Having failed to post blogs in September and October I now find myself writing a blog after being in Nepal for almost a year - 15th of November is the anniversary of our arrival – so it seems appropriate to reflect a little.
The last two months have been remarkably busy. As part of VSO’s 50th Anniversary celebrations they recruited a number of British MPs to do short term placements as volunteers. The only conservative MP to volunteer came to Nepal and we acted as hosts for almost two weeks in the middle of September. He used his political expertise to run some training sessions for the new Constituent Assembly members here which went down very well. It was really interesting to have him here. So much of what he observed reminded us of our early days here and made us realise how much we have come to accept.
October in Nepal is festival month and we had the first long breaks we have had since got here (no wonder we were feeling tired). In the first weeks holiday Anil and I went to Varanasi in India . We were lucky enough to be there at Durga Puja which sees the whole town in festival mode. Imagine Christmas, bonfire night, carnival and Blackpool illuminations all rolled in to one and you have some idea of what it was like - great fun and very noisy. If the Oxford Street traders and Hamleys want to know how to do street lights and Christmas window displays then I suggest they visit Varanasi !
The second week, Tihar, was spent with 8 other VSO volunteers at Bardia National Park in the far south west of Nepal. This is where the Tharu people live and there houses are lovely. Made of wood, straw and mud with cream washed external walls they dot the landscape with there pretty little gardens full of flowers. Some of the houses are huge and accommodate extended families. The one we visited was home to 22 people. The walls separating each sleeping area were actually rice storage vessels.
We had gone to Bardia to see some wildlife and in spite of walking, rafting and elephant riding through the park we saw remarkably little, one glimpse of a wild rhino and its baby being the high spot. We had to make do with plenty of deer and lots of tantalising footprints of tigers, rhinos and wild elephants. The footprints felt like a calling card “we were here two minutes ago but you were out!”
I cannot believe that we have been here almost a year. The change in the weather (cold at night) is acting as a reminder and I am just waiting to see the street sellers with masses of oranges which is what greeted us when we arrived. With so many new experiences the time has gone by really quickly.
I feel sad that I have not mastered Nepali as well as I would have liked to. I can understand quite a lot but I find speaking very hard. Maybe that will get better next year. After a year of getting to know and work with my counterpart he is about to leave the organisation and join VSO as a programme manager. This is a really excellent opportunity for him but a little sad for me. I think I have learnt to listen a bit better than I did a year ago but that old tendency to want things to happen quickly is still there and causes me no end of grief some days!
It is very interesting to me that something that really bothers you a lot when you move to a new house, or country, soon becomes absorbed as the norm. In my first few days in KTM I slept very badly on account of the dogs. The dogs of KTM have a routine which is totally at odds with their human cohabitants. When it gets dark and sufficient numbers of people have indicated that they are in bed, by turning out their lights, the dogs start barking. Some of them are street dogs who wander around barking at each other, others are house dogs who have to bark at the wandering street dogs as this is, of course, their job. Apart from the dogs; KTM is fairly quiet at night so you can hear the ripples of dog barks stretching out across the city. It might not be beautiful but it seems organized to me and hence we call it the dog orchestra. When our daughter came to stay she remarked one morning that she hadn't slept well but she now entirely understood the term "dog orchestra." The MP was also disturbed by the dogs and as he was only here for 10 days he didn’t get past what I call the dog shooting phase, when you get up in the morning bleary eyed with lack of sleep it is a tempting fantasy.
Of course with all this night time activity the dogs are worn out in the day. By 9am on my walk to work the whole of KTM is paved with dogs completely spark out. They play a similar game to the cows simply lying down where the fancy takes them, the gutter seems a favourite spot. A car going within 1 millimetre of its nose will, I guarantee, not wake a KTM dog, they are oblivious. For those suffering sleep deprivations the urge to give them a swift kick is often quite strong.
I depart for the UK on the 18th November and I am wondering what will strike me on my return. We have a hectic six weeks with 80th birthdays to attend in Yorkshire and New York and lots of relatives and friends to catch up with.
Blog service will be resumed in January 2009.
Namaste
Julie
Friday, November 7, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Nepali shawl and animal traffic
Since I arrived in Nepal I have tried to adjust my dress to ensure I don't stand out more than my grey hair and pale skin make me. This has involved wearing the traditional kurta surwal, a knee length top/dress and variously baggy trousers to match or contrast with your top. Now I have to confess that I tend to wear the kurta with a more western pair of trousers. It looks quite good and I feel more comfortable. I always feel that I am losing the baggy trousers though I am sure if I persevered I would get used to it.
The really useful addition to the kurta surwal is the shawl. Often quite wide and sometimes in fine material it is the most useful item of clothing I have ever come across as it has so many uses:
· You can dry your hands on it when there isn't a towel or the one provided is just too grubby
· You can keep warm, even the thin ones wrapped round you add a comforting layer and the big wooly ones, which I am sure my mum would refer to as a blanket, are as good as a winter coat.
