Homeward Bound

Today (yesterday now?) was my last day in Nepal.  I am writing this now from the Singapore airport.  I realize that I haven’t been very good about updating, especially on things like Mustang and Langtang where I promised more info would come…..and it never did.  I just spent three absolutely crazy days in Varanasi (Benares, India) and probably won’t mention it at all.  Just call me.  I know that I’ve pretty much failed to give a holistic picture the last four months of my life, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to reminisce.  I’m still digesting things and will be for a long time, I think.  It may help if you, yes, you! wanted to call and chat.

Anyway, I guess my last day is pretty representative of Kathmandu so I might as well give you all that at least.

I spent the night in a Guest house in Kathmandu with my friend Will, one of the two other students from my program still in Nepal (official school ended over a week ago and the others flew home then).  The assortment of busses and trains you have to take to get from Benares to Kathmandu had been hectic and tardy so I had only made it back to the city that morning.  I spent the day saying goodbyes and running errands so I hadn’t really finished packing, so I woke up early and walked over to a friend’s house where I had stored most of my stuff while I was in India.

Load shedding in Kathmandu has begun in earnest so there was no power.  Power cuts are up to about eight hours a day but Rinzi is lucky and has a generator in the back.  Unfortunately, a member of the Nepali Congress (a minority political party) had been stabbed to death in a prison fight and the Moaist government was refusing to acknowledge him as a Martyr.  In retaliation the NC called a Bandh, or nationwide strike, in which services of all kinds are shut down.  Roadblocks are set up by NC sympathizers, schools are closed, and any motorists on the road are attacked.  Massive strikes were a tactic used heavily by the Maoists before they gained power and, though the last few months had been thankfully pretty quiet, it’s actually quite common.  The city gets pretty much shut down, which is cool because everyone is out walking everywhere, but pretty lame when you have to go to the airport.  The Bandh had been going for several days and petrol stations had been shut down, so it also meant there was no fuel for the generator and thus, despite backups, there was no power.  This is very, very Nepali.

I planned to meet Rhys at Rinzi’s at 8am so tbat we could start walking but he was running on Nepali time and was close to 45 minutes late.  It didn’t turn out to be a big deal and I enjoyed just sitting around with Rinzi who shared half of his breakfast with m and made a thermos of milk tea which even he admitted had too much sugar in it.  Too-sweet milk tea and generosity are Nepali staples.  When Rhys did arrive we said our final goodbyes and started walking.  It was awful.  We had so much stuff and my duffle was super awkward to carry around.  But no problem.  We found Dilli Barja (approximate spelling), a porter, two minutes into the walk.  He wanted $6 to carry my unweildly 27kg bag the hour to the airport.  Like the stingy guys we’ve become, Rhys and I haggled him down to $3 and continued on what had become a much more pleasant walk.  We even ran into a Tibetan looking man in the last few Kilometers before the airport and started talking to him in Tibetan.  I think he thought it was pretty funny because he offered to wheel Rhys’s big suitcase the rest of the way.  Who needs a taxi to live the high life anyway?

I think walking out of Kathmandu ended up being a good thing: kind of prolonged the goodbye, but I was still quite sad to leave, and landing in Singapore didn’t exactly soften the blow.  It’s hard to imagine a more different place, really.  OH MY GOD CUSTOMER SERVICE HERE IS UNBELIEVABLE.  People talk about culture shock, as Rhys said, ‘more like culture orgasm.’

We landed around 9:00 in the evening but rather than sleep we threw our bags in a locker and were on a metro headed into city center by 9:40.  Within three minutes of exiting the station we saw a lamborgini tear around a corner and jet off into the darkness.   Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I’m not in the 13^th poorest country in the world anymore.

Still, some things are the same everywhere.  We were starving so we headed to the riverside and looked at the menu of the first restaurant we came to.  It was real pricey but the hostess assured us that everything on the river was about that expensive and convinced us to stay with a couple of free beers.  She was lying.  Good old scammers.  You’d thing I would have learned.  We ended up dropping an outrageous amount of money but I got to eat 26 baby squid in honey sauce, half a barbeque stingray, and a clam in a bamboo shoot.

