From Sherrie (FINALLY!) on Saturday the 23rd

From Sherrie

The first impressions I have of Nepal and Kathmandu are of chaos, dirt, Namaste, peace, beauty, and differences beyond what I could ever describe. However, even with these differences I feel a familiarity here...I sense nothing is strange or different at all - as if this is not my first visit.

I am thankful my impressions of Nepal are preserved as still images although I feel it changes my experience at the moment it is all happening. I am learning how to better keep my head up and my senses open, even as I am searching for and recording the scenes and shots before me. You would think it would be easier for a photographer to be in the moment, but really it is in the moment in a different way.

Any time not spent "just experiencing" is made up for when you get THE shot...the one that captures the face, the moment, the feeling, and the scene as it is everyday, with or without you there.

I have had many of these moments but a few stand out. One in particular happened while we were on our way to Swyambunath. We passed a tailor shop and I caught a glimpse of an old woman with her family. A moment later the group stopped so I ran back to the shop to get the shot. She gave me permission to take her picture and I recorded her deeply wrinkled face, nose ring, and warm, seasoned eyes. The rest of the family posed too - a woman with a child, a man smoking a cigarette, and three teenage boys, one laughing, one staring, and one simply smiling in his white tank top.

One would think people would tire of being photographed or do so only for money, but this family was happy to have the attention. To be thought special enough to be noticed and to be photographed. In fact, it is often the case that a hard look or seemingly cold expression washes away from the faces of the people as soon as you say "Namaste" or acknowledge them and their own importance as a fellow human in some way.

It is easy to feel unsafe in a foreign country - actually, it is easy to feel unsafe anywhere. So far this experience called Nepal has shown me there is often not as many reasons to be afraid as we might think.
Most of you who may read this blog are clean - or can be :) , warm (or cool), well dressed, and able to eat anything, anywhere, anytime. Today as Jenna, Diane and I tried on clothes in a shop we asked to go in the back for some privacy. We were led through a tin door to the back of the shop into a small room with a small bed, two books, and a few hooks with clothes. This of course was the home for the shopkeeper, and for all we know may have been the bed for two. This is not sad, just a reminder of what we have and the comfort most of us experience.

Walking through town requires a bit of navigation around cow pies, but so far Pokhara is much calmer and small town than Kathmandu. My spirit has already opened here and this island girl is pleased to be near a lake, a big body of water to soften this fire sign.

Jenna has been fabulous about giving gifts to the people in the villages - magic markers, clothes, headbands. Even today she walked about giving gifts, even to the cow passing by as we walked toward our hotel. This fine sacred cow received a purple headband which it promptly tried to shake off. Laughing uncontrollably, we gathered ourselves and took it back. Maybe it would have preferred a skirt.

All for now,
Sherrie