Hashes combined

Posted on January 24, 2014 by rfljenksy

I present to you a follow-up to my On On post as well as an attempt to catch up on all of the weekly challenges I have missed due to over-working, power-outages, exhaustion and pure laziness. I have combined photos from a few of the past hashes I have attended. They will give you a sampling of life outside of the valley as well as hopefully fulfilling the following prompts. People, Window, Outside and for me I feel like some of these photos really represent the Travel theme: Possibility.

Many of the photos were taken from the 5th hash of the season and involved hiking up a giant hill to visit a stupa after which we hiked back down and through a brick manufacturing plant. It was fascinating to see possibly millions of bricks lined up not to mention the fact that all of the people you see in this area don’t just work at this factory but live there as well. It’s one possibility for living that even after seeing it I could not imagine living it. Yet seeing it also helped me once again realize that it is possible to be happy and have fun in whatever situation you find yourself no matter how squalid the conditions. I hope you enjoy.

Now the truth and sad side of some of these photos are best represented by the following articles. A short summary though if you don’t want to read them. There are hundreds of these brick factories around Nepal. Many of the children are illiterate as they do not have any means of formal (or informal) education. Many are forced into hard labor. The living conditions are dirty, unhealthy and harsh. There is a possibility of helping these kids.

There are foundations and opportunities to spend time teaching them. The following articles are touching and have some amazing photos attached. They are worth a look. Thanks for reading.

Connected to the photos:

Photo Philanthropy – Nepal Brick Factory Education for Child Workers in Brick Factories, Nepal Overview of Brick Industry in Kathmandu Hard labor in brick factories in Nepal

Sunday Post: reality in perspective – 1 Mistek, Game OVER… X

Posted on January 12, 2014 by rfljenksy

“One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.”
― Tim Burton

Jakesprinter’s Theme this week is Reality. To further define his theme he goes on to say:

Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. A still more broad definition includes everything that has existed, exists, or will exist.

As I have been traveling and working my way through Nepal I’ve seen some happy, sad and interesting things. On my recent trip to a couple of towns near the Indian border I was faced with a few realities that in my perspective were CRAZY and strange and some were just plain horrible. Don’t get me wrong I’ve seen some amazing things as well. But in MY reality, some things were just not ok. Whether it was a safety issue or just cleanliness and abhorrent living conditions.

What would happen to your reality if you were taken from it and placed in some of the above scenarios? How would you feel? Would you be afraid? Would you be disgusted? Would it be exciting and thrilling or would you reject the reality and try to run from it? Would you go back to your life and attempt to forget it or tell stories about how very unfortunate these people were and how terrible their lives were? Would you be able to accept that this is just how life is for a large portion of the world? I would like you to challenge yourself and place yourself in these realities and for just a minute pretend that it is in fact your life, your reality. How do you feel? Could you do it forever? What if you had no choice? What if that’s all you knew?

“Reality is funny, Your’s will always be different than mine.” ― J.S. Riley

Is your reality better than another’s reality? If it’s all you know then it’s all you know. There is nothing unusual or sad. You still have dreams and hopes and desires. You can be happy even in a reality that appears unacceptable to someone else. Maybe some things should just be left alone. Sometimes we can bring people to a realization that their reality is NOT ok and that in order for them to be OK they need to change everything about their reality. Which eventually causes their situation to be worse for them than it needs to be. some people are actually happy in their reality.

“Everything looks uglier close up.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

Sometimes you need to take a step back to really understand the entire picture. You have to remove yourself from your reality because things really can be uglier if you are too close to the things you are seeing. I’m not saying don’t reach out a helping hand or try to intervene to make someones life better. I’m just saying try first to understand and accept their reality and not judge it or try to change it based on your reality or your ideal of reality. Not everyone wants YOUR reality.

“I can understand, he said, that many people, many perfectly ordinary people, have an interesting story to tell. No one’s experience of life is valueless.”
― Michael Frayn, The Russian Interpreter

Here are just a random sampling of other pictures from the same trip.

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Beginning of a new day

Posted on January 5, 2014 by rfljenksy

Several New Year’s challenges have inspired me to take some more sunrise and morning shots. I was on a yoga retreat and was awake before anyone else got up and was lucky enough to get some of these few precious, quiet photos. Some of the photos were even better after people awoke. A few were taken from a short hike to a monestary. I hope you enjoy.