This slideshow includes photos from  Jyamrunz, about 1 month after the initial 7.8 earthquake April 25th. Dil’s wife and son, Madhu and Diwash, walked 2 hours on foot to visit with family, old friends, and neighbors and assess the damage.

Now, nearly two months post quake, thanks to your support and Dil’s diligence, tremendous progress to rebuild Jyamrunz has been made.

For me, a slight twinge of accomplishment pulls at my heartstrings when I look at these pictures, but I’m somewhat familiar with these faces (Dil’s family) and these places (in Nepal).

What is it like for you?

My wish is for you to feel that you have helped. With everyone’s generosity, we have raised over $8,000 USD in credit card donations on giving forward and received nearly $750 USD in cash or checks. All the money (less 7.3% for processing) has not only been wired directly to Dil’s bank account, but it has already been spent!

Diligence is an appropriate term to refer to Dil’s name and Dil’s character. Words cannot explain how altruistic this man is. (Hopefully, the gesture of naming my puppy in honor of him portrays my extreme level of admiration for this hero, Dil Sapkota!)

The money has already been spent because Dil worked diligently to provide shelter for his village before Monsoon season.  (Which has arrived this week, creating landslides which prevents all transportation to Jyamrunz To get to the village is now a 5-6 hour trek on foot). Dil went out of his way to rent a truck, buy zinc roofs  directly from a factory.These roofs protect from the fierce rains.

Here is Dil’s direct account of the trip:

"The Zink  roof (Tin) is the most important support for the families as monsoon is ahead of them  that they are building their simple houses. The Zink roof demand is very high at the moment and we do not have enough production. So, I had to go to the factory  as  could not find zink in the shops and  would have  taken  so long till I get zink sheets but  Saturday I took the bus to low land of Nepal (Narayanghat) and able to buy 405 sheets of Rajesh zink and went to the village  with truck. As you see on pictures that was so fantastic to see families  getting  the  roofs now.

So far few  houses completed and  started living, some are half  way to finish  as they were  waiting for roofs and about 17 families are  on the process to build. They now need  bamboo  and  woods  to  complete the building. So, I am giving some cash for that. The next project is to help women who lost their husbands (Windows)  who need  more then others.

I also collecting  few  hundred  dollars from other people too,  so  we are supporting for 32 families and some widows."

In all, Dil and his family’s dedication on foot, and your support emotionally and financially, has resulted in the following progress to rebuild the village:

• 9 houses re-constructed (17 building)
• Tent, tripling, foods & cash distribution on the first stage    
• Zink Roofs for 32 families
• 23 widows Cash distribution 
• School building construction   
• $300 fund for continued emergency support of village

Thank you! Thank you! Dhanyabad! Dil let me know in our last correspondence that the people of Jymarunz are asking how to honor all our donors: YOU.

For me, the experience of surviving this natural disaster has been transformative to say the least. I feel so soo far away and personally struggle with feeling like I am not doing enough to help. If my mother had not brought me Dil (the pup) a week after returning home, I would have flown right back. Perhaps its the martyrdom in me and I am dealing with that in my own way. Now this precious ball of fur has been dubbed "Statesider" and his unconditional love, and adorable face is therapeutic.

Not an hour passes without me thinking of Nepal. The spellbinding peaks. The smiling people. The tragedy and the resilience. My mind flashes back to grandpa shuddering, crying in the cold dirt moments after the first quake; Eshish, the most brilliant young man (seriously MIT keep your eye on this 16yo) and I discussing politics between aftershocks; Trying to calm the terrified stranger grasping my shoulder and screaming as we huddled in the street downtown Kathmandu during the 6.7. There are magical memories too: Paragliding over Pokhara and feeling safe above the trembling earth for the first time in a week; Manisha’s smile as she opened her birthday cards and presents from Lauren, Samed, & me; Indulging in the first protein in 40 days- the excess smoked trout that the german woman downstairs could not sell at the closed market;  In the tented sea of 100 nepali neighbors, the man softly sharing jokes making parents chuckle as they swaddle their sleeping babies. Oh the humanness in us all is inspirational!

Sometimes I break down and cry when I am alone- humbled by life itself. Sometimes ebullience explodes in my gut- feeling as though I have been blessed with a second chance in life.

Every breath of my existence is now a breath towards purpose, progress, peace.

My point in writing this is to thank you. Please look at these pictures and know you have helped. Your support has evidently rebuilt a village, but is also helping to rebuild me.

I love you and I appreciate you.

