Annie and I visited a coffee shop in Kathmandu this morning and placed our order. The woman who took the order gave us a piece of plastic with the number “40” written on it for us to put on our table (to let the waiter know where to bring the coffee) and said, “You’re 40!” I replied, “We haven’t been 40 for over 20 years.” She took a second before it registered… then she laughed.

During the past couple days I played with some local kids who were on the way home from school. Two days ago their teacher saw me playing with her students with balloons and spoke with us… Yesterday she came to the Ashram and asked to buy some balloons for her sister’s birthday (later that evening)… Of course I made her a bunch of things and let her ride off on her motorcycle with the balloons tied to her. We also agreed that I’d do a show for the school kids today

(Sunday – they only get Saturday’s off from school) at 1pm.
We woke up for the daily 6am cheating, then netti nose cleansing, the yoga (all yoga sessions are 90 minutes). The teacher asked Annie Continue reading “A school a short distance from the Ashram” →

Sunday after 6am chanting and netti nose cleaning, Annie was asked to lead part of the yoga class – giving the yoga students a chance to experience Ashtanga yoga – the style she’s been practicing every day for about 15 years. The others here respect Annie for her flexibility, strength, experience, knowledge… and so many other qualities that makes her Annie, but after the class they were inspired and in awe. In the week that we’ve been here she’s helped guide some of them to find alternate poses, given them a sample of her children’s yoga, led an evening get-to-know-you session, and led a relaxation yoga session. Annie could have her own ashram if she wanted… of course part of that ashram would include arts and crafts.

While playing with kids on the street after school, we met their teacher… Jennifer. She’s sweet and beautiful. We instantly bonded and agreed to do show for her school. When she arrived at the ashram to pick us up on her motorcycle I didn’t think Annie would do it… but the 3 of us got on and drove on the rocky dirt road to the school.

about 400 kids joined us on the playground and I performed Snow White and the Little people (dwarfs wouldn’t translate). When Jennifer introduced me she had them chant “Goowin’s Balloowins” over and over.

The experience was like a dream I’ve hoped for for years. Jennifer, the Principal, the kids, and all the teachers were so appreciative. Afterwards she walked us back to her mortorcycle but we decided we could walk back to the ashram. Jennifer stood by the motorcycle watching us walk down the road until we were out of sight.

When we returned to the Ashram, a number of the yoga students told us they were hearing loud laughter from a distance – the school isn’t far from the Ashram… they had heard the kids reacting to my show.

Annie and I took a walk at about 3pm along the dirt roads. We saw two cute kids walking by us, so I pulled out a couple balloons and gave it to them. What i didn’t know was that they were on their way home from school… a moment later over a dozen kids turned the corner (their school bus must have just left them off). I only had a handful of balloons with me and they saw the other two boys laughing with their balloons. I started playing “ee-nee’mee-nee-mighty-mo” with my eyes closed to pick who would get a balloon. I held up the 4 or 5 balloons I had in my pockets to let them know that was all I had. Here’s a 2-minute video Annie shot with her iPhone.
Oops, posting videos join Facebook is easier than doing it here.

It’s been a good day at the Ashram (what a surprise). The Yoga students are all so friendly and come from so many countries. Annie and i are the only “guests” here who are in the 60’s… all the others are in their 20’s. They are in awe of Annie’s flexibility. She became an instant celebrity… then they found out her age and she became whatever the next stage is. She’ll be leading them in a fairytale yoga session tomorrow. Of course I’ve been doing balloons for the local kids each day. Tonight I did a balloon story for the other guests at the campfire (we have a campfire each night). They jumped into the story, no problems getting them to volunteer. Many of them whipped out their phone cameras. The head guru has given me a title: MHC (Most honorable Clown). He’s a chess player and has been playing one person here each day. His “partner” wasn’t here today and I had mentioned that I’d be up for game if he’d like. We played three. I won the first and determined to play totally “out of the box” to have fun and be sure to lose during the next game. I guess I totally confused him – I won the next three games. When we began game number 4 the bell for yoga class rang so I knocked my king over and said, I forfeit, you win!” we both laughed. In that yoga class there was one balancing pose (more than one) that I couldn’t even get close to. These students are serious, some are taking this ashram’s month-long yoga training course). I adjusted the pose, leaning one leg against the wall and anything else I could think of not to start a dominoes falling effect in the class. A couple of the students must have seen me because they began to laugh… the type of laugh you do in a serious situation when you aren’t aloud to laugh and try to fight it but it keeps burping out. It wasn’t intentional… and I felt guilty. I don’t believe they had an awkward laughing experience like that in one of these yoga classes before.