· You can keep the sun off your neck and of course mop your brow
· You can hide from people you don't want to see
· You can wipe your nose or should I say, just so you are clear on my own habits, 'one could wipe one's nose"!
· You can definitely cover your nose and smother the smells which will appear at some point on any journey in the streets of KTM
· I suspect you could use some of them as a sarong and therefore wash modestly at the public tap
· And finally of course you can use it for its real purpose - to look elegant. That is once you have mastered the wearing of it one can look elegant.
There are lots of cows wandering the streets in KTM. They are of course treated with great respect , you often see people touch them reverently as they pass them and cars always give them a wide berth, there are very sever penalties for killing a cow.
The cows come in all shapes and sizes and although they wander the streets at will, helping to clean up the garbage by eating some of the organic matter, I am unclear how many of them actually have a home. My great worry of late has been an enormous bull which has been gracing the streets of Baluwatar. Nepalis pass him happily, I cross the road. I really don't trust this huge animal. When I explained my fears to my local shop keeper and told him that such a valuable animal would be in a secure field or barn at home and with a big sign saying "Beware of the Bull" he was most amused. His answer seemed to imply that the fact the animals are revered mean they are not aggressive. This is interesting, may indeed be true but I am still crossing the road .
The size of someof these animals, sometimes quantity, and complete inability to choose a sensible place to sit down make them a serious traffic hazard. In fact the many traffic police men that grace the streets of KTM do seem to have a brief in relation to cows. A whole herd of cows was blocking a major road junction the other morning and the smartly dressed traffic cop simply picked up a stick, left his post directing the traffic and herded them at a run down the side street. I notice however that the traffic cops don't try and "move them on" when they have sat down in the middle of the road. I kid you not that it is their preferred spot. You could almost imagine that they do it deliberately knowing that people will simply drive round them, you can imagine a get together over a tasty patch of clover in which they compete for the best story - "you'll never guess where I sat down yesterday"
Namaste
Julie
The really useful addition to the kurta surwal is the shawl. Often quite wide and sometimes in fine material it is the most useful item of clothing I have ever come across as it has so many uses:
· You can dry your hands on it when there isn't a towel or the one provided is just too grubby
· You can keep warm, even the thin ones wrapped round you add a comforting layer and the big wooly ones, which I am sure my mum would refer to as a blanket, are as good as a winter coat.
· You can keep the sun off your neck and of course mop your brow
· You can hide from people you don't want to see
· You can wipe your nose or should I say, just so you are clear on my own habits, 'one could wipe one's nose"!
· You can definitely cover your nose and smother the smells which will appear at some point on any journey in the streets of KTM
· I suspect you could use some of them as a sarong and therefore wash modestly at the public tap
· And finally of course you can use it for its real purpose - to look elegant. That is once you have mastered the wearing of it one can look elegant.
There are lots of cows wandering the streets in KTM. They are of course treated with great respect , you often see people touch them reverently as they pass them and cars always give them a wide berth, there are very sever penalties for killing a cow.
The cows come in all shapes and sizes and although they wander the streets at will, helping to clean up the garbage by eating some of the organic matter, I am unclear how many of them actually have a home. My great worry of late has been an enormous bull which has been gracing the streets of Baluwatar. Nepalis pass him happily, I cross the road. I really don't trust this huge animal. When I explained my fears to my local shop keeper and told him that such a valuable animal would be in a secure field or barn at home and with a big sign saying "Beware of the Bull" he was most amused. His answer seemed to imply that the fact the animals are revered mean they are not aggressive. This is interesting, may indeed be true but I am still crossing the road .
The size of someof these animals, sometimes quantity, and complete inability to choose a sensible place to sit down make them a serious traffic hazard. In fact the many traffic police men that grace the streets of KTM do seem to have a brief in relation to cows. A whole herd of cows was blocking a major road junction the other morning and the smartly dressed traffic cop simply picked up a stick, left his post directing the traffic and herded them at a run down the side street. I notice however that the traffic cops don't try and "move them on" when they have sat down in the middle of the road. I kid you not that it is their preferred spot. You could almost imagine that they do it deliberately knowing that people will simply drive round them, you can imagine a get together over a tasty patch of clover in which they compete for the best story - "you'll never guess where I sat down yesterday"
Namaste
Julie
Sunday, July 27, 2008
The place of much water….
Since I last wrote I have managed to do my first work visit out of KTM. In early June I went to Jaleswor in the South East of Nepal, in the terai and practically in India. Even my primitive Nepali wasn’t useful here as people speak Maithili. Jaleswor means the place of much water. My visit was before the monsoon proper arrived so although we had a couple of heavy rainstorms nothing was washed away, as it was only a week or so later.
The organisation I am working for runs a Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) project there funded by the World Bank and I was lucky enough to meet many of the beneficiaries. This is definitely the “give a man/woman a fishing rod” end of development. People take small loans to develop their lively hood; buying cows, goats, buffalo or trade tools and then as their income increases they repay the loan and the money is then available for someone else to borrow. I was able to see first hand how the programme has empowered people as well as increasing their incomes; men encouraging very shy women to speak up and tell their story and men, from normally separate Dalit communities, working, talking and eating together.
