My departure date is looming! How do I feel? Excited, a little trepidatious, impatient to be off.
This trip has been a long time in the planning and there are still things to do before I go.... people to see, places to be.
I have had an overwhelming response to my ' hats for Nepals babies' appeal. So many friends and friends of friends, have discovered their 'inner knitter' and produced beautiful wee hat creations that will keep many precious heads warm at a most crucial time. (We all know how cold it can feel out here in the big wide world when you leave behind the warmth of your mothers womb.)
It's been like my birthday with parcels arriving and kind messages, a web of kindness extending outwards from home to Nepal. I have a sense of being launched on a wave of friendship towards a big adventure!
Just as a white summer cloud, in harmony with
heaven and earth freely floats in the blue sky from
horizon to horizon following the breath of the
atmosphere-in the same way the pilgrim abandons
himself to the breath of the greater life that.....
leads him beyond the farthest horizons to an aim
which is already present within him, though yet
hidden from his sight.
Lama Govinda
The Way of the White Clouds
I first read Lama Govinda's book aged about 18, just before I went on my travels and looking back, I see that it was one of several influential books pivotal in my journey into adulthood and the 'big wide world'.
Though, this time, I will just be glimpsing the snowy peaks of the high Himalayas through monsoon clouds, their mountainous presence will be felt and known as symbols of stability, strength and endurability, all useful qualities to inspire us in the challenges we'll face as volunteer midwives.
Myself and my two colleagues, Jaki and Johan, will be based in hospitals and birth centres in Kathmandu for the duration our stay.
The overall goal of the GMTP (www.rcm.org.uk/globaltwinning), is to strengthen and stimulate the potential and scope of Nepal's midwifery association, MIDSON, thereby raising standards of midwifery education and practice. The concept of twinning ( see http://www.internationalmidwives.org), is a strategy to facilitate the development of collaborative relationships between midwifery associations.
This will hopefully have a longterm and far reaching beneficial effect for Nepal's mothers and babies, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health,( Millenium Development Goals 4 and 5, www.un.org).
This trip has been a long time in the planning and there are still things to do before I go.... people to see, places to be.
I have had an overwhelming response to my ' hats for Nepals babies' appeal. So many friends and friends of friends, have discovered their 'inner knitter' and produced beautiful wee hat creations that will keep many precious heads warm at a most crucial time. (We all know how cold it can feel out here in the big wide world when you leave behind the warmth of your mothers womb.)
It's been like my birthday with parcels arriving and kind messages, a web of kindness extending outwards from home to Nepal. I have a sense of being launched on a wave of friendship towards a big adventure!
And people are still knitting!
heaven and earth freely floats in the blue sky from
horizon to horizon following the breath of the
atmosphere-in the same way the pilgrim abandons
himself to the breath of the greater life that.....
leads him beyond the farthest horizons to an aim
which is already present within him, though yet
hidden from his sight.
Lama Govinda
The Way of the White Clouds
I first read Lama Govinda's book aged about 18, just before I went on my travels and looking back, I see that it was one of several influential books pivotal in my journey into adulthood and the 'big wide world'.
Though, this time, I will just be glimpsing the snowy peaks of the high Himalayas through monsoon clouds, their mountainous presence will be felt and known as symbols of stability, strength and endurability, all useful qualities to inspire us in the challenges we'll face as volunteer midwives.
Myself and my two colleagues, Jaki and Johan, will be based in hospitals and birth centres in Kathmandu for the duration our stay.
The overall goal of the GMTP (www.rcm.org.uk/globaltwinning), is to strengthen and stimulate the potential and scope of Nepal's midwifery association, MIDSON, thereby raising standards of midwifery education and practice. The concept of twinning ( see http://www.internationalmidwives.org), is a strategy to facilitate the development of collaborative relationships between midwifery associations.
This will hopefully have a longterm and far reaching beneficial effect for Nepal's mothers and babies, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health,( Millenium Development Goals 4 and 5, www.un.org).
