The urinal wall--virtually every alley has one. Public urination seems to
be the only option for the city’s countless rickshaw drivers, porters, day
laborers and homeless. To pee or not to pee is a question that a lot of
Nepalis have to ask themselves while in public places. I have read
numerous letters in the newspapers disparaging this practice, but with a
dearth of public restrooms--most of which you would not want to come near
or which have the audacity to request a fee--there seems to be no end in
sight to this practice. In much the same vein as rubbish collection and
disposal, Nepalis throw up their hands in frustration and do not know how
to address such issues. Many walls have hastily constructed signs asking
people not to use the wall in question as a urinal, but this seems to have
little effect in addressing the issue. As a case in point, the tall brick
wall surrounding the British Embassy has security cameras and a sign
forbidding the posting of bills, yet it is a favorite dumping station for
rickshaw pullers...
The United Nations and other international NGOs are now threatening to pull
their staff out of Nepal due to the ongoing Maoist situation. Although
this may be a ploy to bring this heavily development dependent country’s
politicians back to the negotiations table, it is a troubling trend in a
nagging crisis that will not go away. Outside of Kathmandu, in particular,
the situation continues to wreak havoc on the country’s education (the
closure of schools), transportation, telecommunications and other
infrastructure.
On a brighter note, I had an opportunity to visit the Dalit Welfare
Organization last week. Both an advocacy and needs-based organization, DWO
conducts radio, print and TV campaigns aimed at awareness-raising regarding
the conditions under which the country’s dalit population must live (20% of
the Nepal’s total population). Other services include everything from
education and health to skills training and income-generation programs.
Putting into practice that it is impossible to empower those outside of
your organization without first empowering those within, DWO is staffed and
includes a board made up entirely of dalits. A positive step in the right
direction, but even dalits themselves acknowledge that members of other
castes--particularly those at the top--must also be included in the
movement and work toward breaking down barriers accordingly.
Approximately 52% of Nepal’s population is under the age of 18. Child
labor is omnipresent--how much of it is forced and what dictates obligation
is difficult to discern. Certainly, there are stories and documentation of
children being sold into labor in addition to the trafficking of young
girls to India for prostitution, but at the average shop and/or restaurant,
many children take part in the family business as a necessity of
sustenance. In the countryside it is not unusual for children to begin
working at age around age six with chores and fieldwork. Whether children
attend school or not is mostly at the discretion of their parents.
Government (public) schools are for the most part free with the exception
of some expenses, but some families cannot even afford a few hundred rupees
a year for school fees. Some--perhaps most--government schools set aside a
small number of placements for children of families too poor to afford any
sort of school fee. Teachers at public schools also face difficulties
because of budgets which lack the funds to adequately pay their teachers.
At one such school in Manamaiju, teachers were working their sixth straight
month without a salary...
Back from the village. Manamaiju isn’t terribly far from Kathmandu, but is
miles apart in many respects. Dominated by the appropriately named
Manamaiju temple with its exquisite gold painted roof and wooden struts
with erotic--fertility, you might say-- carvings, Manamaiju is a dusty,
dirt and stone path lined with both traditional adobe-like and more modern
concrete and brick dwellings. Some houses have taps; others do not, and
there are at least three water wells within a fairly easy walking distance
of most homes. Easy, that is, provided you are not carrying heavy water
jugs on your head or under your arm...
The inhabitants of Manamaiju are mainly Newari with a smattering of other
ethnic groups and castes, but no one seems to mind too much, and
conversations and visits are struck up freely. Everyone knows what
everyone else is doing in this town. Indeed, rooftop viewing might as well
be the national pastime of Nepal, and it is not unusual--quite common,
really--for neighbors and others to wander into one another’s homes
unannounced. This became all too apparent to me after a particularly
difficult night with diarrhea and villagers a half a kilometer away from my
host family were asking me how I felt and if I was still having to make
numerous visits to the toilet. They all surmised that it must have been the
spicy food...
Mornings start early: rumblings, temple offerings, the clearing of
throats, and the loud shrill of Hindi music (normally only a shrill to me
at 5 AM) is all part of the typical morning movement. Even in Kathmandu
the mornings can begin as early as 4 or 4:30 AM even though the morning
meal is normally taken at 10. My host family was gracious enough to
provide me with ciyah and biscuits at around 6 or 7, and a lot of work gets
done in the villages even before most people have had a chance to eat.
The inhabitants of Manamaiju were friendly, helpful and omnipresent. It
was a bit difficult in the beginning to pick up a lot of the informal
language—verb endings and such—as new language learners tend to first learn
the crisp and respectful expressions that do come in handy, but didn’t
figure too prominently over the past 10 days. In Nepal, if one doesn’t
understand a question, it’s a good bet that you are either being asked if
you have eaten or where you’re going… Still, after struggling a bit with
the language over the first couple of days, I soon began to regain some
confidence and the ability to ask something beyond family and food. I
couldn’t imagine that the situation would be the same for a non native
English speaker in the States—native speakers would most likely give up
after only a few attempts to communicate with a beginner in the language.
Nepalis are proud yet not smug about their language, and incredibly helpful
and encouraging. The expressiveness of the hands also helps a lot as does
the fact that a simple namaste will illicit smiles, laughter and thanks.
Holi—the wild, chaotic festival of color—took place on our sixth day in the
village. We were all encouraged to participate, and did heartily. The
antics of Holi, the splashing of water and colored powders on others, is
thought to celebrate the extermination of the demoness Holika and it is
often now associated with Krishna and his love of pranks. The relaxation
of normal caste restraints, Holi is a great day of egalitarianism and fun
for everyone.
While in the village, we presented a workshop on the solar disinfection of
water and were happy to see that many of the village women turned out and
were trying out the technique the next day. Migyoung drew up a simple
instructional sheet explaining the steps and our language instructors
helped us translate it into Nepali. Some of the others in our group
painted a couple of walls in classrooms that could be used as learning aids
by the children. We helped collect plastic rubbish in the village and
encouraged (and created) the use of a central location for collecting
plastics. A bit of sustainability and empowerment if only the very
beginnings.
We were presented with a nice send off on our last night—traditional music,
song and dance—which almost the entire village turned out to see. Our
morning farewell was also one of beauty. Enjoy some of the pictures in the
gallery…