Today's the Day

This afternoon at 1:55 pm we get on a plane and head off to Bangkok.  And then to San Jose to see Jenrose and then to Santa Fe to see my parents.  Hooray!  As of Saturday afternoon my cell phone # is 408-504-9429 and Janice's is 408-506-0422.  On the 31st I'll be in Michigan until the 10th.  I'm so excited to talk to everyone and hopefully see most everyone.  xoc

Eleven Days!

Now they're moving fast because there's so much to do at work.  Thursday is the fourth and final day of Nepali language exams, thank god.  Seriously, in how many ways can I use colors and the names of fruit in sentences?  I'm struggling at work because the stockboy, who just returned from having hepatitis A and C, that's right, A AND C, really really wants to be my friend.  He's maybe 21 and has already asked for my email so that he can email me in America.  I let him listen to my ipod and we've been bonded ever since.  The problem is that it's tangerine season here - delicious - and he brings me one every day.  Sometimes he peels them and puts the sections on a plate.  Clearly this causes two problems: I'm not taking any food from a guy who just had hep A & C and I'm not eating anything off of a plate at work that came from the "kitchen" which is a closet off of the "bathroom".  Imagine a makeshift gas burner next to a toilet.  Undoubtedly the plate's still wet from having been washed and Janice is currently suffering from dysentery.  So every day I have to figure what to do with the tangerine.  I bring my lunch to work despite the fact that it sorta offends the teaboy/cook but there's just no room for negotiation.  I made up for the tangerine issue, however, by looking at approximately 15,000 photographs of hep boy's college class bus trip to Pokhara, Nepal.  I'm not kidding when I say that my patience has grown geometrically.  So otherwise things are moving along and I'll see many of you soon!  xoc

Well hello there

Time cannot pass quickly enough!  The closer I get to coming home - on the 19th - the less I can stand all of the little things about this place that normally roll right off my back.  How crazy is it that my "Intro to Nepali" exam is FOUR DAYS long.  I literally don't know enough words to fill 4 days x 3 hours or even just 3 hours for that matter.  I mean, please.  But otherwise the weather is lovely during the day and cold at night, work is interesting in that we're launching 3 new condom brands (I now glibly talk about colored, studded, flavored, etc. as if normal people talk this way), and most of the Christmas shopping is done.  Let's all be glad that I won't be here for another Christmas because I've tapped the gift selection that this little country has to offer.  So screw Nepal and it's pollution, noise, power cuts, water shortages, and general insanity and bring on Whole Foods, French cheese, Slurpees, brushing ones teeth with tap water, laundry dryers, and, most importantly, the end to this face rash caused by Nepal's toxic tap water.  Sigh.  Like it's not tough enough coming home with this haircut.  When we land in San Francisco Mr. Fabulous Friend James (that's Mr. Jenrose to you and me) will have gotten us cell phones and so expect calls from a decent time zone.  SO EXCITING!  xoc

Time is flying

So I'm sitting at work, wearing sandals and socks in the office, wondering when the rash on my face will go away, plotting against the "one lame man", and it occurs to me that maybe it's well past time to go home.  Six weeks!  I'm already trying to take mental notes about the behavior that I've picked up that will cause my mother to give me "that look".  Nepalis have this conversational marker they use to show that they're listening, kinda like we repeatedly say "uh huh" to people when they're talking, which is a grunt.  I can't imagine how me grunting at people when they are talking to me is going to go over in America.  Of course I picked that trait up no problem while still struggling with my Nepali numbers over 20.  Damn.  Bev and Karen came to trek and it was Biblical.  Of course our flight was cancelled and we had to drive two days to get into the mountains (and climb over land slides, ride in buses with chickens, push vehicles out of mud, you name it).  The trek was surreal as we went up onto a high desert plateau which is similar to Tibet.  At 12,500 feet were were STILL staring up at really high mountains.  Let's just say that one bus ride back down the mountain was so scary, the bus was so overloaded that we snapped a wooden bridge that spanned a gorge with our real axle as we passed over it, that we insisted on getting off the bus and subsequently got drunk on Nepali rum.  Like singing the Canadian national anthem and sorority songs for hours drunk.  I think that the terrible bed on which I later "slept" contributed to the rash.  But it was beautiful and loads of fun and soon we'll post pictures.  xoc

One week

It literally took a week to recover from that much exercise.  So the reason that I had the week off was for Dashain:

Dashain is the longest and the most auspicious festival in the Nepalese annual calendar, celebrated by Nepalese of all caste and creed throughout the country. The fifteen days of celebration occurs during the bright lunar fortnight ending on the day of the full moon. Thorough out the kingdom of Nepal the goddess Durga in all her manifestations are worshiped with innumerable pujas, abundant offerings and thousands of animal sacrifices for the ritual holy bathing, thus drenching the goddess for days in blood.

Dashain commemorates a great victory of the gods over the wicked demons. One of the victory stories told is the Ramayan, where the lord Ram after a big struggle slaughtered Ravana, the fiendish king of demons. It is said that lord Ram was successful in the battle only when goddess Durga was evoked. The main celebration glorifies the triumph of good over evil and is symbolized by goddess Durga slaying the terrible demon Mahisasur, who terrorised the earth in the guise of a brutal water buffalo. The first nine days signify the nine days of ferrous battle between goddess Durga and the demon Mahisasur. The tenth day is the day when Mahisasur was slain and the last five days symbolise the celebration of the victory with the blessing of the goddess. Dashain is celebrated with great rejoice, and goddess Durga is worshiped throughout the kingdom as the divine mother goddess.

In preparation for Dashain every home is cleansed and beautifully decorated, painted as an invitation to the mother goddess, so that she may visit and bless the house with good fortune. During this time the reunion of distant and nearby relatives occur in every household. The market is filled with shoppers seeking new clothing, gifts, luxuries and enormous supplies of temple offering for the gods, as well as foodstuffs for the family feasting. Thousands of sheep, goats, ducks, chicken and water buffalo are prepared for the great slaughter. All types of organisations are closed for ten to fifteen days. Labourers are almost impossible to find; from the poor to the rich, all enjoy the festive mood. Anywhere you go the aroma of 'Vijaya Dashami' is found.

On this very day (the ninth day) the god Vishwas Karma, the God of creativity is also worshiped. All factories, vehicles, any machinery instruments and anything from which we make a living are worshiped. We also give sacrifices to all moving machinery like cars, aeroplanes, trucks etc. to get the blessing from goddess Durga for protection for vehicles and their occupants against accidents during the year. The entire day is colourful.

It's kind of like if every family was responsible for killing the Christmas turkey just before cooking it.  So the last Friday of work was such an interesting day.  The day before I had seen the goat tethered in front of the building (and the thousands of goats coming into the city from the valley on trucks) and knew that Friday was going to be a big feast.  I luckily missed the Brahmin killing the goat very early in the morning but a bunch of the guys were doing all of the cooking on the roof of the building.  I hadn't know about the blessing of the vehicles and so was in awe of all of them crowded in the parking lot.  I received my tikka from the priest and hung out on the roof watching all of the games and gift-giving (I received a plastic table cloth).  At one point a plate of thick french fries came my way and it was explained that they were, in fact, stuffed and fried goat lung pieces which was a special delicacy from a small part of the city.  So as I sipped my beer and ate fried goat lung, tikka on my forehead and blessed string tied around my neck, watching all of the cars and motorcycles get blessed for the upcoming year and playing bingo, I realized what a long, strange trip it's been.  But I finally understood why the treadmills in the gym had ribbons on them.  Dashain wasn't a part of our trek, however, because up in the mountains the ethnic groups are Tibetan and are Buddhist and so it was good to get a touch of Hinduism before leaving.  Plus the mountain people are too poor to eat meat (or even have it to sell) and so it was a week of pasta, fried rice, dal and rice, and vegetable dumplings.  Not half bad! xoc

Home Safe

We are back from trekking in the Himalayas and had a wonderful time.  We ended up driving to a different part of the mountain range on Sunday evening / Monday morning and didn't even hear about the crashed plane until Thursday.  If you didn't hear the flight that we took Sunday (which did not land in Lukla and returned to KTM) crashed on Tuesday due to poor weather.  It's eerie that Janice has a picture of it on her blog (the same exact plane, come to find out).  Not that the Jeep ride to the mountains wasn't crazy, but we're glad not to have flown to such a dangerous airport when it's still so cloudy after a late monsoon.  Our trek was beautiful and difficult and we are sore, sore, sore.  There are so many stories but for now I must shower many, many times and do many loads of laundry.  xoc

I should not be blogging

So yesterday we went to the airport early in the morning to fly to a town named Lukla, which we've heard is the highest airport in the world.  But all of the flights to Lukla from the day before had been cancelled and so they went first and we waited 6 hours before getting on the plane. The plane sat 20 people and wasn't pressurized so you could see light through the gap around the door and feel the breeze blowing through the plane.  We flew 45 minutes to Lukla and turned right back around having missed the visibility window by 5 minutes (no radar, just fly by sight).  Apparently the runway runs uphill and the plane has to turn at the end to miss hitting the side of the mountain and so good visibility is key.  So today we're off to the airport again.  Our friend Lydia had to cancel due to work issues and so it's just Janice and me accompanied by our two twenty-something guides/porters.   They are both good-looking guys and so we kind of look like cougars (!)  We are sure that their teeny, tiny backpack (unlike our big backpack) includes adequate hair gel.  One of them is a converted Christian with a crucifix tattoo and the other has a tattoo of a girl...he actually said "JB loves God and I love girls!"   They did a nice job getting us rebooked today as the airlines initially told us that we had to rebook through a travel agent (all of which are closed due to the festival) and it took an hour of fighting in Nepali for the guys to get us on a flight today.  We think.  Hopefully.  I hope that you don't hear from me for 8 days.  xoc

