many miles, plans for summer and beyond, photography, and namaste.

In several weeks, on June 21st to be exact, I will board a plane and travel the 5,570 miles from Anchorage, Alaska to Kathmandu, Nepal. During my two month stay I will primarily work with Prisoner's Assistance Nepal (http://www.thequietrevolution.net/panepal), an organization which provides housing and education for children who would otherwise be sharing a prison sentence with a single parent. Though I do not yet know how I can best help the organization, I plan on doing whatever they ask, and proactively taking responsibility and tasks on (despite limited Nepali language skills).
I also want to spend the summer laying the groundwork and exploring the logistics of an interactive program between students in Brunswick, ME, and the students in the PA-Nepal program. Currently I would like to create a Photo-pal program, where the students learn photography and trade images with each other, an idea which I am developing with my good friend, Samuel Modest, who will be in Darjeeling in the fall. We would love to see this idea flower in many locations around the world, so the students can get more than one different perspective. However, such a program cannot be planned without paying attention to the specific needs of the students in PA-Nepal and other locations, the logistics of camera equipment, networking, and printing, as well as an effective and thoughtful curriculum, all of which require time and 'reconnaissance'. In the meantime I have a bagful of discs so I can at the very least bring the paragon of all sports to Nepali children: Ultimate Frisbee.
I will also be an active representative of the online non-profit Omprakash (www.omprakash.org), an organization which seeks to increase the connections and learning between grassroots educational non-profits and volunteers. At home in Alaska, and later in Nepal, I am advertising for and spreading awareness about this free, amazing resource for people who wants to volunteer abroad and for the programs who seek them.
I will return to the states on August 18th, spending the fall semester of my Junior year at Bowdoin College in Maine. At this time I will use the information and knowledge I gained in Nepal to finalize a program (photographic or not), and gather the resources to return and implement it in the spring of 2010. This blog is for my family and friends, and for anyone seeking to know more about Omprakash, Prisoner's Assistance Nepal, or international photography programs. Please tell me about your thoughts, questions, reactions or news, I want to hear from anyone who has taken the time to read my thoughts and experiences. I recently looked up the definition of Namaste, and found that it means "the spirit in me recognizes the spirit in you". I hope I can always find such affinity with and respect for others, even when they are very different from myself. I value this kind of appreciation more than anything, and hope to discover more about it this summer.
Therefore, until my next post:
Namaste.