Plastic cover

In Sweden we remove the plastic cover from things we buy the minute it's ours, but here they keep it on til it falls off by it self.
I guess it's to protect it for as long as possible, but also to show that it's new.
Like this car. Cars are super expensive here so having one gives you a special status.

We went to a newly built dentist hospital and as you can see they have kept the plastic on the chairs.
Surprise, surprise!

It can be tricky to remove the plastic, when you buy for example a chair or a bike, since they put the plastic on each piece before they screw it together.
So there is always some left even if you try really hard to remove it. Not a very smart system, I must say.

Dog leashes and collars

When we moved to India almost 6 years ago I started making dog leashes from vintage saris and my dream was to be able to give work to women to make them.
For a few years I got caught up with other things, but suddenly a company in USA saw an old post here at my blog and now we have enough orders to have a handful women working with this.
These women has the responsibility for their families so they can't get a job outside their home. With this they can work whenever they have time in their home. Very practical!
Maya is our manager and at her shop the women pick up material, leave the finished products and get paid.
It's just amazing! Dreams really come true, it's just waiting for the right time.
Yesterday I met some of the ladies in Maya's shop and it was, least to say, a bit chaotic with all their kids. It made me even more impressed that they can do this work with their kids hanging around.

Examples of leashes.

Now we are also making dog collars.

Plastic bags

A few months back the government banned plastic bags.
A great idea for the environment since there is no recycle system here, but it's such a stupid law.
A few things that makes is very difficult without a plastic bag:
1. Bring home a chicken cut in pieces from the butcher. Do you put the slimy pieces in your pockets?
2. Try to bring home a kilo of loose rice we buy by weight at the local grocery shop in your handbag and you'll see what I mean.
3. How does the government want us to carry a lot of things we have bought for our customers to the freight office?
This is insane! In this world of consumption we have created, plastic bags are a necessity, like it or not.
We've had to buy plastic bags for our household waste on the black market.
I actually found a guy who sells packets of plastic bags that he hides behind his counter.

The true story about Maya

This is the true story about our friend Maya, but it can be applied to many Nepalese women:

When Maya's mom was 9 years old she was forced to marry a 29 year old man and when she was 12 she gave birth to Maya.
In total they were 6 sisters and 3 brothers, but one sister died when she was 5.
When Maya grew up they were so poor that they couldn't afford shoes, not even during the cold winter.
Their friends got new clothes, but Maya's parents only had enough money to buy food. Maya was of course jealous of her friends, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Maya's highest wish in the whole world was to study, but after 5:th grade she had to leave school to earn money.
She carried heavy things, about 50 kg, on her back, up the hills, for 20 km or more, for less than a dollar, still without shoes and the employer didn't even give her something to eat.
Her family arranged her marriage with a man who abused her for many years. He didn't work, but expected her to walk the streets begging, selling small bags.
They got two daughters, the man left her for another woman and Maya walked the streets for 15 years, humiliating herself asking tourists for money.
She had credit everywhere. Rent, school fees and the grocery shop, living one day at the time, paying off the debts whenever it was possible.
Maya and her daughters live together with a sister and a brother, in total five persons, in a small room where they do everything from studying and sleeping, to washing clothes and cooking.
I met Maya the first time I set my foot in Nepal and since then I've dreamt of giving her a job. Every time I met her I gave her some money. For a special festival I gave her some extra and when someone in her family needed to go to the doctor I helped her.
She has always been the one her family has been depending on financially. Her mom gives blessing for change in the small village and her father does odd construction work, but they mainly live on the small land they own. Maya's grandparents had much more land, but they lost it playing cards.
The earthquake has been horrible and a terrible loss for so many people, but some good things have come out of it.
Friends in Canada arranged two concerts and from the money they raised we were able to do something extraordinary.
One day I sat down with Maya and asked what she wanted to do with her life and her dream was to have her own grocery shop and a few weeks ago we were able to realize her dream.
It was one of the most emotional days in my life. Helping a person, a whole family really, with such a life changing long lasting thing is just amazing.
I knew Maya was a true business woman. She is getting up at 4 in the morning, going to the vegetable market and from there she is busy the whole day. She is a really hardworking woman and I'm so proud of her.
She was definitely the right person to help like this.

