Wonder Dog

Yesterday, a strange package was found with wires sticking out of it in front of the Nepali Army offices. Could it be a bomb? Hadn't the country gotten past this with last weeks' agreements?

The air was thick with tension. The area was sealed off. They called in the bomb squad and their robot (who knew they had such a thing!). A street dog was observing the goings on. Finally, he (the dog not the robot) did what dogs do...went to check out the bomb/bag. He decided it was worth investigating in private (you never know who may want to steal your stuff!). Can you imagine the panic in the crowd (which you can see was quite large) as the dog started to walk away with the potential bomb.

Turns out the dog was right...harmless bag.

Smart Goat

We were waiting for a bus yesterday when we looked over at a humorous sight: three guys trying to hold onto their goat who was doing its best to kick each of them. One guy finally got hold of its legs, another its horns. The third guys was standing kind of strangely astride of the goat. Next thing you know, he has the machete over his head. I turned my head just as the machete struck the goats neck. Got to give the goat credit for figuring out what was going to happen I guess.

Just helpin'

The students in my school took their exams this week and I had to give the oral part of my test. I was shocked by the overt cheating. When marking tests, I could see 11 students who had obviously copied each other.

I decided to do a survey to see how much cheating was hapening. I asked 110 students in classes 7, 8, and 9 a series of questions. The most shocking response was that 105 students said that they cheated on tests. I do not know what to do since now I am making the 11 students retake their exams for being less skilled cheaters then the rest of the students.

Never mind

Pakistan being a neighbor of Nepal, Benazir Bhutto's death was huge news here. Roads were closed by protesters between major cities of course. This hapens all the time including once to protest a chicken being run over. This, of course, is much bigger and sadder news. My note of hope yesterday seems to be a little too optimistic.

Season of Hope

If someone would have told me in January that in December we would be talking about

• the speed of US pullout in Iraq because of the progress
• the speed of normalization of relations with North Korea because of their agreeing to the commitments they have made
• that bird flu would still be a fear, but not a major one
• the US and China (the biggest contributors towards global warming) seem to be willing to talk about the issue in a serious manner
• that Iran may not be developing a nuclear bomb after all

I would ask them what they were smoking.

There is a long way to go on all of these matters, but with so much good news it maybe this is a good time of year to look at what has happened and feel some hope.

Christmas

There was no sign of Christmas here, so we just marked some papers for my students. Not too exciting but it was fine for us.

A huge day...or not.

Today's paper trumpeted an agreement to declare Nepal a republic and end the monarchy. The Maoaist have agreed to rejoin the government. All the parties agreed to have elections in April to have the public confirm the decisions.

It is huge news and from what I see and hear it is not being seen as a monumental event. I guess people have heard so many promises from politicians that they really do not believe that the current batch will do anything. I can't say that I blame them, but yesterday could go down in history as one of the biggest for Nepal...or not.

Rat Update

Rat number 2 caught and released much to the amusement of our landlord.

A sports update

Singapore and Kuwait got into the finals of the Asian Cricket Council under 15 tournament which is being held here. For fun, I just read the Arab Times story titled "Kuwait cricket squad make history to reach Elite Cup final". The story extolled the virtues of their team. No mention of the fact that 8 of the teams (including Nepal) were disqualified after they were found to have over age players.

Goats and Comforters

Yesterday we were walking around an ancient temple complex which was destroyed in the 1934 earthquake when we saw a man doing something with a big comforter. I found this humorous because they usually have goats doing what they do (mostly pooping and eating) wandering in this area... not exactly hygienic; they did have the goats tied up at that point at least.

Then, Sandy had a realization...”I bet he is making the comforter we ordered yesterday.” We took a quick pic and laughed. When we went to the shop to pick up our comforter we looked at the comforter...same size (which is very unusual) and material. It was our comforter! We tried to tell the man in the shop that we saw the dude making our comforter in the ancient temple ruins/goat pen but he did not understand. It did not smell so we figured “When in Rome.... sleep under a formerly goat poo encrusted comforter” or something like that.

Scumbags

Todays paper has a story on a government report on children's homes in Pokahara, an area full of tourists and children's homes. The story reports that 80% of the 31 homes are not registered and likely run for profit. Of the six that are registered 3 are kept in deplorable conditions and are being run for profit.

The report had recommended that the children be taken out of some of the homes because it was unsafe for them. In one instance, the government finally got around to acting, but the children were moved to an undisclosed location by the people running the home so they could continue to profit from the children. The homes profit by finding donors, usually foreign tourists, to give money. The money is then pocketed by the scumbags who run the homes.