How we roll at the country club

Beverly who owns the orphanage and some of the kids standing in the rice field

What a busy weekend! On Friday evening we had tennis lessons at the American Club and played next to the deputy US Ambassador, Randy. We three girls (and the coach) played a doubles match and we'd find ourselves laughing and yelling "get it! get it!" and Randy would just crack up during his far more intense game. And then we decided to eat dinner at the club (literally the same meal that any country club in the universe serves...roasted chicken with steamed veggies and mashed potatoes) and all the important Americans passed by at some point in the evening. A parent of one of Janice's students joined our table and he turned out to be Kai Bird, the History Pulitzer Prize winner from 2006 for "American Prometheus" about Oppenheimer. His wife is the head of the World Bank here and they're doing a couple of year's stint. He was very patient with our questions but at least we knew who Oppenheimer is. Saturday we went mountain bike riding with some guys from the US embassy including the Defence Attache who was a Lt. Colonel but a gracious guy when we had to walk our bikes up hills. The weather is now perfect and will be for two months and so being outside is key. Otherwise we are getting ready for the Everest region trek this coming weekend and mostly we are worried about altitude sickness. But there are a few homeopathic things we can do (ginkgo biolba? before-hand and iron during the hike) and we'll have a prescription drug, too. It should be great and everybody we know seems to be doing that trek at the same time as us and so we certainly won't get lonely. xoc

How things change

I can remember how scared I was last year when there were street protests and burning tires.  I didn't know what they were protesting and they just might have been saying "let's beat down the next American to walk by" rather than "down with India for cutting off our petrol supply" which is what they actually were chanting, come to find out.   I stayed home one day when it seemed too crazy.  So yesterday I was walking home from work (facemask, sunglasses and ipod helping me blend in with the locals) and there was a group of people in the street, traffic cut off, and some burning trash demarking their territory.  There were dozens of police in riot gear milling around, as well.  My first thought was "great!  no traffic!"  and then I thought "well, with all the cops around what could be safer?" and I found myself walking right through the group when it dawned on me that maybe I should take off my ipod, just in case.  It also helps that I know that the protests of the week are 1.) the government is closing strip clubs at 11:00 PM and 2.) the government declared that they would not pay for the animals to be slaughtered at an upcoming festival.  At some point I thought to myself "wow, what a year changes!"  Nepal loves a good protest and almost every day a major highway or road is cut off.  It's a big problem since everything is now vigilante.  Get fired from your job?  Get your friends together and cut off the highway and food supply coming from India for a week.  Break up with your girlfriend?  Cut off the road to China (alright, maybe not that).  Maybe I should try and get the expats together and block off the main road in Kathmandu until they fire that one lame man..... xoc

Gear

We're gearing up for our two treks and it's very exciting.  The only thing that's more exciting is applying for the Dell Foundation job in Delhi but that's a long-shot and so focusing on the treks is probably more practical.  The one thing about looking for a job these days (and this is old news for younger people) is that I had to check out my Facebook page and LinkedIn page for evidence of stupidity.  But (maybe a little bit sadly) those days are past and now I'm just happy that I have more Friends and Connections than the guy who would be my boss in Delhi (I know this because I looked at his Facebook and LinkedIn pages).  

So the thing that's so crazy about KTM is that I can buy a $800, -40 degree sleeping bag but I can't buy deodorant.  And don't even ASK me about the cost of tennis balls.  One thing that I just learned is that according to the World Health Organization KTM has the second worse air quality in the world behind Beijing.  I now wear a face mask when walking in traffic which has left an attractive ring of pimples around my nose & mouth.  This, combined with my haircut which is basically a blunt cut that could have been done in someone's kitchen, adds up to quite a sight.  Throw in a motorcycle helmet and the resulting sweaty hair and there's the winner look of the week.  The price I pay to save the world.......(!) xoc

Flights

So we've bought tickets home!  Our schedules vary a little but mine is Santa Fe from December 21st to the 31st, Michigan from the 31st to the 11th, and then Santa Fe again from the 11th to the 16th.  Such a thrill.  Upon arrival in the states I would like to go directly to Whole Foods and eat a lot of cheese and olives.  Oh, and say hi to my family.  The whole trip is a bit brutal: Kathmandu - Bangkok - Norita - SFO - Denver - Albuquerque - Minneapolis - Detroit and back again.  14 flights.  Wow, just saying that is a bit exhausting.   So now the real planning starts; don't get annoyed when I start trying to pin down a schedule since there's so much to do and so little time.  Really, it's much better if you all came to Kathmandu.  xoc

Sorry!

Jenrose has scolded me for not blogging.  Among other things, we have a little blog going with Karen and Bev, who are coming in October for a trek, regarding travel and trekking details and so that kinda took over for a bit.  So in the beginning of October three of us are going to the Everest region (not so far as base camp because that takes two weeks) and at the end of October four of us (including our fabulous American visitors) are going to another famous region.  It's all the Himalayans (or the Himals as the cool kids call them) and it should all be great.  We're a little concerned about the altitude, especially for the girls coming from sea level, but there are drugs that help.  Work is nuts and my main job these days is to tighten up processes and procedures so that we can trap "that one lame man" who I am sure is stealing or doing something unethical.  There are about a million signs (he stays late after everyone, he keeps the key to the warehouse, he won't let anyone take an inventory, he has pointy horns and wears a black cape...)  The new guy that we hired is also way into trapping him and so it's kinda fun to plot.  Today we made up a fake journey plan for next week so that he could visit places unannounced to check on things.  And for this I got an MBA....  I have found the world's greatest job via a cool website called idealist.org and I am going to apply for it ASAP.  It's with the Dell Foundation and it's a Grants Operations Manager in Delhi.  It's not so different from what I was hired to do in Nepal except that I'll work for Americans and will probably be allowed to do my job.  And Delhi is like the Jetsons compared to Kathmandu.  If anyone out there knows anyone in Austin at the Dell Foundation lemme know!  So otherwise school is fine and tennis is still my favorite.  Oh, and I bought plane tickets home for Christmas....more tomorrow.  We just lost power and the 'ol battery doesn't last for long.  xoc

Bike

So Saturday (at 5:30 AM) we went mountain biking with 4 guys and it was ca-ra-zy.  We both just walked our bikes up some of the hills but the guys were cool and waited periodically to make sure that we were keeping up.  We had Nepali tea at a tea house and made it home 4 1/2 hours later.  We deserved a big, big brunch after that!  Then we visited the orphanage because the founder, Beverly, is back from a trip to her home in NYC.  The kids are just so excited to see new people are so glad to hold your hand and try to teach you Nepali.  We are working on putting together a plan for fundraising for specific things like a marriage fund, a further education fund and a fund for kids to start businesses should they choose to do so.  I don't know if any of the kids will go onto college but then again most Nepali kids don't go to college.  But there are various kinds of training that the kids can get.  It was a really nice day topped off with some Thai food.  I promise the blogs will get interesting when the guests start arriving!  xoc

Everyday Life

So I'm getting close to having been gone from the States for a year and what people tell me - that a year is long enough without a trip home - is totally true. It's not that I'm homesick for the States, our life is pretty plush here, it's that I'd love to see my family and friends. So how great that my sister finally loaded skype and we videoconferenced on Saturday for an hour. I got to see my nieces and it was exactly what I needed. There is lots of planning to be done for two treks in October and hopefully this week we should buy our plane tickets home for the holidays. There's turmoil in my work's London headquarters (a new CEO and massive growth and so the culture naturally has to change) and so I'm just minding my own business and staying in contact with my main man in India, Kamal (who's a consultant for London). When he was here in August for a week's training we went to dinner most evenings and he reminded me that doing good work and, most importantly, learning Nepali is key. Nepal is the world's newest democracy wedged between India and China and donor money is pouring in. Perhaps I can live in the states and do some consulting gigs in Nepal for whoever. But our August sales and money collections numbers are good and so that's really all that counts right now. We're enjoying the political conventions because we can listen in for an hour and shut off the TV (!) and the floods in Nepal and India are much bigger news here. It's simply pitiful how many people have lost everything and are starving in this area of the world. It's strange on one level to see it on the news from the States but it's disconcerting on a whole different level to be 100 miles away from starvation (and watching CNN while drinking a cup of coffee). Because the south is flooded and the rest of the country doesn't have enough food. And just to top it off sooner or later the earthquakes that have been affecting China will strike Nepal and who can possible predict what happens then. Our apartment building has been reinforced as has Janice's school but the average Nepali is SOL. But enough doom and gloom....tonight is choir practice and tomorrow is tennis and everyday there is Nepali to learn. We have opened several more HIV/AIDs counseling kiosks on the Indian border and they have been very successful. In the end those kiosks, for which I found doner money, will be how I actually made the most impact and so they hold a special place in my heart. There's always an upside. xoc

