A Balcony in Nepal: Glimpses of a Himalayan Village by Sally Wendkos Olds  Art by Margaret Roche  Books by Sally Wendkos Olds · Super Granny: Great Stuff to Do with Your Grandkids · The Complete Book of Breastfeeding                 >> View all Read Free Preview!
Category:	Travel	Publisher:	ASJA Press	ISBN-10:	0595240275	Type:
Pages:	384	Copyright:	Oct 1 2002			Non-Fiction

Two American women trek to a remote Himalayan hill village and find that its fast-disappearing way of life holds many lessons for their own lives. Buy your copy! Amazon Barnes & Noble.com sallywendkosolds iUniverse Sally Wendkos Olds In 1993 writer Sally Wendkos Olds and artist Margaret Roche were the first western women to visit the remote village of Badel in Nepal's eastern hills. They arrived as strangers and left as "relatives." In 1994 they returned to help establish a library in Badel, to follow up on corrective surgery for two children with cleft lips, and to celebrate the Hindu festival of Dasain with their friends in the community. They came back again and again. Their book shows life in a village that can be reached from the closest road or airstrip only by trekking on foot for three days over narrow, rocky paths. Badel has no electricity, no telephones, no modern sanitation. Its people live and work as they have for centuries in a way of life that is beginning to change now -- and is sure to disappear within our lifetime. The book takes you into the village and reveals lives led according to the rhythms of hundreds of years ago - how babies are born, how children learn, how couples court, how women live, how the dead are honored. You'll share the adventures of "Grandma Sally" and "Grandma Marge," and like them, you will be enriched by the ancient wisdom of the people they came to know and love. This book is for travelers who want to know more about the day-to-day lives of their sherpas and porters; for armchair explorers who want to experience exotic lands -- from the excitement and chaos of Kathmandu to the serenity of isolated hamlets; and for all who seek inspiration from the spirituality of another culture. It holds special resonance for women, who can put themselves in Marge and Sally's sandals as they explore their own life issues in the context of another culture.   Excerpt One of the most powerful effects of being here is a new-found ability to adopt the eastern attitude of acceptance of life as it comes, giving up attachments to my blueprints of how life should be structured. I conclude that I was not meant to focus primarily on the lives of the women, an understanding that allows me to cast a wider gaze on the lives of all the villagers ? female and male, young and old. Maybe, in fact, I?ll learn more about the women?s lives that way. We do, of course, learn a great deal about the women?s lives just by being among them. Like the times when we take our meals with the families, and we are embarrassed to see that the women of the house wait on us and don?t eat themselves until all of us ? the men, the children and the visitors ? have finished. Like hearing about Shiva?s twenty pregnancies and the babies she delivered herself on the road, on her way home from working in the fields. Like our recognition that in the system under which Nepali villages operate, almost all property belongs to the male head of household. No one ever refers to a house as belonging to So-and-so?s parents; it?s always the father?s home, the father?s farm, the father?s water buffalo. The mother?s property usually consists only of her clothing and her gold or silver jewelry. These adornments constitute her only wealth, generally having come in the form of gifts from her father or husband. Any land or other property coming from father to child goes to the male child, not the female, who will go, property-less except for clothes and jewelry, to her husband?s home in his village.

Paperback

HimalayaNet
When writer Sally Wendkos Olds and artist Margaret Roche trekked to the remote village of Badel in Nepal's eastern hills in the spring of 1993, they were the first western women to go there. They were the first to live with local families in their modest homes, the first to see how the villagers lived from day to day. Sally Olds and Marge Roche arrived in the village as strangers and left as "relatives." In 1994 they returned to help establish a library in Badel, to follow up on corrective surgery for two children with cleft lips, and to celebrate the Hindu festival of Dasain with their friends in the community. They came back again and again.

Their book, with Sally's words and Marge's drawings, shows a portrait of life in a village that can be reached from the closest road or airstrip only by trekking on foot for three days over narrow, rocky mountain paths. Badel has no electricity, no telephones, no modern sanitation. Its people live and work as they have for centuries in a way of life that is beginning to change now -- and is sure to disappear within our lifetime.

The book takes you into the village and reveals lives led according to the rhythms of hundreds of years ago - how babies are born, how children learn, how couples court, how women live, how the dead are honored. You'll share the adventures of "Grandma Sally" and "Grandma Marge," and like them, you will be enriched by the ancient wisdom of the people they came to know and love.

This book is for travelers who want to know more about the day-to-day lives of their sherpas and porters; for armchair explorers who want to experience exotic lands -- from the excitement and chaos of Kathmandu to the serenity of isolated hamlets; and for all who seek inspiration from the sspirituality of another culture. It holds special resonance for women, who can put themselves in Marge and Sally's sandals as they explore their own life issues in the context of another culture.



Broughton Coburn
...To a remarkable degree, Sally Wendkos Olds and her colleague Marge
integrated themselves into the vibrant, exotic, difficult and frustrating life
of the rural Nepal village of Badel. With anthropological precision, she
observes village life and the poignant dramas of Badel villagers and, as a
participant herself, interweaves her own western-based hopes and fears. In
the construction of a library, are they helping the villagers, or only expediting
poor villagers' exodus to modern attractions that they may never realize?
This poetically-written classic of East-meets-West literature raises issues of deep
personal meaning and broad international significance...."


Jean Smith
A rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of the Rai people in a small village in
Nepal. The words and art of Sally Olds and Marge Roche are filled with respect and affection. By frankly relating how their experiences in this village affect them personally, they take us with them on their journey.