Strike Averted

When the strike was supposed to start at noon yesterday, people just didn't shut their shops or get off the roads. I guess that they know when failure to comply with a strike order will result in violence or destruction of property and when it won't. I gather that the votes were counted last night anyway, because we were warned that there could be a strike today if the losing party objected to the results. Happily, there was no strike today either. So it looks like I am off to Chitwan tomorrow, will have on last day in Pokhara on Saturday, and will then head back to Kathmandu on Sunday. Of course, this is Nepal, so I can't be sure what will happen next. If things go according to plan, I'll be spending a lot of time on buses during the rest of this week, but at least Mike, one of the other volunteers at the orphanage in Pokhara will be going to Chitwan with me. I can't believe that I am already so close to the end of my trip.

That's all I have time to write today, but I'll do more when I can.

Strike Two

A strike is starting in Pokhara in just under one hour. Of course, it is "indefinite", so I have no idea how long or short it will be. The previous strike was related to an ethnic group's fight for its rights, which I was actually planning to write about today. This strike is because there was some kind of student election on March 19 and on March 20, vote counting stopped because of a dispute between the student unions, which are extensions of political parties. One of the parties called a strike to push for the resumption of vote counting. About 8,000 votes were cast and roughly half have been counted.

We are hopeful that this dispute will be resolved quickly and the strike will not last long. Apart from the fact that it may disrupt my plans to go to the tourist part of Pokhara tomorrow and then to the Chitwan forest on Wednesday, however, even an extended strike will not be as bad for me as the last one. I am not in a remote area this time and I am with people who speak English well. Also, I understand that, if necessary, I should be able to leave Pokhara by taxi and possibly fly from Pokhara to Kathmandu, so that I am not in danger of missing my flight out of the country on April 13. I hope it will not come to that as I really want to visit the Chitwan forest and spend some more time in Kathmandu before I leave, but I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I walk into town to use the internet and assume that I will not be able to do so during the strike. If I leave for Chitwan on Wednesday, however, I'm not sure whether I will have internet access before Saturday or Sunday anyway. I will post an update as soon as I can.

Catching up: Art Projects/Alex Toys Narti

I owe an enormous thank you to Alex Toys, a company that makes a broad line of arts & crafts supplies and activities for children. In response to a blind letter from me, Alex Toys generously donated two bracelet making projects (beaded braceletes and metal bracelets that kids personalize with stickers, colored pens, and glitter glue) and 12 paint and canvas sets for the girls at Lawajuni. Not only did the girls really enjoy these projects, but also they made a huge difference during the strike -- helping to fill days when school was closed and there wasn't much to do. In addition, the language barrier made it impossible for me to have substantive conversations with the girls, but the art projects helped me to connect with them. My experience at Lawajuni would have been quite different if I had not brought these projects with me.

The first project that we did was the metal bracelets. I started by giving them out to a few girls who were in my room one day, but word spread quickly and suddenly all of the girls were there asking for a bracelet. I thought that this project would take only a few minutes, but I was surprised to find that they spent a long time choosing and coloring in the stickers and somehow the project went on for hours. Thirteen year old Mina was so happy that, upon finishing her bracelet, she ran to her room and came back with a necklace for me. Words cannot express how touched I was by this gesture. I hated to take her necklace from her, but I understood that she really wanted me to have it so I accepted it and decided to pass it on to Sita when I return to Kathmandu. Later, I learned that another volunteer had given the necklace to Sabita (the didi who takes care of the girls) and Sabita had given it to Mina. I am continually amazed at the generosity of the people I meet here. They have almost nothing, yet they always have something to give.

