Goals, Pyush, and Trees

Of the four classes on my schedule this semester at Kathmandu University, two of them seem very interesting, so I have agreed with my program director that I will take only these courses, and spend the rest of my time being a better Ambassador of Goodwill. The two interesting courses are: "Public Policy" and "Population, Development, and Natural Resource Linkages." Both courses have already filled my head with new thoughts and ideas.

A few days ago my friend Safal invited me to his home to spend a few hours and visit with his mother who was in town from Pokhara. The visit was very pleasant and I was even offered home grown tea and popcorn from the Ghimire home in Pokhara. Safal handed me a book called, "You Can Win," and, though generally I find such books distasteful, I decided to flip to the section on goals. I'm sorry if I misrepresent the words and ideas of the author, Shiv Khera, but I'll try my best to summarize his ideas and my responses. He says that if we have no goals then we will never accomplish anything or go anywhere. I'm not completely convinced that this is true, but I decided to keep reading. Khera then said that, in order to define our goals, we must first define what success means to us.

My definition of success includes happiness, health, meaningful relationships, financial security, and maintaining a positive attitude. Many of these indicators of success seem to be maintained through my practice of meditation. However, I realized that if I identify a few skills that I could acquire, both for income and for pleasure, that could contribute to me achieving a greater level of success, then I would be more likely to achieve my goals. So I made a list of smaller goals that seem achievable. Here they are:
* Serving & Volunteering
* Creating art, playing music, learning the banjo
* Building bread ovens and biogas systems
* Vehicle repair and maintenance
* Storytelling & Listening
* Cooking
* Learning/Teaching Yoga and Meditation
* Singing & Dancing
* Sustainable Agriculture

Also floating around in my mind are thoughts of long-term goals that I might like to pursue. Paul and I have been talking about starting a farm on some property that his family owns in central California. We would make a point to employ young people who are being emancipated from the state after going through residential treatment facilities. Paul is really excited about the idea and it is something we will continue talking about about planning during this year. I've also been thinking about getting into counseling or therapy.

In order to achieve my goals of spending more time in service and volunteering, this week I spent a day planting trees in the town of Banepa. I also spent a day packaging Pyush, a chlorine solution, which will be sent to Western Nepal for a Cholera epidemic that broke out about a month and half back. A Nepali friend of mine got together with his friends and decided that the town of Banepa needed more trees. So they organized, petitioned people, got some support, and started planning. I called my friends and went with a crew of 7 to shovel, pick, and carry for the day. Despite the rain, we all had a great time and I look forward to going back to help plant the rest of the 700 trees intended for the main highway. Check out the pictures in the new album under the "Links from Nepal" box.

The Pyush project was also very interesting. Cholera had disappeared from Nepal 10 years ago, and now it has come back with a force. This organization has already sent at least 5,000 little bottles of the solution, each of which can clean about 600 liters of water. They are in the process of packaging thousands more, but they need a lot of people power to do all the packaging. This week I plan to help plant more trees and package more Pyush. I am also talking with my home Rotary Club to see if they can offer some financial assistance to ENPHO, the organization that is heading up the Pyush project.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!