[obol] Bins for Bhutan!

From: Brodie Lewis <brodietlewis@xxxxxxxxx>
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 11:58:35 -0700
Greetings! I will open by saying that this is my asking for contributions
from Oregon (mostly Portland) birders, and I apologize if it is impertinent
or against any list guidelines that I am unaware of.

My name is Brodie Lewis, and I am the guest teacher at a buddhist monastery
in Dewathang, Bhutan, but I also moonlight as a raft guide here in Oregon
in the summers. Growing up in Oregon and working on Oregon's rivers started
my interest in birding, and living in Asia for the last 3 years has
intensely sharpened it.

When I went to Bhutan for the first time last fall, I knew there would be
many amazing opportunities for me as a birder, living in the subtropical
jungles of the lowlands, but also a great opportunity to use birding as a
tool for education, and hopefully foster an appreciation of the outdoors
and wildlife in the back hills of rural Bhutan.

I would take my class of 20 teenage monks out about once a month to go on
nature walks, and searching for cool birds was always the most popular part
of the trip, so much so that many of the monks would often ask me to go
with them in my spare time (mostly so they wouldn't have to share my one
pair of binoculars with their 19 classmates).

In many ways, birding is the perfect activity for young rural Bhutanese.
Once they procure optics and a bird book there is no cost. Bhutan is such a
hilly country that many outdoor or sports pursuits are difficult, but what
it is abundant in is birds, wildlife, and trees. And the Bhutanese are
quite proud of their country and environment.

So my goal, as if I needed to spell it out, is to teach them how to enjoy
birding, and hopefully spread that interest to others in the region. For
the eight months that I was there in 2013 and 2014 I believe I was the only
recreational bird watcher in the eastern half of the country, and indeed
the only other time I saw birders they were foreigners on a speedy tour
through our part of the country, which I thought sad, that foreigners would
travel across the country to enjoy things that the locals had not been able
to develop an appreciation for.

The difficulty, as you can imagine, is that optics are extremely hard to
find (the closest usable pair I found was a three day bus ride away) and
more expensive than anyone can afford in a region where people live off a
dollar a day.

What I am trying to do on this end before I return to Bhutan in one week is
to gather some cheap but usable pairs of binoculars to give to the monks at
the monastery to help foster that interest. I've been so busy with river
trips that I've put this off all summer, but I've gathered 5 pairs so far,
and would love if anyone else would want to contribute any old cheapo pairs
that have been sitting in the closet neglected for ages.

I realize that its always hard to trust a faceless name on the internet,
and I'm happy to chat with anyone that is interested.

And regardless of if you would like to contribute, feel free to follow our
work at sjieducation.blogspot.com. Please email me at brodietlewis@xxxxxxxxx
if you would like to know more about our program or would like to grant our
class a pair of binoculars. As a thank you we will keep you updated with
pictures and stories of the amazing birds we find along the way using your
old bins! We are fortunate to live right next to a nesting pair of
Rufous-necked Hornbills, as an example of the kind of stuff we get to see
on our nature walks.

Thanks again, and sorry for the novel!

Brodie Lewis
Lhomon Education
[obol] Bins for Bhutan!

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