Sometimes I feel worn down by these sorts of things because so many people are trying to manipulate and use me. I want to help people, but most of those purporting to be helping are simply con artists. Some are convincing so you have to be very careful. You end up treating everyone like potential thieves so you do not help the truly rotten people. Of course, the few that are truly honest are put off by your caution. Not good

A bad way to end a good crap

In the 1970's the German government funded and oversaw the construction of a sewer system in Bhaktapur.

Yesterday, we were talking with a monk at a monastery and he was describing life before they had a sewer system. “There were only maybe one or two houses with toilets in all of Bhaktapur. We used to go into the streets to defecate. There used to be pigs in the streets and soon as they saw us getting ready to defecate, they would come running. They would eat it as soon as we had defecated The pigs were very useful. The only problem was when we were small, the pigs would become too excited sometimes and would knock us over while we were defecating” The story was punctuated by the Dali Lama like giggles of a middle aged monk.

Rats!

Our house has stairs to the roof which allow access for humans to the roof and rats into the house. We assumed they would come in periodically, but when we put plastic up around the openings to help keep the warmth in, we heard the “crinkle, crinkle, crinkle” of our housemates from 9 PM every night.

The other night we noticed the teeth marks on the bar of soap next to the sink in the kitchen. Having gotten Sandy’s assurance that she did not make the marks, I decided it must be the rats. I spent a couple of days trying to seal up all the openings to the roof and, not surprisingly, the rats still found their way in. Last night we tried a Nepali rat trap. It is really humane way to catch the rats…just put a little bait in a cage and when the rat grabs it the door closes. The fact that they drown the rat after the caught it struck me as less humane.
This morning, I was like a child at Christmas… I could not wait to see if I had a present in my trap. Low and behold, our housemate was waiting for me. He seemed less excited to see me than I him. I decided catch and release was better than drown and bury, so I took the guest in his trap to a field. I had seen the TV shows where they do the catch and release thing and the animal always runs right away. Apparently the rat had missed those episodes and as soon as he got out of the open cage he jumped 10 feet high (maybe less …I was a little surprised) at me. I jumped, he ran and now he has a new home in an open field.

Human Trafficking Update

A report in the newspaper the other day said that 7000 women from Nepal are trafficked every year, mostly to India to be forced into prostitution.

Bhaktapur is a remarkably beautiful city, but I found these images of this temple, which was built in 1708, lit up last night to be particularly beautiful.

Huffin'

This picture is shot from our family room and shows both the best and worst of Nepal. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (with a temporary shed for renovating another temple in front of it). The boys, who have been living there for the last two weeks, have glue in their bags which the boy with the white hat just huffed (breathed deeply from the bag) to get high on.

The boys, who do not appear to be teenagers yet, have not bothered us at all but, of course,poor kids on drugs are not a good thing and can be dangerous. I could have them ousted by saying something to the police, but I am trying to find an organization in town that actually helps them.

Sidewalk Surfin

We were just heading to Kathmandu for our visa and the bus was ready to flip. I guess driving the bus with two wheels on the sidewalk and two wheels on the grass was not the best idea, but it did get it around a traffic accident

Seeing the Light

Girls get married three times in their life here. The first time with a bell (which I do not understand) the second time to the sun, and the third time to their husband. Today we went to a ceremony for a girl who was just getting ready to menstrate, so it was time for nuptuals number 2.

The lead up to the ceremony is interesting because for 12 days the young girl (she is 11) is kept in a room with no sun light. The girl can not see or hear any males. On the appointed day, the Hindu priest comes. The girl is lead outside with a towel over her head.

The towel was removed and she was blinded by the sun. Finally, the priest performed a ceremony. Friends and family members then gave her gifts. We are going to the party they are throwing for her tonight...a mere dinner party for 350 people. Every Newari girl (Newari is the most common caste here) has the ceremony but I think the dinner party might be a tad larger than usual.

In the Land of Giants

Yesterday grade 9 at my school had a class trip. We went hiking in the mountains around our town. The hike, which was supposed to take 6 hours, turned out to be 8 hours of going up and down the mountains. The hills running up the mountains are terraced...covered with rice for most of the year, covered in the bright yellow blossoms of mustard during this part of the year. With the snow covered peaks surrounding the area, there were some truly breathtaking views.

