Working from the heart

Street Dog Care improving the health and welfare for street dogs of Boudha

A staggering number of homeless dogs wander the streets of the Kathmandu valley, some reports stating as many as 25,000 or more. Many of these dogs are malnourished and suffering from disease such as tumors, mange, flea infestations as well as internal parasites.  And these are exactly the dogs that Street Dog Care is looking to find, treat, and hopefully adopt to a loving family.

“We try our best to bring dogs in that need treatment and return them to where they were found, but sometimes that can be a real challenge,” Says Jasmine, resident volunteer manager since April 2014. “We try to collect as much information as possible from people as they drop them off or when they call in.”  This is so the dogs can be returned to the familiar territory when they are ready to be returned to the street.

Jasmine (on the left) has been here since April and the other 2 girls work there full time. There is also
a vet tech working, and otherwise they rely on veterinarians in the city to do surgery etc.  If they find a hurt
dog, they usually hop in a cab and take him to the vet hospital.

These are the kennels that can be sponsored.

This poor fella was hit by a car and is paralysed.  He
was one of 4 dogs in yesterday that had the same affliction.

Adoption is also one of the goals of the facility, and it is often the volunteers or staff that manage to find dogs new homes.  Volunteers from Belgium and Germany recently spent so much time with two particular dogs that they couldn’t bear to leave Nepal without arranging to adopt them.  So both dogs are currently preparing for a new life in Europe and resting up for the plane ride it will take to get there.

It is this level of commitment that keeps the heart of Street Dog Care beating.

Even though the facility can hold up to 25 dogs at a time, many more still need intensive care, so to help the broader dog population in Boudha, Street Dog Care Camps have been set up for Saturday mornings right at the Boudha Stupa.

“Aside from treating many more dogs than we can keep at the kennel, The Street Dog Care Camp is a great way to raise awareness for the locals as well as the visiting tourists,” Says Jasmine. “We set up a donations box so that people are able to see the help we give to the dogs and can donate some money right away.”

Street Dog Care generates funds from sponsors such as Shenpen and Chance for Nepal, through online and in person donations, as well as through sales of t-shirts, bags and calendars.  They also developed a program where sponsors can support a kennel for one year, which really helps with yearly budgeting for the facility.  Those who support a kennel receive continual updates as to the progress and release of dogs in the kennel throughout the year.

Local restaurants donate leftover food for daily meals for the dogs, but they still need to supplement with rice and meat, which is where donations become a critical part of their ability to operate.  Volunteers often donate not only their time, but also supplies such as blankets and medicine, which helps keep the operating costs of the facility down.  More information on how you can help the street dogs of Boudha can be found on their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StreetDogCare or at their website: www.streedogcare.org

Street Dog Care is a non-profit organization in Boudha, Kathmandu that was founded in 2009 by Andrea Bringmann. 

Written by: Ashley Honsberger

Canadian, student, avid traveller, and advocate for good things happening in the world.

Chhath Puja!

Well, I blinked, and I found myself in the middle of another Nepali celebration—Chhath Puja!  It was yesterday and was a day off for everyone.  One location for celebration was conveniently close to Boudha so myself, Anamika and several other volunteers she rounded up headed over to Pashupatinath Temple check things out.

Chhath goes by many names but here is commonly known as Chhath Puja.  According to Wikipedia, it is a Hindu festival dedicated to celebrating the Hindu sun god Surya.  The offerings and prayers are performed to thank Surya for sustaining all life on earth as well as to request the granting of certain wishes. 

Chhath is performed on the 6^th day of the Nepali calendar, which brings me to an interesting question I forgot to pose at the outset—did you know that Nepal has its own calendar that is 56.7 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar we know and love?

I came across this when I was planning my trip here, and figuring out when to go and when the major holidays would be. It was difficult to determine out because the Nepali calendar is quite different from the one I am used to and some things are based on moon phases and some are based on ‘the x day of x Nepali month”.  Anyhow it all worked out.

The festival was incredibly lively with loud music, men selling cotton candy and balloons, and lots of people piling across a bamboo bridge to get to the temple side, and to dip into the river and offer some prashad or prayer offerings of candles, food and other things.

I had read that the festival lasts 4 days but actually, it seems just the rituals do.  I went back to the Pashupatinath temple this morning to see if anything was going on and all the people were replaced by gregarious monkeys playing in the tent stands and eating up the leftover prashad.

People cramming in to get over the bridge.

Others wading in the water to do their prayers.

A woman and some monkeys tidying up the leftovers.

Honestly these little buggers scared me a bit because it didn't take much for one to get aggressive and chase me
down a walkway. A nice lady accompanied me back so I could get to where I was going.

Pop goes the Pringles

Today I spent a little bit of money (remember, 100 rupee is about 1 American dollar).  The last couple of days my local friends have taken me out for a meal or snack, which was really nice but, the first place we went was somewhere I hadn’t considered eating at because I was trying to avoid getting upset stomach issues.  Needless to day the streak of “wow, I haven’t gotten sick yet” quickly turned into “ooh, my belly doesn’t feel so good” which is fine I suppose because I didn’t have much on today.  So to make sure I was eating only ‘clean food’ I bought and consumed much of a tube of Pringles (260 rupee well spent) and some chocolate (110 rupee) as well as a kilogram of apples that I washed with soap (foreigner pricing of 280 per/kg).  I also got some laundry done which is 100 rupee per kilo.

I needed some supplies for the interviews next week so I headed down the noisy road to the relatively guarded shopping center to see what was there.  Interestingly, in order to go in to the store you have to leave your bags locked in locker and they give you a numbered chip to retrieve it. 

