Merry Christmas!

Hello! I'd had a demotivated period - just a touch of a cold - but I'm back in shape and having quite a nice Christmas all things considered. So let's see...Christmas eve I had dinner with a new friend of mine, Megan, who's a grad student / intern getting her degree in international conflict resolution. It just sounds so important. We went to a beautiful Nepali boutique hotel and they had a Christmas buffet with turkey and beef tenderloin, which I think is pretty crazy considering that it's literally against the law for a Hindu to kill a cow and this country is 80% Hindu. It should have been against the law for the beef tenderloin in peppercorn sauce to be that delicious! And there was a pasta bar and so what's not to like? The meal was very nice although certainly not like being at home and so for sure next year I'll be home.
I had asked my parents to mail me some gifts for my boss and the senior management team which is comprised of 6 people, most of whom have names that start with P. My boss KT surprised me with a lovely gift of a Nepali silver bracelet with a big piece of amber in it. Really pretty. And so I brought in a bunch of boxes of sweets for the office as well as the American gifts. We opened gifts over lunch which was, as always, ramen noodles and American gifts were a huge hit. In fact, it felt like something shifted with the team and they asked me if I could go have a drink after work. This is the first time they've ever asked me out and so it was a real compliment. So 6 of us went to the funky tourist part of town and had beers and appetizers:

They kept telling me that I'd always remember Christmas 2007 and that is for sure. My first Christmas at which I ate ramen noodles and fried paneer cheese (both tasty). My first Christmas at which I argued with Nepalis that the American eagle is a way cooler national bird than the turkey, which is what Ben Franklin had adamantly wanted. Surprisingly, Nepalis think that turkeys are better than eagles because eagles are wild and wild is not good. One guy even passionately expressed that dumb is better than wild and I just got to giggling at the entire conversation. One of the other guys jokingly mentioned that guy's wife and it dissolved into a laughing conversation in Nepali.

Tomorrow 3 of us leave for the mountains and I have lots of warm clothes compliments of the great Christmas box that Janice sent and lots of books to read by flashlight. Today at work someone casually mentioned that I'd need to carry a backpack since there isn't a road to the village that we will be visiting and so I scrambled and borrowed one in time. Say what?! I have to carry in all of those snacks?! What happened to Sherpas? So Happy New Year and I'll be back with you when I find the internet or when I get back to KTM on the 3rd. Lots of Love, C

The show

So I feel like I've been called up to the major leagues...the show. On December 26th I'm leaving for a week-long trip to the mountains - the real mountains - to start a new project awarded to us by the EU to open 5 clinics in Jumla. I'm going with two senior managers, (but, alas, no dr durga. sigh.), and everyone just seems so amused when talking about the trip. And then I found out why. Jumla is the "real" Nepal meaning it just got a road last year and it doesn't have any electricity. That's right...snow, no electricity, and we can all imagine the bathrooms. But on the other hand, I'm told that the hotel will have hot water during the day because of solar power. I will thank Al Gore when I rush back to the hotel at 2:PM to shower. And by hotel I mean...I actually don't know what I mean. So of course I haven't had my boxes of winter clothes shipped yet, finding a company that services the Detroit to Kathmandu route is proving to be tricky, and so this weekend I'm going to go rent a down winter coat. There are shops here just for trekkers who need coats, etc. It's all a new adventure. I think I'll buy the long underwear. OK, to bed. xoc
Hey, it occurred to me that dr durga lived in the same apartment complex in Ann Arbor, the U Towers, as JenRose. Classic.

The hills

So Friday morning we headed off into the hills. What go for hills here might actually qualify as mountains in the US and we drove for hours on twisty, single lane roads, no guard-rails, up and down mountains to get to the clinic that we were visiting. It was quite interesting when a car/truck/bus came the opposite way and everyone had to squeeze a little. As it turned out dr durga always happened to be on the steep drop-off side of the truck and he kept hitting the driver in the arm and telling him to slow down. In Nepali, but it wasn't hard for me to get the picture. Note that daikon radishes are in season and are for sale everywhere. It's quite nice and food purist-y to eat what's in season except, of course, when it's only daikon radishes. That's when a girl goes out in search of lovely Indian pineapples. I have changed my mind on eating meat here in that one knows EXACTLY what one is eating (chicken, lamb, goat) because it just walked by minutes before. I actually had the misfortune of walking out the side door of a cafe on this trip and saw a chicken being decapitated. It's better than getting meat of more mysterious origins in the US but then again there are many good arguments for a mostly vegetarian diet.

Not the best shot but my first really good view from the ground of THE mountains. They're really far away but are so big they're unreal.

They do terrace and farm every possible inch of land. Most of these terraces are 2 - 3 feet in depth. I hope that you're able to click on the photos and blow them up because the detail is pretty amazing.

Here's my main man dr durga (that's his first name). He was number two in the Ministry of Health before he retired and came to work for us. He told me lots of stories about working in the incredibly poor mountain regions as a young man and literally slipping into a back room to read medical books while treating patients. He'd see something that he'd never seen before, go read about it, and then try to treat it as best as possible. One guy needed bladder surgery ASAP and couldn't walk for several days to the hospital (bladder stones which I guess are much more prominent in countries with poor diets) and so dr durga had someone do an ether drip while he operated. Dr durga taught the guy how to do it in real time and they somehow managed not to kill the patient. The really amazing thing is that life in the mountainous regions hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. This is a lovely spot where we stopped for tea.

The woman who runs the place is just waiting for daikon radish season to end. I took this photo as evidence in case the coroner needed to know where I had my final tea and fried syrup doughnut. See if you can blow this photo up because it's a gem. Why a medical doctor with such sterling credentials thought it would be OK for me to be eating food that is sitting in the open "window" of a "cafe" on a "busy" "street" is beyond me, but then again it's also beyond me why I ate it. But knock on wood, all is well in my gastrointestinal world.

And so the rest of the trip entailed me sleeping in a hastily-purchased sleeping bag so as not to touch the bedding, admiring the authentic squat toilet in my hotel room, and in general enjoying all of the things that locals think an American wants to see. We took a very long, bumpy trip out to see the dam that the Indians built 45 years ago. I dutifully took many pictures. But the clinic was interesting and the people are truly lovely and I have volunteered for any and all road trips with dr durga. He loves telling people that we went to the same college and I, too, get such a charge out of it. I told him that Ann Arbor has changed in the last 38 years but everything he asked about like the Union and the University Towers apartments still remains. He did prefer to watch football on TV rather than go to the stadium and I have to agree. Goodnight! xoc

Road Trip

So Janice told me that she pictures dr durga and me cruisin the back roads of Nepal listening to 70s music. "slow ride, take it easy...." Not quite, we had a driver and I was spending a lot of time listening very, very closely to understand him, but I totally love durga and we had a good day visiting clinics. Go Blue! I have some pictures for later. It was so great to get out of KTM, as well. And tomorrow we're going to visit a clinic 3 hours away right near the foothills of the real mountains and may stay overnight. I was told to bring my own pillow and sleeping bag because the hotel in which we'll stay is primitive (meaning potential bugs) and cold, and so I rushed to the store after work and bought a bag. Please god don't let me get scabies again. That was just about the opposite of fun. So my "is this really happening?" experience of yesterday was I was given permission to observe a vasectomy and was trying so hard to be all professional and unobtrusive like this is something that I do every day. Bumpers, vasectomies, whatever. I'm sure a lot of people in Detroit would draw parallels between the industries in a most unflattering way. So the poor guy was stone silent and had a cloth over his eyes and was clearly pretending to be somewhere else. I was leaning right over him to watch when, from my bag, my cell phone started ringing! And not just any ring, it plays the Charge of the Light Brigade (you know, the trumpet song at the end of which you yell Charge!) at volume 11. I mean, really. That's just wrong. Now south asians are notorious for answering their phones no matter what, but I scrambled so fast to make it stop. At least it didn't spook the doctor; I can't really speak for the patient. I'll be sure to turn it off tomorrow. And I started Nepali language tutoring today. And bought a pressure cooker. I hope that everyone is getting their shopping done and has a chance to relax. Everyone here knows what Christmas is and kids angle to get presents, but definitely it's not the norm. Goodnight! xoc

