Field Visit

I had seen tough times in Azerbaijan, especially in some of the IDP camps, but the way of life I saw during my first field visit is in a whole other category of poor, and to think that this is the way the majority of the world lives is truly something to take into account. So I spent 9 days in Makwanpur district which is in the south, near the Indian border and is a hill region. It’s less than a 100 kilometers from Kathmandu, but the road is a non-paved mountain path and the trip took almost 5 hours. Once there I visited 5 school and interviewed around 30 people including parents, teachers, and students. Some of the interviews took place in people’s houses, which gave me the opportunity to see first hand the dwelling and livelihood of the people. From wooden shacks, to mud houses, each having one room for 5+ people was the norm in all communities that I visited. In the villages that were off the main road, the schools were some of the only brick buildings I saw and women were the majority of those working in the fields, carrying large loads of wood on their head, and collecting water at the wells. From the interviews I did, I learned that a lot of girls repeat classes numerous times, due to the fact hey have to do household work before and after school and go in for wage labor on their days off, which would give them from 60-100 RPS (60-70 cents) per day of work. Having all this in mind, no wonder they have no time for schoolwork, and with almost all of them having illiterate parents, and no jobs other than occasional farm work available in their communities, it is easy to understand why education doesn’t always rank high as a priority. Furthermore, Makwanpur is a region heavily hit by traffickers ‘recruiting’ for the circus in India. I interviewed one girl who was a tight rope walker for 6 years since she was 9. Parents get tricked and then compensated to let their daughters go. Some of the girls get released when they grow up and become too heavy, or if they get HIV, so currently there is a high return rate for girls with girls who got either too old or too sick to work. Evidently local NGOs have been active and the trafficking cases are decreasing, but in the communities I visited the majority agreed that trafficking is a fact of life and girls are still leaving to go to India and the gulf countries for ‘work.’

On a more positive note, Makwanpur is a beautiful district, with rolling green hills and rivers running throughout it. There we stayed and ate at a guesthouse, which was quite comfortable, and I had a chance to get to know my assistant/translator, who also became a good friend of mine in the process. Each morning we would have breakfast/lunch at 9 and then return from work around 5 exhausted and sweaty. Traditional Nepali cuisine serves one meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and its called daal bhat tarkari, meaning lentil soup, rice, and curried vegetables, and even though delicious, eating it twice a day for over a week was intense. The highlight of the trip was the fan clubs I gathered at each school I visited. Kids would stare at me, and tell me how white, tall, and blond I am, and would literally run in front of me and start walking backwards in order to get a better view. On other occasions, I would be interviewing someone in a room with an open window, and every time there would be kids on top of kids, on top of kids lined at the windows as if though they were watching a theater play. At times I felt that I must have two heads and three arms, and on better days like a Bollywood star. I don’t know how famous people do it, since its truly exhausting being started at and trying to function at the same time. Either way I came back to Kathmandu this week and unknowingly had brought some friends with me in my stomach from the dirty water I drank, so I had three miserable days of pain and fever. I went to the doctor finally and was told that my typhus vaccine is only 60% active, and there is a chance I may still have it. I find out for sure on Monday, but I doubt its that, since the antibiotics I was put on made me feel better in less than 5 hours. I also moved into my new apartment with my new roommate Bea, who is from Spain. Through her, and my other friend Roger, I am starting to have somewhat of a social life. Its weird hanging out with ex-pats, and I still have my old defense from Azerbaijan, where I try not to be too culturally inappropriate even when I am with westerners only. Our apartment is big and nice, with the only problem being that we barely have any furniture and I still have to shower out of a bucket because the electricity is too weak for the water heater to work. So that’s it for now! Namaste!

Interesting facts I learned at an ex-pat party:

• Number one cause for death among women in Nepal is now suicide, surpassing maternal health mortality
• Nepal is ranked 4^th in the world in terms of its capacity to produce hydro electric power, yet has 12-14 hour power cuts in the capital every day
• Nepal is the 14^th poorest country in the world

(Source: American dude, working in public health in Kathmandu)