Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas in Nepal

In addition to the hands on learning, I've been doing a lot of reading; "Things I want My Daughters to Know", "Cathedral of the Sea", "A Brief History of Nearly Everything", "Three Cups of Tea", "The Secret Life of Bees", "A Year in Provence", "Paradise in Our Backyard", "The Memory Keeper's Daughter", "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "Something Borrowed"...(I spend long hours in airports, what can I say?) But the book I'm currently reading is "The Motorcycle Diaries" by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Its a first person account of his travels through South America to North America with his best friend on a motorcycle named "La Poderosa", meaning the "powerful one". The nine month journey takes these two from Argentina to Chile, Peru, Columbia, and Venezuela before making it to the U.S. and then back to Argentina all the while keeping records of their disasters and discoveries. In the introduction "So We Understand Each Other", Che shares, much better than I, what traveling and journaling can and cannot do. Enjoy:

"This is not a story of incredible heroism, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean for it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives that ran parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams.
In the nine months of a man's life he can think a lot of things, from the loftiest meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup-in total accord with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's somewhat of an adventurer, he might live through episodes of interest to other people and his haphazard record might read something like these notes.
And so, the coin was thrown in the air, turning many times, landing sometimes heads and other times tails. Man, the measure of all things, speaks here through my mouth and narrates in my own language that which my eyes have seen. It is likely that out of 10 possible heads I have seen only one true tail, or vice versa. In fact it is probable, and there are no excuses, for these lips can only describe what these eyes actually see. Is it that our whole vision was never quite complete, that it was too transient or not always well-informed? Were we too uncompromising in our judgments? Okay, but this is how the typewriter interpreted those fleeting impulses raising my fingers to the keys, and those impulses have now died. Moreover, no one can be held responsible for them.
The person who wrote these notes passed away the moment his feet touched Argentine soil. The person who reorganizes and polishes them, me, is no longer, at least I'm not the person I once was. All this wandering around 'Our America with a capital A' changed me more than I thought.
In any photographic manual you'll come across the strikingly clear image of a landscape, apparently taken by night, in the light of a full moon. The secret behind this magical vision of "darkness at noon" is usually revealed in the accompanying text. Readers of this book will not be well versed about the sensitivity of my retina- I can hardly sense it myself. So they will not be able to check what is said against a photographic plate to discover at precisely what time each of my "pictures"was taken. What this means is that if I present you with an image and say for instance that it was taken at night, you can either believe me or not; it matters little to me, since if you don't happen to know the scene I've "photographed"in my notes, it will be hard for you to find an alternative to the truth I'm about to tell. But I'll leave you now, with myself, the man I used to be..."

Arriving in Kathmandu and making the 13 kilometers journey outside of the capital to Bhaktapur, home to Durbar Square. I would be in Bhaktapur teaching for 2 weeks before the rest of the group comes to Nepal. I was able to take in the sights, sounds and smells of my newest country. This square used to be the former palace of the royal family (when Nepal was run by a monarchy). The square is filled with temples, buildings, monuments and in keeping with the authenticity of the ancient city, the roads are quite narrow so automated transportation were not allowed in, but progress made this impossible. So buses, cars, motorbikes, buffalo and tractors navigate the narrow roads with a kind of iron determination that would surely cause me to have a heart attack if I were to try the commutes they make. I actually had an in depth discussion about the driving situation with my sherpa A.D.. We decided that motorbikes began as a great idea, a way in which to navigate through traffic and wind around the obstacles that keep four wheel vehicle at a stand still...but then more and more people began to see the advantages and their semi-affordability- at least compared to cars. (The 265% motor vehicle tax makes owning a car nearly impossible, but owning a motor bike possible). People bought motorbikes and now no one can get through the traffic jams-especially the motorbikes!! The lines in the road here aren't even a "suggestion" as I've been referring to them in other countries.

I walked the intricate alleyways of Thamel, the "downtown" district of Kathmandu during the time I have off for a change of scenery. The following weekend A.D. and I went to explore Pokhara, one of the Top 5 tourist trekking destinations in the world. It was full of nature and beauty beyond imagination. We hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda, just a large white mass at the top of a mountain until you get to the top. It was beautiful, but the view from up there was breathtaking!! We took a canoe ride from lakeside to the Hindu Temple island:)
As with most of the poorer countries the biggest problems are pretty standard: drinking water, food, poverty, corrupt government, (including the 25% income tax and strikes which make businesses, schools and roads shut down.)

