Tag Archives: environment

Honouring Fridays: June 26th, 2009

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Terrible nasty chest infection and head cold-2.  Tlell-0.  I had thought, and pardon the visual nature of this next paragraph (please skip if desctiptions of illness, bodily fluids or somewhat gross cultural habits make you the least bit naseous), that any sickness I would encounter in Nepal would likely result in symptoms of the spewing variety or the ever persistent and enviable “bottom explosion”.  I discovered, however, that my achilles heal when it comes to sickness is respiratory.  I must have a magnetic field that attracts the bugs that cause the worst possible head colds and chest infections.  The coughing, hacking, I-just-swallowed-sandpaper, head pounding type of cold that confines one to the Neocitron, sleep, groggy movie watching, sleep cycle has gotten me twice in the last 6 months.  And I have no doubt it will strike again.  The plus…I can eat as much unwashed fruit and unsantized vegetables as I please and seemingly never have stomach or bowel problems…the minus…I still haven’t got the hang of blowing my nose by standing in the street, pressing one nostril in, blowing out the other, and letting whatever comes out drip into a puddle on the ground…I rely heavily on tissue and am a-ok to keep it like that…it just means I have to carry around rolls of toilet paper in my purse.

  • Asparagus.  Like a light sabre of glowing green goodness, the pointy green spears lured me.  I had never thought that asparagus would be a vegetable of discovery here in Nepal but just up the road from my house there is an small organic asparagus growing farm, which conducts research and hosts workshops on how local farmers can grow asparagus.  I eagerly popped into the small lane and nosed around until I found the place.  ALAS!  They didn’t have any just yet…that was 4 weeks ago.  And today (trumpets please!) the large grocery store near out house had bundles and bundles of them!  Who could resist?  Tomorrow morning, we plan to have an asparagus eating competition, followed rather closely by everyone’s favourite toilet game…how can you tell I ate asparagus today? 😉
  • Eating in restaurants where nobody asks you “how does everything taste?”. There was a moment of clarity this week when out eating in a restaurant where we realized why it was so much more enjoyable than eating out in Canada – they let you enjoy yourself and only interrupt when you beckon them!  Genius!  I am all for prompt and efficient service in restaurants but I do believe that the continual witty banter, checkin’ in, and crouching next to my table to really get to my level has gone a bit too far.   Granted, sometimes you can feel neglected, ignored, or even snubbed but it doesn’t take long to realize that the power is really in your hands – when you want something you just have to ask and when you want for nothing, you can bask in it knowing that nobody is hovering to anticipate your every need.
  • All-natural silver cleaner. My silver jewelery has been taking a beating since we arrived (explains why every Nepali woman is decked out in gold…apparently silver tarnishes much faster than other metals and is accelerated in places with high humidity…Nepali women know best!).  In efforts to stay away from harsh chemicals I did some quick searching for a natural solution.  All you need is baking soda, aluminum foil and hot water!  Or toothpaste.
  • Visitors! We are eagerly awaiting the arrival, in just over 2 1/2 months, of my parents from Canada.  There is something so satisfying about having a date, firm and confirmed, in the near future when you will have a new injection of excitement into life.  You get to see your new home through fresh and unjaded eyes which can make everything look so very different.  I think it will gives us new appreciation for what an amazing adventure we are having and the last kick of energy before we close our time in Nepal.  I am grateful for counting down…only 80 days left!

Honouring Fridays: February 6th, 2009

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It has been a long week – we are gearing up for a program analysis workshop happening Monday to Wednesday next week and since we are all new here in the Education Program office, I am pitching in to help where I can – we are sort of fumbling through it all together which is pretty comedic really.   And yet in all the rush, I am celebrating the feeling of being productive and useful again – I forgot how good it feels to be useful.

  • Silence.  Kathmandu is a city full of noise.  There is rarely that deep and unending silence that one can sometimes find deep in the forest or even the kind of silence that one finds at the ocean – the waves and seagulls become a sort of white noise.  BUT, in the misty early morning as families wake and give “puja” to the gods there is a stillness that almost resembles silence.  I sleep through the best silence most days since it appears fleetingly between 5am – 6am.  But if one is lucky enough to catch it, it would be easy to understand why people in Nepal wake so early – the gods are present in the silence.
  • Transgender choirs. So last week I was grateful for diversity and this week I am grateful that I was able to be present at the first performance of Nepal’s first transgender choir (perhaps the first in much of the world too?).  It was a great show and I discovered that one of the offices for the Blue Diamond Society is actually in a small building in my back yard…a truly small world!  Needless to say, this week I was inspired by all the voices I heard in the choir.
  • Gas. No, not the human kind, but the cooking kind.  We are now the proud “owners” of two large red gas cylinders which dutifully cook our food on the two-gas burner stove and heat our water for showers.  They are cumbersome, heavy, ugly, and dirty things but we love them for the freedom they provide – we can finally cook our own dinners!
  • The Department of Education in Nepal. This week I attended my first meeting in the Department, along with about 20 other Nepali individuals from various INGOs, NGOs, and the government.  It was just the most amazing thing to see – the politics, the subtle power dynamics, the personalities, the cultural rituals.  The important government officials came and went throughout the meeting – particularly when things got sticky and they were being called to task on some of the programming choices – enrolling students who are not retained in the school system instead of working on student-teacher ratios or providing free textbooks to students – they simply stood up, walked into a side office, and shut the door.  There was much banging of fists, agenda pushing, and advocating for various causes, all happening throughout the official meeting – cell phones ringing, people coming in and out, Nepali insults flying (at least I think that is what happened, as it was all in Nepali – I think I caught most of it!).  Fantastic fun and a great introduction to the nature of government meetings – I have to say I throroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the next showing.