Next we painted. We had 6 canvases that had a picture of flowers in a vase on them and 6 canvases that had a jungle picture on them. The flowers were much more popular, but when we ran out of flower canvases, the girls graciously accepted the remaining jungle canvases and painted all of them. At first, some of the girls told me that they weren't interested in painting, but others were excited about it and eventually some minds were changed. We did half of the canvases one day and the next day girls were begging me to give out the rest of them. At the end of the first day of painting, I was asked several times what I planned to do with the canvases -- was I going to take them back to America? I was surprised by this question, but I was even more surprised by their reaction when I told them that the paintings were going to stay with them at Lawajuni: Some girls jumped up and down excitedly, some thanked me profusely, and some just beamed million dollar smiles. One would think that I was handing out cell phones or MP3 players rather than their own artwork. When I relayed what happened to Cam, he told me that previously another volunteer did some sort of art project with the girls involving cloth and had then taken their artwork back to Australia to try to sell it and raise money for them. Knowing this history and seeing how much joy being able to keep the paintings brought to the girls, I am extremely grateful to Alex Toys for making it possible for me to do this for them.

On the day that we did the beaded bracelets, I again started with just a few girls and soon had all of them lining up for their elastic, beads, and threading needle. It is really amazing how quickly news spreads there. I cut pieces of elastic for each girl and handed out the needles. I assigned Karmu the job putting a knot at one end of each piece to stop the beads and I asked Barsa to take tape off of each of the little cases of beads. As the girls received their supplies, they broke off into little groups to work on their bracelets. I was again surprised at how long this project kept them occupied. Some girls just randomly beaded their bracelets, while others sorted the beads carefully and worked out the patterns that they wanted. Sometimes they didn't like the bracelets that they created and they took off all of the beads and started again.

The bracelet projects came in 54 plastic boxes the size of a videotape. The boxes were mostly empty, so I emptied them and condensed the supplies to transport them to Nepal. I realized, however, that the boxes were perfect for holding things like hair accessories, jewelry, and photos and I thought that the girls would enjoy painting them with the paint that was leftover after the canvases were done. I couldn't bring them all and I suspected that most of them would break in transit, but I decided to bring as many as I could and hope for the best. I was glad that I did because the girls wanted them. Most of the lids broke off and the girls were clearly disappointed by this, but when I apologized for the fact that the boxes were broken, they said "No sorry. Thank you." I wish that I could have brought one for every girl, but I gave them out sort of randomly as girls requested them and somehow, I never had to say no to anyone. I hoped that they would personalize the boxes with their own drawings, but they all painted the same thing: A particular flower, the words "WELCOME NEPAL", and sometimes their names and/or Nepal's flag. I also encouraged them to paint the walls of the hostel and, to the extent that they did this, they painted the same things there as well. Learning in Nepal is based on rote repetition (if you walk by a school, you hear kids chanting their lessons) and copying and it seems that children are never encouraged to be creative, which is too bad.

Finally, on the morning that I left Narti, I gave out another round of metal bracelets. I was really glad that I had saved enough bracelets to do this because it made the girls very happy on an otherwise sad day. It also kept them busy while I finished packing. I spread the bracelets out on my bed for them to take and also put the pens, stickers, and glitter glue at the foot of my bed. When I told them to take the bracelets, the girls asked me whether the decorating materials were also for them and were very happy to hear me say "yes". They also inquired about a pile of extra paints, palettes, and playing cards that I had left in a stack on the floor. Previously, I had given out a box of colored pencils with two coloring books and one of the younger girls, Sabrita, had been working on one of the coloring books for several days. She had finished coloring almost everything in the book, but when I was packing, she brought the coloring book and pencils to me and asked if I wanted them back. Nobody takes anything for granted here!!

The art projects meant more to the girls than I ever could have imagined and also enabled me to have wonderful experiences that I would hate to have missed. Thank you, Alex Toys!!!

Catching up: The Road to Narti, February 28, 2009

At 6:50 a.m., Anita comes to get me. We schlep all of my luggage to the boys' house and load it onto an empty microbus. Anita, Michael, three girls, & I climbed in. The three girls are ex-kamlaris who are making the long trip with us in order to visit their friends or relatives for less than one day.