Dhanyabad,

<3 Hallie LouLou

EEEEEE

You can also continue to support Dil’s Village here: Re-build  Dil’s Village

In life there are moments that you do not understand; And in life there are moments that you do.

It’s all a balance.

Like a wave washing you a new, something happens in your life, and what you could not justify or reason before, suddenly makes sense and becomes shockingly clear. The seething hurt or loss you experienced, in retrospect, is now commensurate with understanding. In this clarifying culmination of events you realize that all the heartbreak is worth it; death and disaster part of this wave of life. For without that past darkness, the light now shining in front of you would not be so blazingly bright and beautiful.

Time is an outrageous perspective getter.

Love is a magical healer.

Words cannot express how peaceful, and proud, and grateful, and exhilarated I feel about exactly where I am at in my life, and where I am going.

Denver is miraculous, and so many pieces of the puzzle just fit in place here.

I signed a lease on this "KoKopelli Kottage" just blocks away from DU and a big yard for Dil.

I will be living with a young woman in the Korbel program with me, who is brilliant and easygoing, and her favorite band is my favorite band (Paperbird :), and I am hopeful the beginning of a lifelong friendship has commenced.

And I sat around our AirBNB porch upon arrival surrounded by old friends, drinking beer, laughing and smiling at the promise of what the future  holds.

And I galavanted through Wash Park overjoyed at how quickly two old pals can reconnect.

And I marched around campus like I was 19 again.

And I hiked the flat-irons overlooking nature’s magnificence.

And I congratulated a dear friend and old colleague now living in Boulder for being recruited by FB.

And I partied with my Bro. And I networked with my Mom.

And I chatted with two cool dudes the entire plane ride home.

I AM INVIGORATED!!!

I am so grateful for everything in my life that has lead up to me being here! I am so thankful to be supported by so many inspiring and loving family, friends, and mentors.

Denver here I come. La vie est belle!

I am going embrace these good vibes, and ride this wave with a smile and lots of enthusiasm as long as i can

EEEEEEEE

<3Hallie

Update from DIL: my wife Madhu and I went to the village to distributing cash.

Here are some pictures of our last cash distribution to Widow women and school. Its great that they have this support. Support to school means every ones get benefited in the village and widow women are the most needy ones as they have very difficult life, due to our bad though in the society, people think their husband died because the wives have bad sprite so they are counted as second hand women and no one can get married again. For example Nire on picture 0087 with light yellow dress with shawl around her was married when she was 16 years old and her husband died when she was 24 that was 5 years ago, she has 4 kids and have to live her whole life alone taking care of her kids. on Picture 0089 with short white hair women is oldest here 93 years old and she lived her 63 years without husband as her husband died when she was 30. With these stories, people can have ears on their eyes about how difficult life can be for some people.

But its good that we could help them.

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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Great article about ze French, their mindfulness surrounding food!! Trés important! 

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-21434/17-food-rules-from-france-to-maintain-your-ideal-weight-live-right.html?utm_source=mbg&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=150903-17-food-rules-from-france-to-maintain-your-ideal-weight-live-right 

 Some pics of my meals lately:  

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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After my experience in Thailand I vowed to devote my future to 3 qualities: Simple, Joyful, Connectedness.

This article reminds me to stay on that zen track I set.

I dealt with a lot of anxiety when living in Chicago and even went to therapy on a bi-weekly basis.

Miraculously, now I am free from my racing mind- an observer, separate, who chooses what’s important to me and my life.

School is starting, roommates are moving in, Denver is a new place, Dil is a wild teenage fur ball, but I’m keeping it honest and letting go of control and allowing life to just be.

Perhaps that’s my cure. I don’t really know… I’m sending you this not to suggest this is how you live your life, rather, for you to have a hint of introspection into me.

Hope you enjoy!

<3, Hallie

———- The Meat of The Message ———-

zen habits: How Not to Do It All

How Not to Do It All

Posted: 07 Sep 2015 11:59 AM PDT

By Leo Babauta

We all want to do so much: take on every request that people email us, complete our neverending list of tasks and projects, help everyone, travel everywhere, learn a ton of new skills, read every book and watch every good film, be the perfect partner and parent and friend …

And yet, we can’t possibly do it all.

There isn’t enough time in the day, nor do we have the attention bandwidth to devote to everything. Even if we were perfectly disciplined, we couldn’t possibly get to even half of what we want to do. Just as with eating, where our eyes are bigger than our stomachs … our hopes are bigger than our actual bandwidths.