One of my favourite things when in a foreign country is to go to the grocery store.  One reason is out of sheer curiosity, and another reason is because all that expensive tea and coffee or novelty whatever item you are seeking can be found there and at a pretty good discount.  So two things are now checked off my end of this trip shopping list (Nathan, please bring with you a large empty bag and don’t ask any questions). 

I also needed a few things so I bought a bulk load of 18 tissue packs (120 rupee), candy (bulk bag 265 rupee) and small gifts (candles) for the interview participants (9 pack for 180 rupee) as well as 2 boxes Ziploc bags to put them in (a whopping 285 for 20).  Generally if it’s something locals don’t really use, it’s expensive.  I also bought peanut butter (280 rupee).

All said and told I spent about 20 bucks, but on things that probably wouldn’t have cost that much at home (there’s only so much you can pack and carry!).

Then back to the guesthouse all sweaty and ready for a break as well as a lunch of the aforementioned Pringles, and some other rather mundane things like writing and inputting daily vegetable pricing and all that other fun stuff I try to make a habit of. 

Health, wealth and now education

Anamika's niece and classmate.

Inevitably I found myself in a school again today.  The children were learning quite a bit of English too so we played hang-man and drawing games where the answers were rowdily shouted: Miss! Miss! M-I-L-K-MILK! Miss! Miss! R-A-B-B-I-T-RABBIT! And so forth. I nearly went deaf, but we had fun.

A good lesson for children and adults. 

The school belongs to Anamika’s brother and sister in law.  Private Montessori’s account for over 90% of the education in Nepal meaning that 90% of the children educated have to be able to afford the monthly costs.  I have met a number of people who own their own school; in fact Anamika is working on opening her own school at present. For those who cannot afford Montessori, the children go to the public system however it is generally thought that the quality of education in the public system is poor.  And, it’s not entirely free, so if your family is in the more extreme category of poor, your children simply do no get educated.

After hanging around school for a while we headed over to where the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Board market is.  Luckily Anamika’s brother had some business to attend to right near there, so he dropped us off for an hour.  First we met with the Women’s Cooperative Society CFO who was the very gracious Mr. Amrit.  I picked his brain for about half an hour about the topics I am seeking to uncover in this research.

Then to the market which was really interesting for a few reasons… I was thinking I could take my translator down to the market to do some interviews, but after interacting with vendors just in trying to buy their produce we quickly discovered they were rather busy or generally disinterested in interacting.  That saves us a fruitless trip (too bad there is no vegetable pun).  The other interesting observation (one for the field journal!) is the quality of the produce available.  Before I left my prof was quite excited at all the nice fresh stuff I’d be able to eat, but really, the quality has been variable at best, unless it’s imported.

I’ve also heard stories about the heavy or improper use of pesticides, to the point where the farmers themselves don’t eat what they grow, so that is a bit disconcerting. It is also a bit difficult to figure out why people would use way too much pesticide, which in relative terms is quite expensive.  My understanding with pesticides is that more is not necessarily better… but anyway, this is not my domain of expertise.

Things for sale in Bouddha

So far the strength of spending time with locals in any given travel destination is the ability to get under the skin of their society. When Nathan and I were in St Lucia at an all inclusive, the best thing we did was book "More Than A Cab" which is the business of a tenacious local lady who tours you around the island answering all the million questions you may have about the health, wealth and education of the nation.  Certainly there is more to any country than jus those things, but these topics are common to the human experience and offer a good framework to use when trying to better understand just how things tick.

Peaks and valleys, bends and curves

I was encouraged to take the bus across from Pokhara to Kathmandu because it is the best way to see the landscape outside the city.  Vista wise, I was not disappointed. The worst part was not being able to stop and take pictures of the vast green spaces that are comprised of valleys full of rice paddies and the sharp green peaks of the mountains.  Rice harvest is slowly starting so in some places the fields are golden, which looks neat with the brightly coloured clothing of the people working the harvest.  Today is officially the first day of winter here.

It was a bit of a long day having left at 8am and arriving at my hotel at around 4:30pm, but that mainly has to do with the terrain being so challenging as well as the fact that there is one main road between here and there.  One small glitch on the road means a bit of a back up for all the other drivers. Today we saw a rather nasty looking motorcycle accident and several local buses pulled over for wheel repairs.  I took the Greenline tourist bus so the condition of the buses is better than the local ones, which is unfortunate because I have seen several times in the papers here, articles about bus crashes most of whom (if not all) appear to be the local buses. I feel as though they drive way too fast and likely are in disrepair, especially the brakes ,which is often hinted at in the articles. 

The Greenline took its time, so I felt pretty comfortable that we’d make it there in one piece. I also felt quite privileged to have the choice.  Since we are just coming out of a festival weekend, we passed hundreds of people along the way waiting for a bus to take them home.  The choices available are basically the wide variety of local buses who wait until they are full before they carry on to an endless list of destinations.

I came back to Bouddha because I feel comfortable living here…  I walked through the Bouddnath Stupa gate to hear about 100 monks chanting while sitting at the base of the stupa. The light was poor so I didn’t get a good shot, but I tried.

I am back in Kathmandu for 2 weeks but next weekend I might make the move to Anamika’s apartment where she has very nicely offered me a room.  I feel bad putting her out, but it is more convenient for partaking in the training next week and it would be nice to live with nice people for a week. She has also connected me with a translator to take with me when I do the field visits so basically Anamika is my Nepalese saint.

Kathmandu is still a big gritty city and especially now comparing it to Pokhara which is so relaxed and easy to get around. Nature is so accessible as well but anyway, I’ll be back there in a few weeks so I just have to focus on the warmth and hospitality of the friends I have made here to help me make the most of it.