Dr Rabin Man Shakya
Portland, Nov 12 (Nepal Oregon News): A slideshow presentation about experience of visit to the Kathmandu valley, Pokhara and Tansen was organized at the Nritya Mandala Mahavihara in Portland on Saturday May 11, 2019.
Jeanean Rauch and her 12 year old son Andrew traveled and worked in Nepal for ten weeks. Ms Rauch shared pictures and stories from the trip. They lived at the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco-Foundation which is an NGO in the kathmandu valley.
The Foundation was established in 2008 in Khahare, a village near Kathmandu. After the accidental death of their seven-year old son, Krishna and Leela Gurung decided to establish a foundation to remember him and to develop a project to make a better world that they would have liked Kevin to live in.
The Foundation has a health clinic, a Waldrof-inspired school, biodynamic workshop, sustainable carpentry workshop, and are building bottle houses for sustainable housing solutions.
The mom and her son were in Nepal during the Nepalese festival of Tihar and American holiday of Thanksgiving Day.
The slideshow presentation was a nostalgic deja vu for some Nepalese Portlanders, and lots of interesting and esoteric information about Nepal for American guests.
The mom and her son witnessed Kag Puja, Kukur Puja and Govardhan Puja in the Kathmandu valley. There were pictures and stories about a rice feeding ceremony for a newly born child. Also, they celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with a Nepali family.
The slideshow offered a wide spectrum in terms of Nepalese lifestyle, Nepalese festivals, ceremonies and rituals, the Himalayas, trips to religious and historical places like Boudha Nath, Monkey Temple and Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.
And it looked like they loved Daal Bhat Tarkari, Momo dumplings and other Nepalese delicacies.
Answering to a query of this scribe, Jeanean said she liked the Nepalese cuisines, Nepalese hospitality, helpfulness of the people, their generosity and spiritualism. But she also added that she did not like the deteriorating pollution, crowdy and noisy bus rides and dirty rest rooms.
Many American guests who were present at the program have been to Nepal. The good thing about the program is that the slideshow impressed upon a kind of interest and curiosity about Nepal on those who have not yet been to Nepal.
The slideshow presentation was followed by a delicious potluck dinner.
(Rabin Man Shakya is a Nepali journalist in America)
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