Lives on Stage

Tomorrow is the last day of the program! Its crazy to think that I started here 4 months ago and now its over. on Sunday  I'm going to Pohkara (a touristy village about 6 hours from Kathmandu) for a week with 2 of my Israeli friends. Then I'm meeting Sophie in Thailand and then we're off to Vietnam!



Anyway- two things to write about in this post: theater and poverty.

On Sunday TbT hosted an event called "Theater for Education". As I wrote before, for the past month I have been working with the oldest youth group in Kalimati (SAY) on a theater show. They interviewed people in their communities and from those interviews put together a show called "Lives on Stage". I was in charge of the event itself (and here I thought that I was coming to Nepal to get away from planning stuff and being in charge...) Basically I wrote invitations to people from NGO's and the media, organized and printed pictures from the different areas that had to do with theater, printed programs, and coordinated the event (i had to give a speech...no fun). Everything came together extremely well and I was so proud of everything, especially the kids from SAY. I can't even describe how amazingly they acted- they had such passion and talent and it was such a great feeling to see them up there. While working on the event I was sometimes frustrated because I felt like it was more about PR for TbT and not the kids. However, looking around at the audience smiling and crying at the show made me feel so good about the whole thing. Even though it is hard for me to communicate with the kids because of the language barrier, I felt like my own close friends were up there performing. After the show we all gathered together and I just thanked them for being so special. At the bottom of this post is the speech I gave to introduce the show (I don't want to be too repetitive). Btw- all of the pictures of the event were taken by Or Ram and they are amazing. This is the link to the article the Kathmandu Post wrote about the event- http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2012/02/06/et-cetera/real-stories-on-stage/231285.html#.TzEWDVWPAuk.facebook

the set up outside

giving my speech

Ravi Shah

Kopila and Susila in their masks

Surya

Raju

The Israeli Ambassador giving his speech

pictures in the exhibition room

Stav, Aatmaram, and I with the SAY group

Hami Yuva with the Ambassador 

Over Shabbat we were invited to our madricha's house for a text study. We spoke about poverty and our encounters and perception of it here in Nepal. In the text we studied, there was a poor man who was neglected by the community. He got very sick and was close to death but the rabbi in the town brought him food and saved him. In the end, the rabbi received "merit" from the next world and the community started to care for the poor man. There were a lot of things to learn from this story. It was kind of disturbing to me because the rabbi was the main person in the story- the poor man was referred to as the "poor man" and not even by name. It made me think about how when we (I) see poverty in NYC I usually ignore it or just walk by. In Nepal that's not an option- its everywhere and there is no avoiding it. I see it in the river that's filled with garage, in the people sleeping on the street, in the women who come to our women's meetings, and in the youth I have built a relationship with. There is no ignoring it and to do so would be wrong. I say namaste to random people I see on the streets and wonder what the story is of the street kid I see sniffing from a bag.   The other thing the text made me think about is what it takes for the world to take notice of the suffering of its people. Just like no one noticed the poor man until he was sick, the world didn't notice Haiti until the earthquake or the starving children in Somalia until there was a famine that killed even more. But why would we notice? We are all so lucky and should be so thankful for what we have and we need to focus on our own lives and our own struggles. Just because there are these terrible things going on in the world it doesn't mean we abandon our own lives. That's whats so hard about encountering the poverty here- I am afflicted by the same problems as everyone else. We don't have electricity for over 14 hours a day (waking hours) and the water constantly turns off. It doesn't mean that I am poor, but it makes me understand that everyone here, regardless of economic status, has to go through the same thing every single day. I'm ready to go home where I don't have to worry about having no electricity all day so I need to strategically figure out when to shower and I'm ready to eat food I like again. Despite all of that, seeing the things I've seen here and experiencing what I did has really made me appreciate things.



Speech-

Namaste, thank you again for coming to this event. I first met the members of the Kalimati SAY youth group a few months ago when we visited the volunteering site. I could tell even then how unique and special these individuals were. When I began working in Kalimati, I spent time getting to know the youth and hearing stories about their lives. About a month ago, we began work on the show you are about to see, “Lives on Stage”. The youth went out to interview their friends, family, and neighbors in order to document their stories, their struggles and their encounters with education.

As they shared their interviews with the group, I could not help but marvel at the amazing work they had done and the passion with which they tackled the task. The stories really touched me and I realized that these weren’t just the stories of the people they interviewed, but also the stories of the youth themselves. It was a privilege to gain insight into their culture and the challenges Nepali youth face.

As I sat there, I wondered how they felt telling us foreigners about their own struggles and their own achievements. I was just a volunteer there to help, guide, admire, and listen- these kids are the ones who had to tackle school, work, and their social lives all while writing and directing this amazing show. I hope that you enjoy what are you about to see as much as I do and appreciate the work these incredible youth have put into it.