A Letter From My Burmese Friend

A good friend of mine, Pone Pone, who is a Burmese refugee wrote a note to me morning what is happening in Burma right now. The grammar is not perfect, the feelings are.

Dear Steve

look at the news on Burma
so many people are killed and suffered by deadly cyclone
upsetting me lots
people, lots lots...will be in trouble

hope we could do anything for these people
Do you think?

please pray for these people who are died and injured from wherever you are
I think these people are free now fom the cruel government
People are alive with no hopes, so the death take these people to the freedom at least

Wishing you to be safe and free with dream of hopes
Pone

If you want to help these wonderful people, CNN has a list of organizations trying to help them here.

Leaving

Sandy and I had to go back to the US to help with a family emergency. I have a couple of stories I had planned on writing about our experience in Nepal that I will post in the next couple of days. Then we will see what happens.

We Need a Dictator

The unthinkable happened, the Maoist won the election. Given their history of violence against rivals and the press you have to think what the F?? k! Even after they won the election, they badly beat a major representative of another party.

A educated friend of mine said I am really afraid. I have studied the Nazi's and this is very similar to what they did.

Another friend said he supported the Maoist because they represented change. I agreed with that statement, but wondered if political violence and elimination of press freedom is the sort of change they wanted.

I thought back to one of my students essays which was on the violence in my town, Bhaktapur. Her thoughts were, "We need a strong dictator to control the people". Well they got it now and we will have to see what happens.

Hello Democracy! Goodbye Democracy?

There was a historic vote the day before yesterday. The country was voting for the representatives to organize a new form of government, a constitutional assemply.

It is comical that the Maoist think that by intimidating opponents and the public that they could win a free and fair election like this was, except it looks like they are winning. The fact that the Maoist are on the US State Department Terroist list is problematic.

We shall see.

Help!

We have been working with a womens organization the last couple of months, Shree Prarthana Majila Samaj. The organization has a literacy project, which is a big deal here since 65% of women are illiterate. In the last six years they have grown from 4 students to around 100 now. They charge the women 100 rupees (about $1.50) a month. This is out of the reach of 1/3 of the women who are on scholarship.

They also have had vocational training programs as well as legal and health training.

The organization has been run by a group of young people (early 20's) for the last 6 years. We met Urmila, the President of the organization, at the Rotary club meeting. Sandy and I have been so impressed with her for a number of reasons. She is honest, a rarity with NGO's here. She is only 24 and started this NGO at 18. In some ways she is like any other woman here, friendly and respectful of elders. But underneath this exterior is a woman who has a strong will and an immensly kind heart. On good months, she and the other teachers will accept some pocket money, about $5 a month for the 20 hours a week they work. Really remarkable

You can read about her and the organization at: EducateNepaleseWomen.org .

We have been trying to help them in a few ways.

1. assisted with paying teachers salaries
2. made connections with other NGO's
3. assisted with organizing new school

The school mostly operates at night and we felt they could not continue to use the classrooms that they rented from another school that operates there during the day because the school that rented the classrooms during the day would regularly shut them out of the classrooms. Students got discouraged and would stop studying.

They are moving in a new building. The building is cheap (important), good location, and in crappy condition. We have already painted the interior and exterior with what had to have been some sort of toxic crap because my hands are remarkably infected from this.

They still have some major needs:

1. desks- $250 is needed to buy the remaining desks they need (they have already raised some money)
2. plumbing-there is no running water here except two hours two days a week. If you do not have a pump and tanks to store it, you have no water for your toilets. They need $200 for this.
3. electricity/lighting- the previous tenant was kind enough to take all of the lights and wiring. They need to replace this. In addition, they would like to have a battery/inverter so they can actually turn the lights on since there is no electricty 4 nights a week. This will cost $200.

If anyone can support any part of this (or even a portion of a portion) I would appreciate it.

Please send me an e-mail to ssnidero@hotmail.com if you would like to help.