So I say, give up on trying to do it all. Simplify. Don’t try to be perfect. Don’t try to have the most perfect life you can create.

Instead, make your days count.

How do you do that? Here are some ideas:

Pay attention. When you eat a good meal, it’s wasted if you don’t actually pay attention to it and are reading on your phone instead. It’s an amazing meal only if you really savor it. In this way, if we savor each moment, they really matter.

Curate your days. Put only the best things in each day — don’t just let any junk into it. If you are going to read, be choosy, don’t just click on things because you run across them. When you’re going to choose your tasks, choose the important ones, not just the little busywork tasks. If you’re going to say yes to someone, make sure it’s worthy of being in your life. Would you pay $100 to say yes to this request? Would you pay $20 to read the things on your reading list for an hour? If not, it’s probably not worth it.

Be ruthless. You need to filter out the things trying to overwhelm your life. More things try to get into your attention bandwidth than you can possibly handle. So filter them out: say no to most requests, don’t make it your job to respond to everything, don’t just read everything possible, don’t have the firehose of social media always on, turn off your phone for awhile. Each day, take a step back and think about what you want to fit in it.

Be satisfied. We always want to do more, be more, experience more. And so, we’re never satisfied with the little we actually can do and experience. Instead, we can learn to be happy with what we’ve chosen to do, knowing that we let go of the rest for a reason. We can be grateful for what’s actually in front of us, for the experience we are given, rather than always wanting the greener grass that someone else is experiencing.

Be OK with imperfection. Even if you filter and curate, you’ll never create the "perfect" day or the "perfect" life. You’ll never be "perfect." Those ideals don’t exist in reality. In this messy life, the reality is that what we experience will never fit with an ideal, and will always be imperfect. We can either accept that, or be dissatisfied. I suggest we accept imperfection, and be OK with what we are, and the messiness that finds its way into our lives.

Realize that we’re not really in control. The first few items on this list might give you the idea that you can control your life by simplifying … but the reality is that your day will never go as planned. You can try, but there will always be the unexpected, the unplanned. That’s just how things go. If we want to be in control, and things don’t go our way, it’s frustrating. If instead we realize we’re not really in control, but just experiencing what comes at us, we can learn to appreciate that experience as it comes, whatever it is.

I realize that some of the things on this list seem contradictory. And they are. That’s because these ideas are meant to remind us to be mindful of what we’re holding on to, and practice letting go.

Each idea can be practiced at different times, and we’ll see that we’ve been holding onto something: our distractions, our ideas of perfection, our desire to be more, our desire to say yes to everyone, our hope that we’ll get to the end of our task list or email inbox, our desire for control or simplicity or doing everything. None of these things is essential to life — they can all be let go of, and we can accept the reality that is exposed when we let go.

1 year ago today I buckled myself into my flight to Bangkok.

I traveled from Chicago, Ohare Intl –>Naratia, Japan –> Bangkok, Thailand –> Chiang Rai, Thailand (OCT/NOV) –>Hong Kong (1 week DEC) –> Bali (1 week DEC) –> Back to Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand with the fam –(2 weeks DEC) –> Home (Wisconsin JAN) for Xmas and to finish applying to Grad School –>Back through Bangkok (FEB 24 hrs) –> Pakse, Laos ( FEB jungle trek for 1 week) –> Vientienne, Laos –> Hanoi, Vietnam (FEB1 week)–> HaLong Bay, Vietnam (FEB3 days) –>Phnom Penh, Cambodia (MARCH3 weeks) –> SIem Reap, Cambodia (MARCH 1 week) –>Siahnoukville &  Koh Rong, Cambodia (MARCH 3 days and not enough time!!) –> Krabi Thailand and Railey Beach & a couple "KOH’s" (islands)!! (MARCH 5 more days cuz I can never get enough of Thailand)–> Through Malaysia airport–> Singapore, Singapore ( MARCH 2 days) –> New Dehli, India –> Rishikesh, India (APRIL 1 month @ vinyasa yoga school) –> Kathmandu, Nepal (earthquake survivor) (MAY 1 week)–> Pokhara, Nepal (earthquake disaster relief) (MAY 4 days)–> Home sweet home.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with friends in Chicago, (MAY) Indianapolis (JUNE), and Evansville (JULY).

One of my favorite trips was the 10 hour drive from Mke, WI to Midway, KY where the LFA Headquarters is (JULY). The southern hospitality here is alive and well. I could not be more grateful to work towards the mission of advocating for local food enterprises.

