Embracing the Monsoon

It's been one whirlwind visit to this country of majestic environs.  But I'm up at 4am dealing with an endless onslaught of mosquitoes, so figured I better use my time to catch up on blogging.
My first 13 days were spent ill with strep throat and all sorts of traveler's ailments.  Fortunately, I managed to find my way to a decent clinic that provided an IV for dehydration.  After what I've heard and seen of a local hospital (due to researching medical waste management) in this country, treatment there is something I would try to avoid if possible.
Determined not to waste the rest of my trip, as soon as I semi-recovered, I headed out to the boiling hot and rainy Terai (plains in the lowest foothills of the Himalaya).  Back in the day, the Terai was completely forested.  As its population has grown over the years - especially after the malaria eradication campaign in the Terai in the 1950's - the robust forests have not fared all that well.  Despite the success of community forests and some national parks, corruption and illegal removal of the prized sal tree (Shorea robusta) continue to denude the landscape.
Accompanying me on this journey was my incredibly loyal research team: Charlotte, a friend from college who is an English teacher in Kathmandu and Kalpana, her former Nepali student who studied environmental and social science and was raised on a farm in the flatlands of the Terai.  We made our way out there on a micro, a van with a couple of rows of seats. It was an incredibly uncomfortable experience due to the stifling heat, bumpy roads, and packed back seat containing an additional two kids and two adults.  Exhausted from the heat, I fell asleep despite being jerked in every direction by the vehicle as it traversed the deteriorated roads.  Eventually, the woman from Punjab who was smushed next to me with a child on her lap took my head in her hands and placed it on her shoulder so that I could rest without my head bopping around.  Even though we could barely communicate, her kind gesture made the last leg of the ride all the more bearable.
Eventually, we arrived in the village of Manigram, near the Indian border, soaked in sweat but glad to have survived the 8-hour journey.  Little did any of us know what adventures would arise over the next 11 days.  But here are some highlights:

* The ins and outs of cooking and feeding people in a traditional Magar home.

* Trip to Lumbini – Buddha’s birthplace.

Crawling through tree where Buddha's mother felt labor pains

              * Visit to the supposed largest tree in Asia which is located in the Nawalparasi district.

* 7 hour trek through the forested hills while fighting through torrential downpours to view illegal deforestation   and discovering an illegal settlement on the top of the hill.

* Meeting a forest enforcer who was trained in the military and seeing the bare jail where timber smugglers are held for up to 24 days.

* Visiting community forests and trying to get honest answers from officials and forest users.

           

*  Learning how to plant rice paddies during monsoon season.

* Fashion shoot in traditional Magar clothing.

*Exploring traditional Tharu villages and interviewing villagers about waste management and forest usage in their communities.

* Consultation with a traditional medicinal healer and visits to medicinal gardens and nurseries.

* Canoeing through a community forest in a rainstorm to reach an elephant breeding center.

* Trekking through the riverine forest in Chitwan National Park and discovering new flora, fauna, and even a tiger print.

* Meeting with the Nepali pioneer of medical waste management and learning about his pilot project in the oldest Nepali hospital and crusade to stop waste pickers from contracting infections while handling the waste.

Today I head to a village in the hills that doesn’t have road access so will have to climb with all my accoutrements for the week.  Time to begin using muscles that have lain dormant most of my life.

Disclaimer: The places to which I’ve been traveling have not had internet (and often limited electricity).  More photos, details and impressions of my experiences will be provided once I return. 

Foreigner

Over the last couple of years I’ve learned to accept that the people in the community where I was raised have come to consider me an outsider.  No longer towing the party line of hard-core Orthodox Judaism, it’s difficult for the indoctrinated to accept my less restrained lifestyle.  But these feelings tip the other way too. When I return for visits, it’s just as much a struggle for me to relate back to the world of my childhood. Yet, I can’t pretend that that level of foreignness comes anywhere close to my initial experience here in the Swayambhunath neighborhood of Kathmandu.  As an outsider in this country and to this culture, my understandings of my observations are probably a bit distorted, but I’ll try my best to relay them as accurately as possible.