Bisket Jatra

Bisket Jatra is a 9 day celebration of the New Year. Bhaktapur has possibly the biggest celebration. They make this enormous chariot and pull it through the streets. Usually a lot of alcohol and later violence occurs, but due to the elections there was no alcohol for sale and many more police. Hence, little violence this year.

I thought you might enjoy a short video I made.

It's Here

After months of planning today is the big day...the election in Nepal. I, like everyone else, does not know what to expect. The early returns for me are impressive. They have very little to do with the polls though.When I was out walking around 7 am (got to get my mornin' yogurt) people were lined up already; men in seperate lines from women. This makes no sense until you understand that men control the women and if a husband was voting next to his wife, his wife would have no vote.
The most inspiring sight was the old lady who could not vote being carried to the polls. The country will be transformed by the elections and I guess she wanted to be part of it.
Less impressive has been the monument observers. There signs say poll observers but the ones I have seen have acted exactly like tourist. This group from the Asia Foundation had a tour guide who was explaining everything about the monuments in front of my house. Ian Martin, the UN representative here, said that this will be the most observed election in history. I hope the other observers take it more seriously then the dozens that I have seen in front of my house in Durbar Square.

I am worried there will be violence. The US State Department sent out their usual warnings "do not mix with crowds matter of fact do not leave your bathroom" or something like that. I know there is danger in the world, but it seems they are a little extreme sometimes, but I guess they figure better safe than sorry.

I feel real hope for the country right now, but it is tempered with the reality that the election is only one stop in a long journey.

Shit Shit Shit

Many people say "shit" when they drop something or some other type of calamity. Like everyone we have asked, when we asked our very sweet friend Urmila what it meant, she said it was something you said when you made a mistake. She had no idea it was a bad word. She laughed like crazy when she realized she had a potty mouth.

Promise...last dog update

Sandy was out feeding her sick dog this morning. She was surrounded by the children who do not understand why she is doing this and this very dirty, somewhat mentally disturbed homeless guy comes up. He opens up his package of crackers, smiles and gives it to the sick dog. Sandy said she nearly cried.

Bad One!

Turns out the government read the April Fools joke in the paper and liked the idea. They banned alcohol sales and consumption 3 days before next week's election. I want to see this enforced.

Dog updates

There is absolutely no good reason to keep writing about these damn dogs but here it goes again.

We decided that we would help a sick dog who looks just like Durbar. We call him Durbar's brother. He has distemper and there is nothing that can be done except treating his symptoms which is what Sandy is doing. Sandy says,"he is going to die, but at least we can make his last days more comfortable". He is twitching and has problems getting around. When she feeds him, kids always gather around...they can not seem to understand why anyone would care about a sick dog.

Max, Sandy's new favorite dog, is very sweet and a licker..always going for the face. This seemed much cuter until I saw him licking the crazy homeless guys feet the other day.

Startin'

Not sure if it will continue, but today there was the first violence in Bhaktapur related to the election. Apparently there was a major knife fight with many people injured. A march went by a few minutes ago with a few hundred aggitated people surrounded by about 100 armed police. Not sure what will happen next, but we are getting ready to spend a couple of days in our house.

Tibet and Nepal

I read the NY Times and other papers everyday on line and I have not seen any mention of the ongoing protest over Tibet in Nepal. Being that we are really close to Tibet (less than 100 miles) there is a huge Tibetan refugee community here. Every day for weeks there have been protests here that the governement has been putting down. Frequent pics of bloody monks and other other bad scenes have been in the paper.

Good One

I can not believe this mornings paper. It said that they were banning alcohol sales for 10 days before the elections. Today is 9 days before the election. How can this be, I must not remain sober during this highly stressful time. I do not need to be drunk, just relaxed. The story said details on page two, but there was no story on page two.

We made a bee line to the store to get some booze this morning. Thank god, no problem.

Sandy was reading the back page of the paper tonight...it was an April Fools joke.