We take the microbus to a bigger road, where we transfer to an old tour bus. The front of the bus has a large cabin in which, behind the driver's seat on the right, there are two passenger seats, and on the left, there is a long bench. When a long pillow is leaned against the dashboard, the bench looks like a bed -- or at least a fainting chair. The front cabin is separated from the rest of the bus by a wall with windows and, in the middle, a door that also has a window in it.

With 37 seats and only 6 passengers, I assume that I will have two seats to myself. Sangita has other plans, however. She sits beside me and rests her head on my shoulder, then curls up and puts her head in my lap. It is all very sweet -- except the part where she periodically sits up and leans over me to spit up out the window, blasting me with cold air every time she does it. Soon we switch seats. When she gets tired of lying down with her head in my lap, I pull out my trusty travel pillow and make her more comfortable leaning against the window. She is very grateful and holds onto the pillow for most of the trip, even when she is lying down. Each time she sticks her head out the window, she thoughtfully wipes her mouth on the window curtains to avoid siling my pillow.

Michael wonders why we need six drivers for this trip. When we stop for a road permit (which should have been obtained the day before), the number decreases to four. A few minutes later, we stop for petrol (which also should have been done the day before) and the number of drivers falls to three.

We go through two checkpoints and, a little while later, we stop for a snack. I try to steer Sangita towards plain biscuits or lemon cake, but she is not interested. She gets Michael to buy her some sort of fruity snack, but I don't see her eat it. After I eat my potato pancakes (not like the ones that I have at home, but still quite good) and lemon cake, I cringe as I see Anita buying Sangita a spicy, crunchy treat served in a cone made of paper (eating off of newspaper or paper that has been written or printed on is common here). Sangita is still eating her treat when we get back on the bus. Soon, however, she throws out the last third of it and out the window -- and her head follows shortly afterwards. Round two has commenced. This time, I am a little more prepared, having grabbed a fist full of napkins while I ate (Nepalese napkins are, however, made of a waxy paper that is not at all absorbent). I turn around and tell Anita, who is sitting behind me with Michael, "no more spicy food for Sangita".

A short time later, we stop again for quite a long time. I have my first experience with an outhouse in Nepal, transitioning away from the relative luxury of life in Kathmandu. Anita is hungry and orders a big, spicy rice and vegetable dish. I cringe again when Sangita eats some of it. I give Anita a disapproving look and suggest that she ask for some napkins (there are none in sight), but Anita just shrugs her shoulders and continues eating. Luckily, round 3 did not start when we got on the bus -- though it occurred about an hour and a half later.

After Anita eats and we are all standing around, I ask Michael what is going on. He says that he doesn't know, but he guesses that the drivers were hungry or needed a break. With three drivers, I would think that they could manage taking turns driving, resting, and eating. Plus we had only driven about 20 minutes after the previous stop. For those who are counting, that's two short stops, two checkpoint stops, and two long stops during the first three and a half to four hours of a 12 hour trip!

As it turned out, one driver did the vast majority of the driving, with a second driver pinch hitting during the last few hours. The third driver didn't drive at all, but he was very busy opening and closing curtains on the windows between the front cabin and the main part of the bus, sometimes opening and closing the windows, and wiping the windows with a cloth a couple of times (not to be confused with actually cleaning the windows). He also had another job: Opening overhead compartments in the front cabin, taking out gym bags (presumably filled with the drivers' clothes for the overnight trip) and then putting them back up again. Finally, he alwasy got on the bus last and was supposed to close the door behind him. Usually, however, he forgot to do that. He would go into the front cabin, close the door between the cabin and the rest of the bus, and then Anita would yell for him to close the door as we took off with the door wide open. Sometimes he would come out to close the door and other times he shut it by pressing a button in the front cabin. Perhaps his union requires a certain number of breaks for men who do this arduous work (I just hope that American unions don't look to Nepal for inspiration).