Language

So work's been enjoyable now that Millhouse leaves me alone to run the sales department.   Our sales have been good for August and we had a week-long training session in the middle of the month that was really helpful.  Going to school for a few hours a day makes the day really busy, as well.  The teacher is not very good, he basically lectures and we rarely speak, but I've been speaking more often at work and I have a few books.  Nepali predictably has a lot of agricultural words, but there are just so many random words.  In my "Beginning Nepali" book in the first 15 pages I have been taught the noun for "man's rival for his wife" and the verb for "getting rid of difficulty temporarily".  Not an optimistic people.  There is a noun for "stain caused by burning or beating", and not one but TWO separate adjectives for "one-eyed".  And the kicker is that one of the words for "one-eyed", DeDu, (there are letters in Devanagari script that indicate that the Ds be pronounced while touching the roof of your mouth with your tongue) is only slightly different that the word for "male monkey", DheDu, (the first D is aspirated or breathed out).  Just imagine the potential confusion.  My first tennis lesson was AWESOME but the second was canceled due to rain.  I love tennis and have submitted an application to the club, (rather than being a guest of my friend Lydia, with whom I take lessons.)   Friday night was a "welcome back from the summer BBQ" by the club pool but we just couldn't make ourselves go.  Some last (probably false) vestige of feeling too cool to go and so instead we watched Olympics on TV to really take full advantage of a rockin' Friday night.  We get a Chinese station, an Indian station and a Middle Eastern station and so as a result get really in-depth coverage of the most random sports.  We now know a lot about ping pong I mean table tennis.  And it was the biggest deal, I mean HUGE, when India won it's first Olympic medal, and a gold at that, for air rifle.  The guy is now a national hero.  It's great that Mongolia has won 3 medals.  Nepal sent 3 athletes to the Olympics but they were already home after the first week; we're wondering if they couldn't afford to stay for the closing ceremonies.  Maybe they have a verb "to leave the Olympics early because really, what's the use of staying?"  Alright, good night!  xoc

Surrender

Janice started teaching at the international school which is closely tied with the US Embassy and apparently it's dreamy. She was amazed at first that so many teachers have been there for 20 and 30 years but then realized that the job is Phat. The school is great, the teachers are great, and the perks are great. So most importantly here's the first perk that benefits me directly: you can mail packages to a consolidator in Florida and then they'll be shipped to Nepal for a fraction of the cost (thanks, American tax payer). So if you like you can send packages to:
Lincoln School
Attn: Janice Kosman
1901 60th Place E
Suite L2009
Brandenton, FL 34203
All you pay is the freight to Florida and I pay the rest and so don't go crazy with the rocks (!) Packages must arrive by the 25th of the month to be shipped that month. Actually nothing leaps to mind that we need but at least an affordable alternative is there. So the part that feels a little funny is that we have slid directly into "Expat World" and have given up all hopes of going native. On Monday evenings we are going to Kathmandu Chorale practice (150 mostly expats who get together and practice Christmas tunes for a concert on December 13th since we have to work hard to get the spirit here), tennis lessons at the American Club start Tuesday morning, and there are lots of other classes at the Club like pilates and yoga. There's no reason to go anywhere else and we've kinda given into it. But to be honest, after a long day working with Nepalis it's comforting to sit in the Club and eat Cheetos. And of course all of the World Bank and UN people are there for networking (sucking up). One never knows. And so other than that Bev Day and Karen Schreiber are coming for a trek in October which is so exciting. There are two holiday weeks in October and so we might do two separate treks in the mountains. If I can manage to miss tennis lessons. Hope you're well and let me know how it's going! xoc

Ritual

Hello.  I'm feeling bloggy again and am inspired by the two ridiculous things that happen to me every morning.  First, I get to work at 10:00 AM and leave for school at 10:50 AM every day.  Every day.  And every day Krishna the "tea boy" brings me tea at 10:45 AM and every day I can't drink it because it's too hot and I have to leave.  And every day he looks at me with sad eyes like I've rejected all that he is.  Of course we don't speak due to the language barrier and so we silently do this like clockwork.  Then I go across the street to the dirt parking lot where our company vehicles, motorcycles and drivers/errand guys hang out.  Every day I arrive at 10:50 AM and every day we then start the ritual of the motorcycle.  Bear in mind that they've been given instructions to take me to school and so none of this should be a surprise.  First, they need to notice me (again, my Nepali is not good enough to have a conversation).   Then, someone grabs a set of keys from the office and ambles 20 yards over to the motorcycles.  He tries to match the keys to one of the three identical motorcycles and if the motorcycle that matches the keys happens to be out of gas (the shortage here is critical), then he ambles back over to the office to repeat the process.  This must be done one set of keys at a time.  When keys, a motorcycle and gas in the tank all match up, the driver then has to slowly dust the motorcycle, ignoring me getting fidgety in the sun nearby, and then walk 20 yards back to the office to get his helmet.  Then we can leave for school.  The new fun part is that the drivers know that I'm taking Nepali lessons and so drive along pointing out things and saying new words for me.  There's no way I can remember a word that I've heard just once unless it's outrageously inappropriate, but it's all a bit of a bonding experience.  This is all so Nepali and what's encouraging/ discouraging/ amazing is that all of this is now normal.   So in class there are the beautiful, smug Frenchies who irritate the professor by spending the two class hours gazing into each other's eyes (while still getting all the answers correct when challenged) and the Swiss guy who's a (recent) die-hard Hare Krishna and who likes to inform the professor about Hinduism as if a 60 year-old Hindu man needed a 25 year-old Swiss guy clarifying his culture for him.  And of course there's a bunch of Japanese girls who barely speak above a whisper and giggle into their hands.  It's all fun and a nice addition to my day.  God only knows what all of these people think of me but I'm sure that their observations start with "So there's this really sweaty American woman..."  Looking forward to September.  Goodnight xoc

Ride

So on Sunday we went mountain biking in the Kathmandu valley and it was a blast.  We had asked for an easy, nontechnical ride but because it was muddy from all of the rains it was quite crazy.  Janice and I were sore for two days and we're wondering how the poor woman from the Philippines is doing; she signed up for the ride the day after arriving at altitude and she was not at all in shape.  Janice put a video from the ride on her blog.  We also have been doing some pilates DVDs which is a really nice form of exercise.  I never thought that I'd come to Kathmandu to do pilates but then again, living overseas is a balancing act of old and new traditions.   Tennis lessons haven't started yet but I hope that that works out.  Otherwise school is a little slow but a welcome break to the day and work is going well so far.  xoc

Normal Life

So I received my student visa - it was anticlimactic after such a long process - and started classes weekdays from 11 - 1 PM.  There are 100 people taking Nepali 101 and I just have to assume that 90% of us are people who need visas rather than people who are simply longing to learn the language.  I am so glad that I already learned to read and write the Devanagari alphabet because it took me months to really remember it and the class needs to learn it in a week.  I am actually helping another woman, who's from Tajikistan, because she's drowning and I have some children's writing workbooks.  The interesting part is that 30% of the group is Japanese, by far the largest contingency.  Apparently the Japanese are fascinated by Nepal which is so weird since it's Hindu and it's so unorganized and unhygienic: the opposite of Japan.  You never know.  

At work my sales department now reports to a different director who, for all intents and purposes, is Millhouse from the Simpsons.  I had sorta prompted my London boss to force the change, she agreed that the other guy is difficult to work with, and I am happy with the results so far.  Millhouse is giving me more latitude to make changes and even though the "one lame man who's making the department lame" is still the sales manager, we have hired an assistant manager who I also like and together we are marginalizing the manager and moving forward.   But still, incredibly, the senior management team looks for reasons to praise the sales manager and was waxing on about how this year he's collected back half of the 8 million rupees in credit that customers owe us from when we flooded the market with product to inflate sales numbers.  I was forced to mention to Millhouse that it's not really an achievement when a manager spends an entire year doing nothing but fixing half of the mess that he created the year before.  So Millhouse is letting me implement an aggressive sales plan for the last two months of the budget year so that we can show improvement and everyone is excited about it.  

I'm trying hard to not let work color my whole perception of Nepal and have enjoyed my first week back.  Everything is so green and the flowers are beautiful.  There is a huge honeysuckle bush blooming near the apartment building and the air after a rain is so clear that the mountains and the sunset are vivid.  Kathmandu is peaceful despite the government deadlock and people are taking the latest petrol shortage, which is severe, in stride.  Life goes on in a good humored way despite all sorts of craziness.  Not bad.  xoc

Redoing the 'Du

Never too old to get a temporary tattoo

Well, it was awfully nice stepping off of the plane into balmy, almost chilly weather. It's definitely the rainy season here and the mountains that ring the Kathmandu valley are wreathed in beautiful clouds. It was fun showing up at work and I was reminded both of how friendly Nepali people are, I received so many hugs, as well as how crazy they are. The first fellow manager that I saw gave me a big hug and then said "Christy-ji (title of respect) I'm so glad to see you and you look so fresh and rested and is that a rash on your face?" Mind you that my face looked exactly like it always does but of course I wanted to run right to the bathroom to check if I had developed a rash on my way to work. What's up with that? Never lead with a rash comment even if it's true. Otherwise immigration had kept my passport upon my arrival Sunday but I got it back today and should get my student visa tomorrow after lots and lots of standing in line and only one small bribe, I mean tip. The textbook is actually a bit scary and it's dawning on me that I'm actually attending a college language course. Which is untimely because I've decided to take tennis lessons at the pretentious American Club (of the wine and cheese party fame) and am interested in reading up on Ayurvedic medicine. Janice and I went to a really famous Ayurvedic doctor in India and I am supposed to work on reducing my heat element which is a total drag because that includes less coffee, alcohol, dairy and spicy foods which equals a little less joy. But he very encouragingly told me that I shouldn't snack and would do really well with more herbal tea. And I bet that I should be doing yoga, too. So now is not a convenient time for me to be doing homework and training the new guy we hired and so I'm going to try and encourage everyone to leave me be as if I was still in Delhi on a paid six-week vacation. We'll see how that goes. xoc