To say it was hot in Jaleswor would be an understatement. I cursed, as useless, the ceiling fan in my small cell like bedroom (in the only “hotel” in town) and then prayed for it to come back on in the frequent electricity failures through the night.
We ate huge lychees, delicious local fish and puri and curry for breakfast. My colleagues at sandwiches of two puri’s with a sweet that looked like a jelabi in the middle…. although I ate the same thing I did so separately!
The monsoon is here, great earth quenching cloud bursts. Last night the rain was so heavy we could hardly hear the DVD we were watching. It is always a good sound if you are inside in the dry.
My counterpart has just come back from a trip to the UK and is telling everyone stories which sound familiar as a reverse of my own experience arriving here. One of his funniest tales for Nepalis is the description of a sat. nav. in someone’s car. To people in a city like KTM where most buildings don’t have a street name let alone a number this machine sounds like pure magic.
Mango season is almost over and now we have local naspati (Asian pears) appearing.
The king has left his “castle” and we eagerly await it’s imminent opening as a museum, complete with crown and sceptre as they were found after all. Nepal has its first President but as yet no prime minister. There is still a fuel shortage and strikes as the students continue to press their claim for a 45% fare discount. Much more worrying is the serious food shortages in some remote areas of Nepal where people have to rely on poorly managed and inadequate food aid. I doubt though that Nepal will make the headlines on the food shortage front.
Must go and set up the candles ready for tonight’s load shedding.
Namaste
Julie
The organisation I am working for runs a Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) project there funded by the World Bank and I was lucky enough to meet many of the beneficiaries. This is definitely the “give a man/woman a fishing rod” end of development. People take small loans to develop their lively hood; buying cows, goats, buffalo or trade tools and then as their income increases they repay the loan and the money is then available for someone else to borrow. I was able to see first hand how the programme has empowered people as well as increasing their incomes; men encouraging very shy women to speak up and tell their story and men, from normally separate Dalit communities, working, talking and eating together.
To say it was hot in Jaleswor would be an understatement. I cursed, as useless, the ceiling fan in my small cell like bedroom (in the only “hotel” in town) and then prayed for it to come back on in the frequent electricity failures through the night.
We ate huge lychees, delicious local fish and puri and curry for breakfast. My colleagues at sandwiches of two puri’s with a sweet that looked like a jelabi in the middle…. although I ate the same thing I did so separately!
The monsoon is here, great earth quenching cloud bursts. Last night the rain was so heavy we could hardly hear the DVD we were watching. It is always a good sound if you are inside in the dry.
My counterpart has just come back from a trip to the UK and is telling everyone stories which sound familiar as a reverse of my own experience arriving here. One of his funniest tales for Nepalis is the description of a sat. nav. in someone’s car. To people in a city like KTM where most buildings don’t have a street name let alone a number this machine sounds like pure magic.
Mango season is almost over and now we have local naspati (Asian pears) appearing.
The king has left his “castle” and we eagerly await it’s imminent opening as a museum, complete with crown and sceptre as they were found after all. Nepal has its first President but as yet no prime minister. There is still a fuel shortage and strikes as the students continue to press their claim for a 45% fare discount. Much more worrying is the serious food shortages in some remote areas of Nepal where people have to rely on poorly managed and inadequate food aid. I doubt though that Nepal will make the headlines on the food shortage front.
Must go and set up the candles ready for tonight’s load shedding.
Namaste
Julie
Monday, June 9, 2008
Food and kings
I am beginning to realise how strange it is to be part of a community of volunteers who are all here for a fixed time. No sooner have you got to know people than their time is up and off they go back home again. Of course this is happening all the time as people arrive in groups (usually twice a year) some with different lengths of placement and some go home early so it is a constant round of welcomes and goodbyes. We often complain about staff turnover being an impediment back in the UK but in VSO it is at such a level that you have to reverse your thinking and see the turnover as an opportunity to work with someone with a new skill set. Interestingly the organisations we work in are less affected by all this coming and going as they usually have one volunteer for a two year stretch.
The weather has been getting hotter and we had to buy a fan to give us a little respite particularly at night but now the monsoon seems to have arrived(according to the papers). The last couple of days have been cloudy and rainy and I think we can expect more in the next weeks. At least it has taken the temperature down a bit.
Since I last wrote we have had the historic first meeting of the newly elected Constitutional Assembly and now live in a republic, the king is referred to as the ex -king by some and simply by his first name by others. He has been given notice to quit the palace and nobody seems to know where the crown and sceptre are. There continues to be much political wrangling about who will be President and where they will live. I read the papers on a daily basis but I am not sure that I am much wiser for that.