During the afternoon, it becomes clear that we front-loaded all of our breaks in order to get them out of the way during the first part of the trip. After the second long break, we stop once to pee by the side of the road and twice to wait for settlements of traffic accident cases to conclude, during which time, we remain on the bus (luckily, we arrived near the conclusions of both of cases and do not have to wait too long). When I was very hungry and really wanted to stretch my legs without being thrown all over the bus, we just kept plowing ahead. Rather than a front-loading of breaks strategy, however, I start to think that perhaps the reason that we aren't stopping is that the third driver's union break rules only apply when the driver is actually working. During the afternoon, while we are driving without any breaks, the third driver takes a nap on the bench. About a half hour from Narti, however, he wakes up and starts working again. A few minutes later, we stop so that the drivers can rest and have tea.

Michael buys water for everyone and offers snacks. I get GLUCOSE biscuits: "more milky, more energy". Sangita opts for mango juice (very popular in Nepal) and a bag of spicy, rice based chips that look something like CHEETOS chips. When we finally get back on the bus after a long stop, driver number 2 turns around and mouths to Sangita, "Don't eat anything", which she thinks is hilarious. Michael then hands out chocolate wafers to everyone, showing that he really does know what women want!

Shortly after we get back on the road, we come to a bridge. It appears that a group of people bearing lit torches are about to walk over the bridge toward us. It makes me think of the Ku Klux Klan, though I don't see any white hoods. I asked Michael what was going on and he said "I don't know. A riot." Then the bus stops and he gets off with his camera to take photos. He begins walking across the bridge, ignoring Anita's shouts for him not to do so. None of the rioters started to cross the bridge, so the bus ended up following, and then passing, Michael. When we reached the other side, I saw a circle of people standing around a fire. As best as I can tell, the torches were pieces of wood that were all thrown into a single bonfire, though I can't actually be certain that people were originally walking with torches was accurate. The bus drove quickly past the group and then stopped and waited for Michael. When he got back on the bus, I asked whether he had gotten any good photos and said "no." Then I asked if he had figured out what was going on and he said "No. It is some kind of orderly protest." And we were off again, reaching the Lawajuni hostel in Narti a short time later.

In summary, I drove for 12 hours on a bumpy road, in an old, dirty bus, with a sick 15 year old girl's head in my lap (when it was not out the window), stopping at places that had no real bathrooms and served food that clearly was not prepared according to US health department standards, waited for the settlement of two traffic accident cases, and passed through a riot/orderly protest. It was great!! Oh, and the scenery was nice too.

Catching up: February 26, 2009 Kathmandu

Now that I am about to leave for Narti, more people have arrived at the volunteer house, but I still get my own room. : )


Eric is a graduate student at UC Berkeley and he is here for a week, but he isn't actually a volunteer. He works for a professor who is doing some sort of weather/climate project. They are setting up sensors in different countries around the world and creating a website where the data can be aggregated and manipulated. It is intended to be a free website that anyone can use to obtain information and compare countries. Honestly, I don't fully understand the purpose of the project, but the professor got a boatload of money to send kids all over the globe to set up these sensors. Apparently, it takes only a few minutes to set up the sensor, but Michael invited Eric to stay for a week.


Ethan and Ashley have also arrived -- or, more accurately, returned. A young, married (I think) couple from Oregon, they are in Nepal for six months. They've already spent some time teaching English in a village where Nepal Orphans Home supports the school (though they said that there were so many holidays that they didn't get to teach as much as they would have liked), working on some kind of environmental project, and trekking Soon friends of theirs from home will come and they will all go on a trek together. Ashley looks something like a friend of mine, so I keep wanting to call her "Karin".