Some of the conversations were interesting. As we walked on a path that was two feet wide that had a sheer drop of about 100 feet one of the teachers said, “Villagers in your country walk on such paths, too right?” She was the first person to give a reasonable explanation of the taboo of inter-caste marriage. She explained the customs and even language is different between castes. Living with the family of the husband would be more difficult. I might not agree with it, but now I understand the taboo.

Of course, all the kids wanted their picture taken, many with me. When I got home and looked at the pictures on the computer, I noticed that I am a frikin' giant compared to the other teachers at the school.

What to do when your house is ready to fall down?

ay There are quite a few homes here that are ready to buckle due to earthquakes. Most are being supported by a couple of boards nailed to the front and then attached to the ground so they will not fall over. This homeowner decided to do something about it and is having the house rebuilt in halves while still living in it (you can see her in the window)!

A New Champion of the Absurd Tags

We have a new champion in the absurd English name tag that came with my new briefcase. I am not certain about my favorite part, but the fact that it was made for "bussinessman outside the world" may explain why I can not understand it.

The

Jimmy To The Rescue!

The political situation has been really bad here and there has not been much hope. Jimmy Carter made a visit to Nepal last week. This was the second visit in the last six months that he has made as a representative of the Carter Center. I am not sure what the final outcome will be, but it seems that the parties are using his suggestions as a steping stone to getting back to serious negotiations on some problems regarding an upcoming (hopefully) Constitutional Assembly.

First Week Complete

I just finished my first week at the new school. The school is really good and the kids are generally very good. The English level of kids here is remarkable because all of their classes are in English. Their pronunciation is not great, but that gives me something to do. Some essays of note in my 7th grade class called me "fat". These children will have a large opportunity to continue laughing when they repeat 7th grade (a joke...I found the comments funny).

That Stinks!

You got the main road to the dump running through your town and you need money for a dude's operation....close the road and force an end to trash pickup in Kathmandu. Want a road paved in another town, close the road to the dump and let trash pile up in the city.

Kathmandu has been hit with a couple of these strikes in the last two months. It is amazing walking down the streets that have piles of garbage a few meters wide and 15 meters long. Usually there is a goat or a cow or two in the middle of them. The smell is as wonderful as you would imagine. In some areas, you just got to walk on top of the garbage because the entire street is covered.

Small Ommision

My school subscribes to the Rising Sun, the Maoist paper. The day before yesterday there was an article about the lack of press freedom due to the imperialist who control the newspapers. No mention of the journalist that the Maoist have recently murdered for writing unfavorable articles about them or the Maoist affiliated union that broke the printing presses at another because of the unfavorable (i.e. accurate) information about the Maoist. Must be an oversight.

Been sick and busy

Sorry about not writing lately. I was sick for a few days and then I got busy with the volunteer stuff I have been doing.

Two New Volunteer Jobs

I just started volunteering at a school. The school seems to be quite good. The kids are great and I am enjoying teaching them tremendously. So far, so good.

I am also helping an organization that helps disabled kids. It has a couple of centers that provide some respite care and provide some education to the kids. I am not certain of everything I can do there. I think will start with their web site.

A nice Thanksgiving

We finally ended up having a surprisingly normal Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night. The turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes were identical to what we were used to. The sweet potato casserole needed a bit of food coloring to get the correct color, but in the end, it was perfect.

We had invited some of the teachers at the school Sandy had been working at. It was the first time that any of them had ever seen or tasted turkey. Overall a good time was had by all.

Pitiful

Indra, the man who runs TOIT, is upset with me because I pointed out his lies (in a polite way) and resigned. I did not say anything to any of the teachers, workers at the school or volunteers who visited because I truly wanted to give Indra an opportunity to change (i.e. not be a liar) and Sandy had bonded with the children and the other teachers, so she wanted to stay.

What was Indra's response? He gave Sandy a lame reason why she could not teach (something about needing to do some things to fulfill the curriculum and there would be no more English classes) . His girlfriend, who coordinates things at the school, said she thought that he did it because he was upset with me. The timing of his decision (the day he got my e-mail) seems to support her thoughts. The funny thing is that in his attempt to get at me what did he do?

He hurt the children at his school because a native English teacher is a valuable commodity.

He hurt the parents who may not talk with Sandy, but can see their children's reaction (they fight to hold her hand) when she arrives at the bus stop.

He hurt the other teachers because Sandy was having classes with them to improve their English. She taught classes with them and would teach their classes when they were not available.

