a blog4NZ

this blog post- is part of the blog 4 NZ,  which is reminding people that theres way more to NZ at the moment to the earthquake, and well performing rugby teams. if you've got a blog do it. if you dont. read about it.

sorry in advance for the cheese - peace out to my kiwi peeps.

NZ is a place close to my heart and home to half of my extended family. i',m lucky enough to have been mroe times than i can count and even lukier to have a holiday house there near queenstown. i love NZ. i love the people. i love the countryside and the mountains ,rivers, beaches, towns, roads, tramps, sun, clouds, rain that make it such an amazing place to visit.

I dont get homesick in generall, but when I yearn for home and the familiar its not usually for sydney, or australia i get wamr fuzzy memories for NZ. for the countryside where i spent childhood holidays, eating tip top hokey pokey icecream, annoying my older cousins, bullying my younger brother, fishing, walking, swimming, performing ad hoc plays. for my late grandparents, family road trips, the road between christchurch and queenstown, the green, the snow, lake wakatipu, the view of mt cook at lake tekapo.  

x

nel mezzo

getting on, getting old, or something like that. I had major issues with turning 25, i thought i needed a real job, a real life and needed to stop being quite so, well, under 25. then i turned 25 and i got over it, and suddenly what felt like being really old, didnt really feel that old. something to do with moving to Nepal, doing (at least a little bit) what I've wanted to do for a long time, and hanging out with people anywhere from 7 years younger to 10 -15 years older than me, really made 25 seem quite young. and now 26 looms and i'm not fussed. im not really any older or wiser, though maybe one small step closer to a real job.

but these are some things I know

1. buy the ticket, take the ride
2. listening the the Clash 'should I stay or should I go" should aid all life decision making
3. a didi is a gamechanger
4. doing nothing at work in Nepal is infinitely better than doing nothing at work in Australia
5. when riding in kathmandu traffic. dont stop concentrating. ever. or you will ride into the back of a bus.

international wo(men's) day...

after a day off work for IWD and brunch with some pretty inspiring chicks working here in Nepal ,  a discussion on the status of women in nepal, and some research into the amazing work the Female community health workers here in nepal carry, here's out something for thought on international women’s day

tilsari (23) has given birth to three babies at home, without medical help, and all three died soon after the birth. this year she again became pregnant, and once again went itot labour at home. her husband and family again refused to arrange for her to go to hospital desipite the fact that ther labour was prolonged and she was weak. they said it would be cheaper for him to marry again if she died, rather than paying the costs for her to go to hospital....

I met this young lady on my field trip to the mid west. 21 , 3 babies, the oldest 5, the youngest 2 weeks old. she gave birth alone on her mud brick floor while her mother in law and husband were out in the field, and hadn't been for any ante natal checks while pregnant with any of the children

she was lucky. as it turns out tilsari above was also,  members of the commiunity heard of her situation and used emergency funds to get her to a hospital, where she was given an emergency C section and medicines for free. 

Fun ‘only in nepal’ stories from the day: one friend who is currently out of the valley found that due to the surprise public holiday on sunday due to the death of Nepals first PM, that the women he was working with were not in fact entitled to the Womens day holiday , while the nepali government decided that women shouldn’t get all the fun and declared it a public holiday for all. not just the women. 

Happy IWD yo

xx