I go for lunch everyday with my colleagues to a tiny shack just near the office. It is always busy with office workers. Popular because of its freshly made food and prices. The menu is very limited, roti or paratha with a little bean curry and yoghurt (the alternative is chow mein but I have only seen one person have this in six months). However even here the global food price hike has hit and the price of the standard plate has gone up by 25% in the last week. Still very cheap at 25NRs (about 20 pence in sterling) but a 5 rupee hike will be very significant for the lowest paid Nepalis. This little eating place is also a great meeting place and I was honoured to meet the most famous and best sarangi (a small traditional string instrument) player in Nepal there only the other day. He sat and drank tea with us telling us, in Nepali, about how much in demand he is at the moment from the many recording studios in KTM. It was good to hear that this skilled and once itinerant and much discriminated against Dalit musician was at last having a comfortable life. The strain of his former life shows in his face however and he looked much older than his 63 years.
It is lychee season here in Nepal and delicious they are too. Sold in huge bunches, still on the stem and with leaves, they look and taste wonderful. Huge pink globes the size of plums which make the ones we buy at home look like an entirely different, and inferior, fruit. We have an office in the terai where the fruit is grown and everyone was very excited when the weekly mail arrived accompanied by a box of lychees. There was a huge plateful on each of our desks and more to take home.
Well, must go and eat some mangoes which are also in season.
Namaste
Julie
The weather has been getting hotter and we had to buy a fan to give us a little respite particularly at night but now the monsoon seems to have arrived(according to the papers). The last couple of days have been cloudy and rainy and I think we can expect more in the next weeks. At least it has taken the temperature down a bit.
Since I last wrote we have had the historic first meeting of the newly elected Constitutional Assembly and now live in a republic, the king is referred to as the ex -king by some and simply by his first name by others. He has been given notice to quit the palace and nobody seems to know where the crown and sceptre are. There continues to be much political wrangling about who will be President and where they will live. I read the papers on a daily basis but I am not sure that I am much wiser for that.
I go for lunch everyday with my colleagues to a tiny shack just near the office. It is always busy with office workers. Popular because of its freshly made food and prices. The menu is very limited, roti or paratha with a little bean curry and yoghurt (the alternative is chow mein but I have only seen one person have this in six months). However even here the global food price hike has hit and the price of the standard plate has gone up by 25% in the last week. Still very cheap at 25NRs (about 20 pence in sterling) but a 5 rupee hike will be very significant for the lowest paid Nepalis. This little eating place is also a great meeting place and I was honoured to meet the most famous and best sarangi (a small traditional string instrument) player in Nepal there only the other day. He sat and drank tea with us telling us, in Nepali, about how much in demand he is at the moment from the many recording studios in KTM. It was good to hear that this skilled and once itinerant and much discriminated against Dalit musician was at last having a comfortable life. The strain of his former life shows in his face however and he looked much older than his 63 years.
It is lychee season here in Nepal and delicious they are too. Sold in huge bunches, still on the stem and with leaves, they look and taste wonderful. Huge pink globes the size of plums which make the ones we buy at home look like an entirely different, and inferior, fruit. We have an office in the terai where the fruit is grown and everyone was very excited when the weekly mail arrived accompanied by a box of lychees. There was a huge plateful on each of our desks and more to take home.
Well, must go and eat some mangoes which are also in season.
Namaste
Julie
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Elections and being a tourist
A long gap since my last entry because so much has been happening. The elections here disrupted life a little as the office closed for a week and VSO held it’s annual volunteers conference over the election period. This was a good way of using the security need to have us all in KTM together given that the situation looked rather uncertain. Predictions of violence proved to be incorrect and although there were some infringements of polling protocol these were the exception rather than the rule.
The Maoists swept to a clear victory much to their own and everyone else’s surprise. The new parliament hasn’t met yet. The new parliament is so large that they have had to hire the International Conference Centr to hold the meetings. It remains to be seen what will happen but the country has clearly voted for change and there is a big burden of responsibility on the new government. I just heard the London mayoral results last night and feel that there could not be a bigger contrast between my home town and my adopted one in terms of political flavour at the moment. I am happy to be watching London at a distance for once.
The other disruption to life has been the arrival of our daughter Laura for a two week visit. Not only has it been lovely to see her but we have used her presence as an opportunity to do some tourist activities which we have really not done before. The highlight of the trip was leaving the Kathmandu Valley and going up towards Pokhara for 5 days. We went on the only cable car in Nepal, installed as a tourist development project but seems to be almost entirely used by Nepalis, which was also my first trip on a cable car at all. It was hair raising especially as the top turned out not to be the first hill you could see but one much higher and further away. The cable car also has a special car for goats ( charged at 135 RS one way) who were being taken up to the temple at the top for sacrifice, frighten the poor things and then kill them seems to be the idea! As people don’t waste the sacrificed goat but take it home to eat I was rather worried that we might have to share the return car with a decapitated goat.
We visited a beautiful hill town which is the best use of EU partnership money I have ever seen. The village had been twinned with villages in Greece and Italy to develop eco-tourism in all three and I only hope the others are as successful as the Nepali one. It was a great antidote to KTM with traffic free streets and a reduced number of barking dogs.