The teachers, who like Sandy a great deal, probably have lost respect for Indra.

I imagine that Indra's girlfriend has less respect for him also.

I feel bad for Sandy because she is quite sad that she is not going to spend time with the kids. On the other hand, many schools desperately want her and she will choose one in the next few days. In a week or two, she will have fallen in love with more kids. Indra, on the other hand, will continue to be a very pitiful man.

Happy Thanksgiving

We started our Thanksgiving tradition in 2001 by inviting friends and locals to our house for the holiday. We continued the tradition in Japan. This year we decided to invite local friends plus a nice very young American girl to our house for Thanksgiving. We found and purchased what appears to be the only turkey in Nepal ($75 for an 11 pound turkey...such a bargain). We made arrangements to borrow chairs, use an oven, bake some stuff and bought all the necessary accoutrements.

The holiday began as many people's do, Sandy, with her head bowed giving an invocation, “oh god...” Unfortunately, the location of this was over the toilet. We exchanged places, me sitting her bowing to the great white goddess. We decided to put our holiday on hold for a couple of days.

I wish no other woman in the world faces such a situation.”

A first person's account from yesterdays paper.

I was married to Basim ....four years ago. As soon as I went to my in-laws house...my in-laws began torturing me saying that my family did not offer them enough dowry.
“My worst days began right after my marriage as my poor parents, who have seven daughters to marry off, could not offer my in-laws a color television and 60,000 rupees (about $950 US) in cash as demanded by them. They often resorted to excessive mental and physical torture for the same reason.

After their torture crossed all limits last year, I filed a complaint with the police with the help of my parents, which brought a brief pause to my suffering as police made them (my in-laws) sign a paper saying they would not beat me up anymore. However, this was just the beginning of my worst nightmare.

Only after a few weeks, blaming my parents for taking the case to the police, my in-laws quarreled with them and barred me from visiting or contacting them. Taking advantage of this, my husband, mother in-law and sister in-law then resumed the brutal torture.

Neither was I given sufficient food nor was there environment for sound sleep any single night. Whenever they used to beat me up mercilessly in front of my two and half year old daughter Samarin and three month old son Samar, they too used to cry.
There was no option but to wait hoping that the almighty would help me someday. However, it never happened.

On the morning of November 6, the clock had already struck 10 and I and my children were not given any food to eat. “I would rather go to my maternal home if you don't give me food,” I told my in-laws and tried to go but was stopped by my mother in-law and sister in-law. And then they turned into complete fiends and tortured me.

First, they grabbed me, snatched my shawl and squashed it into my mouth. Then they poured kerosene from over my head. They also dipped a handkerchief into the kerosene and tied it around my neck. The two, along with my husband, then pushed me into a nearby latrine and set me on fire.

When I began shouting out in despair as the fire engulfed my whole body, neighbors turned up at the scene and doused it. By that time, the fire had already burnt half my body. However, the helpless locals only requested the culprits to take me to hospital and left me alone at my in-laws mercy.

As I was crying my lungs out due to the burning scars, my in-laws kept watching. “We didn't do this to take you to hospital,” they said.However, neighbors later took me out of the toilet. But this time, bowing down to their requests, my in-laws agreed to take me to hospital, but on one condition. They forced me to swear that I would tell others I had attempted suicide. If I hadn't promised them that, they might have killed me.
Now I am treating my wounds here in Banke Hospital but the scars are sure to remain forever. I can't even sit and sleep due to the wounds.

I heard that the perpetrators are in police custody now, but I want more than stringent action against them. How will I bring up my kids? I wish no other woman in the world faces such a situation.”

Public Morning

So much of life is done in public here...celebrations, bathing, courting....and mourning

The inconsolable wails of weeping women echoes off the ancient brick buildings far ahead of their bodies that seemed to be propelled by grief and a kind friend who helps them through the streets.

The walks generally start in the morning when the body of the loved ones are carried to a sacred place to be burned. After the ceremony, the women walk the streets in small groups for hours. Men seem to be present at some point, but they are generally less visible than women. I can honestly say that I have never heard such heart wrenching sounds as these groups of women pass by. Everyone stops, looks and is quiet.

For the next year, the men will wear white no festivals will be celebrated in the home.

Himalayan Viewing

It is easy to forget that you are surrounded by the Himalayan mountains here because they are usually hidden. I am told the views should be great through December.

