Solid Poo

One of the joys of living in a developing country is all of the pets you can have...mostly those in your body. I have been chock full of parasites for months and finally got serious about getting rid of them.

I think Sandy had a nice laugh when I was so excited that I yelled "I had a solid poo" this morning. Strange how your definition of success changes.

Will he die?

Durbar, the world's greatest dog who I wrote about before, is very sick. The other day a group of Chinese tourist went by and he did not jump on anyone...he barely looked. We knew things were bad.

We decided to track down a vet and have him look at him. Distemper. Crap. The doctor said the mortaility rate is about 90%. We tried to give him food with medicine but he is not eating. We wanted to take him to a clinic and they said there is nobody who will take a sick street dog to Kathmandu to a clinic. We're going to give him a shot tomorrow morning but he is so weak I can not imagine him making it.

I know he is just a stupid street dog, but we both love the big dope. Sucks.

So Sari

People consult their astrologer before they have important celebrations here. The last couple of months the astrologers have been working their cards or whatever they use to have parties almost continuously.

We have been going to a couple a week. They have been really enjoyable feasts with one slight exception: a certain woman I know quite well carping about how all the other women look so beautiful in their Saris and this woman I know well feeling...well lets say not as beautiful.

Aparently I was not alone in noticing this issue and one of the woman's colleagues offered to dress her in a sari. Married women traditionally wear red, which looked great in my opinion.

Happy Easter

I am not a religious person and I may be alone in this officially Hindu country. Buddha was born in Nepal, so Buddhism is accepted here. The traditions in both religions are remarkably similar and distinctly different than the other Buddhist countries that we have lived in.

Christians are making in roads here primarily with people of low castes. If you are born into a low caste, you have few opportunities for jobs, education and love. These people are ripe to be converted and there are plenty of people trying to do it.

Today is Easter and there was a celebration in Durbar Square, which is right in front of our house. There was about 200 people in a parade and then some sort of service in the square. An hour after the service ended, there was a whole group of Hindu priests in the square...something unusual. ...wondering if they are checking out the competition.

Nepalese Scaffolding

One of the most amazing things here is how they do construction and the total lack of safety measures. This is one of my favorite examples, Nepalese scaffolding. Stick four pieces of bamboo in the ground and tie a few more inside the building and get to work. It is hard to believe people are not falling off of these things all the time.

elections

The election season here is heating up. There is violence, but much less than I had anticipated. A couple of highlights are:

The campaigning is going on with flags on the front of every house. Of course people had no choice in the matter, they were nailed to their homes without consent.

The vote is really to decide what kind of government they will have i.e. how each branch of the government will be organized. Strangely, the Maoist leader, Pranahanda, has been saying he wants to be the next President when they have not decided if thee will be a president or not.

Not surprisingly, the violence that is occuring on a daily basis is being attributed to the Maoist. Strangely, most of it seems to be directed at the UML (United Marxist Lenist). My guess is the Maoist are still upset that the UML would not forge an alliance with the Maoist and they are trying to kill off (literally) the party.

The Maoist developed material on how to intimidate the other parties. This was leaked to a newspaper. There has not been a denial of the facts. The document details how to intimidate other parties and their candidates so they will not run, how to intimidate the voters so they will not vote for the opposition or at all, and create discord so people will be so sick of the government they will vote for the Maoist.

The Maoist say they will start back with their revolution again if the people do not vote for them since they are sure that the people support their ideas.

One candidate is following a tradition of vote buying with home made booze served in a gourd...he got my vote!

Busy/No Power

I have been really busy lately with the end of the school term, a couple of projects and I have had trouble finding free time to update the blog when there is electricity. I should be better soon.

There is Hope

Things have really settled down in the last week. The government has settled with all of the groups that were having strikes all over the country. Food and petrol have returned to the market. People even believe the election will happen next month. Maybe things will really get better...or not.

I smells me a rat

I am working on a project to bring water filters to homes which do not have access to clean drinking water. I am in the midst of trying to test it to be sure it filters all contaminants and price the water filters.

I found out about the filter from the local Rotary Club. They are doing a similar project. They got a donation to underwrite $4 of the $5 (350 rupee) cost from an American Rotary club. They will buy about 1000 of them. I had a certain level of confidence in the club because it is made up of a lot of powerful businessmen and leaders of the community.

I was talking to a friend about it and a half hour into our conversation she said "I have had one for a couple of years. It is really good!" The next time we met she said, "our filter only cost 200 rupees (about $3.50). She looked at the filter I got as a sample and it is the same as hers. I asked her to call the factory where I got a sample (for 350 rupees), and she was told they are 250 rupees. It was the only type of water filter that I saw at the factory.

I am having a friend go and buy one to be certain something is wrong. If the water filter is the same as the one I bought and the Rotary Club is getting, why are they being charged 350 rupees for it and an individual can buy one for 250 rupees. It is hard to believe these sophisticated businessmen would be cheated for 100,000 rupees (to put it in perspective this is the equivalent of several years salary for a teacher).

I really hope there is something I do not understand and everything is on the up and up, but I smell a rat.