My current living quarters are located in the guesthouse of an environmentally conscious Tibetan monastery, within a short distance of the Swayambhunath Stupa, also known as the Monkey Temple because of the holy monkeys that inhabit the ancient sacred site.  Since there are no English street signs in the area, I couldn’t find the office of my host NGO on my first evening in town. Perhaps I missed the left turn because I was distracted after being swept into a procession of people circumnavigating the road around the stupa with prayer beads in hand; some fully prostrating themselves on the ground despite the traffic and mud puddles from the afternoon’s rain shower. I had seen religious processions before, but the magnitude overwhelmed my jetlagged senses.  

Monkeys scampered about the area, paying no attention to us Homo sapiens.  One climbed an electrical line like a tightrope walker.  Another enjoyed some leftover chips from a shiny metallic bag.  I finally understood the guesthouse’s warnings to keep the doors closed so that monkeys don’t wander inside our rooms.  Although, it does feel a bit selfish, since I happen to have an extra bed. : ) 

 Time seemed irrelevant during my immersion into this new world of religious devotion, but eventually, I surrendered to my jetlag (which surely enhanced this out of body experience) and returned to the guesthouse. 

The next day, Wednesday, I tried to find the organization again on my own (frankly, I was a bit ashamed for not remembering where it was located).  But I missed the elusive left turn again, and ended up walking around the Swayambunath Stupa in an even larger procession than the night before. I watched as followers turned prayer wheels at its base, lit countless butter lamps, prayed, and handed rupees to the rows and rows of people begging for money all around the holy site.  All the while thinking that this was an every day occurrence. Quite often, a motorcyclist or driver would screech his/her horn in my ear and scare the bejeezus out of me.  Apparently this is something one gets used to over time.  I guess I’ll also have to get used to sticking out like a sore thumb with my mix of Caucasian and Semitic features and western clothes. Even though I’ve had many experiences as an outsider, this one has been the most extreme.

As I continued walking around the stupa, it was nearly paralyzing to realize that there was not much I could do at the present time to ease the suffering of the adults and children with distorted limbs, open wounds, and emaciated bodies crouching on the ground, begging for money.  Instead of succumbing to these thoughts, I decided to try to focus on my original motives for visiting Nepal.  To learn about the award-winning community forestry initiatives this country has pioneered and perhaps do some reconnaissance on the very different waste disposal situation from the one which I am accustomed.  

Thanks to a college friend who teaches English here, next week I will be meeting with two of her students who have worked on community forestry initiatives and thanks to my days doing outreach for the documentary GARBAGE DREAMS, I should also be connecting with some people involved in the waste management arena. After that, a trip to the steamy forests of Chitwan!

There may not be as much time for such lengthy reports in the future (stayed in today to battle the side-effects of a typhoid vaccine), but I will try to update as much as I am able.

Beckett

P.S.  A lovely woman who works at the restaurant here at the monastery has been teaching me about the local culture, indoctrinating me into the world of motorbikes, and helping me not get ripped off in the market.  Turns out June 15, 2011 was a Buddhist holiday called Saga Dawa - a festival in celebration of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and paranirvana (death).  And while people do walk around the stupa daily, the area is now much less frenzied and easier to navigate.

Benchen Vihar (Monastery Guest House)

Monkey on a tightrope.

Lighting butter lamps.

Burning spices?

Praying during Saga Dawa festival.

Snacking on the side of the road.

Turning prayer wheel on the side of the road.

Remnants from the festival.

One of the many trash heaps along the road.

In Buddha Park.

Maya and Beckett, post biking in the rain through the busy streets of Kathmandu

Farewell U.S.A., Namaste Nepal

So, this is it.  My last night in the U.S.A. for the next two months. 
All the creature comforts of this country will lead way to mosquitos and leeches during monsoon season in Nepal.  After arriving in Kathmandu on Tuesday and learning about local environmental issues for the first 2 weeks, I'll be traveling to remote forests to volunteer and research sustainable community forestry initiatives in person, with my own two dark-brown eyes.  Or so I think... anything is bound to happen!

Rain gear - check 
Giardia and cryptosporidium fighting pills - check 
Lemur beanie baby - sititng atop my backpack, waiting to join me on this exciting adventure ; )  
Reading material for a 33 hour multi-plane ride - TBD (suggestions welcome)

Getting excited to fully thaw out my body that nearly froze in the Midwest this winter and of course share new stories with you as they arise!