Helping Nepal

Dear Friends,

The people of Nepal are in need of help. A massive earthquake, with nearly 50 aftershocks, has torn Kathmandu and its valley apart. Back in 2004, I spent the first half of the year as a volunteer teacher with the people in the village of Bistachaap. In my opinion, they were and remain some of the finest folk I have ever encountered. Now their village is leveled and its people without shelter. What follows is a plea for those who are able to help to please do.

Pictured below amidst the pile of do gooders is Raj Silwal. One of the two brothers who invited me into their home. They are both heroes and have been working in humanitarian non-profits for years.

Raj has set up a crowd source fundraiser for his village listing the details of its size, damage done, and the realities of what will be needed to provide temporary shelter and rebuild.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FUNDRAISER WEBPAGE

When there in 2004, my friend Charles Devenish and I were able to gather some funds for our school. With it we constructed a DIY solution to the two mile round trip to the nearest water source. The kids had a blast.

Even got some bricks in.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FUNDRAISER WEBPAGE

I still carry the lessons learned in that village and they need help now.

My heart especially goes out to these two magnificent women who laughed as I learned to eat with my hand, and cried the day I left. Help Bistachaap rise from the ruble. Any bit helps.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FUNDRAISER WEBPAGE

CLICK HERE FOR THE FUNDRAISER WEBPAGE

CLICK HERE FOR THE FUNDRAISER WEBPAGE

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Fresh Back from Baja California

"Yet we must choose each step we take with utmost caution, for the footprints we leave behind are as important as the path we will follow. They’re part of the same journey..." - excerpt from Dance of the Chupacabras

I have recently returned from three weeks of eye contact with dolphins.

Some ocean vibrance while on land.

And plenty of reasons to return.

More stories and photos on there way soon!

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Befriending the Leviathan – The Gray Whales of Baja California

How easily we draw the line that separates us from the wild. Presuming that our ability to name the creatures of this world somehow separates us from them, and worse yet gives us dominion to do with them as we please.

Yet out of all the places in the world where we have abused animal life as a resource, none tell a more magical tale than the lagoon of San Ignacio in Baja California where the California Gray Whales have suffered both slaughter and revival.

Beginning in 1845, these whales were found to be easy prey for the bold whalers that chose to hunt them. Injuring the newly born calves, the whalers knew that the mother would seek to help her young, thus dooming herself to die under the heft of their spears. Such hunting was easily accomplished with the known breeding grounds with water too shallow for the whales to dive and escape.

Without conscience, the slaughter brought the California Gray Whales down to the brink of extinction with population estimates at only 250 whales remaining in the North Pacific at the time. Luckily, Mexico stepped up and became the first country to enact protection over these magnificent and intelligent creatures, and over the last one hundred plus years the whales have been recovering and greatly adding to their numbers.

With the fortune of visiting the lagoon aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion, I was privileged to encounter these marine mammals in the very place that they are born. In the shallows water, the mother’s exercise their young against the current to prepare them for the five thousand mile journey to the feeding grounds of Alaska.

Once known as the Devil Fish for how fiercely they fought against the whalers, the Gray Whale mothers now, unbelievably, encourage their calves to approach. Out of all the marine mammals encounters that I have enjoyed, this one takes the prize.

Petting the calves as they rolled and rubbed our zodiac, I was close enough to look into their eyes, see the newly growing hairs that remind of the heritage that we share, and even get my hat blown off when they exhaled.

Words have no place in trying to describe the experience, thus I share some of the images I was able to capture with hope that the reader will be as endeared to them as I am, and perhaps visit such a place for themselves one day.

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All photos © Paul North (unless otherwise noted)