Dead Durbar

Durbar's condition worsened so we got a vet to look at him again. The doc gave him a shot and an hour later I could see Durbar's lifeless body in the bricks in front of our house. We both were incredibly sad about the stupid dog, who we were planning on bringing back to the states for my sister, dying.

Sandy swore we would not name anymore dogs and definitely not fall in love with another. As we were walking home through the square, one of Durbars friends came up and wanted to be petted. Soon a little puppy joined him. I went off and got the hungry puppy some milk. When I got back, Sandy said this dog is Max...that promise lasted about an hour.

I guess life goes on...at least for us.

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.

Deal or no deal

Each day the papers have the news about the possibility of a deal with the groups in the region bordering India. The widespread and violent strikes have blocked all transit of stuff for weeks which has resulted in shortages of most things and the price of commoidities to skyrocket (most foodstuffs are up 20% in the past 2 weeks).

One paper on Saturday said they were close to a deal, the other said the talks had failed. On Monday one paper reported a deal was reached Sunday night. The following day it said that the deal actually had not been reached. Today one paper said they would announce a deal today the other said the talks failed.

I am guessing there will be a deal and the election will take place. I am not sure it will have any legitamacy since the Maoist say they will have 200 men at each station for campaigning. In the event they lose, they have already been saying on a regular basis that the US does not want the election which will be their execuse for losing. Then who knows.

Petro Agitation

The conversations with my friends always include, "no gas, no cooking gas, no electricity, no water, no buses...the government is terrible." There has been no petro products in the area so schools, buses and ambulance are having trouble running. People are really fed up.

We thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel when the government put curfews in the area where the roads had been blocked preventing supplies to Kathamandu. Two days ago a few trucks make it to the city. The next day, all the trucks were hijacked on the way to Kathmandu by local people fed up with waiting for the products.

There are talks to settle the strikes. Unless they are settled, there is no way to have an election.

Turning to Love

Arranged marriage is a strange thing. As much as it goes against a few major parts of the culture I was raised in, I can see how it works. The man’s family will try to find a bride…they let people know what they are looking for (caste, age, education level). Sometimes they will put ads in the paper. Once they find a perspective bride, they meet with her, the family, and the neighbors. They will find out everything about her that they can. They will taste her cooking, which makes some sense since new brides always do all the cooking once they are married. The woman’s parents will try to check out the man too.

Suman, a colleague of Sandy’s, got married 2 weeks ago. It was an arranged marriage. She met the man 3 times before they married, so she moved in with and started having a life with a stranger and his family. She returned to work and Sandy has asked her about being married. Is it strange? Yes and no. The new family has the same customs and traditions, so not so strange. She must show respect to her new in-laws who she lives with. This entails bowing at their feet on a regular basis which is a little strange for her.

When Sandy asked her how the marriage is, she said it was an arranged marriage but now it is turning into a love marriage. In her mind, she feels like she has it all. Of course it is only two weeks, but if she is happy and it works for them, who am I to say what is best?

Day 3 of Anarchy

Yesterday I wrote about there being too many boys out on the street for my comfort. Because of this, Sandy and I stayed home to be safe. This turned out to be a good move because the riots continued from yesterday afternoon until the evening.

The riots had a very different feel to them. Friday seemed dangerous and a little scary...a person died and a building was burned. The Saturday was dominated by kids, who had a day off from school. They were mostly tormenting the police who responded mostly in kind. I say mostly because as injured boys walked by our house the police generally gave them kicks in the butt and slaps to the face.

There was an agreement last night and today is much quieter. I think the violence related to this incident is over, but there are still many problems. We will have to be careful.

Anarchy!

Two nights ago a young man made an inappropriate comment to a girl who was being escorted from a party... something that happens far too frequently here. The boy who was escorting the girl took exception to the comment. Ultimately, the boy who made the comment killed the other boy.

Rumors started flying...the murderer has killed many people before and served a small amount of prison time...the murderer is part of YCL (Young Communist League), but the rumor that got everyone excited was the murderer and his father were enjoying tea with the police in their canteen on Thursday.