If I remember correctly, Ethan had a job doing some kind of product of design and he lost it when the company went under. The company was subsequently bought by a larger company and he had the chance to get his job back. By then, however, he and Ashley had already planned this trip and he decided that he would rather travel. After they return to the states, Ashley is going to study some kind of natural medicine (I forgot what she called it -- something like nautal homeopathy). This cross between western medicine, nutrition, and natural remedies sounded interesting.


Today, Papa's House 3 is being set up. The newly constructed beds were finished and placed in the rooms; sheets, pillows and blankets were laid on every bed, and curtains have been hung. I went over to help, but when I arrived, almost everything had been done already. Timing is everything, eh?


We leave early tomorrow morning for Narti. We will be taking a private bus because Michael and Anita are going to pick up 25 ex-kamlari girls to bring them to Kathmandu (Note: On March 21, I learned that, on the way back, 2 extra girls stowed away on the bus because they also wanted to move to Kathmandu. I hear that Michael didn't have the heart to send them back to Narti after they showed such ingenuity and determination. So if anyone would like to help support these girls, whose private school education and other expenses obviously were not included in the budget, please make a donation on NOH's website at www.nepalorphanshome.com). The private bus is good news for me as I understand that the public buses are very crowded and the 12 hour ride is not only long, but also often uncomfortable. This doesn't bode well for my return trip, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.


Yesterday, I bought a lungi to wear when I bathe in Narti. Basically, a lungi is a large piece of fabric (some of my readers might know it as a "schmata"). After buying the fabric for about $2, you walk over to a man sitting outside at a sewing machine and pay him about 8 cents to sew two sides together so that you have a rectangle with holes at the top and bottom. You put it over your head, pull it tight, and then tie the two ends at the top together at your chest. I don't quite get how you wash yourself when wearing it, but it is apparently essential for bathing in the river in Narti because you are out in the open where anyone can see you. When I asked Sushmita how one washes with a lungi on, she showed pointed to my exposed head, shoulders, arms, and lower legs and said you just wash there. When I asked how you wash the areas that are not exposed, she said "you don't". Hmm. I sense embarrassing bathing stories in my future.


Swastika asked her uncle whether I could volunteer at the National Human Rights Commission (where he is the president). Unfortunately, he said that you have to apply for an internship 3 months in advance. So I'm out of luck, unless I want to come back to Nepal some other time. I asked whether I could at least meet her uncle and she said that she will try to set something up when I return to Kathmandu.

I am now thinking about going on a 5-day trek near the Annapurna Circuit. I will be able to see the mountains, but I won't actually be climbing them and I don't need any special equipment, so it is a wimpy trek, not a real trek. Afterwards, I want to spend a few days at a lodge in the Chitwan forest, which is supposed to be a lot of fun. Suddenly, two months doesn't seem like enough time and I'm not sure how I'm going to fit in everything that I want to do, but Michael says not to worry because everything always works out. He's usually right (except about the weather), so I'm going to relax and just go with the flow.

And now a word about child safety . . . .

Papa's House (the girls' house) has several flights of concrete stairs with no railings. A little scary for a house with lots of children running around. When I told Michael that he would be asking for a lawsuit in the U.S., he told me that when he raised the issue of railings with the contractors, they reacted as if he was completely crazy. Nepal is a little different, he said. The boys' house does have railings, by the stairs, but they also have a walkway at the top of the stairs (like at a motel or my sister's apartment apartment building in California). Apparently, simply running up and down several flights of concrete stairs is perfectly safe, but if you add a flat walkway to a staircase, then it becomes a hazard.

Ironically, the volunteer house, where no children live, has a lovely wooden banister going all the way up the 2 1/2 flight stone staircase -- even without any dangerous flat walkways in the house. At first, I thought that it was odd that the top 1/2 flight of stairs leads to a wall. Did the owner run out of money for a 4th floor after the stairway was already partially built? Did the U.S. government allocate money to Nepal for a stairway to nowhere project that Sarah Palin forgot to quash (perhaps because she can't see Nepal from her home)? Then one day, I peered around the corner and saw that the landing at the top of the stairs is an alter.