Broken Rule

Giving money to kids on the streets encourages bad behavior. The ones who have parents will be forced to continue seeking money instead of doing something useful like going to school due to strangers generosity and terrible parents. Those who have no parents and are just street children use the money to do bad things like sniff glue. I always think that there are much better ways to help children if you wish to.

I made an exception for this boy who had two nubs for hands and was missing a leg. I can not imagine drawing a worse hand in life and yet the kid was trying to earn a buck by drawing pictures. It probably still isn't the right thing to do (giving money) but sometimes rules need to be broken.

Great it is Great to be a Foreigner

As much as I bitch about always being ripped off by merchants etc, it is great being a foreigner here because of the interest people have in you. I was walking down a little dirt road out in a tiny village a few weeks back and a sweet girl struck up a conversation with me. The next thing you know, I am enjoying a cup of tea on her front porch. She shared with me what her life was like and we enjoyed a few laughs.

Two days ago we were visiting a monestary and we met this group of small kids a couple of times as we walked around. Later, we were walking down this path and we ran into them again. They asked me to climb a tree and get some branches which they needed for medicine. This was not going to happen. One of the girls was quite small and I lifted her up (much to her friends amusement), and they got their leaves. Again, we were invited back to their houses. At one we were given fruit and the other we enjoyed a cup of tea with them and their parents. Pretty good stuff.

Update

Yesterday we saw an enormous group of Maoist heading our way so we decided to go down a little alley that ended up being a dead end. We had nowhere to go so we figured we would wait until the Maoist were gone. It probably was completly safe, but you never know. I started chatting with a guy who was really nice...taught Japanese and Dance. We ended up going back to his house and looking at the pottery his family makes (which was quite good) and his drawings (which weren't). Either way a nice time which came from hiding from Maoist and being open to making friends.

International Adoptions

Under pressure from other governments, the Nepalese government decided to allow just over 400 international adoptions to be completed but will not allow anymore. The government had stopped all adoptions a while back because it had turned out that people were selling children. Apparently, the of all the filing fees etc cost $300. The adoption agencies would charge the clients $20,000. Given that a good job pays about $1500 a year, the sort of profit to be made brought out the worst in people. I was talking to a man who works with a lot of children's homes and he told me that once the adoptions were stopped and the potential for profit was lost, many children's homes threw the kids they were "caring" for on the streets.

WWE the ulitimate English (kind of) Teacher

We had a nice dinner with a family we have become friendly with the other night. It was really special because we learned so much about the culture here. The family lives in a 4 story townhouse with one unit (mother father kids) on each floor and a kitchen on the top floor.

A couple of things that stood out were just how loving everyone was. There were tons of laughter especially at the littlest boy who was hugged by one family member or another the whole time.

One of the funniest things was that they all like WWE (which we watched with them) and they said that their English, which was really good across the board, became much better by listening to WWE every night. Their appreciation of wrestling is not unique here judging by the immense number of WWE t-shirts you see people wearing.

Kids insurance

Currently, all children can get some basic health care for free including vaccinations. Starting in January Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, will have free medical care for children. It may be crap, but it will be available to all children. Amazing to me that they can provide it, but we in the US can not.

Whatever works

Tihar is the second most important Hindu festival in Nepal and the favorite with kids because they get presents. On one night, the young girls go around in the town in beautiful traditional outfits and do a little song and sometimes a dance to. The shopkeepers happily hand over a couple of rupees for their efforts.

The boys go the following night with a little different but just as effective approach. The boys start to chant an obnoxious chant (dose see dose) first in a low voice and as they get impatient, they get louder and louder. Finally, the shopkeepers get annoyed and give them a couple of rupees to get rid of them.
Late on the second note, we went to our favorite ice cream shop and tried the dose see dose routine. At first they were surprised, then they decided to offer me ice cream to shut up. It was too cold so we went on our way with a smile.

Dog Days

Hindus in Nepal believe dogs lead you in the right direction once you die. During the current festival, Tihar, one day is for thanking the dogs. Dogs through out town were decorated with flower necklaces and a tika (red dot) on their heads.

This dog was a little camera shy and decided that when I bent down to take his picture, he would take a little run and growl at me. Being used to this sort of thing, I grabbed a rock to hit him with if he got too close. Being a doggy holiday, I was a little worried about the timing. Fortunately, a woman did not like the dog getting closer to me and picked up a brick and hit it (but not too hard) in the side. I guess she is not a Hindu.