Old

How do you know you're getting old? After having too much to drink at the neighbor's place on Saturday night you get back to your apartment and drunk dial your mom. And talk work for an hour. Sassy. So this week was feeling like a little bit of a downer, nothing specific but just whatever, and then things all of a sudden clicked into place. It always happens like that. Today I mailed Christmas gifts to my parents, maybe found a shipping company to ship the stuff that I have waiting in Bethany's garage, found a Nepali tutor to come to my apartment several times a week, and found a restaurant near my apartment that serves carry-out pizza. It's kind of a funny pizza with tons of veggie toppings on it, literally maybe 2 cups of diced veggies on a 10" pizza, but it was delicious. Lots 'o cilantro. And tomorrow I get to go on an adventure outside of KTM with the really old guy who went to U of M (he's a doctor) to visit clinics all day. Hooray! It'll probably be awkward because I have a hard time understanding him but I just sorta pretend to understand and smile a lot. He assuredly thinks that I'm an idiot. When I asked him this afternoon if he was going to leave me someplace or sell me he looked at me with the universal look that clearly means "you are not the sharpest tool in the shed, lady." Meanwhile I'm just worried about the Big Three: toilet, water, food. I must remember TP, water and snacks. So when I walked home past the burning piles of garbage (it gets dark early now and it's cold after the sun goes down...yet another good reason to burn the garbage) I felt a warm feeling towards my new city. Unlike yesterday when I tried to quickly walk past a cow and it swerved and touched me and I thought if I get gored and have to go home I'm going to be really mad. Goodnight! xoc

Thank you

Yes, I was inspired yesterday. Thank you for the props for the blog. My favorite feedback email remains my parents: "C-the phone message you left was not understandable. You need to talk slower. The last blog was the best todate (about the condom awards). Love Dad" I'm so proud of them for emailing and checking the blog and, yes, I do need to talk slower. I honestly never thought that my dad would one day praise my condom awards blog. So here I am at the end of the week..let's see...I guess it really is about patience here. I still haven't paid my rent after living here for 3 weeks, (waiting for the bank transfer information from the owner). 5 weeks ago they started to look into my work visa and no update yet. The condom awards started 4 hours late and I started to get anxious but then it occurred to me that I am in no way responsible for making things happen here. Another trait that I thankfully read about before coming here is that Nepalis are more than happy to sit for long periods of time without talking. It's not an embarrassed silence, just silence. Try getting used to that when you're a fast talker. And they're so direct: sometimes a few of us will be sitting around in silence and then someone will lob a slow-pitch my way "so how much does your apartment cost?" This, of course, being our favorite topic of conversation. Oh, and when we were sitting around not talking before the condom awards for a very, very long period of time I made a joke about needing a rice cooker should someone not be there to receive their award. One of the bosses, who I quite like, responded that maybe I could have a condom sales competition in my apartment (of which I had just once again refused to divulge the price). I couldn't help but ask who, exactly, he though would be buying condoms in my apartment and how he thought I could win such a competition. It totally gave me the giggles but then we all fell back into silence. So that's another aspect of life here. Goodnight! xoc

How did I get to this point?

I know that everyone has had this experience more than once in his or her life: when you stop for a moment, look around, and think "How in the hell did I get here?" What events in my life lead up to the point at which I am sitting on a couch on a stage in front of 150 people in a corrugated metal structure named "The Party Palace" in Kathmandu waiting to present the award of a rice cooker to the shop keeper who sold the most of our brand of condoms? I actually handed out both the second and first prizes because I'm the westerner and apparently make the victory that much sweeter. Fair enough (no pun intended). It was an amusing afternoon and I listened to hours of speeches in Nepali while mildly smiling and looking at the crowd. My expat friend told me (after the fact) that it's OK to bring papers to read at such events because it actually makes me look more important: "I can't wait ONE MORE MINUTE to review this grocery shopping list and, in fact, and going to pour over it for 1 1/2 hours to insure that I don't miss a single ingredient for my stir fry." And don't EVEN ask me what those people in the painted picture on the banner are doing; strangely, the actual artwork on the condom box is less lurid than the painted representation of it.





And believe me, all of these guys were also wondering how in the hell they got there.


The other amazing thing is that the older gentleman sitting to my right in the picture attended U of M in 1975 to get his Master's in Public Health. Seriously, what are the odds? He was telling me that Michigan blew his mind because before that he'd rarely seen a car. So here I am in KTM and my co-worker is a fellow Wolverine and my first friend is from Grand Rapids. If I thought that I was going to lead some sort of wild, secret life of intrigue then I was sadly mistaken...the world is way too small. But at least I'm hanging out at the Party Palace! And seriously, I love this stuff. This beats bumpers any day. xoxoc

Monkeys where they belong

So dinner with the General was totally interesting. Their house was lovely and had armed guards in front of the gate, inside the gate, and I'm sure in the house. KT was quite the hostess and the General was quite charming. He went to the Officer's College in the US for a year, participated in several South Pacific military meetings, (with 30 countries), and commanded Nepali troops in Kosovo in the middle of the heavy fighting. The famous Gurkha soldiers. I felt pretty lucky to meet a Chief of Staff and his perspective on how this is the century of China drove home the point. For the record, he was firm in his belief that US military commanders would never have recommended the Iraq invasion and believes that they were over-ruled by higher powers. I'm just saying...! Dinner was delicious with maybe a dozen different dishes including a spicy duck dish and and some tasty lentils that were originally yellow but turned black from cooking in an iron pot. There were some lightly steamed greens (hooray for plain vegetables) and several curries, as well. And what's so funny is that in the midst of all of the elegance, crystal, wine and servants we had Pringles as part of the appetizer selection. Pringles rule the world. Then Sunday I went on an adventure with the Argentinean woman that I had met at the Indian Embassy a month ago. We went to a famous Hindu temple named the Pashupat Temple and it was complete with monkeys, ancient buildings, and cremations along-side the river. There were different pyres for the different castes and children in the river dredging for the coins that had been in the mouths of the dead, (after the cremation everything gets pushed into the sacred river). It seemed rude to take pictures of funerals but here are a few of the temple area. Monkeys are consider sacred (connected to Rama) and are protected at temples, and that's where they belong...not at English gardens in the middle of cities when one is innocently reading a book!