-The group got in yesterday from the U.S. and I met them in Kathmandu. We will be traveling all over Nepal presenting scholarships to girls in primary schools funded by donations to the foundation I'm working with. It was eye opening for me because it wasn't until I was with my own people, so to speak, that I was really able to see the changes in myself. I'm much more laid back as far as my expectations on time frames, delivery on services and the length of time a meal should take. I enjoy conversation more because I'm less rushed and I feel like I can engage in a conversation that I might not have started if I thought the meal would only last 40 minutes. I really enjoy 3 hour meals with tea before and coffee after, I enjoy moseying along the streets of a city with no particular place to go...and no need to pretend I'm on my way to somewhere important to ward off approachers for that matter. I love sitting in coffee shops, tea houses or market places and not take my book out. Instead I can transform a stranger into a friend...probably even learn something. I walk with the humility of seeing too many hungry faces; no longer the swagger of a tourist in new travel gear who believes that reading the guide book has prepared them for the streets. No, I've seen too much truth to not bow my head and pull my hands together for a child I meet; the god in me will always recognize the god in them. (That is the literal translation of "Namaste").

-Load-shedding is a term most people in the U.S. aren't familiar with, but the way our energy use is going we may be soon. It is where districts/cities/towns elect few hours per day in which they will go with out power to share the load of the electricity usage. In Tanzania they took a different approach: they elect a full day, from 9a.m. until 11p.m. in which they go without.

-Add to the list of things I've tried: I ate buffalo meat, yak cheese and the most delightful sweet treat called goodpack.

-For their New Year's celebration (in April), they have a week long festival in which they throw rocks across the square at each other to get out the frustrations and anger of the year before. Because everyone is throwing the rocks there is a sense on anonymity so when someone says they got hurt, the typical response is "Oh, one of my rocks must have hit you".

-These are some expressions in Nepali that I've learned:
"The tongue has no bone"- It means that people can twist words all kinds of ways to make it sound pretty to the ear.
"I've changed my clothes more times than you have"- It means I'm older than you and have more experience.
"The mustache doesn't prevent the mouth from eating"- It means if you want something bad enough, nothing will get in your way. (Similar to the expression "Where there is a will, there's a way".

-The colored flags you see all over Nepal are the Buddhist prayer flags written in a language only the monk know how to read. They are covered with the written prayers, but when the sun has faded the flag to the point where they are no longer able to be read, they say that that is when the prayers have gone up to heaven.

-"Garaha" is the energy someone gives off; the unexplainable attraction or repulsion you feel for a person even before you have spoken with him/her.

-In the pictures of the water spouts throughout Nepal you will notice that most of them are made in the shape of a frog or a snake of some sort. This is because when the pipes would clog up, they would send a frog up through the pipe and a few minutes later they would send a snake in after it. The frog would break up the clog in the pipe trying to get away from the snake. Brilliant!!

-I was surprised to hear that although Nepal is one of the poorer countries as well as quite small, they sent 80 representatives to the G Summit in Copenhagen. Interesting because with that many representatives one would hope for a better line of defense against the pollution than surgical masks color coordinated to match their outfits.

-Perhaps it is because of the pollution, at least that is what I choose to think, but I've never heard so much hawking and spitting in my whole life!! Everyone here, including the women, spit on the streets. They say it is caused by the exhaust, but I've been breathing the same air and I'm not doing that...but then again I am getting headaches.

-Today's pollution level should have been much better because it is the first day of ANOTHER 3 day strike organized by the Maoists. The story is they want more power, influence and money. They have 40% membership in Parliament they feel they aren't fairly represented in the government so to retaliate they use their presence in government to stop potential progress and have imposed a "general" strike on the whole country. What this means is that every school, store, restaurant, business, market and petrol stations are closed; every bus, car and motorbike is off the street and no one risks challenging the Maoists who march through the streets. This isn't because the people agree with them, in fact it's ONLY because they are afraid of them that they adhere to the strike. The charred remains of businesses whose owner thought they might get by or the dented cars of the drivers that thought they would be lucky are left as a visible reminder and warning to the rest. In order for our guide to pick up arrivals from the airport he had to make a deal with a taxi driver he found on the road. Not only did he agree to pay a higher rate because of the risk the driver was taking, but he agreed to take care of any damages incurred should the car be attacked along the way.