ORDINARY LIFE

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.