Honoring the elderly

I was walking home yesterday and I came across this big group of people pulling a decorative cart by a rope. In the cart was an elderly lady. A friend of mine told me that they pull elderly people through the streets through out the town when they are 77 and then again when they are 81 to honor them. Pretty cool.

Note to my father...don't start building a cart, it is not going to happen.

Gone

I have decided to not volunteer with TOIT any longer. I think that they are doing an excellent job educating the kids and Sandy is really enjoying herself teaching. On the other hand, there have been a few things that they told me that have not been correct. After talking to them about it, they decided to continue telling people these things. Since I did not want to take part in the misinformation, I decided to leave. Quite disappointing.

Stuff you don't want to see

I was walking down the street in Kathmandu yesterday and saw something you never want to see, a street kid sleeping with a blood soaked bandage on his head. Bad stuff.

Slight error

We were looking at the menu in a restaurant the other day and saw the first drink...cock. When we asked our waiter, he said "yes, mistake". We asked him if he knew what it meant, he said, "yes, chicken". We explained that while correct, there is a more common usage now...we all had a good laugh.

Trafficking

The best I can tell, there are not a lot of people who have been “sold” here. That does not mean it does not exist, it is not in the paper and our friends are not aware of it. On the other hand, people being trafficked primarily into India, is a huge problem.

There are stories in the papers about how you are trafficked:

You are a child in a small village. Like most village children, you are quite poor. You, or a member of your family, meets a stranger. Over a period of time, weeks or months, you and your family becomes friendly with the person. Slowly they gain your trust.

The stranger is very helpful and says he has a friend who can give you a job in India. He will even give your parents some money. So many people go overseas to work here; money sent from family members abroad is a leading source of national income. Being a good kid and seeing the desperate family situation, you think it is a good idea. Your parents, being poor, a little ignorant and desperate, think it is a good idea, also. Sometimes the parents or relatives do not care and just sell you to make money.

So you go…you have just been sold without realizing. The nice man (it is usually men) brings you to India. If you are a boy, you will begin working long hours in a factory. Generally, the first few months you are working for free because you are in training. After a few months, you are earning a meager wage which mostly goes to pay off the fees that the owner of the factory has incurred to purchase you.

If you are a girl, your fate is much worse. Beauty is a curse when you are being trafficked and young women here are especially beautiful. You will be sold to a brothel. The head of the brothel, generally a woman, will explain that you have been sold. You are a virgin and you will now start having sex with strangers. New, young and beautiful, you will be busy…dozens of men in a day. You have no hope of escape. If you try to fight back, you will likely be resold...your debt and thus your time working as a prostitute will go up, too.

You do what you have to survive, except you may not because you will likely get a disease... a recent study showed that 40% of the girls who were forced into prostitution return HIV positive. This number rises to 60% for the girls who are 14 or under. The preteens are most popular with the clientel so they tend to be forced to stay in the business longer. Once you have paid your debts for being trafficked, you may be able to leave especially if your beauty has faded. You will return to your village. Your family will know what has happened and will ostracize you because of it. Sick and ostracized...seems harsh for a kid who was trying to help her family.

The Gap recently had a problem with a subcontractor using these slaves in their factory in India. From what I read in yesterday’s paper, they are trying to be a good corporate citizen and they are taking action and have had ongoing programs to try to prevent this. I am not certain that it is fair to single them out since an activist writing in yesterday’s paper wrote that the problem is widespread. He blamed people in the West for not questioning how they can get handmade items so cheaply. I am not sure I agree with his opinion, but I do agree that it is really terrible.

Who is wearing a white hat

I have been meeting with a few different people at NGO's here and there is one thing that they all agree on: most NGO's here are scams to enrich the people who founded them. I feel like I can not trust anyone. Bad people do not care, good people are offended because you do not trust them. Such a shame.

YCL go to hell

The Maoist signed an agreement and joined the government a little more than a year ago. Part of the process they signed on to was a Constitutioinal Assembly which would set up all the details for the form of government. All parties have agreed that the monarchy is dead and there will be a republic. The Maoist have made 22 new demands including a fully proportional voting system established before the Constitiutional Assembly and a republic declared before the assembly...not part of the agreement, but not unreasonable. Some of their other demands, like allowing their thugs be allowed to "advise" people at polling stations seems pretty outrageous.