Goa

Hello from Goa, which is an Indian state on the southwest coast. Portugal controlled Goa for 450 years and it just became a part of India in the 1980s and so the culture here is quite different than the rest of India. In fact, I'm feeling a little guilty that I really like the European parts of India (Delhi and Goa) and think that I'd like the French enclave of Pondicherry. The actual INDIAN parts of India are a bit too much like crazy ol' Nepal for the moment. Nepal still hasn't formed a coalition government since the elections two months ago and so it's non-business as usual there. But it's the rainy season here in India and so we'll have a half day of sun and then in just a few minutes the sky will cloud over and we'll have torrential rain, forcing us to pull our scooter under a tree with lots of other people while we wait out the rain. Both Janice and I were stung by little blue jellyfish today while walking along the beach but that's about as hard as it gets. The other great news is that our tour guide Arif from the Taj Mahal with whom we spent about 6 hours has really deep feelings for me and he assures me that he's separated from his wife:

"how r u ? i hope u will be fine i cant sleep u know why bcoz i realy miss u . but i would like to be a keep in tuch iam going to sand u some thing in nepal addres plz apcept that bcoz i like u soo mcuh tahnx wait 4 u mail arif"

and:

"hi how r u u didnt reply my mail this is 2 mail well ill wait 4 u mail i would like to say something i realy lik eu alot i hope i wanna be a your boy friend seriues i lik eu soo mcuh pzl mail me wait 4 u tahnx"

I'm starting to think that I shouldn't have given him my business card. So it's back to Kathmandu on Sunday. xoc

Jaipur

So we went to Jaipur for the weekend via a car with a driver.  So much easier than taking the train if not a touch spoiled.  Bilu the driver picked us up Friday morning and it was pretty much a five hour drive to Jaipur which is known as the "pink city" because the Mogul king had all of the building painted pink - the color of welcome - in the mid 1800s on the occasion of Prince Albert's visit.  Then they liked the look so much they just went with it.  Jaipur is in the state of Rajasthan which has more of a desert climate and the biggest change is that there were camels and lots of carts pulled by camels just cruising down the road.  There were also elephants at the tourist areas which was sad since elephants belong in South India where it's far wetter.  They get dehydrated and sunburned in the north.  So we played tourist and saw a movie at a famous theater that's all done up inside like a psychedelic wedding cake.  Wednesday we go to Agra for the Taj Mahal and then Sunday we go to Goa for some real monsoon rains (hopefully just a few hours a day!) and the beach.  Then back to Kathmandu where the garbage strike is in full swing and now making international headlines.  I hope everyone is well!  xoc

Naps

What a busy week. (sorry mom and dad for not blogging more.)  I've been doing a few work things for the India program and playing tour guide.  But also the monsoon started (early) but then mostly stopped for now and so it's really, really hot and humid which is a killer.  I have never been a napper but have found myself dozing off just after breakfast, in the mid-afternoon after coming in out of the heat and in the early evening.  It's my inner Margaret Thatcher coming out.  So today we're off to Jaipur for the weekend....more later.  xoc

Connections

I really like the taxis here; they are made in India and are called "Ambassadors". Retro-trippy.  Today was one of those good days when one just seems to make connections that don't turn out to be crazy stalkers.   One of the guys who is always around my apartment flat - he's someone's staff - is a real cutie and, although he barely speaks a word of English, is nice in that distinctly South Asian way.  By that I mean that South Asians have fewer social boundaries and think little of staring at, pointing at, discussing, smiling at and, in general, acknowledging how fascinating they find (something, good or bad, about) you.  For instance a few days ago I received a card in the mail that Jen Rose sent (from her 4 year old son Connor who apparently felt an overwhelming and immediate need to send me a lovely collage) and both Ram, the servant in my flat, and the other guy felt no qualms about crowding around for the envelope opening and felt quite at ease to inspect and approve of the collage.  Ram managed to tell me "my son good artist!"  So the other guy was getting on his scooter this morning and in a most animated way encouraged me to jump on the back (side saddle Indian-lady style) for a little ride to the end of the block.  Luckily it turned out to be the end of the block; he could have just taken me across a city of 13 million people using the most unsafe mode of transportation possible aside from those guys who ride on the tops of trains.  I mean, sitting side saddle on a scooter and holding onto a little bar on the back is one step below surfing on the seat.  And then after lunch I was in the window of the restaurant waiting out a particularly heavy deluge of rain  and a crowd of people in a near-by window found my presence so unbelievably interesting that they all took my photo on their cell phones.   Just smiling and taking my picture.  So I just smiled and waved while thinking "really?  is it because I just ate at the hare krishna place?  'cause otherwise i'm just not that exceptional... i'm not even blonde anymore and i'm kinda wet."  And then I had good rickshaw karma going to and coming from lunch (meaning no outrageous American prices) but on the way home I experienced the perils of using rickshaws when it's raining because if cars pass by going too fast through the (lake-like) puddles then a wave of water literally passes through the rickshaw, soaking one's entire lower body in the process.  My driver would honk, shout and shake his fist each time this happened (to us both) and then turn and smile at me like we were comrades.  Then he'd sing.  I liked him so much I gave him a big fat American-style tip.  Then I went for an evening walk around the Park and saw the ancient, toothless granny who's always there with her two year-old granddaughter.  The granny always smiles and points at me, I wave and the kid freaks out and cries.  You can't win 'em all.  In a sheer coincidence while walking I was listening to a podcast about a study that had been done at a seminary in which a group of students were given various sermon topics (half of the group was given the parable of the good samaritan as a topic) and then during their preparation periods they were individually called to another building during which they had to pass a man bent over in obvious pain.  They correlated the data on who stopped to help not to factors such as who was just working on the sermon topic of the good samaritan, but to how late the person felt he was.  The study went on to correlate compassionate behavior with how much attention people are paying to the outside world rather then being lost in thought or on the phone.  There's always a risk of connecting with a kook but there's a lot of upside to paying attention to the people around you.  Just not after dark.  xoc

Gym

Yesterday I had a day of luxury: a pedicure and a trip to the mall.  Not a bad mall, either, and then met another contact for a coffee.  It hasn't been raining so hard lately and so the early monsoon might be a bit of a misnomer...this might be the calm before the real storm.   It's been fun planning for Janice and Lydia's visit and I've found some great restaurants and clubs and the big prize: a convenient theater  playing "Sex and the City".  Hooray.   Don't worry about me getting bored - I am reading tons of books and doing work for the India boss - it's just not as fun doing everything by myself.  But I still find Delhi to be very livable and apparently its pollution is quite a bit less than it had been (I keep reading it's one of the most polluted cities in the world but it just doesn't seem that bad to me) due to all buses and rickshaws now using compressed natural gas and the positive results from a tree-planting campaign started many years ago.  Delhi is also in the messy midst of installing a subway system which will be a huge relief.  So I'm off to the neighborhood gym which is such a hoot because it's so obviously an unself-conscious part of daily life.  There are lots of young men pumping iron for their Bollywood bodies, lots of prosperous, chubby young women working hard on their diets, and plenty of plump, late middle-aged moms wearing full salwar kameez (long tunic and flow-y pants in vibrant colors) with the long scarf intact walking on the treadmill and using the weightlifting machines to a dance soundtrack turned up to 11.  And Siek men in perfect white turbans and dress pants walking around the outdoor track at speeds that I couldn't match.  And then there's me on the stair-stepper, all red faced and sweating in my obligatory long pants...just one of the crowd.  xoc

Monsoon

So the rains have started and it really cools things off, which is nice.  But wow, it's been said a million times, but that's a lot of rain.  I'm scared to vocalize my new hope in fear of jinxing it, but then again maybe saying it will help make it so: I'm angling to get invited to join the brand new Delhi office of my work.  I've done a little work for them already and it's so great working with a start-up and with people who are looking for help.  People who actually welcome ideas instead of being threatened by them.  Perfect timing would be January after the holidays and so hopefully everyone will cooperate with my master plan.  Otherwise, if everything goes well then Janice and our friend Lydia are coming to Delhi Friday for the weekend and Janice is staying for a few weeks and we'll go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and to Jaipur.  Then if the rains aren't too bad we'll go down to Goa which was a Portuguese colony for nearly 500 years before the British took over.  The food is supposed to be a lovely mix of South Indian and Portuguese and the beaches are reputed to be lovely.  Plus there are spice plantations and all kinds of crazy stuff.  One big benefit of living in India would be that the (originally British) railway system is comprehensive and so travel is much easier than in Nepal.  I feel guilty loving the results of brutal colonialism in India and secretly wishing that Nepal had had a little colonialism (but just the nice, happy kind of course).  So hopefully we can do a trek in Nepal this fall, do the India thing, and then go back to Nepal next fall after my contract's up for the Everest base camp trek.  Yeah, yeah I know:  and then I wake up.  But why not aim high?!  'Cause after that trek southern Thailand would be lovely......  Happy Father's Day to you dads out there.  xoc

