Ten Friends takes largest group to Nepal

Last updated Aug 23, 2011 12:0pm0

Zander Albertson count

Kirk Albertson of Sisters works with Nepalese children during a Ten Friends expedition this summer.

Zander Albertson count

Trekkers found their Nepal expedition challenging but rewarding.

Six weeks ago, Ten Friends founders Mark LaMont and Rand Runco accompanied the largest group they had ever taken to Nepal for a month-long, life-changing trip.

Sisters High School students Elisabeth Kokesh-Carhart and Will Saunders; graduates Eric Adler, Zander Albertson and Parker Bennett; and teachers Kirk Albertson, Sally Benton, Kathy Powell and Allison Rayburn accompanied LaMont and Runco. Pasadena, California school principal Josh Brody, who has worked closely with Ten Friends for years, joined the group as well. The team spent four weeks working to accomplish Ten Friends' goals in both Kathmandu and the rugged backcountry of northeastern Nepal.

Arriving in Kathmandu, students had the opportunity to visit cultural sites, work with children in the Hopeful Home Orphanage and purchase books for Ten Friends libraries in remote mountain villages. The weeklong stay in Kathmandu also allowed for acclimatization to the hot, humid air and to the noisy, polluted and chaotic way of life in a city of over 1 million. Buses, motorcycles, taxis, cows and people all clogged the streets - a much different scene than what is encountered in the U.S. or western Europe.

With a final check at the orphanage, and 2,400 books packaged for the mountains, the group headed for the village of Khadbari, and began their 18-day trek in the Himalayan jungle. Leaving the city and its pollution behind came as a relief, but the mountains had their own miseries. Leeches and mosquitoes, as well as heavy monsoon rains, made life uncomfortable, but helped the Sisters students realize just how easy life in the U.S. really is. In the mountains, all supplies are hauled in on foot, and electricity and modern communication are nonexistent.

The first stop in the mountains was the Himalayan Education Center (HEC), a hostel funded by Ten Friends, where young women stay while training to become teachers. The school, with the financial support of Ten Friends, has graduated eight teachers, including six this year, which is a "tremendous success," says LaMont. The women are now teaching in local villages.

After leaving the HEC, the group split into two smaller groups, so as to ease the burden on villagers of cooking and hosting large groups in tiny upper villages. LaMont and Runco took their group to visit the culturally rich area near Lingam, while Brody led his group to the base camp of Mt. Makalu, the 5th highest mountain in the world. These were not ordinary treks, with slippery mud, raging rivers, monsoon rains, and steep terrain to be expected daily.

On the way to their destinations, the groups checked on Ten Friends community development projects as well as installed new libraries. Eight new villages were proud recipients of new books, hosting celebration ceremonies that involved singing, dancing, stories and a Nepalese blessing for their Western visitors. These libraries serve as foundations for future Ten Friends projects in those villages, which may include clay water filters, solar panels, and other development.

Runco enjoyed the larger-than-usual group size, saying that immersing so many people in the Nepalese culture and Ten Friends projects was extremely satisfying. "They get the full experience of a Third-world country, the richness of the culture, and participation in our projects from orphanage assistance to village community development in small Nepali villages. It's an amazing connection between countries, cultures, and definitely life-changing for our interns and volunteers that are here with us," he said.

Eric Adler said, "There are hundreds of ways to describe my experience... but what I will always remember after this trip is to be grateful for every little thing we have right here at home. The fact that I can wake up in the morning (dry), turn a knob to take a warm shower, fill my glass up with clean water and then open the fridge to a glowing mass of food is now truly incredible. The trip was... incredibly difficult, incredibly beautiful and incredibly eye-opening."

Sisters-based Ten Friends is a donor-funded nonprofit and welcomes donations; visit http://www.tenfriends.org to read more and donate.

Nepal trek tests and strengthens Sisters man

The arrival in Kathmandu, a city of over one million, was sensory overload: in a word, chaos.