I have to admit that I felt compelled to take a shower upon returning home after having spent time surrounded by all of that smoke. On the one hand it seems like a healthier approach to death for the family to personally administer the final rites and watch the body disappear, but on the other hand it's not so healthy to breathe it in! Shockingly, Isabel and I did manage to rally from these life and death issues and split a pizza before calling it an evening. One must keep up one's strength in these troubled times. Good night. xoc

The view

Looking to the right from my balcony (temple and temple gardens):
And looking to the left from my balcony (buses, tires, and trash in a field):

That totally sums up KTM. Here's something ironic: most of the produce here is "organic" because no one can really afford chemicals, anyway. But I have no idea what is in the soil and so what does that really mean? So it's off to dinner tonight at KT's (Nepal boss) house. Am so interested in meeting her husband who was the head of the army throughout a lot of the fighting with the Maoists (13,000 people died). The political situation here is slowly heating up again because one of the main Maoist demands, and a major component of the peace agreement, was truly representative elections and finally the king and Parliament conceded. But just before the elections two weeks ago the Maoists figured out that people don't like them (when they're not pointing a gun at them, anyway) and they'd lose miserably and so they threw up lots of impossible new demands and called off the elections until the new demands are met. Total stalling tactic. But now everything is at an impasse and sooner or later something will happen. What that really means to me is that I've been told to have plenty of food on hand in case there's a big strike and I have plenty of US and Nepali cash should it become clear that leaving would be a good idea. And I need to get another canister of natural gas for my stove which is next to impossible and so the apartment building management will have to go on the black market. Huh. Again, I am glad that everyone here is very, very careful not to mess with the westerners because tourism IS their economy. All of that said an getting back to what's important, my clothes are lame and I'm wearing something totally dorky to dinner. Some things never change (!) Also today I went with my neighbor Audra to a Christmas shopping bazaar at the Hyatt Regency sprawling complex and it was weird with blaring Christmas music (under the hot sun) and lots of tourists and expats. All of the US government -related people know each other (USAID, AED, etc.) and it was weirdly click-y. I'm kinda glad that I work with all Nepali people because I don't even have to figure out the pecking order as I am totally outside of it. But I met another cool woman who lives in my building and so am going to go out on a limb and say that I have two friends! Hooray. xoc

How do you like me now?

In my crazy fancy apartment.....

My bedroom is a mess and so that can wait. So today was a very nice day...as always I woke up at 6:30 AM when the temple next door starts with the bell ringing and amplified singing. Sometimes it's a man singing, sometimes it's a woman, (she's awful and is apparently rather infamous among the expats. Imagine if she knew that we discuss her.), and sometimes it's a group of children and I can only imagine that it's something Hindu. That goes on for exactly 30 minutes. Then I walk to work and pass tons of school kids and so do a lot of rock star "hellos" and smiling because the younger kids love to show off their English. Then I pass the massive line for the gas pumps because there's a gasoline shortage and people are waiting up to 12 hours for gas. There are a lot of policemen with rifles guarding the pumps. Then I pass a lot of trash in the streets due to the periodic garbage strikes and animals and other regular stuff. Yesterday I passed on the street the silent boy who delivers my tea at work, gave a big smile and said "hi" and it sent his friends into peals of laughter. He, of course, said nothing. So I'm still waiting for lunch at work to deliver gastrointestinal disaster. Tiny men make lunch in this shanty on the roof of the building and although it's always good, generally ramen noodles with vegetables added to it, I know that they're not washing everything. I have to find a polite way to take a picture of that set-up. Maybe I'll need it as evidence for the doctors! Both Ria and Sabs just recently got so sick in India that they both required serious medical attention and so I really am trying to be careful.

Oh, here's a picture of a monkey that strolled by me when I was reading at the fancy English garden place a few days ago. I don't care if it makes me sound unsophisticated; a monkey walking by is FREAKY.

So, then I spend a lot of time talking about condoms and birth control pills. Who'd a thunk it.. Then I walk home in insane traffic. The pollution is so bad here that when I get home I smell like pollution just like having that smoky bar smell in your hair and clothes. But there's a water shortage and so I feel bad showering more than once a day and so try to ignore it. I'm the only person that I've met (including expats and Nepalis) who walks to work but taking a cab is no better. And then I watch a little VH1. Seriously. Britney's new video is terrible. Alright, goodnight! xoc

Photos

Where shall I start?

My work crew in India (favorite London boss SS is in the blue sari):

BFF consultant guy RS here in Kathmandu (we basically are teamed up to fix sales and work together every day):

Kathmandu boss KT who I've also decided that I like a lot. Don't fall over, Laura. Granted I have to listen to the "I started this program with one clinic in 1994 and now we have 52 clinics even in the Maoists areas and 600 employees and no one feels the pain in the heart for the Nepali people like me" speech every day but I've decided that this place is so crazy that 52 clinics is indeed a small miracle. And I love her daily "everyone yap, yap, yap the bad things but who is the action person?" speech because I totally agree. (Note my wardrobe allows me to blend right in with the Nepali people. Am going to burn these clothes upon purchasing new clothes. The good news is that they're becoming too big as a result of subsisting on nuts and oranges.):

Alright, it takes FOREVER to upload photos and so I'm done for the evening. Apart from my amusing event of the evening. I was walking home from work and am used to the madness enough that I was kinda lost in my thoughts and ignoring the traffic and horns and people. All of a sudden I came to attention having almost walked directly into the face of a HUGE cow. How funny would that be to see if you were a bystander? Of course I automatically blurted out "Jesus!" which is even funnier. You can take the girl out of Livonia, MI but you can't take the Livonia, MI out of the girl. Goodnight!

Such a gourmet chef

Thank you for all of the positive comments on the cooking. Here's what I've made in the last couple of days:
cereal with milk
cereal with soy milk (such a strange find in this city)
oranges
peanut butter on crackers
pistachios
Granted, I need to get the whole shopping and safe food prep thing down. I'm still not sure if I have to do something to vegetables that I buy before I cook them, (soak? pray over them?). Since vegetables come from people on the side of the road (and may have had cows nibbling on them) I am erring towards safety. Tonight I should have a chance to ask my friend in the building who just returned from Bangladesh. But my expensive digs are paying off because the man who uses the treadmill in the mornings at the same time as me is some major attorney/government minister guy. So tonight I should have the internet again and will be back in business. OK, here's the address:

CM
ACE Apartments #307
Narayan Chaur
Naxal, Kathmandu
Nepal
direct telephone: 977 (1?) 442 4874
apartment building telephone: 977 (1?) 444 0772 then #307

Here's the catch: please only mail packages via DHL or Federal Express. Otherwise they remain at the main post office for pickup and the main post office is legendary for A) going through boxes and taking desirable things and B) requiring a full half day to (maybe) collect one's package. Regular mail should be delivered with no problem. So send me pictures, please! Alright, back to work. More later. xoc

I've seen the last of the Marco Polo Business Hotel

This morning the cab came and whisked me away to my new life high above the proletariat. As much as a luggage-laden tin can sitting on a lawnmower can whisk, anyway. The new place is crazy fancy in comparison to my old digs and after I give it a good cleaning it'll be great. The former occupant was Japanese and there are so many bizarre doo-dads around. I've never seen clothes pins and tools made from clothes pins used so widely and often. I have lots of photos to post but need to get out of this here internet cafe and get the wireless turned on at my place so that I can post them more easily from my laptop. Probably Monday. BTW the wireless is something like $20 per month which is highway robbery. We pay our salesguys $70 per month SALARY. There is also a liberal use of doilies on all of the furniture. My grandmother would have LOVED this place. That and keys. Every door has it's own skeleton key as does most of the furniture and I bet that if I collected them all I'd have 40 keys in a pile. I'll post the address and my direct phone number. So I'm going to buy some groceries and laundry detergent and settle in for the afternoon. I turned the TV on upon my arrival and Star Wars was playing. I almost cried. Last night I had a little tantrum (hormone-inspired, truth be told) and so I'm still a little sentimental. I hugged the stove and refrigerator this morning. Literally the last time I made myself dinner was over a campfire in Oregon this past August. xoxoc