Karims

Impossible Amounts of Stuff (and two green rickshaws in the back)

Yesterday was pleasant enough....I toured the Red Fort in Old Delhi and took a rickshaw ride through the crazy, bustling bazaars.  And then I ate at Karim's, considered to be one of the best (oldest) restaurants in Delhi.  Ah, Karims.  It was a nice meal but WOW, was I sick all day today.  Sick like I haven't been sick since I took that trip to the mountainous region of Nepal.  Shivering, vomiting, sweating, the works.  Not pretty.  The really good news is, however, that at about 7:00 PM I started to feel fine and I've had some crackers like it ain't no thang.  So I will NOT be going back to Karims but since it happened 20 hours after the fact I avoided being grossed out by Indian food (although I've never loved paneer since I got so sick soon after eating it back 6 months ago).  Breakfast food, however, is another issue!  So today I read a whole book and am now stir-crazy.  MUST GO SOMEWHERE TOMORROW.  xoc

The sun and the moon

This place that I visited yesterday was so crazy: it's called Jantar Mantar and it's an observatory built by a Maharaja in 1725. With the instruments he could track movements of the planets and predict eclipses. the tall structure in the middle is part of a giant sundial. It's not far from a big shopping area, Connaught Place, but it was like another world. I just kept wondering where were the skateboarders! xoc

Sunday in Delhi

This is my room at Mrs. Kamte's place.  Not bad, huh?  Although the bed is basically a board.  The only strange thing about this place is that she has a buzzer in her bedroom and a buzzer in the family room, both of which are to call the servant, Ram, from the kitchen, which is about 20 feet away from the two rooms in question.  In the evening when she's watching television she must ring - and it's a damn loud ring - no less than 20 times in a space of 3 hours.  What, I mean WHAT, could be so pressing that it couldn't wait the ten minutes until Ram next returns?  I suspect it has something to do with the topping off of a cocktail simply because there are 8 or so bottles in the fridge to chill water from the filter and they are all empty booze bottles (and a fine assortment, I might add).  Plus, I've seen the evening alcohol delivery man and so it's not like they're from some past era.  Then we go through the same process in the morning with the bedroom buzzer.  It's madness.   But try as I may to be nice to Ram he basically could care less and so I simply choose the style of eggs that I want for breakfast and mind my own business.

Lunch was so much fun and I learned to cook aloo paratha (potato stuffed bread).  And I learned about a great kind of pan called a tawa - why can't I want to buy small, light things like scarves?  I made two parathas and let's just say that one of them was easily identifiable because it was too thin and the filling was spilling out.  It was a relief that my system has adjusted such that I didn't get sick from eating the diced cucumbers and other vegetables that they also served (along with yogurt).   I love to see people's homes and after I talked about having been to the Lotus Temple and the Hare Krishna temple they deemed me safe and proudly showed me their elaborate Hindu alter in their bedroom.  Very cool.  Not a bad Sunday.  xoc

Zoo

Yesterday was overcast and so perfect for being outside.  I visited Humayun's Tomb and Purana Qila which are Mughal era tombs/monuments.  They were lovely and surrounded by acres and acres of grass and trees.  I had to pass by the entrance of the Delhi zoo when going from one place to another and discovered where everyone else in the city spends Saturday.  It was nice, there's a big lawn in front of the zoo entrance and hundreds of families were spread out having lunch from their stacked, metal tiffin containers.  A tourist in June, let alone a single woman, was apparently of great (smiling and pointing) interest as if to say, "didn't someone tell her that June's the hottest month in India?  That's so funny!" and so I tried to look dignified when ordering and drinking my soda.  Although I will say that India is one place in the world in which being an American is greeted with great delight and congratulations.   I am asked about my nationality at least a dozen times a day.  I have pretty well settled into accepting the rules of travel in South Asia: bartering for taxi fare is a game and should be approached with humor and not dread and a single traveler will automatically acquire an unshakable tour guide upon arriving anywhere.  Generally I will only understand about 20% of what these guides have to say but for a dollar or two they provide some sense of security when touring ill-lit buildings filled with people taking their afternoon siestas.  Lunch was a joy because it combined a lamb kabab from a hole-in-the-wall vendor in the alley behind Kahn Market who, come to find out, is on everyone's "must do" list for Delhi including the New York Times (so delicious and I will now eat there constantly) and a piece of molten chocolate-filled cake from an air-conditioned cafe that could have been anywhere in the world but was sleek and modern and such a nice respite from the craziness and heat.  Today I'm having lunch at my friend Kamal's house and his wife is going to show me how she cooks a few things.  Excellent.  xoc

Lotus Temple

So I visited the Baha'i Lotus Temple built to look like a big lotus flower. I had not realized that Baha'i is a totally separate religion. It seems quite nice, here are their Principles:

1. The Oneness of Mankind
   
2. Independent Investigation of Truth
   
3. The Common Foundation of all Religions
   
4. The Essential Harmony of Science and Religion
   
5. Equality of Men and Women
   
6. Elimination of Prejudice of all kinds
   
7. Universal Compulsory Education
   
8. Universal Peace
   

It was a lovely, peaceful place only disrupted by the fact that we had to take our shoes off at the bottom of the steps and MAN those steps were hot even through the sisal mats. I'm so philosophical....

THEN, onto the rather awe-inspiring Iskcon Hare Krishna Temple at which I intended to eat my late lunch because I happen to know that the Hare Krishna's always have great vegetarian restaurants. But as soon as I got there I was inexorably drawn to the Vedic Expo multi-media show about Krishna consciousness. All I can say is Wow. Smoke, laser lights, movies, mirrors, you name it. It was just a guide and me in a pitch black room, moving from station to station that would then come "alive" just like Disney World, and again I had that "Huh, I'm in a dark, smokey room at the Hare Krishna Temple in Delhi alone with some guy. Who'd a thunk it?" thought that comes at improbable moments. But I've always kinda liked the Hare Krishnas (blame it on my mom for taking us to the former temple in Ann Arbor to see them dance when we were young) and it's safer than the streets in Delhi! But I missed the lunch service and so must return. I actually settled on an Italian meal of sauteed mushrooms, salmon, and a glass of Merlot. It cost $30 which could have bought me a private guide for two days but it was perfect. xoc

Settling In

So now there's a rhythm to this strange life; I wish it was more romantic to be exiled and perhaps I'll be more creative about it in the coming weeks. Right now I'm trying to diligently email plans and thoughts back to the program in Nepal but the truth of the matter is that while I'm there, I'm there, and while I'm gone, I'm just gone. Who knows if they even open my emails, but at least I tried. So I get up in the morning and take a shower and Ram makes me breakfast. Normally I sit at the little dining table by myself and read while eating but yesterday morning another American was staying in the second room for rent and so we had a chance to talk. She's a Fulbright Scholar doing her PhD thesis in something-or-other like how social anthropology and mental illness overlap and how effective the drugs are in the cultural context, blah, blah, blah and she's doing 15 months of field research (that's about as much as I understood). You meet a lot of smart people out here in the world. So then I do little work and plan my day's adventure. As I don't want to be out late on my own I plan for a late lunch around 4 so that I just don't have to eat again, and so I head out to tour from 1 - 4 ish and then eat. Yesterday I checked out a small Mogul tomb, went by Tibet House for a book, and then met a contact that Karen Schreiber gave me (thanks, Karen!) named Akhil. He chose to meet me at the American Diner which meant that I was FORCED to eat my afternoon meal there which was onion rings and "American burgers". They served three small burgers in a basket: one lamb, one chicken, and one veggie. Very American (!) Akhil was a really nice guy who went to Karen's business school, Thunderbird University in Arizona, which is the highest ranked international business school in the world. He started his own education foundation here in Delhi and they have started an economics and banking school in collaboration with private business so that they can channel the profits into free schools for the poor. Very cool. Then Akhil showed me this fun art gallery complex and told me he'd let me know what else the group is doing....hooray, friends! Then I got home, showered, (so dirty and sweaty), read a little and went to bed. That, my friends, is a day in Delhi. I'm going to branch out more and think that I have found a favorite rickshaw driver (this means that his English is good and he has a cell phone) and have a taxi company from which I can rent a car for 1/2 or a full day. Does anyone want to see Delhi in June? Anyone? xoc

Life in the Del'

Yes it's hot and yes it's lonely, but I do like Delhi so far. I live in South Delhi and it's very peaceful. I am so grateful to be living in someone's home and like Mrs. Kamte and Ram, the servant. Mrs. Kamte watches sports every evening (either cricket or tennis these days) and Ram makes me breakfast every morning: eggs and toast. I try to go somewhere every day because there really is a limit to how long I can stay in the room and read - it's not THAT hot out there - and so far I've been to several shopping areas, an art gallery area, and the Museum of Modern Art. Staying busy is going to be a little tough and I am looking for a cooking class. Something that really stands out is that Kathmandu is far, far more religious than Delhi. Granted it's tough to compare a less developed city of a few million to that of 13 million, but still Kathmandu is really, really Hindu. There are temples almost on every block, people making offerings (pujas) all the time, and almost everyone wears a tikka. I never really realized it until I got here. They also say that the Nepalis take the caste system far more seriously, which is difficult to put in context. Alright, I'll try to take pictures tomorrow. It has taken a few days to settle my stomach, get a good night's sleep, get used to the heat and get my energy back. And please think a kind thought for Dave Holcomb and his family; Dave's father passed away yesterday and they could use all of the good vibes that you can send their way. Goodnight. xoc