Corrupt inept police, no electricity, no buses, no cooking fuel, water shortages...it was like a powder keg. This incident was the match. Thursday night it exploded. Hundreds of young men took to the streets around the police station which happens to be next to our house. There was a battle...the protesters with bricks, the police with tear gas. We went to school Friday after getting word that things would be quieter...the word was wrong. The protest started mid day. The school bus could not run and the school released the small children to their parents.

We waited a few hours and got word that things were clear...the word was wrong again. We walked a young boy home. We got halfway home and we saw a huge crowd of very young boys running in the streets. Shit...must be running from violence. As we got closer, we found they were running from a man wearing a costume and a traditional mask. They were having a celebration! It seems impossible to stop the celebrations.

We got close to our home in Durbar Square and we could hear the noise. The little boy was visibly shaken. Somehow I always feel like things will be ok. We kept trying all of the back alleys to get to his home which is close to ours. At every turn there was boys throwing bricks and tear gas.
We went down a hill to get around the violence and there was a mob 200 or so boys 150 yards away throwing bricks at the police. The boy was really afraid and I noticed he pee'd his pants. I put my arm around him and told it would be ok. Being a dope, I truly believed it.

Thankfully Bhaktapur is full of these tiny alleys that a little boy would love to explore. He found a way to get around all of the violence to our house. We released him to his visibly shaken mother and sister.

Along the way, we had run into a Canadian guy we had dinner two nights before. He was trapped and could not get back to where he was volunteering, so we had him in for safety. We have no electricity, no gas for cooking, and had just run out of drinking water. Thankfully we had gin so everything worked out ok. We went to our roof top to see the action which was on both sides of our house. For hours the police would shoot tear gas, charge the protesters and ultimately fall back for awhile. I made a short video which gives you a feel of how chaotic it was.


While we were on the roof, the protesters retook Durbar Square and were trying to throw bricks over our house at the police. One did not make it even close and hit our window which for some reason did not break (the pic below is the big smudge of a brick on our window).


Later in the day the protesters lit a building on fire about 100 yards from our house. When the fire engine came, it was stoned and the windshield was smashed. The building could not be saved.
There was a curfew from 7 pm last night and people followed it for the most part. Unfortunately one boy did not and the police shot and killed him.

Things seem quiet today, but there are too many boys out for my liking. I think they are mostly looking at the widespread destruction in town, but you never know.

Yes mom, we are being careful...do not worry (its in the mom and dad job description so I am guessing this is a stupid request).

Small Inconviences

Due to strikes in the region near the border and the reversal of the price increases from a couple of weeks, we have a few inconviences to go with the lack of electricity.

• 70-90% of buses are not running and many cars are abandoned due to lack of petrol.
• LP is in short supply (there is none so I would qualify this as short). Some restaurants are closing and people like us who happened to run out are out of luck. Some people got some after waiting a few weeks.

This combined with the constant "agitation" by various groups means there is some stress right now. I can not imagine that they will have the desperatly needed elections in two months if things do not change quickly.

Durbar the Super Dopey Dog

There are plenty of street dogs here (and all developing countries it seems) but none like Durbar.

I think Durbar is a mix of Black Labrador Retriever and a shoe (the shoe part is where he gets his brains). We call him Durbar because he lives in front of our house in Durbar Square. He is a large remarkably friendly dog that has not realized he is a street dog. We actually seek him out on a daily basis for a few minutes of dopey dog play.

Durbar’s greatest claim to fame is his fondness of Chinese people. Whenever he sees them (not local people or western people) he is compelled to literally run over to them and just mingle…sometimes smelling a butt or two. I am fond of watching this because inevitably a woman looks down at Durbar. Big mistake! Durbar takes this as a sign that he is supposed to jump up on the woman. At that point, the woman always shrieks. Of course, Durbar, due to his immense intelligence, takes this as a sign to lick and nibble on the woman. Ultimately, the woman gets him off of her and Durbar goes back to the butt smelling

thing. Quite entertaining.