We then followed on with three days gentle trekking when we hoped we would get good views of the Himal to the north but unfortunately the horizon was cloudy for three days. We were rewarded with a glimpse of the mountains when we got up at five to see the sunrise on the penultimate day, I was very pleased that such an early start wasn’t wasted.
Of course being a tourist here is very cheap compared to London but doing tourist activities now made me realise just how much I have got used to living rather than touring here. In the main we live on our allowance. That means we shop and eat cheaply. The allowance certainly doesn’t run to the cost of being a tourist and I had to resist the temptation to complain loudly about prices when in tourist haunts. Still we had fun, used a bit of UK cash which is exactly what it was intended for and now that Laura has left we will back to our very cheap lunches and home cooked food.
Cooking without an oven somewhat limits your style and when I invited someone for tea and cake today I was forced to experiment with my miracle oven. This is not an oven at all. It looks like a casserole dish and it sits on top of the gas ring with a heavy heat diffuser underneath it. When you take off the lid it has a hole/funnel in the middle which circulates the hot air. It means anything you make comes out in a ring shape; this is fine for cakes but a bit weird for a lasagne or something. Anyway you will be pleased to know that I produced a pretty passable papaya cake and the recipe is available for a small fee (if I can remember it). Who says two gas rings are limiting!
Namaste
Julie
The Maoists swept to a clear victory much to their own and everyone else’s surprise. The new parliament hasn’t met yet. The new parliament is so large that they have had to hire the International Conference Centr to hold the meetings. It remains to be seen what will happen but the country has clearly voted for change and there is a big burden of responsibility on the new government. I just heard the London mayoral results last night and feel that there could not be a bigger contrast between my home town and my adopted one in terms of political flavour at the moment. I am happy to be watching London at a distance for once.
The other disruption to life has been the arrival of our daughter Laura for a two week visit. Not only has it been lovely to see her but we have used her presence as an opportunity to do some tourist activities which we have really not done before. The highlight of the trip was leaving the Kathmandu Valley and going up towards Pokhara for 5 days. We went on the only cable car in Nepal, installed as a tourist development project but seems to be almost entirely used by Nepalis, which was also my first trip on a cable car at all. It was hair raising especially as the top turned out not to be the first hill you could see but one much higher and further away. The cable car also has a special car for goats ( charged at 135 RS one way) who were being taken up to the temple at the top for sacrifice, frighten the poor things and then kill them seems to be the idea! As people don’t waste the sacrificed goat but take it home to eat I was rather worried that we might have to share the return car with a decapitated goat.
We visited a beautiful hill town which is the best use of EU partnership money I have ever seen. The village had been twinned with villages in Greece and Italy to develop eco-tourism in all three and I only hope the others are as successful as the Nepali one. It was a great antidote to KTM with traffic free streets and a reduced number of barking dogs.
We then followed on with three days gentle trekking when we hoped we would get good views of the Himal to the north but unfortunately the horizon was cloudy for three days. We were rewarded with a glimpse of the mountains when we got up at five to see the sunrise on the penultimate day, I was very pleased that such an early start wasn’t wasted.
Of course being a tourist here is very cheap compared to London but doing tourist activities now made me realise just how much I have got used to living rather than touring here. In the main we live on our allowance. That means we shop and eat cheaply. The allowance certainly doesn’t run to the cost of being a tourist and I had to resist the temptation to complain loudly about prices when in tourist haunts. Still we had fun, used a bit of UK cash which is exactly what it was intended for and now that Laura has left we will back to our very cheap lunches and home cooked food.
Cooking without an oven somewhat limits your style and when I invited someone for tea and cake today I was forced to experiment with my miracle oven. This is not an oven at all. It looks like a casserole dish and it sits on top of the gas ring with a heavy heat diffuser underneath it. When you take off the lid it has a hole/funnel in the middle which circulates the hot air. It means anything you make comes out in a ring shape; this is fine for cakes but a bit weird for a lasagne or something. Anyway you will be pleased to know that I produced a pretty passable papaya cake and the recipe is available for a small fee (if I can remember it). Who says two gas rings are limiting!
Namaste
Julie
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Onions, recycling and colours that bite
Nearly four months since we arrived and although I feel quite settled I am still on a daily voyage of discovery. This was of course one of the reasons for coming here but I still find it wonderful. Some of the discoveries are a little more surprising than others.
The roving fruit and vegetable sellers load up their bicycles and then wander the streets shouting their wares. It takes some time for an untrained ear to tune in to exactly what they are shouting but after a few weeks I was getting pretty good. One Saturday I heard someone shouting and recognised the word for onions so I grabbed my purse and rushed down to the gate. There was a man with a bicycle bearing a huge bag of onions “one kilo” ( ek kilo dinus na) I said in my very best Nepali. “No” he said very politely. Hmmm here’s a puzzle, I have the money, he has the onions what can the problem be. Sometimes with things like potatoes and onions they like you to buy larger quantities so I thought let’s go for 2 kilos, but no came the reply. Now I was completely stumped and stood there looking rather stupid. Luckily a neighbour came to the rescue and explained, without laughing but only just, that the onions were only available in exchange for old iron! Well I support the idea of recycling but this is a new spin on “any old iron”.