Moving on, when I wrote about transportation the other day, I forgot to discuss children. I'm sure that it will come as no surprise to anyone that the roads here are not croweded with SUVs filled with child safety seats. I'm sure that most Nepalese do not even know that child safety seats exist. In fact, most Nepalese families cannot afford cars at all, so they transport their children via motorcycle. Nevermind safety seats in cars, children on motorcycles in Nepal do not even wear helmets! I noticed that, in general, drivers wear helmets, but passengers do not. Ashley told me that this is because drivers are required to wear helmets by law, but the law does not extend to passengers! I have seen as many as 3 children on a motorcycle with their father at one time without helmets (Note: Manooj recently told me that he sometimes drives with 5 or 6 children on his motorcycle at one time!). Does it make any sense to require drivers to wear helmets, but not passengers -- especially when the passengers are children????? I don't think that there is any culture on earth where parents take precautions to protect themselves against an accident which might kill or seriously injure their children.

The motorcycle situation seems to be one of the bad things that comes from the meeting of the east and the west (or perhaps just developed countries meeting developing countries). Motorcycles have improved life here, but I'm sure that the crazy traffic patterns and lack of appropriate safety regulations result in many deaths and bad injuries. Another example is the water bottles and other packaged goods that developed countries have brought here. The people are glad to have these things, but there is no infrastructure to deal with the garbage. Trash is a problem in developed countries, but in countries like Nepal, where there is no such thing as a trash collection service in most places, it translates to litter being thrown everywhere. It is rather depressing to see beautiful scenery marred by trash scattered all over the ground.

I hope that my landlady uses her alter to pray for all the Nepalese children who live without railings and helmets.

Pokara

As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you're making other plans."

On Tuesday, Cam and I took a bumpy, 11 hour ride to Pokara. I was going there to start my 5-day trek on Wednesday, in one of the most beautiful places in the world (which, as it turns out, was in the foothills of the mountains and did not mean staying in towns with internet cafes as I had thought). Cam was going to meet Sushmita, who was escorting Emma, a British volunteer, to her placement at an orphanage in Pokara. He had decided to spend Wednesday sightseeing with them and then return to Kathmandu with Sushmita on Thursday, probably to do a medical internship.

Midday on Wednesday, I cancelled my trek due to disagreement with the tour operator. I feel very bad about cancelling because a tour guide and a porter got caught in the middle and pretty much wasted 2-3 days of their time. For me, however, it worked out for the best.

When I arrived in Pokara, I found that the mountains, which are usually clear at this time of year, are inexplicably covered in a haze. So had I gone on the trek as planned, I would have enjoyed hiking, but been disappointed by my inability to see the spectacular scenery. I spent Wednesday afternoon sightseeing with Cam and Emma and learning that, although it is a major tourist area, people do not come to Pokara for the sights -- they come because it is the gateway to the best trekking in Nepal. While we were looking at fairly dry, non-impressive gorges and wondering why we paid to hike into a cave to look at bats that we could barely see, I had some time to talk with Emma. She had stayed at the orphanage on Tuesday night and loved it. I didn't really want to spend most of the next month in Kathmandu, so I decided to stay here for two weeks and volunteer at the orphange with Emma. I will still visit the Chitwan forest for a couple of days on my way back to Kathmandu.

The orphange, whose name I have just forgotten, is a home that is run by a wonderful couple for 9 adorable small boys and 1 great 14 year old boy. The couple does not receive funding from any other organization. They raise money entirely on their own by soliciting donations, organizing and selling tickets to events such as raffles, music events, and parties, and by taking volunteers (for which they are paid a very small fee). They are in their 20's, but have no plans to have any children of their own as they consider the 10 boys in their care to be their kids. They are managing to send all of the boys to private school by getting ten different private schools to each admit one boy and pay his monthly fees. They still have to come up with the money for annual fees, uniforms, and school books and supplies on their own. This means that the boys have to take 10 different school buses every day.