Day One

Alright, it has only been 24 hours and I've only traveled one square mile of this huge city, but after 7 months of Nepal / bus trip across northern India, Delhi is swank. Maybe it's just nice to be around the British influence or to be in an upscale neighborhood. More details tomorrow when I get proper internet service (not just stealing a weak signal from the place next door) but I'm moving tomorrow into a woman's flat, she lets out two rooms, in a lovely, quiet neighborhood. So I'll have a proper kitchen and living room and everything. The place is great and she seems sane and it got rave reviews from my guidebook and so it all seems perfect. So more tomorrow, but so far, and I'm shocked to be saying this, Delhi is great. Except for the hour I had to spend laying on the bed in my underwear directly beneath the air conditioner to recover from a morning spent walking around. Wow. xoc

Delhi

Hello from Delhi! New Delhi, actually, in the Defense Colony neighborhood. I know I've been in Nepal too long when I was really impressed with the big plane and the fact that they didn't pass out cotton for our ears like they do for internal Nepal flights. And Delhi has real highways! So I'm fine and safe and meeting my friend Kamal, the older gentlemen with whom I had Thanksgiving dinner, tomorrow. He lives here. More tomorrow. xoxoc

Emails

OK people, no more emails addressed to The Prime Minister......

Student Visa, Baby

It wouldn't be Nepal if this wasn't all so last minute. So I'm going to get a one-year student visa to take a Nepali class at the big Kathmandu university (5 days a week, 2 hours a day). I still leave for Delhi on May 30th but come back to KTM on July 12th so that the university has a few days to get my visa before class starts on July 15th. But today (Wednesday) through Friday (when I leave) are national holidays because the new Maoists government declared Nepal a Republic today, and so getting all of the paperwork from the US Embassy, the bank, etc. is just nuts. I'm literally going to a banker's house to sign the paperwork to open a Nepali bank account, which is a requirement for whatever reason, so that she can process it on Monday after I've left. Phew. But it does solve a lot of problems. So if work really didn't want me to stay then that's just too bad! The nice part of this whole thing is that I know a few people in Delhi from work and they are being so lovely and welcoming. Apart from that hot as hell thing Delhi might be really fun.
On a GARY! note, he joined a few of us for lunch a few days ago and was quite fun and amusing. Until he earnestly said to me, and I am not making this up: "YOU LOOK LIKE MOVIE STAR! YOU LOOK LIKE BLONDE FROM SEX AND THE CITY WITH NICE EYES AND ALSO YOU LOOK LIKE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER.....YOU KNOW....THATCHER!" How does one recover from that? Seriously? I thought Janice and Lydia were going to spit out the food that they were eating. And so there you have it; I look like a movie star. xoc

Big Week

Hello all. This is a big week for Nepal: today the new Constitutional Assembly gets sworn in and tomorrow they convene and should declare Nepal a republic. The unpopular king and his even more unpopular son, the crown prince, have reportedly already left the palace. People are worried that crowds might march on the palace on Wednesday (storm it? burn it? dance around it?) and the report from our political friends is that there are lots of arms being brought into the palace for protection. It's still very unclear about how the government is going to form or function (the Maoists won the most seats but not an absolute majority and no other party wants to join them) and the biggest unknown is what the Maoists are going to do about their youth wing, the Young Communists League, that is now totally out of control and murdering a few people out in the countryside. The Maoists trained and armed hundreds of thousands of young men back during the war who now don't have jobs, anything to do, or any skills besides beating people up. But most people think that this week will go fine and rumor is that Wed - Fri will be a holiday which is crazy since I fly to Delhi on Friday and have things to do. Prevailing thought is also that by the fall the military will have had enough of the Maoists and will take over. But we'll see. Otherwise I got my Indian visa yesterday and am planning that part of this crazy adventure. Today my friend Rajendra and I are meeting with the big university here in a last ditch effort to get me a student visa....wish me luck! xoc

105, 104, 104, 103, 105

That's the temperature forecast in Delhi next week.  And humid.  It's so crazy that it's funny (from Kathmandu, which is 80 during the day and 70 in the evening.  lovely.) and we're referring it to my "vacation".   So I leave on Friday the 30th and don't know yet where I'm staying.  Sabrina has put me in contact with her cousins there and so that's a good start.  My crazy Kathmandu boss, you know, the one that failed over 7 months to get me a work visa, is now doing this "I'm so sad at this terrible result and will miss having someone to share my burden...we could talk about everything.  We were so close." routine.  Classic.   But all is not bleak; next week Janice submits her passport to the US Embassy (she'll work for the sanctioned western school) for a fast-track Nepali work visa and they think it'll take two weeks.  We keep joking that over the next couple of months she's going to join the fancy American Club and really get into tennis and pilates.  Why not?  xoc

Imagine

Imagine a really, really hot place. With tens of millions of people. During the monsoon season. Now put me there for two months. Yes...I'm going to Delhi. Wow. We have one clinic there and it's new and so that whole thing should be interesting. And the program feels confident that they'll get my Nepali work visa and will continue to pay my Kathmandu rent in the interim so that's good. What I'm wondering is if the embassy can make me cry, what will Delhi do? On Wednesday I'm going back to the embassy for my visa and this time I will win!! So that's the latest. Tomorrow is Buddha's birthday and I've taken the day off so the Tibetan part of town will be a par-tay which should be really fun. Goodnight all. xoc

Don't Hate the American

OK, so they never got me a work visa.  I know that you're all thinking "but she's been there since November, NOVEMBER!" but time just sneaked up on the Nepalis and they actually only applied for it in Mid-April.  And some of it has to do with the new Maoist government and the fact that the US has decided to keep the Maoists on the terrorist watch list...maybe I can call Condi and get them removed just for a little while until my visa gets processed and then they can go right back on.  I warned London so many times and they just kept telling me not to worry but I knew, I just knew.  When it wasn't done before the elections it didn't bode well.  And, one needs to be here to believe the glacial pace of, well, everything.   So I find out the plan on Monday as to where I go on May 31st (which is a few days before my tourist visa expires and I'm not allowed back into Nepal until 2009; leaving stops the clock) until things get sorted out.  Estimates are it'll take a month or two to sort things out and I think the big plan is to enroll me in the university here in Kathmandu for the student visa.  That'll be a resume builder.  So in the interim will it be London or another South Asian country...we'll see.  For a(paranoid) while I thought that I might lose my job but that doesn't appear to be the case.  Many people see the ironic humor in Janice getting her work visa and me fleeing the country, and to you people I just say....don't hate the playa, hate the absolute lack of urgency in this crazy ass country!  But otherwise we're good and will keep you updated.  xoc

Freedom

Thanks everyone, my birthday was one to remember.  I went with my favorite consultant / friend Rajendra to the Indo-Nepali border to check out our new HIV/AIDs counseling kiosk for migrant laborers and it appears to be a huge success.  Very cool.  Actually, it was REALLY hot but Rajendra managed to find a cold bottle of Spanish white wine (because he's magic) and it was a good birthday.  And even better I don't believe that I got sick on this trip mostly because I carried most of my food with me.  Then Saturday night a group of us went to the bizarro world American Club which is this heavily fortified, huge compound in the middle of Kathmandu that has high walls, barbed wire, armed guards, and bullet-proof glass all to protect......a country club playground for all of the American expats.  I mean, there's tennis, a pool, a soccer field, a baseball diamond, aerobics and Pilate's classes, you name it.  We attended a wine and cheese party and it was exactly like someone's wedding with all of the girls eventually dancing under a disco ball to George Michael's "Freedom".  But mock it as I will, it was a nice break.  Alrighty, good night.  xoc

Puddle

So here's a good example of a cultural disconnect: I was walking to work yesterday and spotted across the street a guy just starting to pull himself up out of a really deep puddle/pool (when it rains here, it really rains). He was facedown in 6 inches of water. The thing is, no one was stopping or helping. I'm guessing that he was in his 20s since he was wearing jeans and a t shirt; he was moving slowly and probably had been drinking or huffing glue fumes (the homeless street kids do that here and it's the saddest thing because at that point they've gone from simply no chance at a good life to brain damaged). But he was moving so slowly he still could have drowned and people pretended that nothing was happening. Say what you will about New Yorkers, but had that been NYC there would have been 20 people taking charge of the situation. But he seemed to be getting up so I kept on going to not be the pushy American breaking the "rules" but still, how weird is that?
Then we went to the orphanage yesterday evening because I'm helping them with some operations stuff (job descriptions, HR manual, files on the children) and Janice is going to help with some language curriculum. The kids are great and it's a nice home with a married couple and a female manager who stay on the premises overnight and the kids have shared rooms loosely based on gender and age. But then we bummed ourselves out afterwards when we were discussing that since they're orphans they may or may not get their Nepali citizenship cards (they have to know who their fathers are to get citizenship) in order to have a formal job. And they probably won't be able to marry since they generally have to know their caste to marry (again, the father). What do you do in a situation like that? We've discussed with Beverly, the woman who runs the orphanage, getting the kids job counseling but are still picking through the issues. And some of the kids are now teenagers and so man, what a challenge. When it was time to go home around 8 PM it was pitch dark due to power cuts in that area of town and really muddy from the rains. So the orphanage gardener, an older man, escorted us with a flashlight the 20 minutes to the main road and flagged us a cab. He was so careful to point out the puddles and when we were getting in the cab took each of our hands and touched it to his forehead as he bowed which is a sign of great respect. It was so touching and a good reminder of the good side of culture here (in crazytown). xoc

