Rex has been working really hard to get this video uploaded, so I wanted to be sure to share it. It is a quick photo summary of our first months in Nepal that he created for our final night of training (before all our new and dear friends headed off to other parts of Nepal). It is about 20 minutes long so settle in for some great pictures taken by all the members of VSO Nepal’s November 2008 Volunteers.
Enjoy!
The Beginning of a Life Inspired by Nepal from Rex Turgano on Vimeo.
Again a moment of gratitude for Friday! This weekend we are moving into our new apartment and eagerly anticipating the first night in our new place…internet has already been installed and mattress and bed will be waiting when we arrive…what more does one need!
One of the elements of Kathmandu scenery that has infused my life, to the point of feeling normal, is the military and police presence in the city. There are a number of different police forces present but the most common is the Nepal Police Force dressed in blue camoflauge fatigues.
They are everywhere – in front of very embassy; surrounding every possible bank, foreign agency, or large gathering area; on street corners; standing at above ground look-out points; and peering over and through the many walls that enclose much of the city. Sometimes they can be seen riding on horseback in large rows or once I even saw them in a horse-drawn carriage. The really unnerving part is that most of them are equipped with very large rifles, machine guns, and other artillery. They guard every inch of protectable space in the city with serious weapons.
I walked past one such command post outside of the Police Hedquaters the other day and with the narrow space left on the sidewalk (much of it being consumed by the small square command box the officers were using as their post) I literally brushed my shoulder on the muzzle of the rifle…a little too close for my comfort.
Additionally, there are tourist police walking the busy Thamel area to ensure that tourist are not being hassled. They wear navy blue uniforms with smart little burgundy berets and are overzealous in their efforts to keep tourists from being bothered. A mother and her 3 children were asking for money outside of the bank machine (good choice of location I think!) and I was happily to making small conversation with the children in Nepali. But as soon as the little girl saw the tourist police approaching she quickly withdrew to the arms of her mother who whispered for them all to quickly come back…it was clear that they had already learned, by the ages of 2, 3 or 4, that the navy blue suite meant business.
Finally, my morning commute would not be complete without the active and rigorous exercise routines of the Nepali military. They run through the city in the very early morning in packs of about 50-60, their army uniforms and and stiff black boots moving in unison. I see about 20 such groups in the short 40 minute bus ride to work…meaning I must see at least 1000 of the dedicated men (and very very seldomly women) out for a run on Kathmandu’s busy streets.
So, there is a lot of protection here in Kathmandu and yet it still makes me a wee bit nervous to have a city full of rifle bearing police around every corner…somehow the potential for an accident just seems too possible.
One of the significant roles I will play here in Nepal is supporting a coalition of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and INGOs (international non-governmental organizations) in coordinating their advocacy work. So, the result has been an endless slog through oodles and oodles of donor agency reports, position papers, data summaries and government documents on education in Nepal.
Now, they all contain exceptionally important information that is central to any advocacy effort that is to be made. However, my complaint lies in the readability of the documents – it seems as though the target outcome for the reader is blurred vision and loss of purpose…
BUT, there is so much potential…so I did some research and have come up with this great great free downloadable booklet on information design by a clever group at Tactical Technology Collective…highly recommended to anyone who is interested in ways to make information more appealing, particulary to audiences who may not be familiar with the details, when concepts are too complex to be explained in words, or to increase the accessibility of your information.
A new way to approach to advocacy…I hope so…because what we currently doing is just not working.
Fridays seem like good days for reflection. They are filled with the potential of the upcoming weekend, informed by a week of learning, and harbour just the slightest innate wildness that I think make them more exciting than other days of the week. No, Fridays are not ordinary, plain or bland…and they deserve our attention. To honour Fridays, I would like to now begin my regular and weekly installment of gratitude…this week, things I am grateful for include:
In efforts to help a smidgen of news to trickle through from Nepal I will be starting a bi-monthly post highlighting some of what is making news in Nepal. I am guessing guess that your media coverage over the past month has mostly Obamania, the economic crisis, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict…am I correct? Making headlines in Nepal right now is:
And that is what is making headlines today in Nepal.
Today, in light of it being a Friday and the weekend nearly arrived, I felt the need to shake my fears and frustrations from my head with the ever sobering and inspiring tonic of gratitude. Remind myself of the wonderful little things that make my days bright and worthwhile…
Up to this point, I have not spent much time commenting on the political situation in Nepal. My first hesitation is that I am hardly a reliable source of information about the political situation – I have only been here 2 months and most of that time we have spent under the kind and watchful eye of VSO or our dedicated language teachers at CLP. What could I possibly know?
And, what I do observe and hear through both Nepalis and foreigners is so mixed and fraught with opinion that it is often difficult to know what to believe, let alone make some sense of it for myself.
But, with those hesitations clearly stated at the outset (I am certainly not an expert and everything I say is filtered through not only my lens but often the lens of a dozen other people too, thus losing it’s initial meaning) I will toss out some careful observations to shed some light on what is happening politically here.