Even though they are living hand to mouth, Manooj (the husband), dreams of opening a second home for rescued girls who are working as domestic servants in wealthy homes in Pokara (like the kamlari girls at Nepal Orphans Home, but they don't call them kamlaris and I think that they are from a different ethnic group -- need to learn more about this). Samrila (the wife) is incredibly organized. Each boy has a number that is on his dish and spoon. They sit in assigned places, by number, at the table, and have cushions that they each sit on in their assigned spot in the livingroom when they are studying. When I stood in the doorway of one of the bedrooms and said "goodnight" last night, they instructed me to hug each of them -- in number order! Like the children at Papa's House, they study when they are supposed to study, eat when they are supposed to eat, go to bed when it is time for bed, etc. They also speak English well and are really fun to play with and sometimes a little mischievous. Ram, one of a set of identical twins told me this morning that he was his brother when he knew that I was having difficulty just remembering all of their names. Last night, he had told me first that his name was Rambo and then that it was Rainbow. After Samrila and Ram's brother told me the truth about his identity this morning, however, he showed me a scar on his forehead so that I would always know who he was in the future. In one day, I have already fallen in love with all of these boys!

The house has running water (though no hot water), a toilet, and filtered water that is good to drink. I nice upgrade from my life in Narti. Emma took the comfortable bed in our room, but I don't mind -- I've gotten pretty used to sleeping on a slab of wood covered by a thin mattress (though in Narti, I had two mattresses, which made a difference). Another volunteer from the U.K. is here also. Mike is a high school teacher who was asked to take early retirement three years ago and was given an offer that he couldn't refuse. Now he travels for 6 weeks a year. For 2 years, he went to Indonesia to work with orangutans and now he is in Nepal. He is great fun and I am so happy to have met both him and Emma. Although it seems a shame to be so close to the beautiful mountains and miss out on seeing them, I am very happy to be right where I am and looking forward to a great two weeks.

What's next?

Michael was prepared to get me out of Narti immediately, but despite some challenges and worries, I have not been unhappy here. In fact, I will actually have a very hard time saying goodbye to my girls. Also, Cam, a 22 year old Canadian volunteer, was here with me and that was a big help.

I don't have a plan in place yet, but I may stay in Narti until Tuesday and then go to Pokara and the Chitwan forest as planned, before returning to Kathmandu. Until I get back to Kathmandu, internet access will likely continue to not be great and I doubt that I will be able to post any photos. I am in the town of Lamahi at the moment (14 kilometers from Narti) with better access than I had before, but the connection is still quite slow. I will try to continue posting as regularly as I can while I am travelling.

I hope that everyone at home is doing well.

Free at last!

Because there have been several false alarms and things were looking grim yesterday, I didn't believe the children when I awoke to hear their cries of "Ghaddi janu" ("The strike has gone") as a truck roared by on the road. Throughout the strike, certain vehicles were occasionally permitted to be on the roads, so without a steady stream of traffic, I didn't think that the strike could really have ended. I tried not to hope that it was true until I walked down the road and saw for myself that a couple of small shops were open and the roadblocks made of stones were dismantled.

The strike was actually very similar to Chanukah: I only got enough bottled water to sustain me for 3 days, but, miraculously, it lasted for 10 days -- and on the 10th day, the shops opened for one day and I was able to buy a few more bottles that got me through until today. Consequently, I did not have to try my luck with boiled well water, deliciously flavored with chlorine drops. Hallelujah!