Feeling poor, but still in a celebratory mood we bought the cheapest bottle of champaign available at a minimart, walked to the pier, and spent our last night in Asia just sitting around watching giant cargo ships being unloaded by equally giant crane/mover things.

Oh, and then we tried to take the metro back but turns it’s closed at 2:30am!  Who knew?  We got sundaes at Mcdonalds and played hackey sack outside until rhys fell asleep using the curb as a pillow.  I got a coffee and read the newspaper until the metro opened back up at 6 and we could go back to the airport.

Well, now you’re all up to date and my plane is boarding.  No picture because I’m afraid it won’t load in time, but know that I’m looking forward to getting back and seeing all of you so so much.  LAX (and some sleep) here we come.

David

Langtang and Gosainkund

About a week ago I was starting to feel pretty stifled in Kathmandu so I sort of skipped out on school responsibilities and decided to go to Langtang National Park for a few days.  It’s about a seven hour bus ride north of Kathmandu.  I bought a bus ticket on the 24^th, left the morning of the 25^th, just got back a few hours ago, and wow, was it worthwhile.

I have tons to say but my sleep schedule is fairly messed up and I’m tired, so for now I’ll just say that Gosaindakund lake might be the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.  Then again, I’m a sucker for mountain lakes.   Below is a picture of the beginning of the first of two sunsets I saw.  The rocks poking through the clouds in the distance are probably ~13,000 ft peaks.  At over 14,300 ft, it felt pretty cool to watch the sun sink into the clouds long before it fell off the horizon.

Thanksgiving

It is now the evening of the 24th in Kathmandu and my Thanksgiving festivities have died down.  I spent the evening celebrating with a host of Nepalis, a few Americans, an Irish woman, a French guy, and a Kiwi.  It was fantastic.  The stuffing was "Lovely stuff" and I'd be willing to wager Salim makes a better pumpkin pie than just about any pilgrim.

At one point a Coloradan woman sort of wandered into our celebration who once lived on 13th and St. Paul (for those of you who aren't lucky enough to live in Denver, that's just three blocks from where I live).  She's been in Kathmandu for five years now, is engaged to a Nepali man, and has no plans to return to the states though, so the odds I see her around Congress Park neighborhood are pretty low.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera.  My friend Ramesh primised to send me some photos but until those come through all I have is this photo of my lunch from Monday.  Three steak enchiladas, brown rice, and a green salad with home made dressing.  It was the first salad and mexican food I've had in months and I thought I was in heaven.  Mike, (the place is called Mike's Breakfast) who owns the restuarant, also has some kind of connection with Northfield.  He wasn't around that day but when I go back I'm going to try to track him down to chat.

Families

I moved out of my homestay on Boudha just about two weeks ago.  Today was the first day I've been back when either of the kids were around and it was pretty fantastic.  Chonjup was super excited to see me and had about the biggest grin I've ever seen on a four year old.  After a couple of minutes I started to wonder whether he was really happy to see me, or just excited to be able to ride on a tall person's shoulders.  Still, this afternoon was about the longest time I can remember him going without throwing some kind of fit so I think I should be happy with whatever I can get.

I've pretty much settled into my new flat across town now.  At first, my roommate and I were fairly unhappy with the place but less because it wasn't nice than because it wasn't what we expected.  After three weeks of living in tents and another 5 with families and small children we were excited to have our own place but that isn't exactly where we ended up.  It's not quite the same close-quarters experience but the Nepali family who lives below me has now adopted me into their family.  Once again I have a younger brother nagging on me a bit and a mother who cooks me meals when she things I should eat and tells me to put on more clothing when she thinks it's cold outside.  They held puja today and I missed most of it because I was with my Tibetan family.  I think Gita (the mother of the Nepali family) was pretty peeved that I wasn't there but it didn't stop her from heaping leftovers on my plate when I did get home.  She said that she told me on Thursday that they were having a puja today and didn't seem to understand why that I didn't interpret that as "We are having a puja on Thursday, you are a member of the family and are expected to be there."  Ah well, what to do?  Aiden (my roommate) has left town for a few weeks so it's nice to have the company I guess.