The mountains are all around us.  It’s cold in the evening…especially because there are only screens in our windows.  We have a squat pit hole for a toilet in our room (it’s a deluxe room).  We keep the door shut (the aroma is a bit much).  I did the laundry today in the sink and hung it up to dry on some balloons.   After three days I finally got the nerve to try the shower… that was an experience.  However I needed to ask someone to explain how to “flush” the squat pit hole in the bathroom.  That’s what the bucket is for next to the sink…. Silly me!I felt like I really accomplished something yesterday when I used it for the first time.  When I told some of the others here that I was going to put this into a post, they thought I was joking….but I thought anyone reading this blog would really want to know these details.

I know we should be posting photos and videos….  but to get them off the iPhone or video camera onto the computer and then get a wifi connection and then post pictures with text….  it’s a bit much…  like keeping all your hundreds or photos organized.  We get cameras and phones with cameras, but never take a course in being a librarian, so few of us have a way of organizing the photos to make them useable.   Anyway, we’ve gone the past few days without a post (it feels like it’s been more than a week…. for that matter we haven’t been out of New York for two weeks and it feels like we’re in a timeless world right now and it’s hard to remember
how long it’s been without looking at a calendar… and then we have to study the calendar to remember….like in Shangra La where Continue reading “We’re staying at our first Ashram” →

The first day in Kathmandu we heard enchanting music on the streets and saw it was being made by this man. Later we’ve seen a number of men playing and selling these instruments in the streets. Somehow this guy knew we were Americans….

Yesterday when we visited one temple, a little girl tagged me, begging for money. She wouldn’t accept “no” and followed me endlessly. I took out a balloon and gave it to her. She threw it on the ground, stomped on it so it exploded, and continued to follow me asking for money… That’s a reaction I’ve never had from giving away a balloon… understandable, but new.

As Annie and I were getting into a cab, a woman holding a baby asked, not for money, but for me to buy milk for her baby. Okay, I softened and took a few steps to the guy selling stuff on the side of the road. She pointed at a big container … about 1/3 the size of the kid she was holding… and when i asked, “how much?”, the guy said the equivalence of $5…. I said, how about a smaller container… so he took out something smaller (maybe $3.50) I figured I was hooked so took out a bill (worth $10) and paid for it. He gave me change as though I gave him a bill worth $5… saying that’s all I gave him. Sheepishly I went back in the cab feeling I had been played for a fool by both this woman and the guy selling the milk.

Otherwise, It’s been a good couple of days. I make balloons for the workers and guests at the hotel as well as salesmen at shops. I enjoy spending so much time with Annie, almost like we’re joined at the hip and I love the food… especially the MOMO soup (like a veggie dumpling soup).
We ran into an Irishman who just got done with a 10-day, 10hr/day meditation workshop. He said it was exhausting! I asked if he had found enlightenment? His response surprised me and gave me a good smile.

(click on any image for slide show)

first dinner in Kathmandu

Yesterday when we visited one temple, a little girl tagged me, begging for money. She wouldn’t accept “no” and followed me endlessly. I took out a balloon and gave it to her. She threw it on the ground, stomped on it so it exploded, and continued to follow me asking for money… That’s a reaction I’ve never had from giving away a balloon… understandable, but new.
As Annie and I were getting into a cab, a woman holding a baby asked, not for money, but for me to buy milk for her baby. Okay, I softened and took a few steps to the guy selling stuff on the side of the road. She pointed at a big container … about 1/3 the size of the kid she was holding… and when i asked, “how much?”, the guy said the equivalence of $5…. I said, how about a smaller container… so he took out something smaller (maybe $3.50) I figured I was hooked so took out a bill (worth $10) and paid for it. He gave me change as though I gave him a bill worth $5… saying that’s all I gave him. Sheepishly I went back in the cab feeling I had been played for a fool by both this woman and the guy selling the milk.