Happy Thanksgiving

I had Chinese food for dinner with my new friend KM the Indian consultant. He's in his early 60s with that cheerful look in his eye and I have never seen a man shop more for his wife, two daughters-in-law, and granddaughter. One likes this brand of biscuit, one likes that brand of juice, one likes this hair dye, one likes a particular brand of canned fruit cocktail. We bought it all over the last three evenings. This evening I got to see him negotiate down a salesman, a Kashmiri no less, on three top-quality pashminas. Fascinating. Lots of references to ones word, character, pending bankruptcy, etc. I also got to see what a $500 hand-embroidered pashmina looks like, (the man said $700 so I'm already discounting!) Beautiful. I'm waiting for MY dad to visit for that one. The nicest part of being on this side of the world is that KM insists that I come meet his family when I'm in Delhi and for sure he means it. Work is becoming crazy busy and it's really enjoyable. It's like a soap opera there, KT presides over a senior management team of 4 people with a few experts thrown in, and every single issue of the day is debated heatedly among them. It's never-ending and so few concrete decisions get made. The team is excellent at opening medical clinics and we just got a local grant to open 5 small clinics in the most remote Everest region, but anything business related is insane. The good part is that KT knows it and has happily handed over an amazing amount of work to me. The rest of the team might not be as thrilled but already today I helped enough to win some points. We're trying to get two drugs approved with the government and it's so complicated. I read today in the NY Times that birth control pills in the US are now sometimes going for $50 per month. We buy the exact same pills from India, (USDA approved manufacturing facility), for $2 per month. Women are getting ripped off in the States and I really don't understand it. It's the same for everything else, (IUDs, 3 month injections, Norplant). Now that this is my business you're going to learn some things you probably didn't want to know! Alright, good night and sleep well on your turkey bellies! xoc

My day

So let's see...Indian consultant guy walked to work with me and his best comment was, insert tacky accent, "my recommendation is to walk on the side of the road where you face the traffic so you see what is hitting you." I stressed the need for the conditional tense. WOULD hit me if I wasn't agile like a puma, old man. Then after 15 minutes we arrived at work where guys were removing the large trash pile from in front of our office that caught on fire yesterday. I watched the fire from the balcony because who doesn't want to see that? Oh, and my morning entails a lot of saluting to the gringo (hotel guard, work guard, whatever). I am now totally comfortable with that royal half wave / smile. And of course "namaste". Then I scrambled to avoid the one senior management guy whose main responsibilities have unceremoniously been handed to me per the group meeting yesterday (Laura, KT and I are like two peas in a pod because me fixing her problems doesn't interfere with her diva world) and he only caught me across the street in our other office having a meeting with his (former) staff - OK, two guys - after a full hour during which we actually got something done. Bottom line is that our sales team is clueless and we're on the verge of asking them (and by "them" I mean 4 guys for the entire country) to market next year two very technical and strategically critical products. But my BFF Nepali consultant guy (see India trip) and I are going to fix it up right. Then BFF and I went to see apartments because he knows everyone in town and there's one that is perfect. 2 bedrooms, balcony overlooking a garden, fully furnished, lovely building. The American ambassador lives there (the building, not my apartment). So tomorrow BFF and I meet with the owner to discuss price and then I should have a home! So of course upon my return from apartment-hunting in the middle of the day KT asks me in front of the whole management team what the rent is at ACE apartments. Seeing as it's more than the monthly salary of most of the people in the room I avoided the topic but me moving into ACE is now a management discussion point. Because I'm paid from London I think it's all a mystery. Be it all good or bad. All I know is that I need a few friends and if ACE is the place then I'm in! Then I went to the gym after work and it was quite the busy hub with all Nepali clients. It was nice. But I think the red-faced sweaty gringo was quite the sight for them. And it took me 10 minutes to convey my question about the water in the cooler (filtered? deadly?) and I inferred filtered but alas, time will certainly tell. Then dinner with Indian consultant guy who really is a wealth of knowledge about contraceptive sales (AND he told me that I looked like I lost 3 kilograms after having been to the gym). That my friends, is life in the 'Du today. What are peoples' Thanksgiving plans? xoxoc

Good Morning

So I've had it with using the crappy hotel computer and have pulled out the CPU, pulled the internet plug, and plugged in my laptop. None of this is easy and I am now quite dirty. Actually, I did this on both computers but the first one stopped working altogether mid-operation (am pretending that I don't know anything about what happened while innocently blinking big blue eyes) and the second one now looks like it's been mugged. The reason for this is that my super-spy covert blogging almost backfired when a work consultant from India who is visiting us plopped down at the hotel computer on which I blog and clicked on the drop down internet menu, scrolled right past my blog address, and clicked on google. I was chatting with him at the time and almost lunged over him to delete all internet history. Nooooooooooooooooo! Anyway, no harm but I'd like to keep it more covert. So I've had my porridge with bananas and tea and am headed off to work. Goodnight to you.

Lovely Weekend

So I jinxed myself and now the wireless internet here isn't working (and so am typing in the lobby of the hotel) and my gmail is currently not working but I am assured that Google engineers are working on it. But what a nice weekend. This is really only my second full weekend here and so I figured out a few more things. I found the good laundry, found some good shops from which the proceeds go to various NGOs like women's cooperatives (otherwise everything feels like a rip-off), found the Bluebird department/grocery store (oh my, I'll be asking people to send me essentials like socks and undergarments when I need them), found a place that can ship stuff to the US, found the place to buy nice-smelling soap, and found the gym. Because I also found out that living in a city in which exercise is nearly impossible + lots of rice = not the Asian diet that I was looking for. I might have to drink the tapwater or have a salad just to jumpstart things (not really). So my Sunday was going to the movies just down the road at 8:15 AM for the half-price show with all of KTM's youth (totally packed). I saw Om Shanti Om (in Hindi) and it was a blast. People sang along, yelled at the screen, clapped, etc. I was so amused to be at the movies on a Sunday morning with a tea and popcorn. Then I went to Bantu's Fitness and let's just say that I have to send photos of where it's located. Only a 10 minute walk past the "pond" (giant green slime covered lake of unknown derivation) and down a dirt track. But it was pretty nice (nice in a funny developing world kind of way. I must find a way to photograph some of the posters.) and I found myself on a treadmill listening to Green Day over the loud speakers. The gym is another wealthy person's thing: if I paid month-to-month it's be $50 a month to belong. Wow. Paying an annual fee drops it to $30 per month. Strangely I was the only westerner there but only out of maybe 7 people. The trainer was glad for the company. So I had a nice Thai dinner and am now just waiting for an apartment so that I can prepare food. I'm craving fresh vegetables and can only eat them if I soak them in iodine water first. It sounds unappetizing but try not eating a salad or raw vegetable for 3 weeks. Iodine carrots sound awesome! I have lots of new names to contact and hope to find a Buddhist temple in town that I can attend during the week. Most of the Tibetan activities happen in Bouda which is 30 minutes away and so it'd be nice to have somewhere to go during the week. And I need to start language lessons and get new clothes. Oh, and work! That's about it. Goodnight xoxo c

