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