On Friday December 4th join us at Fuego Bistro at 2001 Sidewinder in Park City for the 4th Annual Padma Winter Party from 7-10pm. Both silent and live auctions and raffle along with a slideshow of our current projects in Nepal will be shown.
Raffle tickets are $10 each. Please visit our donation page to purchase raffle tickets or contact Luke Hanley for more info.
Hope to see you there!
The kids finished their semester exams and had a week holiday. We took them outside the valley to Pharping, a rural town with several Buddhist pilgrimage sites, clean air and mountain views. 4 boxes of Christmas presents also arrived! My mom Heidi gathered 20 shoeboxes full of gifts for the kids. At first the kiddos didn’t know what to do with the boxes but once they realized the cool stuff inside was really for them they were elated! That night they couldn’t sleep and several snuck out of their beds to check on their new markers, crayons, hairclips etc. On Saturday they decided to write thank you cards and draw pictures to show their gratitude. 3 hours later they were still coloring, cutting, writing and designing their Masterpieces of Thanks.
Across the valley the nuns of Ngoedrub Charbeb Ling nunnery are preparing for a trip to Bodhgaya, India to participate in the Nyingma Monlam, an annual prayer festival where thousands of monks, nuns and Ngakpas pray and meditate 8-12 hours a day together for two weeks straight while seated around a tree marking the place where Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment. The nuns are excited for their teacher to return in a few weeks and are hoping for more support to start coming for the monastery.
I arrived in Nepal on December 23rd. After a lengthy wait in the airport for my visa I was released into the 3rd world grandeur of Kathmandu. Throngs of people begging for money or offering a taxi ride are the standard welcome wagon here. Among the crowd I spotted my dear friend Lama Urgyen, a Tibetan Lama who lives in the orphanage and teaches the children about meditation and spirituality. He was holding a Tibetan silk scarf called a kata and draped it over my head as an offering and greeting to me. We walked together to find Anjit Bista, the proud head administrator and founder of the OCAYHN organization. We met and there we were, the 3 amigos together again, ready to take on the world, or at least poverty in Nepal.
We headed to Anjit’s mother’s house where I was planning to stay. Instead I’ve stayed in the kid’s home every night but my first here. Before meeting the kids I went to the Boudha stupa, a dome-shaped monument symbolizing the enlightened mind of the Buddha. Tibetans and other devotees circle the stupa day and night while reciting prayers or mantras to transform and calm their own and others minds. Amidst the raucous nature of Kathmandu the great stupa, as it’s known reverberates with infectious peace and inspiration. When I stood in front of it for the first time in two years a few days ago, my mind found a thoughtless tranquility and I felt more at home than anywhere else in the world. After recharging my spiritual energy at the stupa it was time to meet the kiddos. A 10 minute walk to the small town of Tinchulli, turn left at the big tree and I was there.
Walking up the dirt path to the house I saw two young children wearing Discreet brand beanies. Kind-hearted pro skier Julian Carr donated these hats to all our kids and they wear them almost constantly. Anjit opened the front door for me to meet the kids. I walked inside and a room full of Nepalese kids looked up at me and shyly said, “Welcome brother Luke.” For 3 years I’d worked to make this home possible, then viable, now exceptional and when meeting the kids for the first time in their healthy home I felt my soul exhale and relax in a moment of exceptional satisfaction! I also met Rama for the first time. The lifeblood of the home, Rama herself grew up in an orphanage and manages most day to day happenings in the home.
For several days I simply enjoyed being around these kids and watching them play and interact harmoniously. I can’t quite figure out how or why these 15 kids are so well behaved, happy, caring, and considerate of each other and their surroundings. All I can surmise is they must feel tremendous gratitude to be living how they are today versus the streets or abject poverty they came from. The daily prayer and meditation probably helps too.
With Christmas coming we decided to throw a backyard bonfire and feast for the kids, Nepalese relatives, neighbors and some western friends. We played soccer, badminton, ate way too much delicious food and 3 Christmas cakes, all followed by the kiddos performing songs and dances they’d practiced all day to entertain us. Our Australian friend played guitar around the fire while the kids led in singing both Nepalese and English Christmas songs. Lama Urgyen led a fire puja with Dorje, a monk and dear friend from Utah, and myself fumbling to follow along, to feed the local spirits and bless the party, while Pastor Anand said a Christian prayer to bless our feast. Orion looked down on us from the heavens and the 40 something partygoers all were left with memories of a Christmas night of divine proportions.
On the business side of things, much is happening in the home and with Padma. We bought a hot water heater and everyone feels like royalty taking hot showers. The kids schedule is being shaken up a bit with Lama Urgyen now teaching on religion and meditation every Saturday and Dorje tutoring English every Friday afternoon. We plan to buy a washer/dryer this month and will offer laundry service to neighbors and westerners to begin bringing money into the home. But the biggest change this month is the hiring of Anjana Bhan. Anjana has a master’s in Nepalese rural development and for the past five years worked as an accountant for an international rug company. Her role with Padma will include bookkeeping, financial planning, and grant writing in conjuction with a British NGO designed to train Nepalese in getting international funding for domestic service projects.
I’ve hit the ground running and Padma is rockin.
We added some new stuff to the website. I changed the Photo Album to be prettier, and we’ve got a new project to help support a monastery in Tibet. Each project now has its’ own page, which you can access from the Current Projects page or the dropdown menu under Current Projects. Be sure to check out the new Tibetan Nun Project to find out the details of the latest organization Padma is helping support.
Just got back from the 10th annual fundraiser at the Jeremy that Padma was invited to. I think we did really well. One of Pasang’s tapestries sold for over $2000! I’m hoping this brings a lot more attention to the organization and to the website, which means I’ve got my work cut out for me!
In anticipation, I’m planning on introducing some new features. One of them will be a subscription option to this blog, so subscribers can get email updates — I’m hoping we can get the newsletter posted on the blog (as well as smaller updates in between), to keep everyone informed about what’s going on in Padma. I’ve also got some bigger ideas planned that are top secret, but will be revealed soon. Stay tuned!
Luke hasn’t yet figured out the wonders of technologies enough to take a few minutes to post the happenings to this blog, so I’m here to report what he’s up to and what’s new in the Padma Organization.
Luke’s just moved into a Tibetan temple to make Buddha statues for a couple weeks. He’s excited to announce that Padma will be one of three groups to receive equal shares at an upcoming fundraiser in Park City. He invites everyone to come support these great organizations. The fundraiser will be on September 5 at Jeremy Country Club. We hope to see you all there!