Below are a few photos of my Tibetan home-stay family from the day I moved out.  The last one is of Chonjup laughing after he farted in the altar room (which doubled as my bedroom).  Choenyi actually took the second photo.  Not bad for a four year old I think.

Fun Around the Valley

A few weeks ago I joined a group of guys who go on mountain bike rides on Saturdays.  We meet up in the morning, bike out of the city, and dont look back for the next eight or so hours.  Whoever comes up with the day's route will plan a few stops.  We'll stop for tea and lunch in villages along the way.  This week we took a break at the top of a pretty brutal climb and wandered around a historic temple complex.  We also got lunch in the children's home in which Suraj grew up and in which Daan now volunteers and lives .  Suraj's sister, who still lives there, cooked up some of the best dahl baat I've had in Nepal. 

Outside of temple complexes and monastaries there is almost no open space in Kathmandu and it can get pretty suffocating so these trips always feel really refreshing.

Picture1: (left to Right) Dawa, Suraj, and Daan in the temple complex.
2: We ran into some children on the trail who saw our cameras, got excited, and asked to have their pictures taken.  They were from the same ethnic minority as Suraj so he got a kick out of chatting with them and ended up taking quite a few pictures.
3:  Fording a river (makes us look a bit more hardcore than we really are)
4: Suraj messing around
5: Just something on the side of the road I thought was cool.

Also, sorry for the image quality on most of these.  I haven't gotten very far in my episodic account of Mustang but in Lo-Manthang my $70 camera broke so I've been using another student's even cheaper back up.

Tensions

Yesterday was a pretty rough day around Boudha.  Much of the Tibetan community around Nepal, including much of my Ama-la’s family, has descended on Kathmandu following the rash of self-immolations by monks and nuns in Tibet.  The regional Tibetan Youth Congress organized a meeting and mass prayer session which began three days ago.  A twelve hour hunger strike was planned for the first day and participants were writing blood letters addressed to members of the upcoming G20 summit.  Unfortunately both ‘anti-China activities’ and any congregation of more than four Tibetans is illegal in Nepal so clashes with the police were inevitable.

 The first day close to 60 Tibetans were detained in the morning and released in the evening but things escalated on day 2 as a woman leaving the demonstration poured kerosene on herself and tried to immolate.  She was stopped, as the image below shows, by people around her before disappearing into the crowd.  My ama-la’s brother, who has been sleeping in our apartment, was one of those arrested during the second day.  He was released in the evening but too late to come home to sleep, and so we only saw him the following morning.

Photo credit: Someone who is not me

The Family

I’ve been really busy running all over town looking for an apartment to Rent with my friend Aiden for the independent study period.  It’s exciting and kind of fun despite the work, but it made me realize that I’ve never posted about my wonderful host family with whom I’ve been living.   Below are a couple of photos I snapped at breakfast this morning.  The first is of my Amala, Yangzom, watching as my four year old sister, Tenzin Choenyi, spells and shouts the names of more English vegetables than I know (do you know what a capsicum is?).

                The picture below it is of my 4 year old brother, Tenzin Chonjup.  Choenyi is unbelievably smart and Chonjup is equally lazy.  Though they’re twins Choenyi is already a grade ahead; it’s pretty hilarious to hear my amala joke about it.  Last night Choenyi grabbed a ruler and sat Chonjup in a chair in the center of the room and demanded he sing the alphabet.  Whenever he would mess up, and he would mess up, she would force him to put out his hand and rap him on the knuckles.  He responded by asking, in English (I think it’s the only English phrase he knows), “Miss, may I go the bathroom?”  Then walking over to Choenyi and pretending to pee on her.