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