The Young Communist League is the militia for the Maoist. They are reprehensible. Every day they commit more atrocities. Just this week they have:

• beaten families (including 4 elderly men) for worshipping during the holiest Hindu holidays. They think that nobody should worship any longer.
• They have kidnapped men and held them for ransom
• They are suspected of kidnapping and killing a well known journalist (part of an intimidatioin program against the press)
• They have begun forcing tourist to pay "fees" while trekking
• They have taken the land of people who have been recently displaced and are harvesting the rice the people planted...presumably they will profit by it.

The Maoist became popular by going against the king and a ruling elite. Now the people understand what terrible men they are and they are very unpopular. Hence, they can not allow any elections to take place because the Maoist will lose the small amount of legitamacy they once had. The elections that were to take place in November (which the US gave $10 million to help pay for) have been postponed. Such wonderful people, such bad politicians. It is hard to see a way forward that does not involve a lot more blood shed. I hope I am wrong.

Making arrangements

It is estimated that 70% of marriages here are arranged marriages; seems crazy in a modern era. Of course it makes much more sense when you realize that the wife moves in with the husbands family. Divorce is quite unusual here and a cause for much shame for all. If the family does not get along with her, the next 30 years will be terrible for the entire family.

Sandy spoke to some of her friends who are young women. They are waiting on their parents to select a husband for them. Their parents will select someone from the same caste. The women are educated and, generally, the parents will select a husband who is equally educated. If the women just hate the man the man the parents selected, they can say no, but their will be an immense problem in their family and they may be forced to leave it.

The young women complain that women have very little say over what happens in their household. In addition, they feel it is unfair that men can do anything with impunity and the wife must just obey him.

One more unusual thing is men can be very loving with their children and friends (men holding hands is a very common site), but they can not be loving with their wives; you almost never see men and women holding hands or being affectionate in any way. It is a very different culture.

Cockiness disolved

I have lost more weight here (I am guessing around 10 pounds). I have lost around 60 pounds since we started our journey in 2001. I do not weigh myself, but I think I am about the same weight as in high school (thank god I was fat in high school so I can make this claim in middle age!).

I was walking on this dirt road way back in this little village with Sandy today. Everyone was staring at us more than usual. Sandy said "I think they are starring at us because I am so small." Feeling confident in my new svelteness, I joked "I think they are looking at me, your waif husband". Sandy and I laughed a little.

Not 5 minutes later, two girls who looked to be 12ish are walking towards us. They start whispering to each other as we approach. This is not so uncommon here...usually they say "hello" and laugh. One girl walked up to us and said, "She is thin, you are fat". The girl started laughing as did I.

On Holiday

Sorry about not posting for a little while. I was on vacation and did not have any reliable internet service.

Giant Swings

Dotting the landscape all over the rural areas you can see two story tall objects. Four pieces of bamboo with their base secured in the ground and the tops lashed to a piece of wood. From the wood are these long ropes tied to seats. Little kids going up and down a few feet and giggling…teenage boys showing off by standing on the swings and going remarkably high in the air. Pretty impressive stuff!

Transportation Fascination Continued

We decided to leave Gorhka on the day following the main day for Daishain (see next entry), but being the celebration was still going in high gear there were no buses and only a few vans. After much trouble, we got our seats in a van. It was packed from the start and it continued to pick up people. By the time we got out of town, we had 36 people on the inside of the van including the ones holding on to the open door. There were 4 more people standing on the rear bumper and gobs more on top.

In addition, halfway down the hill, I realized the bag on my feet was actually someone’s dead goat. I surmised this by the foul smell, the bone that had pierced the top of the bag and the cool feeling of liquid (I am thinking blood) pooling at the bottom of the bag. There was no way to avoid it so we drove the 45 minutes down the hill with the goat carcass rubbing on my feet.

A bad day for goats

Dashain is a festival where Hindus in Nepal sacrifice animals to worship the goddess Durga. In addition to 100's of thousands of their own goats, water buffaloes and chickens, Nepal imports 200,000 goats from Tibet for this festival. While in Pokhara, we went to an enormous outdoor market that was selling goats for the festival. A goat even got on the bus with us.

We decided to go to Gorkha for the actual celebration. Gorkha is famous because Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first king of Nepal came from here and there is an incredible mountain top temple/fort there. It is also famous for having the most active Diason festival.

We slowly made our way up the 1500 steps to the temple. As we got closer to the top, there were goat dressing stations. They would boil and burn the dead goats. The smell of burning goat hair was disgusting and everywhere.