Another day, another celebration

We met Jamuna by chance...a kid who knits clothes and sells them near us. She is 13 years old and I am begining to believe that she is as wonderful as I had hoped (it sucks being so jaded).

Jamuna invited us to her house for a special Puja, blessing ceremony, that was attended by her whole family and done by their priest. The priest chants using an ancient sanscript that few understand except the priest. The ceremony involves a whole lot of rice throwing and giving of flowers and burning incense. Which was as interesting as it sounds until an ember flew out of the fire right into my eye...ended up in bed for the rest of the day and night, but all is well now.

Nowin Nothin

We went to a Rotary club meeting Saturday morning and met a woman who has a little literacy project here. She started her project with 14 friends 5 years ago. They now have 80 students.

We have made two trips to the school to get a feel for it and have found some amazing things:

• they get no government support because they will not join the local communist party that controls the education system here.


• They charge the students 100 rupees (a buck and a half) for the 3 classes a day they perform. 25% of the students cannot afford this, so they are getting scholarships.


• They teach by candelight a few days a week due to load shedding (see next post).


• None of the staff get salaries.


• The parents of the staff scold them because they do not get salaries.


• They make their own basic books to save money.


• No NGO's are helping them

When we were getting ready to leave last night, one of the students was crying in the hallway. She did not want to quit studying, but she did not have 100 rupees for her tuition. Of course, we wanted to just kick in the money, but the last thing we want to do is be known for giving money because everyone will start looking to us for it. The school is giving her a scholarship now.

We have become so distrustful of people here and are not willing to help in any significant way until we feel very comfortable that this is not just another scam. We are going to make a few more trips and then we will consider helping.

Welcome to the Dark Ages

We wake up to the same question every morning, “will there be electricity?” Nepal, which is said to have some of the greatest opportunities for hydro electricity, has very little of the stuff coming out of the sockets.

When we arrived here in the rainy season, the rivers were high and there was nearly enough electricity. We only had 4 hours of load shedding (a nice way of saying blackouts) a week. At that point it was almost romantic…candlelit dinners was the only inconvenience.

Now we have load shedding for 8 hours a day 6 days a week. Monday is our only day with no load shedding. Of course, this means nothing since we had no juice for 3 hours this morning (nick named over-shedding).

Our house has no insulation and the only means of heat is our little electric heater. It is generally about 50 degrees in our house, so we go outside when it is sunny to try to get warmed up.

Showers are pleasant until you get out. We have a gas water heater which gets us nice and warm. Then we open the bathroom door and step into the 50 degree bedroom. We start to shiver and put on our clothes (which are cooled to a convenient 50 degrees also). 50 degrees may not seem that cold, but let me tell you naked and wet…not good.

In the next couple of weeks, the load shedding will go up to 11 hours a day. My favorite columnist, whose columns have the bite of an alligator, says that only in Nepal could people put a positive spin on this and say it is better than last year (it was 13 hours a day then). Later in the article he proposed the next tourism slogan, come to Nepal to visit the dark ages.

I am told things start to get better when the rain picks up…till then we will spend a lot of time under the blankets.

Politics

The US politics are interesting, but nothing compared to what happens here.

The strike last week over an increase in fuel prices by the national oil company was approved by the government which includes the Maoist. Then, the Maoist sent out their student unions to create havic and get the government to rescend the increase. If you forget about the first part (the Maoist approving the increase) and look only at the second the Maoist achieved something very popular with the people. Clever.

The Maoist have also said that they will have about 100 members of the YCL (Young Communist League) at each polling station for security and "campaigning". Given that the YCL continues to have forced "donations", beat innocent people, and kidnap people on a daily basis, I am guessing their idea of campaigning comes much closer to intimidation than campaigning

The government will have security at the polls, but most of them will be temporary police (meaning no weapons or any way to stop violence). The Maoist are against the Army being at the polls because they will have undue influence. For some reason, the government is going along with this idea thus far.