With no traffic lights and nonexistent lanes, the streets were a frenzy of zigzagging cars, bikes, foot traffic, carts and cows.

Then there were the people, so many people, densely packing every nook and cranny.

Heaps of garbage literally filled the streets and riverbanks, and feral dogs roam everywhere.

Abandoned children, truly destitute adults, and notably unsanitary conditions melded with the din of everyday market life of a typical day in Kathmandu.

The rivers are grey, the air thick with smog, the noise level intense.

My every sense was assaulted, especially in contrast to our quaint Central Oregon town.

Despite the alarming conditions of the city, I found great satisfaction in the time I spent at the Hopeful Home Orphanage, one that serves orphaned youths who are attending the nearby school.

During my stay I spent much of my time helping the students study for their exams.

These kids only have the clothes they are wearing, and a few tattered school notebooks, and yet are the happiest youngsters I have ever met, seemingly possessing a joy beyond their circumstances.

They sleep four to a room, on steel bunk beds, eating only lentils and rice twice a day.

And while experiencing so much that they could complain about, instead they told me about how excited they were to go to school, and shared with enthusiasm all that they were learning.

Whereas it was interesting to visit the cultural sites around Kathmandu, I was anxious to leave the smog and noise of the city behind and head up to the remote mountain villages. For me, the most impactful part of the trip was the trek to the mountains. The experience of living out of a backpack for weeks, trekking to extremely remote locations, combined with myriad challenges, made it a real life-changer.

I learned patience, mental fortitude and also found out just how much the human body can endure. It is said that the trek up to Makalu Base Camp is one of the hardest, and I believe it. It is without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever endured or accomplished. I know that as I became physically stronger, I also became mentally stronger. Weeks of monsoon rains and extreme humidity, water-borne illness, bloody leeches, forever-wet boots, constant hunger and the uncertainty of treacherous terrain tested both my mental and physical self.

The physical aspect of the trek loomed large every day we were on the trail. Incredibly steep and narrow paths wet with monsoon rains became slick as snot, and in some places a fall might result in anything from a five-foot slip to a potentially fatal drop-off. And the trail just continued upward - there were times when it felt as if we had not taken a downward step in weeks.

Counteracting the physical challenges was the scenery. The scale of things blew me away. One day, with a temporary break from monsoon, I stood on the edge of a trail overlooking an enormous valley with vast miles of terraced hillsides, white clouds and vivid blue skies above, as children of a remote village ran by chasing a goat filling the air with laughter. It is a simple, yet incredible scene I will never forget.

All of my physical effort paid off when I felt the pure happiness and sense of fulfillment as I watched the villagers and teachers of Seduwa celebrate their new library. In this mountainous region there are not many educational opportunities, so for a village to have a school, with a library stocked with books, is a big deal. To know I was a part of delivering that opportunity to that village was a very meaningful experience.

I think perhaps the most valuable part of the trip for me was not one experience, not one moment, but the opportunity to spend many hours with myself in that environment, and to ask myself about how I want to live my life in light of how so many elsewhere in the world live.

I am reflecting on how truly fortunate I am, how fortunate we all are in so many ways, to have an abundance of opportunities and choices not available to others in many parts of the world.

What will I make of these opportunities and choices? Returning to the U.S., I no longer take for granted the safe drinking water that freely flows, the clean tree-lined streets, heated and air conditioned homes, ample food, medical care and education.

In Nepal, a country where everything is hard and everything is complicated, I am impressed by the scope and impact that has come from Ten Friends.

It has been making real changes in real lives.

It is deeply rewarding to be able to visit a village and see children drinking clean water and reading books.

I am proud to know this organization has its origins in Sisters, is supported in large part by our little community, and enriches the lives of so many in Nepal.

For me, these words of Helen Keller have even greater resonance now; "I am only one, but I am still one.

I cannot do everything, but I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."