But most of the summer was spent between Mequon, WI and Elkorn, WI (The Lake!) Home sweet Home to settle in with Dil the Pup.. Run by the river, or jump off the dock!

In AUG, I had the pleasure of driving across country with my parents and 2 dogs to start my new chapter in Denver, CO.

We stopped just outside of Des Moines, Iowa and a small mining town 2 hours east of Denver called (??). Traveling to my new home, across the US was extraordinary!

Now in Denver, CO, where I have settled just south of DU’s campus in the cutest Kokopelli Kottage ever, I am enjoying getting to know my neighborhood and surrounding hoods (Cap Hill, LoDo, Highlands, Union Station, Cherry Creek) and Boulder and THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS!!! Rocky Mountain High is Real!

Incontestably the past year is the most traveled and transformative 365 days of my life.The marvelous aspect is the adventure does not stop if you commit to a lifetime of open mindedness, empathy, and learning.

"EEE" Everyday.

The connections I’ve made with citizens across our globe are completely relevant to my physical, spiritual, mental and educational well being.

Now, as a Master’s Candidate at DU’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies  in international development concentrating on global health and food security, I am embarking on a lifelong journey to make a career out of the compassion I lived everyday on the road.

If you’re thinking about letting go. LET GO.

LET IT BE LET IT GO!

Let go of security

Volunteer abroad

Immerse yourself out of your comfort zone

Experience perspectives from the opposite side of the planet

Never take for granted the support system back home

Believe in yourself

Accept that everything may happen for a reason- but you have to figure out what that reason is for yourself

PICS COMING SOON!

"Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet."– Vietnamese Proverb

If church is time to be with your family, then my family’s church is our family text chain- most active on Sunday’s during the packer game

Mom & Dad (Mike & Cath) hold down the fort in the Quon & at The Lake.

Bug (Katie) is a nurse in the Windy City.

Sexy Sistahs – Hoosier Visits

Buddy (Mikie) is an entrepreneur in LA.

Me and Mikie 23rd Birthday Dinner Celebration

I’m in CO, as you know.

And even though we are miles apart, I am so thankful, to not feel that way. I feel connected to my family. Sometimes more than others. But I sure am grateful to have a brother and a sister I also consider my best friends, who are supportive in a way that they can tell you how it really is, and still laugh and love them dearly.

In a flash, we are all suddenly adults, but our souls house our inner child.

The days of dressing up Mikie while playing "Donna & Jane" (Me- Donna, Katie- Jane, our imaginary dress up world as adults- this requires an entire post, ha!) are distant.

I am proud of who my brother and sister have become as adults.

I am grateful to have Mikie and Katie in my life.

KT Mikie’s 8th grade graduation

I pray as we mature, find husbands & wives, and have our own children who have their own brothers and sisters, that they will have a similar, happy connection like we had growing up and have now. And of course that we will continually love each other, despite the trials and tribulations that life holds.

I love you Mikie & Katie.

Yours TrulEEE,

Your big Sister

Mikie Katie and Me 2013

I have a wonderful shelter, which is my family. I have a wonderful relationship with my brother and sister; this makes me feel that I know always where I belong.

Until blacks and whites see each other as brother and sister, we will not have parity. It’s very clear.

When you go somewhere like Kenya and you see how the children don’t have pencils and pens, and all of these things are considered luxuries, and what a privilege they see education as and how hungry they are to learn, I wanted to give my brother and sister long lectures. That definitely stayed with me.

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/brother_and_sister.html#AgKBaw9qyywywrpP.99

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

I will do a Ted talk someday and it will focus on connectedness.

Connectedness to food and nature: The movement towards regional food socio-ecology and implementing this new system throughout the US.

Connectedness to love, sex and relationships: How to facilitate authentic connectedness in our technological world…

Super excited. Paper coming soon In two weeks!

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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I woke up this morning, early at seven,

for sun salutations to start my day in heaven.

Then perked up the coffee and right on the shelf

Was a perfectly ripe persimmon, I could eat myself.

Spicy and fragrant, vibrant orange and sweet

This seasonal persimmon will make a perfect breakfast treat!

So I grabbed some cinnamon, honey and butter,

And my black iron skillet- cook with nothing other.

I sauteed the fruit for ten minutes time,

they crisped up deliciously- so good almost a crime.

The oatmeal was easy- just a minute in the mike

a smidgen of salt and add cream if you like.

After the persimmons were finished I placed them on top

then dove into this winter day starter, which I loved a lot!

HallieLou

Eating, Educating, and Exploring my way through this world! View all posts by HallieLou

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