There are regular language difficulties usually approached with much good humour by Nepali’s but it often means you walk away thinking “ if at first you don’t succeed…” Most people are only too willing to help if you show any inclination to speak Nepali. My local shop keeper is giving me daily lessons in counting at which I am pretty hopeless, you have to learn every number between one and one hundred individually. He never sounds exasperated but occasionally points out that I have had a particular number before.
People roast corn over little open fires in the street and I hadn’t tried this but colleagues in the office bought and shared some in the afternoon the other day. This is much more floury and dry than the sweet corn we eat at home and of course you don’t eat it by sticking it between your teeth, you have to flick off the kernels in to your hand and then dip them in achar made of minced chillies. Suffice it to say I was hopeless at it but it made my snack last much longer!
The Nepalis I have met through work have been very friendly and welcoming but there isn’t much socialising outside work. In the first place they generally work six days a week so they only have one day with their families. As you can imagine this is particularly difficult for women with children or anyone with care responsibilities. In addition many people will have different lives to us in terms of their accommodation and amount of disposable income. Because of the later even going out for something to eat would be fraught with difficulties. This is a great pity as it means that you are kept at arms length from people’s lives. I suspect this might change a bit over time but there is in fact little socialising between Nepali colleagues outside work.
Since the last blog the load shedding got worse and then better ( by one hour a week) The petrol shortages got considerably worse and then better and there now seems to be a much more positive view that the elections will happen on April the 10th.
We had our first visitor in the house for 4 days last week which was great; having visitors definitely makes you feel that your house is home.
The weather is getting warmer and the colours that Nepali women wear look even better in the sun and when you can see them better because they are not wearing huge cardigans to keep warm. Both the colour and pattern combinations are so wonderful and they go way beyond anything we would dare to combine. I don’t think I could get away with it. We had an interesting discussion with a carpet expert who explained that the colours that Tibetan carpet weavers use have changed to appeal to European tastes. His take on it was that in our European light the traditional colours “bite you” a lovely description and one I will never forget.
Namaste
Julie
The roving fruit and vegetable sellers load up their bicycles and then wander the streets shouting their wares. It takes some time for an untrained ear to tune in to exactly what they are shouting but after a few weeks I was getting pretty good. One Saturday I heard someone shouting and recognised the word for onions so I grabbed my purse and rushed down to the gate. There was a man with a bicycle bearing a huge bag of onions “one kilo” ( ek kilo dinus na) I said in my very best Nepali. “No” he said very politely. Hmmm here’s a puzzle, I have the money, he has the onions what can the problem be. Sometimes with things like potatoes and onions they like you to buy larger quantities so I thought let’s go for 2 kilos, but no came the reply. Now I was completely stumped and stood there looking rather stupid. Luckily a neighbour came to the rescue and explained, without laughing but only just, that the onions were only available in exchange for old iron! Well I support the idea of recycling but this is a new spin on “any old iron”.
There are regular language difficulties usually approached with much good humour by Nepali’s but it often means you walk away thinking “ if at first you don’t succeed…” Most people are only too willing to help if you show any inclination to speak Nepali. My local shop keeper is giving me daily lessons in counting at which I am pretty hopeless, you have to learn every number between one and one hundred individually. He never sounds exasperated but occasionally points out that I have had a particular number before.
People roast corn over little open fires in the street and I hadn’t tried this but colleagues in the office bought and shared some in the afternoon the other day. This is much more floury and dry than the sweet corn we eat at home and of course you don’t eat it by sticking it between your teeth, you have to flick off the kernels in to your hand and then dip them in achar made of minced chillies. Suffice it to say I was hopeless at it but it made my snack last much longer!
The Nepalis I have met through work have been very friendly and welcoming but there isn’t much socialising outside work. In the first place they generally work six days a week so they only have one day with their families. As you can imagine this is particularly difficult for women with children or anyone with care responsibilities. In addition many people will have different lives to us in terms of their accommodation and amount of disposable income. Because of the later even going out for something to eat would be fraught with difficulties. This is a great pity as it means that you are kept at arms length from people’s lives. I suspect this might change a bit over time but there is in fact little socialising between Nepali colleagues outside work.
Since the last blog the load shedding got worse and then better ( by one hour a week) The petrol shortages got considerably worse and then better and there now seems to be a much more positive view that the elections will happen on April the 10th.
We had our first visitor in the house for 4 days last week which was great; having visitors definitely makes you feel that your house is home.
The weather is getting warmer and the colours that Nepali women wear look even better in the sun and when you can see them better because they are not wearing huge cardigans to keep warm. Both the colour and pattern combinations are so wonderful and they go way beyond anything we would dare to combine. I don’t think I could get away with it. We had an interesting discussion with a carpet expert who explained that the colours that Tibetan carpet weavers use have changed to appeal to European tastes. His take on it was that in our European light the traditional colours “bite you” a lovely description and one I will never forget.