Oh how a week changes things

I am so glad to be back in KTM (short for Kathmandu). Giddy. The absolute best way to realize how sane is Nepal: 5 days in India. And not just tourist-friendly India; I mean everyday India. Hyderabad has 10 million people and traffic jams that had us crammed in tiny "cabs" in honking, smoke-spewing traffic for hours a day. We had a total of 6 flights and the airports are madness; my new Best Friend Forever (the marketing consultant Rajendra) and I would tag-team getting through the crowds: he'd get all "business professional" and speak in Hindi if the situation called for it such as getting us an escort through security and I'd play dumb tourist if we desperately had to cut a line for us to make a flight. We literally had hand signals. The other guy traveling with us had never left Nepal before and was so sweet but needed constant supervision or we'd lose him in the crowds. The conference was really interesting. There were people there from our programs in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Uganda, Bangladesh, Albania, Sri Lanka, Australia (working with Aborigines), and of course India and Nepal. Our organization tracks both the financial health - income to cost - of a country's program in the event that donors get fickle and pull funds as well as several other indicators such as contraception prevalence rate and unmet contraceptive need, and the two sides often clash. We'd probably have higher usage rates if we gave everything away for free but history has proven that that model doesn't work long-term for many reasons including the fact that there is a higher value placed on something that someone paid for even if it's a nominal amount of money. Plus, we're trying to be as sustainable as possible without donor money. All of these interests clash on top of varying governmental regulations that make things difficult in many countries, (The President of Uganda has apparently become a born-again Christian and is now discouraging the promotion of condoms in hopes that people will opt for abstinence, for instance. Right when their HIV infection rates have shown substantial declines.) So it's about how to price and promote things on top of having funds available to serve people who can't pay on top of covert activities in restricted countries and so on. One other thing that I can say is that business travel doesn't change with the business; we spent a grueling day visiting a drug manufacturer in Bangalore and it could have easily been bumpers in Americus, GA! Well, the lunch was really different and was not at the Golden Corral. And it's so weird to me that people somehow manage to work and function in places like Afghanistan and Myanmar. One interesting thing is that the government in Myanmar controls people by hardly allowing in new cars (they're so rare that they appreciate in value year over year) and charging the equivalent of thousands of US dollars for a cell phone SIM card. Another interesting thing is how many people have asked me about George Bush meeting with the Dalai Lama. That was major news in Asia and people really respected it. I had to explain that he had little choice because Congress voted to give him the Medal of Honor despite the white house not being so thrilled about it, but overall people respected the US for taking a stand against China. Good stuff. So don't get me wrong, India is amazing, mind-boggling in fact, and I can't wait to see some tourist things in the future. Oh, and just try to get the internet in hotels in the middle of the area experiencing the Indian high-tech boom. Not so much. So the cab ride from the airport to my hotel in KTM was like a happy homecoming...the people and trash and cows and craziness is a tiny fraction of that of India (considering we're 24 million vs. 1.3 billion this does make sense) and it felt a little bit like MY craziness. Plus the flights to and from KTM flew parallel to the Himalayas and I was in awe of them. Plus it's so great to have little systems in place....I had just bought a flashlight last week and so when the lights went out for our typical 45 minute power-outage this evening, which was freaky to me two weeks ago, I just fired up some candles and read with my flashlight. No problem. Plus Rajendra gave me more information about stores and other things in town and he and his wife are going to show me around next weekend. She's going to get me in with her masseuse and pedicurist. People are really so nice here. I have more than a dozen names in my work cell phone to call for any kind of help. Plus Rajendra knows people who own apartments in the "western" apartment complex and is going to make some calls on Monday to help me get a place ASAP. It's been a long time since I've had my own place - over 4 months - and it'd be great to settle in. At first I felt weird about staying at the western "compound" but upon talking to people it's clearly expected of me in my position and is a part of work-related entertaining. People have said things like "Quality westerners stay at ACE apartments" in all seriousness and it's obviously a part of the whole Asian status thing. So again, I'll have a giant two-bedroom apartment so please come visit!!! Spring, fall and winter. Thank you so much for the comments and emails. I seriously get kinda choked up with all of the nice vibes. I'll get to responding soon. Goodnight and xo C
Oh yeah, I should have an address soon with my apartment and prefer to not send things to work. Thank you for asking! Maybe pictures tomorrow because my internet here is not so consistent, either.

Old Kathmandu

So I walked around the old part of the city today. Many of the Hindu temples date back to the 1600s and older. Plus, because the Diwali festival is still going on people are dressed up and shopping for groceries and flowers. Tomorrow is the day that brothers go to great lengths to visit their sisters and receive blessings from them; they'll even travel across the country. I love being around this kind of energy but definitely was glad to retreat to the quiet of my room at dinner time! So the other good news is that I found a sanctuary outside of my room:

It's called the Garden of Dreams and it's a British-style enclosed garden right off of the main street that runs in front of the royal palace. It's relatively expensive to enter - I paid $35 for an annual fee which few Nepalis would consider spending - but it is an oasis of grass and fountains and lovely places to sit and read. There's even a cafe and bar. Again, the juxtaposition of how Nepalis live and how wealthy people live. But then again I need to stay sane to be able to do this job and so am just going to be glad that I found it! So otherwise I leave for South India in the morning and am traveling with two other guys from work. One of them is a contraceptive social marketing consultant that we use and I really like him. We are on the same wavelength and I think that he is going to be a great ally. Plus I get to see several people from the London office which will be really fun. I'll be back 'atcha when I get there. xoxoc

What a way to end the week

The AMAZING Buddhist stupa (a structure typically holding some remains of a famous Buddhist) outside of Kathmandu called Bodhnath stupa. It's the biggest in Nepal and a major pilgrimage site. The flags are printed with prayers and when the wind blows them the prayers are sent out to the benefit of all living beings.

The view from on top of the stupa. Crowds of people, many of them Tibetans who fled Tibet when China invaded in the 60s, ritually circle the stupa in a clockwise direction while saying mantras (prayers).

Today I'm not going to complain about Indian visas, crowds or pollution. Sometime in the last two days I decided that I love it here. First, I have some friends! A contact from our London office put me in touch with a woman named Audra (my age, born in Grand Rapids, has lived around the world for over a decade) who has a very high position with a US government-related aid organization. She has very well-placed friends and gets tipped off when general strikes are coming and one needs to stock up on bottled water. We went out Thursday night and I got to see how the other half lives, the other half being highly paid expats who go to high-end bars and spend loads of money on martinis. It was like another universe. I met people from Italy, France, Denmark, and Cameroon. Everyone danced to salsa music under the stars until the wee hours. Trippy. But if feels really nice to have a friend to joke with and we got along really well. Then today I went to Bodhnath with a friend I made in line at the Indian Embassy, Isabel from Argentina who has lived in NYC for the last 8 years and has been on a paid fine arts sabbatical in India for a few months. We also got along well and spent the day hiking up a big ol hill to a very famous Buddhist monastery called Kopen. It was so great to be out of Kathmandu and in the fresh air and people are so smiling, friendly and helpful.

My first glimpse of the foothills from our walk to Kopen Monastery

Also, a contact from my Buddhist center in the states named Beverly joined us for a quick coffee. She came to Nepal 10 years ago and was appalled at all of the orphans and Hindu widows (often widows are abandoned by the family and left to beg on the streets). She has since founded an orphanage/shelter house/skills training center/school and owns two houses. To support everyone she gets small amounts of funds through various means. She doesn't have a residency visa (visas are like rare jewels outside of the US!) and so can only stay in Nepal for 150 days per year and so flies back and forth between NYC (where she runs an antique shop in the East Village) and KTM. She was just passing by and had 9 kids with her because they were going shopping for outfits for the Diwali festival (Hindu week-long festival involving a lot of lights, candles, firecrackers, singing, and decorating animals with flower garlands). The kids, ranging in age from maybe 4 to 10, were adorable and loved practicing their English on us. They all wrote their, and friends', names in my notebook. Beverly leaves for NYC tomorrow but comes back in a few months and then I'm going to help out. Of course they're not as great as my nieces but nothing like a squirmy, laughing kid in your lap to make you forget about Indian visas. Almost.

