My mother's father died the year before I was born, so I never met him. My Mom has whacky stories about him, like he always called every girl Susie. My Mom's Uncle Raymond, who was my grandfather's brother-in-law, told me he was the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back. I doubt anyone will ever say that about me. They will, however, say it about my friend Pam.
Synchronistically, Pam was in the Peace Corps in Nepal the same year I was there for the first time (1985). Pam is a water engineer and lives in Seattle now. We didn't meet until 1988 after she had come back from Nepal to the Pacific Northwest.
Pam has such a big heart and strong desire to make change on a global level that she began a non-profit to do water development projects in Nepal in some of the poorest villages. This non-profit is called Living Earth Institute (LEI). LEI focuses on water supply and sanitation through self sustaining development projects.
LEI works to improve water quality with better wells, new wells, and new composting toilets.
Many of these villages have never had a toilet before. Pam is passionate about water sanitation. Lots of education goes into every project about water, health, and self-sustainability.
Pam and LEI have also tied all this in to the education of women and girls through women's development projects. By adding education, training, and micro-lending the entire village has an opportunity for a better quality of life at every level.
LEI also helps the lowest caste children with uniforms and supplies so they can attend school.
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What Pam has done and joined with others to do is amazing. And Pam does this as a volunteer. She pours all donations into the water projects and never pays herself. It's hard to believe, but true.
If you want to learn more about LEI, there are great pictures and more information at Pam's website
http://living-earth.org/We all make a difference in the world. Sometimes its easier to see with other people than with ourselves. Pam has sure been an inspiration to me, although my way is different from hers. When I think about making things, making art, it is with the desire to say thank you, to show gratitude and appreciation for everything in life that surrounds me, feeds me, shows me what love is. I feel totally inadequate at expressing it through art and other efforts, but I keep trying.
Pam with her daughter in the middle, and two young women she has sponsored to attend college in the US, one from Burma and one from Nepal.
You've heard the expression, I am sure: "Living well is the best revenge." I think living well is the best way to show love, appreciation, and gratitude for being alive. Forget revenge. Acts of love and generosity (to yourself as well) are what its all about. A kind of re-gifting, if you think about it.
Namaste and thank you, Pam!
Saturday was a wonderful day of celebrating Newari New Year and Deepawaly, festivals of Nepal. We are exceptionally lucky to have Shweta and Pratistha so close to us and so inviting to share their festival time. Here they are with Shannon, a close friend of Pam's who was able to celebrate with us. 
This is our second time to celebrate Newari New Year with Pratistha, and our first time with Shweta. This is a very festive time in Nepal, celebrated over many days, but we generally just celebrate on one day, though this year we started cooking the night before. 
The party was held at Pam Didi's house in Seattle. Pam is my friend who has water development projects in Nepal through The Living Earth Institute (LEI). She was in the Peace Corps in Nepal and it is because if her that I know Pratistha and her family. Lucky Bill and I.
In Nepal, in Newari culture, each family has their own mandala design, or sometimes maybe the same design, but a different way of placing things in the mandala for prayers. 
Two of our designs are traditional and specific, one for Shweta and one for Pratistha. They were drawn by Bill from photos their family's sent from Nepal and then cut out into a stencil. Bill used our geometry skills and tools to cut them out, very precisely. 
Ground limestone is used in Nepal, but here we use ground rice dyed with tumeric, or last year we used powdered sugar. 
Pratistha's mandala after stenciling.
We had a third design for us westerners, using the orbiting pattern of Venus as seen from Earth. It was appropriate to our geometry studies of late, so we thought it would be fun to put it in there. 
Because this day is also for prayers to Lakshmi, Goddess of good fortune, it is the eldest woman of the house who does the prayers and blessing for all of us, mandalas God/Goddesses included. This falls to Pam, and a good thing, because she is so well versed in Nepali tradition and language and does a beautiful honoring of everyone. 
Shweta was an elegant and beautiful overseer of the evening. Not only did she supervise much of the food, she helped make sure the prayers went as smoothly and properly as possible for a bunch of non-Nepalis. She also translated Pam's Nepali prayers into English so we all could follow along.
The food was amazing, and everyone had a really good time. Thank you everyone for your contributions of food, prayers, and presence. 
We wish you all a very happy Newari New Year! Bill and I always feel so very fortunate to cross cultures and meet new friends. Thank you Pam for hosting this beautiful event!
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