I'm back

A lot has happened the last few weeks and I must say it hasn't been all bad. On the contrary.
Thanks to donations we could help our friend Prem distribute rice and oil to his whole village of about 170 households.
The village council decided to buy food for the whole village instead of building shelters for a few families. A very heart warming decision from a society where you care about each other.
The residents where very happily surprised when they received a whole bag of rice. When the government came they got 2 kg each and that says a lot about the political situation here.
For example did the orphanage we work with get two soaps and a plaster from the government representative who visited them. Why even bother?
Here you can see some lovely photos from the day Prem went to his home village with a truck full of food.

My mother-in-law went back to Sweden the 15:th of June and hopefully she will move to Nepal on a permanent basis in a few months.
Sweden is both cold and very expensive to live in for a retired individual and here she can enjoy life more.

We just had to leave Kathmandu for a while to get away from everything, so we went to Pokhara where you couldn't see any damage or feel any after shocks.
The trip was absolutely amazing and healing for the whole family.

In Pokhara we met our sweet Tibetan friends and we gave them some of the donated money since they have a difficult time surviving now when the tourists are gone.

I have some great news about Maya, but I want to write the full story, so it will be in another post.

Updates

I'm so tired! The second big earthquake did a huge impact on all of us. All emotions of fear and sadness came right back.
People were sort of getting back to the every day life, but this completely unnecessary earthquake, aren't they all, one week ago, killed and injured even more people and demolished houses that were cracked from the first earthquake.
People are living outdoors, just waiting for the next big shock and rumors of coming eathquakes are making it even worse.

We have received a lot of donations from friends all over the world, so we have managed to help Suresh build corrugated sheet sheds for poor, low cast people in his home village.
The monsoon season is coming soon so they need temporary, but good shelters. No one, in this area at least, is building houses right now and the government hasn't decided how to distribute the donated money.
They are not as fast as we are...

We have been able to give Maya the money she needs to rebuild her parents' house in her home village, on the hillside, near Pokhara.
She was so happy and grateful! Saturday she left for the village to start the construction right away, so they will have it done before the rain comes.

Now we are working on raising money for our dear friend Prem's home village. He has 7 sibblings and their spouses, they have 3-4 children each and the children have children, so we are talking about a big family.
After the first earthquake it was manageable, but the second one totally ruined the whole village.
We are now asking for donations for temporary shelters for Prem's family and we already have some we can give Prem tomorrow, but we need more.

We have sweet, loving friends all over the world sending money that we can give directly to people who need it and one Canadian friend is organizing a benefit concert the 14:th of June via Skype and another is doing a MIT fitness event in Boston, USA the 22:nd of June.
Everything is so sad, but when I really cry my heart out is when people show so much love!
I have to keep strong for my family, but the horrible situation is heartbreaking.

I don't spend much time here on my blog right now, so please check my Facebook for more updates: Search for Ani Nero, and you'll find me.

The earthquake

At 11.56 last Saturday the house started shaking like crazy.
We've had small earthquakes before, so we knew what was going on. We also knew that one day the big earthquake would hit the area. It was just a matter of time, like living with a time bomb.
At a moment like that you first and foremost become the parent. I rushed from room to room screaming for Leya, but I couldn't find her. I was in total panic til I realized she had just gone to a small shop close to our house to buy hair clips.
I screamed at my mother in law, Britt-Marie that she had to get out and in the stairs we met our landlords.
They stopped in the doorway and I screamed Ut! Ut! (I totally forgot the English word Out!).
I couldn't understand why they stopped until I came out. Flower pots from the roof top terrace were crashing on the ground and going out at that point had been really dangerous.
Finally we came out in the street and met up with other neighbors. Nicholas went to the shop and got Leya and I was so relieved to see her I can't express it in words.
Next to us is an empty plot where someone is growing vegetables and we all went in there to wait.
We sat down on the soil and waited for the second quake. My legs were like jelly and my heart was pounding. I'm pretty tough when it comes to crisis, but not when it comes to earthquakes.
The after shocks came, one after another and suddenly the landlords son came running with his phone. It was my mom calling from Sweden.
She was crying and that was the first time I understood something was going on. All houses in our neighborhood were fine, so we had no idea to what extent this earthquake had hit Kathmandu.
My mom was so relieved to hear my voice that both Britt-Marie and I started crying. My mom was lucky to come through and talk to us, because not long after the mobile system collapsed for a few days.
We lived outside for a few days. The government had told everyone to stay outdoors for 72 hours, so we were camping with our landlords and their big family at a party palace.