Namaste
Julie
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Fuel
We have become avid listeners to the World Service, including the Nepali language service which is good for our language skills or so we delude ourselves. We hear, as a result, a remarkably different set of news reports to those on Radio 4. Even so some of the bigger international stories must have filtered through to you. We listened to two with particular interest as they had connections for us in Nepal.
The first was the shortage of electricity in Gaza. We were horrified that almost without notice people were without electricity. We expressed this view sitting in the dark and cold in our flat because we were in the middle of our three hour slot (of the six hours per day) that we didn't have any electricity. We are so much better off we said, because we know when the electricity is going off, and we know when it is coming back on again. In fact you can almost set your watch by it.
The second big story which caught our ear was the snow in China and their lack of electricity. Many people were without electricity for 8 days. Again we thought how well off we were with only 6 hours a day without. I know how cold you feel at the end of the 3 hour stint when there has been no heating. So many reasons to be cheerful.
In fact the shortage of electricity is not the only fuel shortage here. Cooking gas, kerosene, petrol and diesel all have to be imported from India. Continued unrest which disrupts the road routes and unpaid bills between Nepal and India all disrupt the availability. So people queue to get all of them. Our VSO friends have no hot water at the moment, it's heated by bottled gas and they can't get any. The reason we haven't gone for a kerosene heater is because you have to stand in unbelievably long queues when it is available. Not only that but people seem to know by osmosis when there is going to be some kerosene to queue for, I have yet to develop the instinct. And the petrol queues get so long that they cause unbelievable traffic jams and then everyone has to walk to work any way.
The fuel market is highly regulated by the government and so they get plenty of criticism for the situation. In spite of the shortages they decided to increase the price of all the fuels a couple of weeks ago. That was the last straw for many who are normally calm and accepting in the face of all the disruptions and inconvenience. So we were treated to bit of people power Nepali style and we had two days of road blocks and tyre burning which brought Kathmandu to a halt and was solved when the fuel prices were reduced again.
Our hot water is heated by the sun. A couple of very efficient panels on the roof provide as much as we need and it doesn’t need much sun to get really hot water. I feel very virtuous about showering in hot water heated only by the sun and what really makes it enjoyable is when the two days before have been cloudy resulting in cold showers.
If you consider food fuel then we do very well in that department. Lots of fresh fruit and vet and I have mastered a pretty good Nepali style dhal bhaat on the two gas rings. You can buy something called a miracle oven which does oven cooking on the top of the stove. Those volunteers who have tried it give it high recommendation and I think I might have to buy one so watch this space for more on the cooking front.
Namaste
Julie
The first was the shortage of electricity in Gaza. We were horrified that almost without notice people were without electricity. We expressed this view sitting in the dark and cold in our flat because we were in the middle of our three hour slot (of the six hours per day) that we didn't have any electricity. We are so much better off we said, because we know when the electricity is going off, and we know when it is coming back on again. In fact you can almost set your watch by it.
The second big story which caught our ear was the snow in China and their lack of electricity. Many people were without electricity for 8 days. Again we thought how well off we were with only 6 hours a day without. I know how cold you feel at the end of the 3 hour stint when there has been no heating. So many reasons to be cheerful.
In fact the shortage of electricity is not the only fuel shortage here. Cooking gas, kerosene, petrol and diesel all have to be imported from India. Continued unrest which disrupts the road routes and unpaid bills between Nepal and India all disrupt the availability. So people queue to get all of them. Our VSO friends have no hot water at the moment, it's heated by bottled gas and they can't get any. The reason we haven't gone for a kerosene heater is because you have to stand in unbelievably long queues when it is available. Not only that but people seem to know by osmosis when there is going to be some kerosene to queue for, I have yet to develop the instinct. And the petrol queues get so long that they cause unbelievable traffic jams and then everyone has to walk to work any way.
The fuel market is highly regulated by the government and so they get plenty of criticism for the situation. In spite of the shortages they decided to increase the price of all the fuels a couple of weeks ago. That was the last straw for many who are normally calm and accepting in the face of all the disruptions and inconvenience. So we were treated to bit of people power Nepali style and we had two days of road blocks and tyre burning which brought Kathmandu to a halt and was solved when the fuel prices were reduced again.
Our hot water is heated by the sun. A couple of very efficient panels on the roof provide as much as we need and it doesn’t need much sun to get really hot water. I feel very virtuous about showering in hot water heated only by the sun and what really makes it enjoyable is when the two days before have been cloudy resulting in cold showers.
If you consider food fuel then we do very well in that department. Lots of fresh fruit and vet and I have mastered a pretty good Nepali style dhal bhaat on the two gas rings. You can buy something called a miracle oven which does oven cooking on the top of the stove. Those volunteers who have tried it give it high recommendation and I think I might have to buy one so watch this space for more on the cooking front.
