What a festival

A long time ago a Nepali queen was distraught about the death of her son. Her husband, the King, could not break her from the dispair. He decided to show her that others had suffered in a similar way...he decided that on one day each day there would be a festival where everyone who had a family member who died would walk around the streets carrying sort of like mini floats.

From this begining an enormous festival has evolved which began at 3 AM with men walking through the streets playing music (yup...did not like that part at all). Around 9 am the mini floats began floating around the streets. Most had large groups of family members and friends. Many brought along cows (they are sacred here). As the family walked the streets people gave them little bags of food. A friend of mine said they got 1500 of them

The dancing started around 9 and went until the end...about 5 PM. At night, people can say or do anything against anyone or anything. The Maoist seemed to not like the US and others did not like the Maoist.

Probably the most amazing festival we have seen anywhere

a new teacher

Carmela is a 19 year old girl who we met through TOIT, the organization we are volunteering with. She is remarkably elegant and when you talk with her you are immediatly at ease. She comes from a humble home and has received a scholarship through the organization until this year.

Carmela told us today about her life. She says the most unusual thing is she has two mothers. Her father married and the woman could not bear children, so he married a second woman who had 4 children. Carmela calls one ma and on mommy (I might have that wrong) and she says they get along very well.

Carmela's ancestors were meat cutters so she is from the second lowest caste (35th out of 36) so she has limited prospects in marriage since you must marry from the same caste. Since about70% of marriages are arranged and most of the people in her caste in this town are related, she will likely have to move to another city once she gets married.

The higher castes will not allow her to touch things that they may eat or drink and some other things that shocked us. She says that in Kathmandu people are trying to live a modern life so the effects of being in a lower caste is less pronounced their.

Carmela wants to go to university but her sponsor decided that they would not support her in this endeavor so she is getting trying to get a months advance from the job she is working so she can pay the $35 annual tuition for her university. If you are interested in supporting her let me know.

A little nip will do ya!

We went to the doctor for a little check-up and Sandy asked the doctor to find out if she could get some more of a medication that she got in Thailand that seemed to make her feel better. The doctor took the medication to his office and looked it up on the internet and came back. He said," the information was mostly in Thai so I am not sure, but I think this medicine is a mix of baking soda and cat nip".

Well, that certainly explains her licking the top of my head every night before we go to sleep.

A Visit to the Embassy

We went to the US Embassy a few hours ago to register and while there, we witnessed a couple of amazing situations. While waiting our turn we heard the clerk (an American behind bullet proof glass) saying, "I do not have time for games. I checked your documents. They are fake. Do you understand? Ok, I am going to have it translatted to Nepali." This is done over the speaker and the 20 people waiting focus their gazes on the conversation.

The translator begins and keeps translating the rest of the conversation. "I know these are fake. You have two choices: admit these are fake and you will not be able to go to America now but you can reapply in the future. Lie to me and tell me they are not fake and you will never go to America." Then our name was called...crap! I wanted to let someone go ahead and see what happened next.

We finished our transaction and another family was in front of the same guy. Apparently they got a letter that said they had to wait a week to get approved... they were nervous and confused. The same guy who was so tough a minute before said, "don't worry, we are just finishing the paperwork. Come back next week. I am looking forward to welcoming you to America".

2 minutes later the same guy (lucky guy) says to another woman, "I am really angry, these documents are faked. Do you think we do not check these documents? You heard me with the other man. You have the same two options...." Again our name was called.

There was a young woman in the next line and the clerk asked her a couple of questions and then said, "Your non-immigrant visa is approved. Please come back in one week for your passport. " You could see the little jump in the girls knees when she got the news and a beaming smile as she turned away from the clerk. We saw her on the street and said "congratulations!" and got a repeat of the beaming smile.

It was a great show...I wonder if I can go back just to watch.

New Friends

We met Li and Yong (my apologies if I mispelled the names) at dinner the other night and decided to have a second dinner together the following night. They are from China. He was a advertising director and she was a spokesperson for Chanel. They both quit their jobs and are taking time off to travel...something we are familiar with. It was funny that there was so much in common including their love of camping and travel. Nice people and a good memory.

Clean feet=happy marriage and a gross drink

Indra is the leader of TOIT, the organization we are volunteering with. We were discussing the role of women with him and his friend, Sanchita. As with many countries, men are the leaders of the house in every respect. One traditional way to show respect here is the wife would wash the feet of the husband every morning then drink the water. Yummy.

Maoist

The Maoist had a rebellion here that killed about 13,000 people that ended a year ago when they agreed to join the government after the king was removed. Some of their aims seem to be popular, but their popularity seems to be plummeting. There will be an election in October and it appears that they will do very badly.

The Maoist in Nepal called a general strike the other day. Their idea of a strike is a little different. The strike was announced on the news. Then, men ran through the streets with torches reminding everyone that they had to close (or else your shop was damaged). On the day of the strike, they had young men going through the streets to enforce the strike. A little scary but I do no think we are in any danger.

Watering holes

Most people do not have running water in their house so they fetch them from public taps. Some people bathe at them while most just collect the water and go back to their homes. This one, like most, has a small flow and is really picturesque.

Some Pics

As promised, a few pics of the archetecture here...really beautiful!

