achieved the level of relaxation that she demonstrated.
There's no reason not to enjoy some down time, and so I am going to learn to do it!
Thank you, Woods, for the life lesson, and for being such good friends.
More photos from Costa Rica.