I’m back in Istanbul from a very exciting month in Kathmandu, volunteering at Shree Mangal Dvip School for Himalayan Children, and chasing a dream of mine to see the Himalaya and drink yak butter tea. Words fail me when I try to describe my experience in Nepal— I was deeply and profoundly moved by the students I worked with, the poverty around me, and the beauty of Nepal and its people. I’ve never before seen such colour and so much grey. I fell in love with the school, the hills, the cacophony of dog barks, motorbike beeps and tinny Hindi music that sputtered out of staticky radios at night. Giant slick black butterflies and brilliant bougainvillea, vermillion saris and webs of prayer flags snapping blue, white, red, green and yellow on the wind. The whisper of a monk’s robe, the jingle of gold hoops, the heaviness of a monsoon— I’ll do my best to express the experience, but truly, I am overwhelmed.
Naturally, I sketched and took over six hundred photos, some of which you can see on my blog.
And now my friends, I present you with the first of these sketches:
- Waiting in Istanbul’s Atatürk airport, caffeinated excitement and nerves, finger-painting with the deep browns of my Turkish coffee.
- Fixated on the unblinking eyes of Buddha on Boudhanath stupa, wondering if I’ll be so lucky to see the Himalaya with such heavy monsoon clouds.
- Gazing out the window of my new home, Ngudrup Guesthouse, over a steaming bowl of grey porridge and a black coffee in Ngudrup’s restaurant.
- Squeezing out a three minute sketch in between rain bursts, of an ancient temple in Patan Durbar Square.
See the photos, read the story on my blog Harika.