In addition to the Maoist problems, the Terai region which borders on India is becoming more and more violent. Initially it was just criminal behavior. Now it is becoming more politically motivated. They say they want their own seperate state and will oppose the polls if the government does not give into its' 13 demands.

Yesterday, a political group from the Terai region bombed a pro-election meeting that had thousands of people in attendance.

The twice postponed elections are slated for mid April. If they do not happen then, I fear the whole process will collapse. There are some reasons for hope and some to fear for the future.

A Good School Lesson

With all the problems they have here, religious tolerance is not one of them. It may be the nature of the dominatant religions (Hindu and Buddhist) or it could be the lessons in their classes like this from a 4th grade social studies book:

"Each religion teachers us what is right to do. Religion tells people to love each other, behave well not to put anyone in trouble, serve the helpless and poor, not to grudge any person, do the duty without any selfishness etc. All religions are good."

Becoming a man

Two days ago we attended attended a Bratabandha celebration. This is when a young boy becomes a young man. This family, who is particularly well off, had an especially elaborate celebration for their twin boys. The ceremony started with a ritualistic shaving of their heads and trimming of their toe nails.

Next, their grandfather (in the vest) along with a Hindu priest performed a series of rituals one of which involved the boys removing their clothes and putting on a loin cloth. Bad enough to have your hoo-ha out in front of strangers, but it was reasonably cold there (it reminds me of the Seinfield episode when George screams "I was in the pool!").

The boys got new suits and hats which they put on.
We walked to the temple along with the band that the family had hired.
Astrologers pick the actual day for the ceremony. Consequently, there were a lot of people celebrating. Where there are a lot of people celebrating there are a lot of dead goats. Some guy ran into me while were waiting. As I was getting ready to get upset, I realized he was jumping out of the way of a freshly slaughtered goat who was rudely shooting his blood out of his neck as he was being rushed to the temple. The buffalo who who was still breathing despite his head being removed made me feel like becoming a vegetarian.
Slaughtering an animal is important, but slaughtering 5 is particularly auspicious. Because the family we were with was well off, they slaughtered a buffalo, goat, sheep, duck, chicken. Thankfully, I was called away and Sandy was on her own for the rest of the ceremony because I am not sure I could have enjoyed all the food which was served. As you can see, Sandy was quite excited by the whole ceremony (could be that she likes looking like a giant).
I can not say that the slaughtering is is not really gross (it definitely is), but we feel really lucky to be part of these ceremonies because they teach us so much about the society.

Strike!

Facing mounting losses and the inability to get more fuel from Indian Oil Corporation due to their not paying for fuel, the Nepal Oil Corporation raised their prices for the third time in the last few months to raise the money to pay for more fuel.

The government run company is guilty of being associated with a remarkably corrupt government (last weeks granting of $15,000 to each member of the interim parliment is a good example), so the people do not trust them. They must be corrupt since the rest of the government is.

What do you do? Strike! In this case, student unions (who are perpetually on strike) put boulders in the road, set fires and announced schools and businesses will be closed from yesterday afternoon. The thousands of people who work and go to school in Kathmandu were stranded. One girl we know of walked the 10 miles back home.

Will the strike work...not likely. From what I see, there is a day off of work and school. Some business closed out of fear of the union most played the game of closing a door or two and staying open.

The police are inaffectual at best (and corrupt and disliked most of the time). These strikes happen every couple of weeks and people seem to accept it. With no real rule of law, they probably have few choices.

Update

Once again proving I know nothing, the government relented and reduced prices after the second day of increasingly violent protests.

Garbage Time

Even taking out the trash here is a bit different than elswhere we have lived. There are no trash cans, so people put their trash in front of this temple and the trash men come a few times a day to pick it up.
There are times when it is humorous like when one of the roaming cows nearly knocked Sandy over in its excitement to get at our garbage. Sometimes much less so, like when when some of the poor kids have a race to scour through the garbage for some plastic to sell.