So I guess that something clicked and I felt more confident bargaining for taxi fare, smiled more and received smiles back, chatted with the guys who work the front desk of the hotel and just felt free. And happy. I think that over the next while I'll outline a trekking trip to Everest base camp for next fall (typically September) and see who'd like to come. Again, thanks for the emails and comments. xoxo C

Proof

I've been here long enough that all of this is starting to be normal! I walked to and from work today, maybe a 15 minute walk, and felt less weird. People here leave you alone or smile at you. It's really nice and actually feels less intimidating than Manhattan. I just need some new clothes because I look like an alien in slacks and a sweater. I mean, just imagine it. The first picture is the street on which work is located. The second is the blue front gate (blue and white are our corporate colors) and we have a uniformed, full-time guard who insists on saluting me. I give that sheepish hand wave. The third is the actual building. You can see on top the balcony where we can eat lunch outside. Which brings up the lunch issue:

Today's lunch broke the mold. I genuinely don't know what it was: it was like freeze-dried oatmeal combined with meat (unknown origin) and charred, raw beans. Click on the picture and blow it up. Amazing. Of course I ate it but it's not often that you come across totally unknown food that isn't from an animal source. Strange. So, I sent myself a box of work papers/supplies from London and for some reason I was really moved upon receiving it and am hording the desk supplies (clips, post-its, rubber bands) like they're gold. I literally locked them in my new desk. I haven't explored town enough to know if I can get these things here but I just can't take the risk. My other favorite thing is that the building just to the right of ours appears to be a residence and all day these 5 or 6 guys in a band sit on the back patio and play rock music. It's just so funny to be discussing serious health issues while a junior-high level rock band jams 10 feet away. It's equally funny to be sitting at my desk in the empty conference room, silent guy serving me tea, while the rock band plays. Alright, I have to get to bed because I have to get up early, early, early to get to the Indian Embassy. It's showtime! xoc

so far so good

Today I learned how great it is not to be a student traveller. I needed to convert my single-entry Nepali visa to a multiple-entry visa since I'm going to India this coming weekend and maybe at the end of the month, and so I researched where to go and figured that I'd go there this afternoon and wait around for hours upon hours. I have been trained to have very low expectations. But no, KT had the driver Subash (? Lord help me with these names....) call ahead, make an appointment (who knew?! Oh, the Nepalese knew) and he muscled his way in front of all of the poor, waiting student and/or hippie travellers and got my visa in no time. I kinda felt like a rock star. Alas, I must face the Indian Embassy alone on Thursday...... Today was a little more normal in that I expected the sweet tea from the silent guy, expected the noodle & vegetable lunch delivered to me (by silent guy), and I already knew the three guys who just returned from the Dubai conference. One problem is that everyone's name starts with an R, S or P: Pratab, Prabin, Pushpa are the 3 deputy directors, for instance. So they decided to put my desk and computer in the corner of the conference room which is a touch weird but whatever. If fact, it feels so "lorro" for those of you who were around when we just made up offices any old place. Tomorrow KT work from home and so I'm on my own, but I have a meeting with guys who work on contraceptive social marketing (getting product in the hands of poor people) which is a main area of focus for me. So that should be the start of real work. Whew. Good night! xoc

First Day of Work #2

The second photo is Dubai with the two London-based project managers on the South Asian team. The first one is the street in the touristy part of Kathmandu. The street scene isn't a great photo but it was my first day and I didn't know where to look! Outside of the touristy part there are many fewer cars and way more motorcycles and bicycles. And people are dressed differently. And the building are different. OK, I'll just take a picture when I can be subtle about it.

So lots of dogs bark at night. Enough said. Oh, and they really like firecrackers. But another great thing about Nepal: the work day is 10 - 4. Those are my kinda hours. Breakfast at the hotel was fine (porridge with bananas...I just couldn't do Indian food) and the cab ride to work was only a little tricky because buildings don't have addresses in Nepal. They're just on street names. The cabbie only had to stop and ask twice before he found it. It's a 15 minute walk from my hotel which was the goal to accommodate all of the strikes that occur. The building is rather nice (I'll get to pictures soon) and KT took me to her office and we talked for a while until I left on my next noble attempt at getting an Indian visa. Apparently it was quite a problem that I showed up in KTM a day late and I feel really bad that lots of people were concerned. But at least they noticed! A driver took me to the Indian Embassy and his eyes grew so wide when he saw the line (only 50 people which was a cakewalk after the 300 in London). It was almost fun because all of the tourists in line were talking and sharing stories and trying to figure out what in the world was happening behind the mysterious glass partition. Two hours later I had filled out the paperwork for a background check (really? a background check? there are 1.3 billion people in India and you don't even know the names of 800 million of them) and have to go back on Thursday for what will assuredly be 5-6 hours to get the visa. Friday is a Nepali holiday and my flight to India is on Sunday and so I MUST get the visa and so will get there around 6 AM. Please don't let the traveller's stomach hit me Thursday........ Lunch was served to me at work, apparently this is what happens everyday, and it was a nice noodle soup with vegetables. Also, at work there is a silent servant who constantly serves sugary tea and picks up dishes. Huh. So KT was quite nice and lent me a cell phone until I get one, and she outlined quite an ambitious job description for me. Basically, upgrade almost all aspects of the business (finance, marketing, donor reporting, networking, etc.). Wow. And I was kinda planning to take it easy. She also made it clear that she wanted me to copy her on my emails to our mutual boss in London, my beloved SS, and I will of course be judicious in how well I follow that directive. I told her that I'd like some new outfits to fit in better (the Indian tunic over pants combo) and satisfy my life-long desire of almost wearing PJs all day. She had the driver take us by a tailor before dropping me off at my hotel but she didn't like what they had to offer. We'll try later this week. I'm so glad she's helping because I haven't a clue what fabrics, cuts, etc. to get. She has 3 daughters, two that live in the US, and so I'm hoping to tap that maternal urge. Dinner was a lovely curried vegetables at the hotel (I was the only patron and read my New Yorker purchased in London) and they returned my clean laundry all nicely folded. Small pleasures. Oh, and the power goes out every evening for an hour or so which caught me off guard last night but tonight I had my candles ready! How strange that I can be cut off from my wireless internet by chronic power outages. Welcome to Nepal. Oh, my hotel number is 011 977 1 441 6432 room 205 and my cell phone is, as far as I can tell, 011 977 (1) 9841 832077. You might have to drop that third "1". Remember that I'm 10 hours and 45 minutes ahead of you! xoxoc

thoughts at the end of the day

So I went out and walked around for a few hours and I can totally support the reputation that Nepalis are really nice people. For as much as I stood out and for as poor as many of these people are, I was never hassled or made to feel uncomfortable. I cruised the western, touristy part of town and had some lovely Thai food for dinner. Having seen a couple of butcher shops I am sticking with the vegetarian theme, for sure. Jet lag is getting the best of me and so goodnight. xoc

