migyoung and i are away in India at the moment, but no need to worry... i'll be writing all that up in the very near future. Look for something in a few weeks time.
Here's wishing everyone--and the world--a peaceful 2005
I’ve just returned—shall I say, triumphantly (?)—from a field visit to the Terai—the old stomping grounds—with my new organization. Ten days and lots of visits to villages and toles (a kind of sub-village) where Aasaman implements its child labor eradication and universal education programs, some of those visits to the, supposedly, very, very sensitive areas. We stopped in some of those hard-hit areas for lunch one day--I kept an eye out for the Maoists while chomping down on a whole onion pakora in a little pasal opposite the completely boarded up and locked Village Development Office. But other than boarded up officialdom, life seemed to go on pretty much as normal. The weather was delightful (an oxymoron: Terai and good weather?)—no more perpetual sweat stains around the armpits and chest, but still easily daytime short sleeve weather. Although I’ve traveled quite a bit in Mahottari district, I had an opportunity to visit some of the remotest and quaint villages of Dhanusha, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts on this trip.
I also got to see and experience a bit of the festival that everyone talked about the entire time we lived in the Terai—Chhat. Although I’m still not sure what Chhat is all about, it is only celebrated in the southern part of Nepal, and, like most festivals here, has a very important link with Hinduism. Its mecca is in Janakpur—where we bedded down for the night—which was completely decked out in colorful lights and a heavy haze of incense floating wafting through the air (a good thing given Janakpur’s ever expanding population of street cows, and with it, the smell). Families—mostly female members—constructed small alters of banana leafs stacked with fruit, incense and iconography all around Janakpur’s sacred—albeit, sometimes stagnant—ponds. These small shrines were attended throughout the night, and at dawn, all the women break their fast (not much of a festival for them…) and take a ritual bath in the ponds. This all took place on my first day in town, and was followed night after night with harmonium and tabla music blared on loudspeakers for everyone with the chant of Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram throughout the night.
The visits to the villages were great—lots of smiling and happy kids, who formerly labored away in fields, homes, restaurants and other establishments, was enough to warm even my heart. We met with people in the villages that had took part in awareness raising campaigns regarding child labor and now sent their children to school, often at their own or their families hardship. There were meetings with district education officers about how we might work collaboratively on eradicating child labor and making universal education a reality. And, of course, there were the harsher realities of mind-numbing poverty and utter inability of parents to send their children to school without having to forfeit their already meager, if any, earnings. I tend to believe, and have seen, many families do suffer (this is usually women)—either with regards to time or economically-- when their children attend school full time, and just by establishing a non-negotiable principle—as my organization does—that any child out of school is to be considered a child laborer will not fully address this issue. Although I believe universal human rights need no justification and incentive in and of themselves, and that some studies—which my organization relies heavily on—do show that by removing children from the work force does provide more job opportunities for adults (and less exploitation), I also have very recent firsthand experience with families that would suffer greatly if their children attended school full time. While I admire greatly the principles of my organization, I am also trying to link, and convince my colleagues, some income generation schemes to our programs as an extra incentive—and overall boon for local economies—to remove children from work, get them into school and abolish child labor. It seems to me, at least at this point, to be the best marriage of theory and practicality and a better holistic approach.
Not everything went that well in the Terai, however. I had my digital camera stolen one day while, of all places, attending a Children’s Fair celebration in a small town. I had always assumed that if something like did happen to us it would be in Kathmandu and not out in the districts. In almost ten years of travel, work and living abroad, it’s the first thing I’ve ever had stolen….and hopefully the last. No more new pictures for a while, but I’ve got enough saved up on disk to last for a few months.