We Made It

We arrived in Nepal last night. The town we are staying in, Bhaktapur, is a UNESCO world heritage site for good reason... it is really beautiful. I will post pics later since I can not do it on this computer.

One funny thing was when a little playful girl joked with us in the street. Then, she put her hand out and asked for ten rupies. She was far too clean and well cared for to be in need, so I put my hand out and said, "no you give me ten rupies". Since she was not a pro, she did not know what to do so she offered to give me a pencil. I think she will need more practice.

Pig heads, Manga Buses and bathroom signs

A couple of random pics from our trip.

Funny bus stop

We were heading to a city and needed to change buses. Given that we can not speak the language and we are not that smart, this is a challenge. We told the driver where we wanted to go and a couple of hours later, he stops the bus on the side of the highway and says we are in the city to change buses. We got off (trusting fools) and started asking some people where we should go and they told us to stand next to another ramp. 5 minutes later our bus came. I would have bet a million bucks that was not going to work out.

Ayuthya

Another day another incredible city. Today we spent the day in Ayuthya. The temples are from the 1400's and beautiful. Outside of a 15 minute time period which inluded a lot of searching for a missing key for our bikes (which Sandy insisted that I mention on the blog so you can guess whose fault it was) it was a good day.

Spanking a monkey

You know it is going to be an intersting visit to ruins when they issue you a stick to whack the monkeys but that is exactly what they did at this temple in Lopburi today.

There are dozens of monkeys at the temple in addition to dozens roaming the streets. The monkeys like to get into everything, especially backpacks. When a monkey came over a little too directly I decided to nudge it too keep it clear. The damn thing tried to take my stick, so I ended up in a wrestling match with a monkey. Turns out you need to spank the monkey pretty hard to give him the point. Quite funny especially watching Sandy quiver.

Sukhothai

I have wanted to show Sandy Sukhothai since I visited it alone two years ago. It is a small town that was the capital of Thailand for 200 years about 800 years ago. The ruins are a series of Wats contained within a park and right up there with Ankor Wat in my opinion. Truly incredible.

A Couple of Amazing Projects

Sandy and I spent two days on buses traveling to Mae Sot, a town on the Burmese Thai border, to visit a pair of projects that may be able to use the donated medical supplies.

The Mae Tao Clinic is a remarkable clinic that has grown from a 3 month project to a massive organization with 240 staff members. Some amazing things they do for Burmese people are:

• provide health care services to 800,000 people a year.

• charge just short of $1 for the first visit and all others are free


• have a school that teaches 500 children


• serve 1,100 meals a day


• provide limbs for land mine victims (like this girl who lost 2 legs)


• treat malaria patients (which comprise the largest group of fatalities)


• provide health education programs




• provide ob-gyn services




• provide glasses and do eye surgery




• lots more!

You may wonder why this is necessary. The border region in this area has long been a hotspot and the Burmese government would like to eliminate all the people in the area (thus eliminating the unrest). They also spend a huge portion of their income on its armed forces (this in a country that has no external enemies) so there is little left for anything else. Thus, people get sick, there is nowhere to go so they wait until they realize the patient may not survive and then they make the often long journey through the jungle (thus getting weaker). This is why so many of the malaria patients die.

When they talked to us about trying to handicap the likelihood of survival of their patients so they could decide who they should use their limited supplies. It was easy to understand and hard to believe at the same time.

The second organization is the Back Pack Health Worker Team. They have about 250 people that live in villages in Burma and provide health care to people who have no other choices. They do everything from simple treatments to amputations all in the jungle! In addition, the teams provide all types of health education to the villages in their region. The BPHWT provides the supplies and training every six months.

You may wonder about hospitals, but the government does not provide them, but in some areas there are clinics run by various ethnic groups that are trying to provide support that the government will not.

A couple of sad statistics regarding children in this part of Burma...15% die before they reach their 1st birthday and a third will die by their 5th. Hard to believe. The average family must flee the Burmese army 3 times a year, so it is impossible to build any real infrastructure.

The most frustrating part to me is that the organizations say that they can get donated medical supplies, but the Thai government does not want outside aid for these groups...they want them to buy the supplies in Thailand so their economy can grow. I can understand the sentiment except for the fact that people are dying because there are not enough medical supplies.

ani

My Rich Friend

Joyti has been a friend for the last 3 years. She lives in a very simple bamboo house with a metal roof on land she does not own with her mother, father, two year old daughter.Her husband earns a modest income and is able to be home a couple of days a month. The strange part is I think she is probably the richest person I know.

I go to visit her once a week or so. Sometimes to help her with a little project which helps old Burmse soldiers who fought alongside the British, sometimes just to hang out. Her little bamboo house can barely contain the visitors and the laughter. I have never been there when there have been fewer than 5 friends visiting her. About half the time she has those in greater need visiting for food. I think it is much more difficult to be generous when you have next to nothing. Truly an inspirational friend.

Can't Give It Away

As mentioned before, I have $400,000 worth of medical supplies to give away. It is somewhat amazing to me how hard it is. I want to give the supplies to organizations in the area where we have lived, but they are so apathetic. I am really shocked. One hospital in another area is very interested and they have a great mission helping Burmese people so we will probably make a trip there (4 buses over two days!) to investigate the organization.