First, the newly elected government, a coalition of many different parties, is under huge pressure to re-write a new constitution quickly. To this end, it is natural that many different groups are keen to ensure that their needs and wants are reflected in this important document. With a staggeringly large number of ethnic groups, languages, religions, and terrains, this is a exceptionally difficult task – difficult for each group to ensure their voice is heard in the clamour and difficult for the government to bring all these voices into one collective vision for the country.
Second, Nepal is in a unique position as the intersection between the giants of China and India and have always been acutely aware of just how relationships with these nations will impact them. They want to reflect their unique culture (to the point of having their own time zone that is 15 minutes behind India…makes watching TV confusing as all shows begin at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour) while maintaining good political relationships. And having never been colonized as a nation, they are, with good reason, very protective of their culture.
Third, the culture around advocacy, lobbying, and petitioning the government has grown to be very centered around disruption of daily life – after hundreds of years of not being listened to, I can see how frustration and anger would build to a breaking point – but it significantly impacts many aspects of life in Nepal, from transportation, to access to power and water, to targeted attacks on the perceived oppressor. The outlet that is available to many of those citizens who are angry is one of confrontation, which sadly has not led to much noticeable change over the years…and yet with few other options it is hard to chastise people who simply want to be heard.
And like every political system out there, there are the added complexities – scandals, nepotism, inaccurate representation by marginalized groups, personal agendas, power struggles, urban centres receiving more attention, publicity stunts, lots of hot air from those in power, and a shuffling of priorities every time those in power are shuffled around.
Amazing how anything gets done anywhere really 🙂
Nepal is not unlike many other nations striving to identify itself and trying to do the best they can with what they have. I do not envy the difficult job of politicians in Nepal nor am I without great sympathy for the many people who have been oppressed here for a number of years.
After 2 months of cautious observation, protection, training and coddling, this week i our first week of work.
The cautionary tales of not expecting too much, being patient, and taking everything that might happen in stride had worn us all down. In fact, our expectations were so lowered that I was thrilled to walk into my office and have a desk, chair, and binder of reading waiting for me.
Much of the week was spent reading and studying documents related to child-friendly schools, inclusive education, valuing teachers, teacher training, and complex, tedious and often circular debates by large donor agencies about just how important education is to alleviating poverty (I absolutely can agree with their arguments but let me tell you these documents do not stimulate any creativity or inspire ideas that will help to achieve their lofty goals).
Today I got my computer started up and was able to dig a bit deeper into the specifics on my job which is to provide support and advocacy advice to the Nepal Global Campaign for Education, comprised of local NGO’s and some INGO’s that are making efforts to coordinate their advocacy efforts towards the Education for All goal of 2015. It is complicated…and more so given that I am not familiar with all the development lingo, acronyms, and agencies…phewwww!
The highlight of my day happens twice = once at 9:30am and once at 2:30pm. This is chiyaa chutti (tea break) and lunch respectively. The whole office gathers to chat and read the newspaper during chiyaa – a lovely start to the day. Then at lunch, we all flock to a corner of the yard to eat our curry, rice, and dhaal for lunch. We pay ahead for a month of lunch (about 50 cents Canadian per day) and the fabulous kitchen team lovingly prepares us lunch…very very tasty! No more brown bagging when I can have a hot and fresh lunch each day!
I have yet to sort out my best mode of transport to and from work. So far I have been walking 1-hour each way which in the morning is lovely – tea in a travel mug and BBC World News through my headphones makes the time pass quickly. But the afternoon walk is just chocked with exhaust, dust, noise, people, traffic, dogs, garbage, street vendors, honking, and the odd cow that it is almost too much stimulus after a long day of work. Today I hopped the bus and it was heaven, and by heaven I mean a jostling and bumping ride full to the brim with people, with bags smacking you in the head (much like a crowded 99 bus in Vancouver but with more chaos and twice as crowded) – and still…it was heavenly compared to the walk home.
The finale to our 10 week training has been an exciting foray into the world of Nepali cookery. What was a classroom the day before, was transformed into a make-shift kitchen with the addition of a small table top stove and a large canister of gas. The smells of cumin, red chilies, garlic, ginger, and tumeric permeated the small room quickly as we flavoured the oils with spices.
The first dish, although not Nepali, is easily one of the most available snacks in Nepal – french fries! So many potatoes around and deep frying is a common cooking method, so of course the natural outcome is a french fry, here often curiously called “finger fried” on the menus…never fingers and always potato. The best part was the addition of salt and cumin powder for flavour…delish!
Second was the deep frying of what seemed to be mountains of paneer – once fried this was added to a delectable combination of mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and peas that had melded with spices into a thick, saucy, and utterly incredible curry. Easily, the best Nepali curry I have tasted since I have been here.
Then came the daal and rice – we have all been craving the traditional daal bhaat since returning from our village stay and were eager to get the tips on pressure cooking lentils and legumes. Topped off with fresh papadums, homemade roti, a potato and broccoli curry and some fresh fruit, and we were all simple stuffed to the gills with good food (dherai ukusmukus bhayo which translates to very, very full and cannot eat another bite).
I am looking forward to having a kitchen where I can begin to experiment a bit with the produce and spices to concoct some other great dishes…recipes posted on the blog if they are tasty!
