17/5/14
It has been a very, very slow couple of weeks. It’s very hot, which does not motivate me to
get out-and-about. Also, my counterpart
(who feels like the only person willing and capable of helping me with
projects) has been in Kathmandu for the last month! Since I last wrote, I went to one meeting
with our American government counterpart agency: KISAN. Because it is so hard for me to get anywhere
from my site, I could only stay for ¼ of the meeting, but, as with so many of
these meetings, I felt that it did not really benefit from my attendance. It’s so hard for us to understand the
technical language that they discuss, and when we do understand, the
information is already stuff that we know, or else stuff not important for us
to know. But, I guess that it’s good to
get out of the house, right?
Last Friday I, with the help of the brilliant and lovely
Nikea and Bora built an improved cook stove for my family. It was long, hot, hard work, but I think that
it came out, all right. We can use it,
in a couple of days, so I’ll let you know!
I’m feeling very frustrated about the ICS thing. PC really wants us to push it, but people in
my area just ARE NOT INTERESTED. I
bullied three other people to let me make them in their houses, but, even after
discussing the benefits and showing the women in my farmer’s group my family’s
ICS, they were all avoiding eye contact with me, so I wouldn’t ask them if they
wanted one, gahhh!
This week, with the exception of two days, was dreadfully
boring. I try to maintain a routine, but
usually this just involves me waking up at 5:15 (via Danny’s licks and nips)
and reading all day. Thursday Caritas,
an international NGO came by. I am
always excited when new NGOs stumble upon my village. However, this particular meeting was a
complete waste of my time. Caritas just
did an audit of the Baibang farmers group’s books. While this is important, it really isn’t
something that everyone needed to attend.
So often, with big, international NGOs, they come into communities, fill
out a bunch of paperwork, write down statistics and then leave-where are the
outcomes from that? There is so little
engagement of and involvement with the people. I am not saying that PC, or myself, are
perfect-far from it, but this wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of development
seems completely ineffectual. But what
do I know…
After the meeting, my Ama took me down to the river, to
learn to carry things on my head. We
started with rocks (I guess if I can carry that, I can carry anything…). Man, was it difficult! I carried about seven pounds of rocks for
about twenty minutes. I had to use my
arm to steady it, but I think that’s ok, as my Ama was doing the same. (I’ll take a picture the next time, so you
can see the pain in my eyes). After
that, I taught a short English lesson to some kids from the village. Their parents scammed me into it, but it
wasn’t terrible.
Yesterday was rough.
I had to go to our district capital to do some shopping for my birthday
party, and then back to Tulsipur to have a meeting with my community
counterpart. I left the house at 7am to
walk the hour to the intersection where I can catch a jeep into town. The walk wasn’t bad, but I had to wait for
over an hour at the intersection for someone to pick me up. Nearly ten jeeps passed without stopping, all
crammed full of sweaty, pained people.
Trying to get around in Nepal is one of the most difficult things about
this country. Unless you hire a private
vehicle, every option is cramped, slow and dangerous. I finally got picked up, and had one of the
most uncomfortable rides of my nearly nine months in Nepal. I have a huge bruise on my back and butt from
the metal seat. After a two and a half
hour ride, on two buses, I arrived in Ghorahai, our district capital-two hours
late. I had less than two hours to rush
around to get what I needed, and then I had to jump back on a bus for the hour
ride back to Tulsipur, for my meeting.
On the bus, there was a woman who obviously had mental health
issues. She had on filthy clothes; wet
from urine, and closely shorn hair-she couldn’t walk by herself. Seeing people like that in Nepal makes me sad
to think about how difficult their lives must be. In a country that can barely manage to have
passable roads and half days of electricity, what must the resources be for
people with mental illness?
I had a very quick meeting with my counterpart and just
barely made the bus back to my village.
After a very hot, cramped ride back, I thought that I was home-free-free
to rest for the rest of the evening. No
such luck. As I entered my courtyard, 50
children sat waiting for the day’s lesson (a lesson that I did not know was
going to happen). I could have killed my
Buba. He must have told all the children
to come back, that day. I had only told
the parents that I would teach once a week.
I was so tired. I went up to my
room, cried for 30 seconds and tried to figure out what to do. I, of course, did not have another lesson
planned. Nepalis think that since we
SPEAK English, we can just pull lessons out of our asses, but that is NOT THE
CASE. I decided to repeat the body part
lesson from the day before, as there were nearly 40 new students. Before the class started, I made it clear
that, from then on, I would only teach on Wednesdays. Again, my Buba took it upon himself to ask
the class if they wanted me to teach on Wednesdays, or everyday, to which they
replied “everyday!”-I could have killed him!
It went fine, I could only last about twenty minutes. I ended by teaching them “Heads, Shoulders,
Knees and Toes,” which was pretty funny.
Today is Saturday, the day of chores. I am also preparing for the arrival of the
other Dang-ers, tomorrow, for two days of Birthday festivities. We will have American food, watch movies,
play games and swim in the river-I even have balloons!
After my Birthday, I’ll have four days to get ready for our
Project Design and Management Conference, followed by a trip to Thailand, via
Kathmandu-for my wisdom teeth removal.
So, while what lies ahead may not be the most fun, at least the monotony
is over, for the next month.
As soon as I have reliable Internet, I’ll upload the
butt-load of photos that I have.
Missing you all, and thinking of you always,
XOXO
Zoop
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