Getting Old With Prayer and Grace

While in Kathmandu at the Tibetan Refugee Camp, we also had the opportunity to volunteer and support the camp’s Old Age Center. As you can imagine, like many other Asian cultures, the Tibetans revere their elders and multigenerational families live together. But, because of migration, many families may be separated or some of the Tibetans never married and had families. The Old Age Center serves this population and is home to some 20 seniors ranging from Ani, at age 64, to Dhedon, who, at age 90, is both blind and deaf.

The Handicraft Center GM Chime Dorjee and senior center manager, Peter, introduced us to the residents. I connected with Ani, who has an infectious smile and from our first visit, held my hand and showed me around. Ani is an avid gardener and keeps up the roses in the small courtyard. Also, as the youngest, she takes on many tasks for the others- breaking twigs to tend to the fire for the center. When we asked the group what they needed, they unanimously asked for blankets and pillows to help on the cold winter evenings.

This led to our big adventure in Kathmandu China Market (where we surprisingly, encountered not one Chinese person!). This four-story building is loaded with shop stalls where you must fine-tune your bargaining skills. When we left, a parade of shopkeepers, helped us hail a taxi and stuffed us and our many blankets and pillows into a miniscule Subaru. We may have been in a head-on crash- I would have never felt it as I was surrounded by a foam and fleece cocoon the entire ride home.

Today we visited the center to deliver the items. The residents gathered in the courtyard where we distributed the comfort items and enjoyed a cold Fanta orange drink. I was also pleased to bring a vase (Bill, it was from Thimi!) for my new friend, Ani, to use for her flowers. As we prepared to leave, they presented us each with a special blessing scarf and a good luck blessing. After this trip, I do feel very blessed. Namaste. Now we are heading out to Bahrain (a quick overnight) on our way to Cairo.