Assorted Notes on the New Life

I now have a bicycle, which means a lot more freedom and a very much expanded range of places I can go. I just got it within the week, but already it has allowed me to have 2 of the best experiences yet. It took me to Sanepa, where Rashmi (who taught me Nepali in Calgary and is very likely the most generous person I've ever met) grew up and her parents still live. I went on Wednesday, which was Father's Day and a school holiday, with fruit and baked goods. As the newly adopted 5th daughter in the family, I was very happily welcomed. I had a great visit with them and have possibly never been more stimulated than I was by the 2 hr conversation with Mr.Dhaubhadel after Mrs.Dhaubhadel had left for work.

My bike also took me to Kalimati on Friday, another school holiday known officially as Dar Khaane Din, but essentially a day dedicated to eating lots and lots before the next day of fasting for Teej. One of my fellow teachers had invited me to her house to celebrate. It was fantastic to talk to her and her 3 daughters, one of whom wants to be a doctor, one an engineer, and the other who cannot walk is confined to one room, sitting in one spot in front of the tv all day. Her mother had been living in a small village where there were no doctors and there had been complications at birth with 4 days and 4 nights of labour. In Canada, with our many facilities and care for the disabled, she could easily be a functioning member of society, but here in Nepal there is nothing for her, so she can't go to school or really even leave the house. Needless to say, she gets excited when visitors come.

I don't plan on riding much in Kathmandu itself, for hopefully obvious reasons given previous descriptions of the traffic here. But a bike shop can only be found in the very centre of Kathmandu and since nobody here owns big vehicles, there seemed to be only one way out. Actually, I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it, which I'm sure sounds like cause for concern for those family members who already think I may have been born without appropriate safety sensors, but I think I understand how it works. I was happy to embrace the chaos, as a good friend would say, and felt pretty comfortable working my way between all the cars, pedestrians, motorcycles, cows, dogs and potholes. And as an additional bonus, I'm sure when I return to my commute to work back in Calgary, it will feel as though I have all the space in the world with cars leaving wide (in comparison) gaps between us as they pass.

The showers here are very cold. At first I tried to pretend this was refreshing, but it's hard to stay convinced of that for long. Especially on the chilly, rainy days, and I'm sure this will become downright impossible once it's winter. Maybe "invigorating" is the word I should be aiming for. But there's also hardly any water pressure, so it's about as comfortable as having a handful of ice cubes dripped over your head for an extended period of time.

Sometimes there is electricity here and sometimes there isn't. People talk about it much like we talk about the weather at home. "Batti aeyo", "batti gayo" (light came, light went). Load shedding is the term they use for it. Because there isn't enough power for everyone living in the valley, it is shut off for a couple hours at a time each day, but I've been warned it will get worse in winter. When these couple hours will be varies, but most often manages to cover from about 6:30 to 8:30 or in other words, from the time it gets dark and you'd start needing lights on in the house until after all the cooking and eating is done and people here start to settle towards bed. I think it also shuts off for a couple hours during the day, but being in a school with no lights I've never noticed.

So, nothing that requires electricity is ever used here. It's not reliable enough. It's unfortunate because Nepal itself has a huge amount of hydroelectric potential. Enough to meet all its own needs easily and to cover much of China and India as well. But no one will build new projects because there is no functional government to approve / develop major projects, it would be very capital intensive, and there is always the risk of the Maoists causing delays and disruptions as a political ploy. It's hard to imagine serious development here without a steady electricity supply to begin with.

This is sort of the general feeling I am getting about the country as a whole. A great deal of potential trapped behind a tangled mess of political, cultural and economic barriers. The spirit and desire for change is here amongst the people, but there is still much to be worked out.