Ten Year Visa

In an interesting twist, apple is taking over my PC. My Internet Explorer has been locking up all of the time which has made it tricky to check my email and such. But, with the latest version of itunes comes Safari, the apple browser, and whaddayaknow, Safari works fine. So I'm back in business. My computer guy at work seems to know what he's doing, (although no one will EVER replace IT Dave, bless him), but it'd be weird if he came over the house. So my parents are moving this week which is really exciting. Snow for Christmas again! It's fun planning to come home to do simple things like brushing one's teeth from the tap. And I found out that I can get a 10 year - TEN YEAR (where's GARY when I need a little emphasis) - Indian visa while I'm home in the states and that's just too thrilling for words. May I never go to an Indian Embassy again (after the visit that I'm going to have to pay soon due to my failed attempt to get a visa a few weeks ago that resulted in me crying. Sometimes the man just gets you down...) Lots of people have asked how I'm actually feeling about this place and it's everything: fun, disgusting, beautiful, frustrating, hilarious. The Kathmandu part is always interesting and living here in the lap of luxury is not hard. Sure it'd be great to have a few more American conveniences and it's odd that taking a stool sample to the local clinic is just a regular occurrence, but we have a cook. That's just great. But the work part is very frustrating and although I received lots of support from the London people when they were here for the conference (yes, you need more support; yes, you really are in a difficult position; yes, we need to get you a peer group to talk to about strategies to handle the cultural gap), it's still trying to bring change to the most stubborn group of people ever. Well, actually I hear the Afgans and the Vietnamese are worse which brings up the question about why the US chooses to go to war with the more culturally immovable people in the world. From what I've learned I'd recommend never, ever trying to effect change in any of these countries but maybe I'm getting a little jaded. Or realistic. Literally, six months later they may or may not have decided to agree with me that they need a business plan (granted, this is a London requirement but Nepal doesn't really play that way). We're six months into the sales year but are only at 8% of our sales targets but they just don't quite know if they need to get rid of "that one lame man who's making the whole program lame" even though they all say terrible things about him. There's cultural stuff going on that I can't even fathom. So of course my concern is how am I being evaluated given that the program likes me but is totally disinterested in me doing the job I was sent here to do. I was just joking with my sister that over the last year I've become qualified to do absolutely nothing. But my parents have a fantastic little guest cottage in their new place......
Anyway, just writing about work makes it funny again and so I'm off to face the day. xoc

Cheetos

Whew! I've been in a Regional Conference that we held here in Nepal. It was really interesting as we had people from Afghanistan, Myanmar, East Timor, China, Viet Nam, and so on. But I'm glad it's over since being the host country means lots and lots of work. Then on Sunday we went to my friend's orphanage to talk about some of her organizational needs; the 16 kids were at school, however, so I didn't get to play dancing Barbies this time. It's a six-day work/school week since there are so many religious holidays. So, to be honest, I don't have it in me to tell a good story but am well apart from this really weird heat rash/welts on the back of my neck...I mean, do parts of one's body just start falling off after a while here or am I just getting old? How did the British occupy India for so long? Maybe I should start drinking gin & tonics at every opportunity like they did. Of course Dr. Durga, my personal work physician, put it in perspective when I asked him what to put on my neck (antibiotic? special antibacterial?) and he replied "uh, powder?" Oh, and the exciting part is that we placed our Amazon order for which the US taxpayers are paying the shipping to Nepal (thanks everyone). Soooo exciting to get Cheetos. More later. xoxoc

Cow

I forgot to mention my latest cow encounter. I was walking to work one morning a week ago just minding my own business. I carry a briefcase-size bag (that has a lot of Nepali writing on it - work stuff - to differentiate me from the prissy UN people) that work likes to call my "man bag" because they're shocked that I like it. Bear in mind that I carry a lunch, bottle of water, pashmina, umbrella and enough medicinal products for a small army and so I need my "man bag". So I'm walking with my man bag and there's a big, black heifer/steer/man cow whatever you call it standing if front of me, facing me, a dozen yards up just minding his own. But that happens all the time and people are walking past him and traffic is flying by and everything is right in the world. As I pass him, however, apparently I come too close and he flicked his head and prongs my man bag to give me a shove. But I just keep on walking for a yard or two before it occurs to me that that cow just pronged me! And I just kept on walking! What the hell? Just a day in the life. xoc

GARY!

So we have a new friend named GARY! It's not politically correct, but Gary is a Chinese national and always seems to yell his name in a (tacky to mock) accent. He spotted Janice and me on the treadmills and ran over and said "MY NAME IS GARY AND I NEVER SEE YOU HERE BEFORE! I LIKE TO MAKE FRIENDS!" At first we couldn't imagine having the energy to befriend GARY! but on Sunday decided that we needed to make an effort and sent him an email asking him if he'd like to sit in the garden together on Monday after work. We didn't know if it was culturally OK to invite him to the apartment. So we saw GARY! in the lobby that evening and instead he invited us for an authentic Chinese dinner in his apartment. It was like a messy bachelor's pad with a Dell box as a coffee table and he was just so excited to have his two new friends over. But strangely, he had changed into pajamas, like proper matching man pajamas. Clearly different cultural norms than Nepalis. He plunked down a worn plastic bag full of sunflower seeds and couple of tepid Chinese beers and said "YOU DON'T WATCH ME COOK! I GET NERVOUS AND MAKE MYSELF ON FIRE!" Otherwise the bottle of wine that we had brought was skunked and so we remained alarmingly sober. GARY! ended up cooking a four-course dinner in one pan on an electric burner on the dining room table (no power in the kitchen due to power cuts and he doesn't trust Nepali cooking gas cylinders....it had never occurred to us to distrust the gas cylinders....damn). To make the clean-up easy after stir-frying he put newspapers all over the table including over the electric burner and proceeded to cook through the newspaper until the burner burned through it. Huh. At one point he was cooking some sliced up eggplant - he took such care cutting up so many kinds of vegetables - when he reached into a black plastic bag on the counter and took something that looked like big mushrooms and tossed it into the pot. When we asked if it was mushrooms he said "NO, IT'S SPECIAL CHICKEN. ALREADY COOKED. NO NEED FOR REFRIGERATION!" It was some kind of fermented chicken necks and GARY! explained that we were supposed to eat the bones and all. Huh. I tried a little but only made it so far and Janice tried until she bit into a bone and it splintered just like we were all told it'd do if we gave one to the dog. She did a smooth napkin transfer, though. And GARY! kept fastidiously washing all of the vegetables in tap water, something that we obsessively avoid. Our eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger but by now we should be somewhat used to the tap water and so when Janice whispered to me "are we eating it?" we both already knew that we'd give it a whirl since the food was cooked after-the-fact. Then at some point GARY'S roommate Ken (also Chinese) came home and walked right through the room as if nothing was happening and then reappeared also wearing proper matching man pajamas. We suddenly felt overdressed. Apparently GARY! and Ken are from different provinces in China and so don't really like each-other's food and so cook for themselves every night. I mean, how different can it be? Overall it was a nice meal and we were thrilled to have had the experience. So GARY! called today and said: "YOU TELL ME WHERE YOU WORK AGAIN. I GOT SO EXCITED HAVING TWO BEAUTIFUL GIRLS OVER THAT I FORGOT EVERYTHING YOU SAID! I FEAR THE FOOD WASN'T ACCEPTABLE AND YOU WENT HOME AND ATE ANOTHER MEAL!" We like GARY!. Maybe just not everyday.



On another note I finally went to the doctor for a recurring stomach ailment and it's only a bacterial infection (nothing that cipro can't wipe out). And how timely to be on cipro? Luckily my leprosy had already cleared up.



xoC!

Wow

So the Maoists are ahead - way ahead - in the polls. No one predicted it. It won't be final for weeks but it even seems like Nepalis are a little surprised with themselves. And the Americans here at the Embassy and the like are freaking out because the US has labeled the Maoists a terrorist organization and the Embassy staff isn't allowed to refer to the leader by his name. But most peace organizations think that since the peace treaty was signed in 2006 the Maoists have been a legitimate part of the government and an official political party and so that label isn't fair. We're going to have to figure something out quick because the US invests a whole lotta money here and potentially soon won't be able to talk to the leader. The interesting things about it are, first, that immediately he's toned down his weirdo Maoist rhetoric and is talking about democracy, cooperation, and so on and second, people seem really excited and invigorated by the coming change. So many people in the old guard who have governed forever lost their local elections and have already resigned; it's crazy. Nepalis naturally move at a snail's pace and this is like nothing they've ever seen. In a selfish way it's good for me because there would have been a whole lot of trouble, perhaps even a civil war, had the Maoists lost. Now they shoulder the responsibility that goes along with governing rather than just causing trouble from the fringes. Very interesting. So now we're back to getting a work permit and Tibetan protests. Ah, Nepal. xoc

Vacations

OK, so I've been trying to figure out the recommended vacation schedule. This fall we are planning to do the Mt. Everest base camp trek from September 27 - October 12 . Any takers? Then, if I can get away with stealing a few days from next year I'll fly home on December 12th, or the 16th if they're strict, to my parent's house in Santa Fe. Did I mention that they're moving in mid-May to Santa Fe? You can hardly keep track of us; I know. I expect the West Coast peeps to stop in! Then, if it works out, I'd like to do a retreat in Ann Arbor from December 27th - January 3rd. Then back to the Du. So all this means that visitors in October and November would be dreamy and that's the recommended season. Or January - March but January is really cold. Please let me know what you are planning so that space is available. xoc

Not Bad

So the elections went better than most people would have thought. Maybe a dozen people were killed in total including one candidate, and a dozen or so polling stations have to have a "do over" because rival political parties literally hijacked the ballot boxes and, in some cases, threw them in the river. And so now the three week wait for results ensues with the real uncertainty about what next. But it was a lovely day and so one milestone down. xoc

You must check out the poem on Janice's blog!