Otherwise, It’s been a good couple of days. I make balloons for the workers and guests at the hotel as well as salesmen at shops. I enjoy spending so much time with Annie, almost like we’re joined at the hip and I love the food… especially the MOMO soup (like a veggie dumpling soup).
We ran into an Irishman who just got done with a 10-day, 10hr/day meditation workshop. He said it was exhausting! I asked if he had found enlightenment? His response surprised me and gave me a good smile.

I woke earlier than Annie this morning so sat in the lobby typing. A few Chinese tourists began taking pictures of my working on my laptop with big cameras. I had a “captive” audience, so I took out my balloons (I had a few in my fanny pack) and made some balloon wings on one of them. Suddenly the whole group of about 20-25 came out with really BIG cameras and started shooting. I went through the rest of my balloons, took a bow, and went back to my computer. Then I saw I has a few extra balloons, made this last hat… and took out my small iPhone to take her picture as she was taking a selfie.

Selfie, getting off plane in Kathmandu:

morning yoga on the roof:

looking down from the roof:

Allynn’s first diner in Kathmandu (very tasty, but with the first bite I realized the fish was all bones and skin):

Annie’s first coffee in Kathmandu:

Annie’s first coffee in Kathmandu

One of the highlights of staying with Sharon in Delhi was spending time with her mother, Ethel… a woman who seems naturally happy with a beautiful smile. Sharon showed us pictures of her mother posing with the King of Butan, with the Dalai Lama…. Ethel’s been around!

Thus is our friend Sharon Lowen. I met Sharon at a puppetry festival back in the late 1970’s.
Many of us think of ourselves as living legends… Sharon actually is one. A Jewish girl from Detroit who traveled the world in her youth and accepted a Fulbright to study Dance in India. Then she spent the last 30-40 years becoming one of the most respected Indian dancers and teachers in India – embracing and celebrating their culture, starting as an outsider in every aspect and evolving into a major force that keeps this art form alive (I did mention she’s a Jewish girl from Detroit, didn’t I?)
Sharon lives an amazing life and after all these years it was a dream to visit her in her magical world and take advantage of her generous hospitality.

We woke up our first morning in Kathmandu – after the first night we were able to sleep thru without waking up at 2am, 3am, etc. I think our jet lag might be over and my night time hacking cough is under control.
The plan was to get coffee in our hotel then I’d start editing video as Annie would do her yoga – but the hotel coffee was instant coffee – Those of you who know Annie know this is a way to break a dream. Another guest at the hotel told us to make a left out of the hotel, go to the next “big” intersection and make another left…. and we’d arrive at a good, organic coffee shop. It took us a while (not because it’s a distance or we got got lost, but because there are so many things to look at along the way… so many vehicles to dodge, and so many street venders to say “no” to) but we found it. Annie was transported to the land of “bliss” again. When she saw the size of the cup, she ordered two. On a side note, the table next to us had two monks sharing breakfast with a few other people.
A good friend of mine (Bart Roccoberton, who heads the MFA program in Puppetry at U Conn) who was having a time of unbelievable luck once told me “I feel like I’m walking around black and blue all over my body every day… not because I keep bumping into things, but because I keep pinching myself harder and harder testing to see if I’m dreaming because I can’t believe all this good luck is happening”
This experience in Kathmandu is living up to the visions we dreamt about it. It’s colorful, primitive, poor, happy…. In India one woman suggested to us that there’s nothing worthwhile or artistic in Kathmandu and we should skip it entirely. We haven’t been here for a day yet, but we are so happy we followed our instincts in this case.
Annie’s doing her yoga now…. I’ll try to edit some video.