Made it

I am sitting at the Marco Polo Business Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal. Wow. I mean wow. I'm sure glad that I had orientation before coming here because going straight from a brownstone in Ann Arbor to the 2nd/3rd world would have been overwhelming. An "independent" cab driver adopted me upon my departure from the airport and I had to convince him (and the two helpers that we attracted along the way) that I wanted my suitcase actually TIED to the top of the car rather than simply placed upon it (think drunken bourbon dogs at Sabrina's house). Everyone likes to say "it's ok, it's Nepal" as if the laws of physics don't apply here. So we sped through traffic, honking all of the way, past cows and people making bricks and people sorting through trash. And tourists and temples and, well, everything you could imagine. The hotel is clean enough but is definitely not the Holiday Inn Express Dubai. When I get my laptop connected to the internet (this is their computer) I'll send pictures. So I feel regrouped and am going to head out there in search of an early dinner. I haven't quite figured out what the time difference is now but I think it's 10 hours and 45 minutes. I'm sure about the 45 minutes part! Tomorrow I report to work and I believe that I have Friday off because it's the start of a (four day) festival. Don't worry Mom and Dad, everyone speaks some english and has been very nice. xoc

standing in the Doha airport at midnight

I'm really tired but checking in to say that I'm safe. Thanks for all of the lovely comments, Laura. I will get the company to fly you to Nepal just like we discussed! The last few weeks have been so busy that I've skipped all sorts of funny and interesting things. Yesterday after the seminar 20 of us got into Land Cruisers and sped across the dessert in the pitch dark and ended up at a (kinda cheesy but fun) "Bedouin camp" at which we rode camels, ate dinner, watched belly dancing, had our hands painted with henna, and danced to Arabic pop music under the stars. As I was dancing with people from all over the world it struck me how strange all of this really is. And it struck me that Arabic rap isn't that bad although the Bon Jovi that they played on the drive back to the hotel was satisfying, too. So the short story is that I barely made it onto a flight to Doha (it involved mistakenly missing my first flight, having to cry a little, running through the Dubai airport, arriving at the gate 10 minutes after the flight should have left totally red-faced and sweaty, and them letting me on because things are kinda cool like that here.) I am in the business class lounge from 11:45 PM to 4:40 AM - good times - and then I fly to KTM in my gangsta business class seat because I did a really good job crying at check in and it was the last seat available. So tomorrow is the day of reckoning... Each and every person that I talk to who has been to Kathmandu, and there are many in my company, says that it is the most beautiful, fascinating, polluted and overpopulated place that they've visited. And everyone mentions that they've never been so sick in their lives. So I'm just glad that I paid for all of the prescriptions that I now have from the travel clinic to halt that sort of thing! Good night, xoc

End of Dubai day #1

So I've managed to go to dinner with the senior staff and so got all kinds of high level gossip and insights, which is always valuable. Everyone else was very nice and the 3 guys from Nepal seemed positively harmless (middle managers). One guy was proud that he was the one that went and checked out the hotel in which I'll stay upon my arrival and so I was extra nice to him. It's still trippy to me that I'm the only American in the crowd and that the other people from Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, etc. manage to work and catch flights in and out of their countries like it's no big deal. Although the woman from Afghanistan does prefer to fly the United Nations planes and I did hear her discussing with the Romanian that overall the Afghans have become nostalgic for the Soviets. It's not all normal. Other observations....be it NYC, London or Dubai the high end trash can of choice is that Brabantia brand. Isn't it odd that it's the global standard? And in Dubai they sell those delicious Snyder's honey mustard pretzel pieces. That's the only recognizable brand so far. Odd. We actually tried to go out to dinner tonight but we literally couldn't get a cab. For an hour. So we stayed in. That's how busy it is here. But tomorrow evening we're going out into the dunes in jeeps and then to dinner as a group, so stay tuned. Otherwise I have to say that men in those snow white robes with the black braided headpiece (think Saudi king) are awfully impressive in person. They make Puffy in his white suits look amateur. xoc

Duabi

I don't have much time before my meeting starts this morning but wanted to say that I got here safely. My shocking - and I mean shocking - revelation is that outside of the US you actually pay for the weight of your baggage and my two bags for Nepal are fairly heavy. Not so heavy that I can't lift them, but heavy. By the time it was said and done I paid well over $500 for my bags to come to Dubai. (This is a relocation work expense but WOW!) What next: no free coffee refills and you pay for the public restroom? Well, yes, actually. So we're staying in a brand new Holiday Inn Express (viva globalism) in an area that is literally all construction. I'm not sure when we'll be free to roam, a few hours here and there, but for sure Saturday afternoon/evening. OK, off to the meeting to meet three other people from my Nepal team and about 40 others from around the world. I think that this is officially when the political games begin! xoc

5 Hours at the Indian Embassy....

and no visa. For real. But I live and learn (I didn't know that they needed to keep my passport for five days, which isn't possible) and hopefully I can get one in Kathmandu so that I can go to the conference in November. It was a really nice day and it was kinda like I was in a ridiculous movie and so I didn't get angry or cry or anything. But it's coming before this move is said and done, I'm sure, and I'll let you know! Today was the last day of work in London (the 2 hours I attended!) and it was a little sad to go but that's just part of it, I guess. The cab is coming at 5:45 AM and that'll be it. Kyle, Erin, Lynette, Jenrose, the Gurstens, Ria, Sabs, Nancy, Dave, Bethany, Kelly and everyone else, thanks for making me laugh and feel missed! Love, Christy

36 Hours

Hello everyone. It has been so busy and I can't believe that I leave for Dubai in 36 hours. I have a few contacts in Kathmandu (ex-pats like me) and so know that I have some potential friends to start with. Madrid was so much fun. Konika and her boys in Spain is the top photo and Laura in London is the bottom photo. It just amazes me that it was normal that we were out until 4 AM the first night and (only) 2 AM the second night. Spain is all about the night life. We had some amazing seafood: fresh razor clams, mussels, and this really interesting "carpaccio" that was basically some cigarette-shaped shellfish that were unrolled, chopped up and served raw as a paste with some olive oil and caviar (and bread). So sweet and rich and delicious. One other thing you can say about Spain is that they love their ham, chorizo, etc. Very Homer Simpson. Tomorrow it's back to the Indian Embassy in search of the elusive visa and this time I am going to get there 1 1/2 hours before it opens due to the hundreds of people who were already in line at opening time last week when I attempted to get said visa. I keep telling myself that I worked for the last 15 years to have the chance to complain about standing in line for hours for my Indian visa but in the end it's really all about the waiting and figuring out what to do if I have to be in line for 3 - 4 hours without going to the bathroom. Ration the water! Charge the ipod! Bring a snack! That's what traveling boils down to in the end. So I'm excited to have something new and exciting to blog about because I have feared my pithy comments on English life had become boring. Again many thanks for the comments and emails; I owe emails to so many people. Love, Christy

Where did the week go?

Man, I need to start updating the blog at work but I'm scared to do it on my work computer because we have a pretty savvy IT group and I suspect this blogs violates my confidentiality agreement. But this week I've been getting home so late and tomorrow I leave for Madrid without my laptop. Maybe I'll be able to update at Konika's house. Things are good and it's coming down to the last few days! Tomorrow I go to the Indian Embassy and I might try and go to the Nepali Embassy, too. Next Wednesday is the day. I have a ton of stories from Sabs and Laura visiting (Sabs is thoughtfully keeping you informed through comments but I'll have to go on about Laura's visit....and the 4 bottles of wine at dinner) and hopefully I'll remember them this weekend. Thank you so much for the comments and the emails! Love, Christy

Everything is OK!