Leya got a new friend, Nimdiko.

Everyone was tired from all the tension and tried to get some rest between the scary after shocks.

Of course our dogs Angel and Lizzie came with us to the camp. They were really tired too since they guarded us during the nights.

Tuesday at lunch time we moved back to the house. Our house is safe and built for far worse earthquakes than this, but the first nights we slept with one eye open.
First we had some cleaning to do.

Still it's difficult to grasp the full disaster. We see the photos and videos like everyone else, but all newly built houses are still standing.
Now when we have got more energy we have started to gather money for Suresh, my little brother's, village. Here is the message I've sent to everyone in my email contact list:

Hello!

This is FIA/Ani and the reason why I'm sending you a message is because I found you in my email contact list.

We live in Kathmandu, Nepal since 3 years and by now I think all of you have heard about the earthquake that killed and injured thousands of people and ruined homes and cultural heritages.

We are just fine. After a few days staying outdoors we've now moved back home.
As you might have seen from photos and videos not everyone has been as lucky and blessed as us and we'd like to gather as much money as possible to help our friends who's families back in the home villages are left with nothing. Their mud houses and their livestock, like chicken, goats and water buffaloes are gone. We are talking about poor people who have lost everything.

We have a dear friend who would do anything for us and consider us family. His name is Suresh and he lives here in Kathmandu with his wife Muna, their 8 month old son Supreme and his two brothers. Suresh is only 25 years old and since he is the oldest son he is responsible for his entire family. It's a cultural structure practiced by most Nepalese families.
They are fine and their house here in Kathmandu is OK, but their families houses are gone or at least cracked and have to be rebuilt. Their animals, that give them daily milk and eggs, are gone and the small fields where they grow ginger and other vegetables, their only livelihood to buy salt etc and pay for their children's education, are destroyed.

There are many international help organizations doing their bit, but it's not enough in the long run and donating money to these villages, in the district Nuwakot, will be a way for you to contribute immediately, with instant effect. Your help will be concrete and we can guarantee that every rupee will end up in the right place.

If you want to help the devastated people of Nepal please make the payment via Western Union to:

First name: Ann-Sofie
Middle name: Wera Marie
Last name: Nero
Address: Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: +977 9818372075

When you've made the payment please send me:

- The 10 digit MTCN no.
- The sender's full name

If you live in Sweden you can make the donation to our bank account: SEB 5304-03 055 65.

The Nepalese people are gentle and strong and I know they will rebuild Nepal, but right now they need your help.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Bless you and your family!

Regards Ani
You are welcome to follow my updates on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IlmaofSweden

Pokhara

We've had a few well deserved days vacation in our favorite place Pokhara.
The girls danced, had fun and played in the pool.

We had a picknick by the lake and Lizzie enjoyed running in the water for the first time in her life.

We did some work taking photos of bags, made by village women working for a special project.

We met our friends, the Tibetan ladies, who sell jewelry in the street. Of course we bought from them. It's a part of the Pokhara experience.

Leya finally got her earring holes. She was terrified, but very brave.

When we came back to Kathmandu we picked up Angel and spent some time with Mom Sweetie and her family.

Parents' day

We were invited to parents' day to celebrate that the school year had ended.
They danced:

They sang:

Leya played piano:

The kids got medals after the sports day:

Aren't they adorable!

Now Leya has one week summer holiday and on Sunday she starts 4:th class.

Swedish customers

Yet again we had visitors from Sweden. They want to make garment from colorful, knitted, light felted wool with crazy decorations in cool designs.
Exciting!
Of course we had dinner at our favorite restaurant Rosemary.