Monday night I booked the flight for Kathmandu scheduled to leave Tuesday at about 4pm then went to sleep. I thought the jet lag would be gone by now, but between the jet lag and a nagging cough I didn’t get much sleep.
When we got to the airport in Delhi I thought we’d have plenty of time with free wifi to book our hotel. In the worst situation – we’d get to Kathmandu and find a hotel while at the airport. However Continue reading “time for Kathmandu” →

On our first day in Delhi our friend Sharon brought us to a bookopening event for kids with special needs. Someone at the event posted a number of pictures on Facebook the other day. Here’s a shot of us sitting with Sharon watching the event.. and then a shot of me adding a little unexpected color to the event.

For the past few weeks before we left for India I was fighting a cough (mostly at nighttime). The doctor had given me antibiotics with a very strict schedule for taking them (several times each day). The timing on the plane (where we flew through the night and lost 10-1/2 hrs in time changes) was more than I really wanted to calculate to adjust the schedule of taking these pills.
I guess this was our third night here…. and we’re still waking at about 2 or 3 am – I don’t remember ever having this much of an issue with jet lag and time differences. At 2 am this morning I was busy coughing and Annie was busy rolling designs in her mind for this gypsy school’s stilt costumes (when Annie gets a creative idea going, sleep for her suffers). It’s now about 7:30am on Sunday and Annie’s doing her yoga. We’ll be spending today at the Crafts museum. This time we’ll make it further than the cafe and gift shop.

I meant to post this picture of Annie doing her yoga at the airport in Paris while waiting for our plane:

We walked around a cute little park alongside Sharon’s home (Sharon’s a good friend who’s invited us to come to India for about 30 years). I surprised a kid with a balloon as we walked (what a surprise):

This evening we met with a friend of Sharon’s. She runs a special school for kids who live in the slums of Delhi… kids who come from poor gypsy families. (her web site: http://www.sterresharma.com ). Her school tries to teach these kids how to survive in today’s ‘real world’.
On Monday I’ll do a short show and Annie will perform in her Frog costume for them. In the next week or two we’ll return and I’ll lead them in some balloon workshops as Annie designs some new costumes for them (they’ll make the costumes, Annie will design them, guide their tailors, and select the materials).
Years ago I remember speaking at a career day in the Bronx for kids who had little hope of making it out of their “slums”. The Principal’s believed that these kids believed they only had three avenues of getting out of their poverty 1) sell drugs… 2) be a sports star… or 3) be a music star. He felt their odds of becoming doctors, lawyers, and scientists were much better…. and that being salesmen, store workers, accountants, etc… were all really possible, but the kids didn’t have any guidance. So he brought “professionals” into his school once a year to talk with the kids. There wasn’t much time for all of us, so each class only heard two or three professionals. When I’d give my “balloon pitch”, I figured these kids would go home saying, “I have four ways to get out of this life style, 1) selling drugs, 2) be a sports star, 3) be a music star, or 4) be a balloon man.

I’m now picturing India coming up with a bunch of Bug and Balloon performers in the next 15-20 years.

We were driven to this meeting in heavy traffic and felt we were going to be in one accident after another… however driving here seems to be like swimming with a school of fish or flying with hundreds of birds…. somehow there aren’t any collisions (well, we didn’t see any).

The flights from NY to Paris and then Paris to Delhi were easy.
We arrived just after 11pm on Thursday night. I was nervous getting through customs with all the balloons but I joked with the guards (they liked my hat and my stock reaction is “I like to be inconspicuous whereever I go”) – they didn’t even look at our bags.

We looked for the driver who had a sign with our name… but we couldn’t find him. Finally when I decided I better dig out the telephone number of Sharon (our friend in Delhi who’s kind enough to host us while we’re here), we saw him holding the sign with our names. Next we were nervous that our three big cases might not fit in his car… but he was about to squeeze them in… and we made it in as well.
Half an hour later we arrived at Sharon’s… about 1 AM.i
We talked for a couple of hours before we all needed to get to sleep.

This morning we discussed possible plans for the next few days, had breakfast, and then Annie did her yoga as I took off to get a chip for the cell phone.
In about another half hour from now one of Sharon’s friends will meet us to set up a balloon workshop/performance at a special school and have Annie design costumes for a group that performs on stilts.

Sharon also gave me several books of Indian tales. In February when Annie’s doing her Yoga in Southern India – Mysore – I might return to Delhi to perform some of these stories during a special celebration week about Indian cultures.