As we got close to the top of the temple, the carcasses were being moved down the stairs.. Some carcasses in big plastic bags, others being carried by two people one carrying the front legs the other carrying the back, and some goats were just being dragged down the stairs (thump, thump, splatter, splatter) were being dragged down the stairs. Blood was everywhere…it is surprising how quickly you get used to the site.

Finally we get up to the gate that is surrounded by a bunch of families with their goats and a couple of water buffalo to be sacrificed. Unfortunately, it was being manned by the YCL (Young Communist League) …bad news since they are really just a bunch of violent thugs posing as Maoist sympathisers who are spoiling the country. Too bad they could not be sacrificed instead of the animals...but I digress. We were not going to try to go past them. Then, we saw some other foreigners who told us that we could go through the exit on the other side since we were not bringing animals to be sacrificed.

We made our way into the temple. There were families with their animals (mostly goats but one huge water buffalo) lined up ready to go into a small room to sacrifice the animals. There must be a bit of a ceremony in there because we did not see anyone walk out, although there were plenty of people walking around with blood all over their feet and the bottom of their clothes.

Leeches

While in Pokhara we went hiking and ended up with a few leeches on us. I do not mind these leeches as much as I do the ones in the shops and streets in Pokhara. The ones in the forest look like what they are…blood suckers. The ones in the town try to appear nice before they try to sell you drugs, manipulate you or plain old steal your money. The leeches in the forest got some blood…the ones in the streets got my anger. It is really too bad because there is much to recommend Pokhara, but I can not say I enjoyed my visit.

On vacation

The school is closed for two weeks due to the biggest holiday of the year, so we decided to go on vacation. We are in Pokhara, which is a valley surrounded by the Himalayan mountains. Quite beautiful as the pictures from tonights sunset prove.e.

Street Cows

Nepal being a Hindu country, cows are revered here. As mentioned in the previous post, we are in Pokhara...land of great views, a thousand touts and as many cows in the street. You can't walk more than a couple of meters without having to avoid one of their souveiners.

Kids with bags....damn

They walk the streets, usually in the early morning, with rice sacks dirtied from pillaging the garbage heaps in one of their little hands and a stick in the other. They work through the trash heaps, moving garbage one side to the other trying to find the right piece to collect for a few pennies to help their families. Some still look like children, just dirty. Others, like the girl in the first picture that I see many mornings, look more like little zombies on a mission to find the piece of garbage that will earn those pennies.Last night we had some food that we could not eat, so we were going to give it to some of the street dogs that rifle through the garbage near our house. There was a 8 year old girl with her sack going through the garbage just like the dogs do. A child living like a dog.

I have had a few meetings with NGO's to find out if there is something I can do; so far, no luck. Life isn't fair, but it is hard to believe how unfair (and saddening) this is.

When You Gotta Go!

“Chalabi, chalabi, chalabi” the young boy yells out the open bus door and I know my adventure shall begin again. Once on the decrepit vehicle which seems to be propelled by the horn given how much it is used, I squirm in to find a place to crouch since most people here are quite small, the buses have 5 and a half foot ceilings, plenty for them but there is no standing for me!). The bus, which was over any sensible capacity 15 people before I got on, begins to move. I wiggle an arm up to hold on to the railing which is not necessary since it would be impossible to fall over. Slowly we move through the combination of motorcycles and smoke spewing dilapidated old buses that have the same method of propulsion as our bus.





“Chalabi, chalabi, chalabi”….there is no way more people are getting on this bus, then the back door opens and somehow a couple of more get on. Chalabi, chalabi chalabi…the roof of the bus is now getting full too. Finally, I make it to the Chalabi bus stop and I have to look for the boy yelling “Ratala, ratala, ratala” to begin the next phase of my journey.

Schools

I am trying to become a little more familiar with the school system in Nepal so I can help a little more effectively. There are 4 types of schools.

1. Government schools with enormous class sizes (up to 105) where you must pay bribes to get things you need.


2. Community schools that are managed by the community and the government provides some funding. Generally, they are underfunded and do not have any trained teachers.


3. There are NGO schools which are quite similar to the community schools and suffer from the same problems.


4. Private schools which are not much better than the others but are much more expensive.

I was at the private school below last week...half the teachers were absent and none of the teachers were trained. Yesterday, I was at a community school that was in a half built house. There was no glass in the windows and the roof was not completed. It gets too cold in winter, so they bring the kids to the roof for one hour of sun to warm up.

I am really having difficulty with all of these projects because in most of the cases there are people profiting from the schools...sometimes when they profess to be working to help the children. I do not know what to do for them.