From now on, Jews around the world will remember and commemorate the miracle that occured during the Tharu strike of 2009 by celebrating a new eight day holiday from March 2-9, which will be called "Mitzvah Baht". Each day, everyone will do some type of volunteer service (i.e., a "Mitzvah" or good deed). Then, at sundown, friends and families will gather together for festive meals. After the traditional candle lighting, wine, and challah, each person will drink one liter of MOUNT EVEREST pure drinking water: ozonized for safe drinking, and eat a ginormous plate of baht ("cooked rice"). Along with the baht, a different vegetable will be served each night:

1st Night: Potato kugel
2ndNight: Boiled potatoes with spicy yellow sauce
3rd Night: Potato latkes
4th Night: Potatoes fried in mustard oil
5th Night: Boiled potatoes with cabbage
6th Night: Potato blintzes
7th Night: Potatoes fried in mustard oil with one pound of salt
8th Night: Potato knishes

In addition, roti (round, thinly sliced pieces of fried dough) will be served a few times during the holiday. Sorry, but no chicken, turkey, brisket, gefilte fish, or dessert will be included in Mitzvah Baht holiday meals, which, ideally should be prepared and served by well-mannered children. At the conclusion of each meal, all children will begin chanting "Auntie, one picture! One picture!" (Translation: Please take 10 photos of me alone and 5 photos of me with my friends or siblings). If you are not Jewish, you will definitely want to find a Jewish friend with whom to celebrate this wonderful holiday.

Happy Mitzvah Baht to all!

Strike Continues

We are now on day 7 of a 3 day strike, which has shut down all transportation, shops, and schools. Nobody knows how long it will continue, but I am told that the government is meeting with the strikers in 2 days. Meanwhile, I cannot go anywhere and I have essentially no access to to the internet. Nonethless, I am fine, though life is a bit boring because of the strike. The girls and Sabita, the didi, are taking excellent care of me.

I can't wait until I can write more and access email. For now, just know that I am okay and learning to live without communication (except with Michael and Sushmita in Kathmandu), without news, without entertainment, and without toilet paper. : )

Traffic Accidents in Nepal

Tort Litigation:

In the event of an accident, the party at fault must pay the injured party on the spot. Basically, they do some sort of negotiation of the amount and then the injured party's family holds up traffic until the party at fault pays up. Sometimes it can take many hours for the injured party's family to acquire all the rupees. Holding up traffic and having a lot of angry drivers is a good way to induce a recalcitrant party to come to an agreement. This is bad news for personal injury attorneys and can be very annoying if, for example, you are trying to drive all the way from Kathmandu to Narti in one day (12 hour drive). On the other hand, the parties save a lot of time and money that would otherwise be spent on litigation and the courts are relieved of a big burden.

Tort Reform:

In Nepal, people do not have health insurance. So, in the event that a bus hits someone, the family of the injured person holds up not only the bus driver, but all other buses coming down the road and collects about $200 from each one to cover the medical costs (most buses belong to the same conglomerate, so I guess they see the money as coming from the bus company). This is roughly equivalent to a month's salary for a bus driver. As a result, if a bus is going to hit someone, the driver tries to kill the person, rather than merely injure him or her. Understandably, many people are extremely upset that this is happening. Consequently, there is a group (or maybe more than one group) that is putting pressure on the government to pick up a substantial portion of the medical costs incurred by anyone who is injured after being hit by a bus.

Strike

I am now in Narti and have several entries to post, but I only have a brief amount of time on the internet today. For the next 3 days, there will be a strike during which there will be no buses to take me to town so that I use the internet. Walking takes 2 hours each way. I might do the walk at least once if I have nothing else to do with my time. I'm not yet sure whether I'll be able to start my volunteer project tomorrow as things are kind of loose and unstructured here. If not, I might be really bored. So I may spend some quality time updating my blog sometime during the next 3 days or there may be nothing posted again until after the strike.

Right now, I think that I will stay in Narti for about 2 weeks, then do a 5-day trek for wimps (basically a walk near the mountains, but not in them), spend 3 days at the Chitwan forest (where I will have internet access in the lodge where I'm staying), and then return to Kathmandu. But that schedule could change . . .