Election Eve

So today starts the temporary home vacation. The weather is lovely and we had a lesson with Janice's language teacher this morning at the American joint across the street (Mike's Breakfast). Today is the day that most people are going home to vote and so as of mid-afternoon the streets are increasingly deserted since few people are actually from Kathmandu (like Manhattan). There has been violence in the West and the Indian border region is apparently crazy-town. Jimmy Carter is here trying to get people to make nice and he is THE headlines in all of the papers. The big unknown is what's going to happen after the elections during the counting period which might take up to three weeks because the system they're using is unbelievably complicated and so even early poll results are not an indicator of anything. That's when we dig into all of the stockpiled cereal and skim milk from Australia.

If you're like me then you always think that if you just had five days to pull everything together then you'd be totally organized....well, it's day one and it's boring. But stay tuned for emails!!

Doctor Durga at work confirmed that I don't have leprosy. Shockingly, he thought it was a bug bite. But I'll have you know it's a big one.

xoc

Saturday

OK, I had a greek salad and french fries but still felt a bit ill afterwards. And the Diet Coke had an old-school pull tab that one could drop on the ground and step on just to relive the 70s a bit. The whole thing felt a bit Marie Antoinette-ish and we could hear from outside the cars with loudspeakers installed on top of them bellowing political slogans at decibel 11. But it was a very nice pool. Some friends were talking about what is so different about the culture here and it sunk in how much the whole caste thing is antithetical to how we (westerners) think. With so much going on it's easy to kind of dismiss little things that happen like sometimes people just cut into the front of the line at the grocery store. Whatever. Or people bustle to the front of bank lines or cars just pull out and block traffic going both ways and no one says anything. There's mostly an acceptance of a hierarchy and it finally dawned on me that those people are Brahmans or other higher castes and they just get certain perks (and of course certain jobs, etc.) That's the tradition, the resistance to change, that produces political leaders who are in their 80s and need oxygen tanks. So it's not too difficult to understand why so many young people fell right in with the Maoists who are the effective voice of change here. You can't even begin to draw a parallel with privilege in America because in America for every Rockefeller there are dozens of new money entrepreneurs challenging the "system" every day. So this transition in Nepal is going to be a doozy of a learning curve for them. Meanwhile the Maoists are going around and telling everyone that they will be watching them vote with binoculars and will come after them if they don't vote for the Maoists. To an uneducated villager that's a very real threat. Alright. xoc

Election Season

So Thursday is the election and the government has just declared the entire week a national holiday so that people can get back to their home villages (where they can vote) and I believe that vehicular traffic will be banned Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In Nepal they just call holidays with little or no notice...just imagine. The Terai region all along the Indian border has been effectively shut down with mandatory curfews for several days already. We are stocked up on food and water and chances are that Kumar the cook will come Monday, Tuesday and the following weekend. Because heaven forbid in the face of the potential biggest change in Nepal's history we don't have fresh fruits and vegetables. And to be be honest, today we're going over to the Hyatt to swim in their pool. The Tibetans have officially called off their protests in front of the UN and Chinese Embassy during this period (so that the police can rest their baton-wielding arms). I think that I mentioned before that this election is to elect people who will rewrite the constitution that will establish a republic and abolish the monarchy. It's to be determined what the king's going to do about this since he seems quite interested in remaining king but for now it's all about the Maoists and ethnic lower castes and everyone else beating on each other. But with the massive police and military presence in KTM we are perfectly safe but maybe trips to the field might have to wait. So that's the political update.....it's beautiful weather and we are feeling the need to swim, drink diet coke and eat club sandwiches. Goodnight! xoc

Extremes

So one of the weird things about living here is that one's mind almost always jumps to extremes. After every meal I think "man, I hope that this one doesn't give me a parasite" and the first thing that came to mind when I got a bite/rash thing on my arm: leprosy. (Two weekends ago we visited a leprosy rehab place and of course it's now a possibility even though it's not.) We even googled leprosy. But on the other hand, so many things are normal. When I walk out from my little street onto the main street in the morning within seconds I sum up the scene: cows, dogs, trash, police in full riot gear, small guy carrying a large piece of furniture on his back, family of four on a motorcycle, holy man asking for alms, teeny tiny old people who can fit in my pocket, long petrol line....all is right with the world. Normally in the morning I pass a mom and her two little boys (like 6 & 8) waiting for the school bus and the older boy likes to say hello to me like he's the bravest boy in Nepal. So the other morning he looked so pleased with himself and handed me a piece of candy. Made my day. Goodnight. xoc

Protesters

As I just emailed my sister, things are fine here in Kathmandu...so long as you're not a Tibetan protester, that is. I have never seen a protest as they have been taking place miles and miles away in front of the UN building, but for sure it's terrible that the Nepali police choose to beat the shit out of protesting monks, women, etc. But everyone around here (and there) has to play nice with China. The violence in Nepal is actually much worse down along the border with India as the elections are coming up on the 10th and most of the political parties do not really want them to happen since right now politicians hold appointed government positions and so why change just for some silly democratic elections? So the political parties are beating, kidnapping, and killing each other in hopes that the violence will become so bad that the elections will be called off. But again this, too, is far away and the real risk is the border area again cutting off our petrol, supplies, etc. We have been stocking up on supplies in case there's a few lean weeks. So Kathmandu is chock full of police because of the elections and the poor ol' Tibetans are just practice. A friend of a friend works at the UN and was talking about how the Nepali police in full riot gear and batons were psyching themselves up, (jogging in place, poking each other with batons, chanting), to go kick some Tibetan ass. Sigh. But otherwise we are as safe as we've ever been, even safer with the high police presence, and things are fine. Thanks for the emails. xoc

Be careful what you ask for

OK, so now I'm completely in charge of sales. When one is put in charge of something lots of things happen that include numbered and signed letters and official stamps. It reminded me of a trip I took last month to immigration to get a one-month visa extension and they noticed that immigration had not stamped my passport when I left the country for India this past January. Immigration had charged me $100 cash, however, before not stamping my passport but that's graft for you. It took several hours and many management signatures before KTM immigration back-dated a stamp for my departure from Nepal so that I could then spend a few hours getting a 30-day visa extension. But visas are a whole 'nother story...... So every day I go out into KTM for a few hours with a salesperson and have discovered that it's worse than anyone thought. Storekeepers actually don't want to sell our condoms because we only have 3 rupees profit built in for them and many other brands give them 15-20 rupees profit. Duh. When I asked the sales manager about this he proudly puffed up his chest and grandly said that people should want to sell our condoms out of love for the brand, not profit. I mean, every shop we visit asks us to remove our product from their shelves. The brand is 6 years old without any freshening, the pricing is all wrong, there isn't any advertising, this guy hires and fires salespeople at will so they're discouraged, and the list goes on..... The organization is emotionally/culturally/whatever unable to fire him, though, and he's an impediment to making any change. (As my dad would say, "this guy must have naked pictures of someone to still have this job!) But I did manage yesterday to throw a temper-tantrum to the point that I got a finance guy (who actually managed the sales program for a year when the current manager took another job but then came back...lucky) assigned to our program full-time so that we can begin to take control of the finances and customer contacts. So that's what I do all day. In the evening I take language class, watch American Idol, exercise, eat our fab-o dinners, and wish I emailed more. Sorry about that. Alright, off to work and back out into the hot KTM sun all morning. Thanks mom for all the sunscreen! xoc

Politically Incorrect

So wow with the news on Tibet. To be honest, the demonstrations in Kathmandu are happening at the UN office in a section of the city on the other side of the river, but yesterday we went to the Tibetan part of town and it was really empty. Nevertheless, the images on BBC of Nepali policeman beating demonstrators with bamboo batons are brutal. Someone was asking how far away Lhasa is from Kathmandu and we figured that although it isn't far point to point, the Himalayan range and Mt. Everest are in between. So effectively it's really far away. Nepal has the elections, the Maoists, Indian hitmen disrupting political rallies and a whole host of internal issues far more pressing than Tibet...perhaps that's why the police are taking out their aggressions on a few hundred demonstrating refugees. Otherwise today was big in that I was officially put in charge of sales and "that handicapped man making the whole program handicapped" (these words are often said; I would not make this stuff up.) Let's just say that many people are unhappy but I'm going to strike while the iron's hot and try and figure out what the heck is going on. I genuinely don't think that "that one lame man" is going to come to work tomorrow and I hope that he chooses to quit to save us all from what is inevitable. Let's just say that breakeven is selling 200,000 condoms per month and this month we'll sell maybe 50,000 and no one outside of London seems to think that that's a problem. Oh well. To bed. xoc