Namaste
Julie
Monday, January 21, 2008
After the village and starting work
I cannot believe that it is almost two weeks since the end of our village stay. It was a great and humbling experience. I became a member of a new family who were so welcoming. My family of five were part of a large extended family in the village consisting of 5 brothers plus their families. As the honoured guest I was given the best room in the house , on the middle floor, up what to us would be ladders but to them are easy staircases. I caused much amusement the first day going down the ladder backwards!! I quickly changed to forwards in order to stop the giggling and turn myself into a real Nepali.
The house was three storey with mud floors throughout, cooking was done over an open fire on the top floor and once I had got over my fear that the house would burn down I found that this was the place to sit in the evening when the cooking was going on. It was warm and you got to learn how to cook dhaal bhaat.
The parents in my family did not speak any English but the children spoke a little so we managed to communicate with a wonderful mix of Nepali and English. I think we all gained from this.
We had a wonderful day getting dirty and making new friends when we spent the day with the local youth group cleaning out the water tanks that served the village. By the time we had walked back to the village everyone knew who had done what and were very appreciative.
The village was on the edge of the Kathmandu valley close to Dhulikiel, Panauti and Banepa. Very rural and with fabulous views of the Himal on every day but one.
Leaving on the last morning was very emotional. It really did feel like leaving good friends. Anil and I had stayed in separate families but they both lay claim to us so my goodbyes began at 8.30 in the morning with me having tea at Anil's home and then being given tika and garlanded. By the time we left at 11.30 I had several tika marks on my forehead ,was beginning to drown in garlands and had bracelets up to my elbows. A wonderful time, the Nepali's opened their homes and shared their culture in a way I will never forget.
We then had the roller coaster of saying goodbye to our Nepali teachers who have guided us so well through the first two months in Nepal. I only wish that their skill and enthusiasm were matched by my ability to speak Nepali.
As if this wasn't enough we were then plunged straight in to our placements. I am now in my second week and I am having to remember all I have been taught about taking things slowly. I am based in a very small NGO which is focused on campaigning for the rights of Dalit people.
The office pace is definitely different and at the moment it is badly affected by the load shedding schedule, I arrived at the office on Monday morning all ready to get going to discover we would not have any electricity until 12 o'clock. Just as in the village the thing that is the most striking is how ready people are to share their stories with you. To be patient when you are struggling to understand not just because of the language but also because there is so much you don't know about the culture and how it affects peoples daily lives especially if you are from a group that has suffered years of discrimination like the Dalits.
I have settled happily in to riding the gold bus to work, crowded, hair raisingly driven but only 9 rupees for a door to door journey and I have yet to hear anyone complaining. Riding backwards sitting on the gear box wasn't my ideal way to start the day but I've lived to tell the tale so the gold bus could be replacing the 38 in my affections.
Namaste
Julie
The house was three storey with mud floors throughout, cooking was done over an open fire on the top floor and once I had got over my fear that the house would burn down I found that this was the place to sit in the evening when the cooking was going on. It was warm and you got to learn how to cook dhaal bhaat.
The parents in my family did not speak any English but the children spoke a little so we managed to communicate with a wonderful mix of Nepali and English. I think we all gained from this.
We had a wonderful day getting dirty and making new friends when we spent the day with the local youth group cleaning out the water tanks that served the village. By the time we had walked back to the village everyone knew who had done what and were very appreciative.
The village was on the edge of the Kathmandu valley close to Dhulikiel, Panauti and Banepa. Very rural and with fabulous views of the Himal on every day but one.
Leaving on the last morning was very emotional. It really did feel like leaving good friends. Anil and I had stayed in separate families but they both lay claim to us so my goodbyes began at 8.30 in the morning with me having tea at Anil's home and then being given tika and garlanded. By the time we left at 11.30 I had several tika marks on my forehead ,was beginning to drown in garlands and had bracelets up to my elbows. A wonderful time, the Nepali's opened their homes and shared their culture in a way I will never forget.
We then had the roller coaster of saying goodbye to our Nepali teachers who have guided us so well through the first two months in Nepal. I only wish that their skill and enthusiasm were matched by my ability to speak Nepali.
As if this wasn't enough we were then plunged straight in to our placements. I am now in my second week and I am having to remember all I have been taught about taking things slowly. I am based in a very small NGO which is focused on campaigning for the rights of Dalit people.
The office pace is definitely different and at the moment it is badly affected by the load shedding schedule, I arrived at the office on Monday morning all ready to get going to discover we would not have any electricity until 12 o'clock. Just as in the village the thing that is the most striking is how ready people are to share their stories with you. To be patient when you are struggling to understand not just because of the language but also because there is so much you don't know about the culture and how it affects peoples daily lives especially if you are from a group that has suffered years of discrimination like the Dalits.
I have settled happily in to riding the gold bus to work, crowded, hair raisingly driven but only 9 rupees for a door to door journey and I have yet to hear anyone complaining. Riding backwards sitting on the gear box wasn't my ideal way to start the day but I've lived to tell the tale so the gold bus could be replacing the 38 in my affections.
Namaste
Julie
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