Transportation Fascination continued

When I thought of dangers in Nepal, I thought of Maoist or Tigers. It turns out riding the buses is much more dangerous than both combined.


Fatal accidents are an everyday occurrence as we witnessed on our trip to Chitwan National Park. In a distance of about 100 miles, we saw one bus being pulled out of a 15 foot ditch (lucky since this is one of only a few areas where the drop offs are small) and a natural gas tanker overturned. On the return trip, we saw a different overturned bus and a bus with a motorcyle under its wheels.
Lonely Planet (the guide book) has a blurb about the 10 accidents that killed 200 people during the ten days of their research on the book. It seems that the rule of law and common sense are totally absent in this part of the culture.

Chitwan

We made a quick trip to Chitwan National Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site in central Nepal. The highlight of the trip was the elephant ride. The animals do not seem to be bothered by the elephants, so we could get within a couple of meters of a mother and baby one horned rhinoceros as well as 3 types of deer and monkeys. We took a ride on a canoe down a river that was full of Mud Muggers, which look exactly like American Alligators, and Gharial, an endangered long thin snout crocodilian.

Rallying

At lunch yesterday, I heard the familiar chants going down the street as were eating at. I went to investigate and there were thousands of people, including many students and adults, who joined in the Maoist rally. How can the Maoist get such big crowds when polls show them to be so unpopular.

A week ago we had dinner with the Principle of our school. He explained the Maoist rallies to me. He said that the Maoist draw their ranks from the very poor who generally have no work. If their leaders call for a rally, they go because they have nothing else to do. The other political parties draw from the mainstream, the people who actually have something to do during the day.

What about the students? The Principle told me that his brother is the man who is responsible for the union, which is Maoist affiliated, that tightly controls the public schools in Bhaktapur. Thus, if you want to be a teacher, you go see his brother to get a job. If the school wants to fire a teacher, they can not. If the Maoist call for students to participate in a rally, the teachers take them...no choice for the students.

Temple Dancing

We were out for our nightly walk when we heard women singing coming from the Dattatreya Temple . The temple, which was built in 1427, has men singing to the gods most nights, so this was a special event. As we were watching the most energetic elderly women in Bhaktapur invited us to join in. The next thing you know, they have dragged Sandy up to dance with them. I made a short video, which is too dark, but the singing gives you a feel for the atmosphere ... really fun.

Devout Dog

I was walking by a temple the other morning and noticed a dog who seemed to be worshiping the gods...just standing and not moving a muscle. I took out my camera, took a pic then continued walking. People walked by him, still no movement. A couple of nights later, we saw the same dog worshiping at another temple. Unfortunately, the camera wasn't handy.

Darwin Principle at Work

A school bus was returning from a picnic two days ago with 80 including the principle of the school, a teacher, a driver and his assistant. The buses offical capacity is 35. The bus driver and his assistant were drunk. Knowing this, the principle told them they must suck on some lemons which he thought would make them sober. Needless to say, he was wrong. The bus hit a pole and rolled over. The teacher, the principle and a student were killed in the crash.

The driver and his assistant worked valiently to help the children...at least in a world that made sense. Here, they ran away and left the kids with the dead bodies. It is strange to me to read more than a few stories about problems with alcohol because I almost never see anyone under the influence in town.

Chicken Bus

You know it is not going to be a good day when you are one of 8 chickens hanging upside down from a kids bike.

The Good, Bad and Ugly

Sandy started teaching at the same school as me and I think she is really happy especially since one of the kids in 2nd grade thought she was 19. I do not think she got too excited about this because another kid thought she was Chinese. Either way, a good first week.

A couple of bad things that happened are related to what I call the long scam. People befriending us and trying to ease money out of us. Our landlord in particular is really awful. Thankfully (or sadly) we do not trust anyone easily here so we have not been surprised or disappointed by these actions.

The ugly...well there is no other way to say it but black boogers. There brick factories all over the area. You really do not know how bad the pollution is until you blow your nose (or pick if you prefer) and find a tissue full of black boogers.