The new boss is clearly a drama queen but I think will be fine once we do the typical nicey-nice, setting boundaries, maybe having it out once just to set the tone kinda thing. I'm sure you have to be a diva to run such a successful program in such a crazy place. Not a great picture but here she is (red) with some coworkers in a black cab. I've been at a conference and then dinner so don't have time to be blogging - must go to bed - but will catch up soon. xoc

Lots 'o Guests

What a fun weekend. Laura came Saturday afternoon and it was sunny and lovely outside. It was so much fun to gossip about work and she managed to stay up until 9:30...not bad coming from Boulder, CO. On Sunday morning Laura headed off to her hotel, I'll see her at work on Monday, and Sabrina hit town. Today was beautiful, too, and we walked a little and shopped a little and maybe ate and drank a little. Sabs and the fabulous Joe above: what a lovely pair. I don't know how Sabs managed to be appointed a financial auditor of Ford's Greek subsidiary for a month with weekend privileges in London, but she pulled it off. Tomorrow's the big day on which I meet my Nepal boss, and so stayed tuned. I hope everyone is well! xoxoc

Weekend of friends and rugby

Hello. So it's my last Friday of wandering around after work and chillin in front of my TV watching the 3rd place match in the Rugby World Cup (Argentina pounded France). Tomorrow is the championship game between England and South Africa and the papers are estimating that 2 million people will pour into central London just to watch it on TV. It should be on at 3:PM EST if you can get it on cable. Laura arrives tomorrow (and Sabs on Sunday) and so we'll see what she's up to for watching the game considering that she's coming from Colorado. So I was looking at my itinerary for my trip to Dubai (Janice tells me that great videos come up if you google video search Dubai) and it says so that I am staying in "Internet City" in "Knowledge Village close to Media City" between Mahatma Gandhi University (he was a Hindu, of course) and Zayed University (former Ruler and Emir of Abu Dhabi and president of the UAE for over 30 years). Close to my hotel is Palm Island that you have to google if you don't know about it, and, of course, skiing at the indoor mountain. Dubai is like another planet and I am so psyched to see it. And of course everyone in Nepal is off work for the next week for Daisain (kind of like a Hindu Christmas in terms of spirit) and so my future in the country with perhaps the most holidays in the world is waiting. I'll blog later about all of the interesting stuff I've learned about Hinduism. Also, the huge Muslim holiday of Eid celebrating the end of Ramadan (kind of like a Muslim Christmas in terms of spirit) just passed and tomorrow thousands of people will celebrate in Trafalgar Square. I hope to catch some of it. The world is just so huge but something must be right if President Bush awarded HH the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal. It might seem small but it has huge global press, I assure you. Not to sound politically incorrect after all of my deep "global insights", but screw the Chinese. There, I've said it. Oh well...good night! xoc

Wednesday again

Hello. So where do I start? I learned some really interesting things about our work with refugees in places like Dhafur. We have a partnership with Columbia and several really big NGOs like CARE. Something that aid workers have not historically been trained in is family planning even though refugees are mostly women and children and often refugees are displaced for years. And because of all of the really awful"gender based violence" issues that go along with refugees it's all so brutal. But at least we are starting to work on it. On a brighter note I went out to the pub with the Africa team and bonded. They tried to convince me that I needed to ditch the South Asia team and I had to explain my relative lack of credentials (!) Then I told them that I'd only leave Kathmandu for someplace even cooler-sounding like Timbuktu and they called my bluff since they're expanding into Mali (where it's located). On a whim I looked up Timbuktu and it makes Kathmandu look like Manhattan! Maybe Mali isn't for me. Otherwise I'm learning to write a proposal to justify sending $1.6 million to Nepal over 3 years for the expansion of family planning services. Only 44% of the eligible population there is using contraception and 25% of the eligible population there would like contraception but literally can't get it, (remember the average marriage age for girls is 16 and over half of the women have children before they're 20). I can only imagine that the rest don't even really know their options. And........I watched Super Nanny on TV. That's about it. Have a good evening! xoc

Natives

Oh yeah! So the islanders received a letter from Prince Phillip's office granting them a meeting at Windsor Castle and it was such a big deal. Actually Prince Phillip is the son of their god and is supposed to return to the island of Tanna when it's time to bring peace to the world. From their perspective it was as if they received a letter from the office of Jesus (just to put it in context). They were very excited to say the least. So they bought new western suits and got ready and when they got to Windsor Castle they went in to their appointment and the film crew had to wait outside. It was actually so great that the event had the dignity of not being televised. But they were so happy when they came out and did not talk about their conversation until they first reported to the head chief of the island. So their return home was filmed and we got to see them report back that PP sends his respects but it is not time yet for him to return to Tanna. Everyone seemed pleased that this mission was accomplished and the official photo taken of the five guys with PP was a big hit on Tanna (although the head chief commented that PP was getting a little old). It was all a little cheesy but totally satisfying as I shed a few tears. The end.

Back to the Blog

Hello. We had such a fun weekend and were rewarded with really nice weather. It's already kind of a blur but highlights include discovering cucumber mojitos: muddled cucumbers, mint and limes with Hendricks cucumber gin, Indian tapas at this hip west end cheap eats place, Jamaican lamb patties in Brixton, watching soccer on a pub TV in the middle of the day with old Jamaican men (who seemed to enjoy two relatively blond Americans in their midst), and very famous Buddhist relics at the local temple with yours truly having a rest in the right-hand corner. Next come Sabrina and Laura (who I hope like cucumber mojitos and Indian tapas but I think that's a given) and then it's getting a little scary because on the 31st I fly to Dubai and then onto Kathmandu. I'm fairly prepared with the addition of the shoes that Janice brought me and I'm starting to do some more reading up on line. The big western-friendly Kathmandu Buddhist temple, Kopan, looks like a great homebase and from the looks of things I might very well end up renting a little house. I've been reading expatriates' blogs and that seems typical. I'll have at least a month in a hotel to figure it out. I read a really funny blog by this American who was a little condescending about the fact that most of the expats in Kathmandu are MBAs working for non-profits and what are the chances that of the 24 million people living in Nepal most of them are some of the poorest people in the world and a couple thousand of them are some of the most educated people in the world. I'm tempted to comment on his blog and ask if that fact increases or decreases my chance of getting a really great house & cook. Maybe not. Otherwise on the work front the big book (although literally it's only about 200 pages) that is out about global poverty is called "The Bottom Billion" and it's about how many poor countries are doing really well and it's only a relatively small handful of countries that are getting progressively worse and why. I need to pick it up but the reviews by everyone are that it's very readable and a great insight into how the developed world hurts and helps these desperate places. I hope everyone is doing well and as always thanks for the comments and emails. xoc

'ello america

So England is going to the rugby world cup finals. This is big news in this part of the world! Am having a fantastic weekend with Janice in town (pubs and Indian food) and will blog properly tomorrow. xoc

No Time to Blog!

"Meet the Natives" is on in 15 minutes and the review said that they get to meet Prince Phillip! For those of you who did not immediately research the show upon my last mention of it, (please get your priorities straight), these five guys from an isolated island off of Australia consider Prince Phillip to be their god based on his visit to the island decades ago and they'd like to ask him to come back. This is a documentary, mind you. Apparently Prince Phillip granted them an audience and so this is the show. Otherwise, I forgot to publish my apartment phone # which is 020 74059861. I think that you dial 011-441-20 74059861. Give me a jingle but don't forget I'm 5 hours ahead.

Here are the boots

Love them.

Not much out of the ordinary to say today; I'm reading "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith and I really like it. That's about it. xoc

Rainboots

I love my new rainboots. Nothing like dry feet and pantlegs...I've always said that. Well, apparently Amanda did not reciprocate my feelings and sat on the other side of the table today at orientation. Sigh. Luckily today's highlight was a 15 year-old safety video staring a very young Kate Beckinsale as the woman who slips and falls down the factory staircase. And she sang in a band, making the accident that much more tragic. I got the internet working in my apartment and so feel doubly lucky. Now I can include pictures. Note the picture of the pretty boy that hangs over the foot of my bed. And the fabulous TV just waiting for "Meet the Natives" on Thursday night. Tell me what's going on out there! Love, Christy