APW: Uncharted Territories

There is no short, accurate way to sum up my last month’s experience.  I can toss words around the blender, knead them into something that will build and become more active over time, splash them around like a child’s first time in the ocean, or sit in this room, unthink, and attempt uninterrupted flow between environment, mind, fingers, and page - throwing in the variable of Time and Emotional state of author and reader whilst engaging..

No wait time to climb this temple. 
Being in such close proximity to monkeys lately, anywhere from 15 chewing on the freshly applied compost to working their way across electrical lines like trapeze artists, I reflect on evolution, what is a civilization, and how lucky we both are to have fingers!   

Walking with a friend to Swayumbunath at night, she kindly and fiercely converses in Nepali to avoid paying for a ticket to enter, whipping out the NGO card.  We climb to the stupa, walk around clockwise, admire the stones, the curves, the angles, the way the monkeys climb up the prayer flags disregarding their ‘holiness’ or paying respect in their own ways, and find our way to a vista of the city.  30 years ago this was a forest, besides the very old temple that we stand on, and now we see it is developed with lights and houses and people and thoughts from the outside.  All these sounds, colors, shapes, smiles, then and now, a feast for the senses.  It wasn’t long ago that Kathmandu and the whole of Nepal denied access from the outside world.  Now, the western world emerges into this sealess region of Asia with tremendous water resources.   It arrives and disrupts and blends what was into what is.  It has diverted and confused some aspects of the culture, built, develop, change, help, and stirs the pot on low heat and wonders what will come out.

This, of course, is not black and white.  These concepts of globalization, development, quality of life, poverty, growing your own nation, assisting other nations, define the history of the world and its people.  We are shaped now by these actions of the past, when hunters and gatherers ran out of food, when agriculture became a practice and settled communities, when communities grew curious of the world outside, when we began to no longer be satisfied with our needs of the present.  Any graphs of population and development display a slow steady growth line up a slightly bumpy desert trail over the last 10,000 years.  The last 150 comparatively display the Dead Sea to the summit of Mt. Everest.  Check out the movie “Home” if you would like to learn about the state of the natural world as a result of this influx in ideas, people, greed, consciousness, diversity and belief.

What I am engaged in now is not “Saving the World” or “Changing the Planet” on any scale.  And I wouldn’t be so arrogant to presume that my life isn’t being benefited by these volunteer experiences.  We are coming into a country where opportunity simply stated isn’t the same.  It is much more difficult for Nepalese to leave their own country and it is fairly easy to enter here from the outside.

We are in a nation where there hasn’t been an election in over 5 years, not from Nepal’s lack of trying (Maoists and other variables have consistently disrupted this process), and there hasn’t been a clear ruling party since the King died.  There are over 140 candidates of varying political philosophies being represented for the next election, this November 2013. 

In Nepal, there are over a million men working abroad in gulf countries because of the western presence (or pressure) and its values (without connoting good or bad) of money and development.  As a result of this high population of migrant workers (generally happening in poor conditions with little compensation), an average of 5 to 7 Nepali’s day are being sent home in a body bag.  In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city, the main river was drinkable thirty years ago and is now filled with garbage.   We are in a nation where the statistics of income, malnourishment, and abuse are shocking.   The caste system is still in effect, though becoming slowly more modern, and progressing still.  I am no expert on Nepal.  I am not even an amateur of knowledge.  I’ve only been here a month and I’m relating both facts and stories of those shared by Nepalis and westerners who have lived here from 5 to 30 years.  They speak truths and you can see it in their eyes and hands and feet.

The boy on the street without family asks me not for money but for a biscuit, as he gestures his hand to his mouth. He is not alone in feelings of helplessness.  There are those who come to the city for work as shopkeepers, transportation workers, stone breakers, brick builders, most all of them leaving their family in the village.  They are hoping to live a life where they can strive for their dreams by making money or pursuing an education.  The city life is very difficult and is without the promise of making enough money for oneself to survive, let alone extra to provide for their family back home.  Those who come to the city for work are not just men. I am speaking too of 16, 12, or even boys under the age of 10 coming to the city alone.

Nepal is mostly Hindu with pockets of Buddhism throughout the country.  Buddha was born here, in Lumbini, and offered his hand to a tiger, in Namo Buddha (where I was very lucky to see a sunrise and explore the monastery earlier this week).  Nepal is vivid in color, smells, and life.  Quality of life and eastern values are different here, though we meet an interesting intersection.

The fact of the present is we are here, and we can openly acknowledge that we do not know the future. Are we supposed to change their culture?  Take away traditions?  Teach them English so they can function and be successful in this modern world?  These are questions that the NGO I am working with asks.  TBT does not enter blindly and it doesn’t leave hastily.  It works holistically with social justice, from creating and establishing youth movements to be sustained by the Nepali people and Nepali staff.  TBT also develops women’s empowerment groups, teacher’s clubs, and sets up demonstrative organic farms to display methods of growing a diversity of healthy, nutritious crops. The model of the demo farm is simple.  Share knowledge of growing a diversity of vegetables, practice crop rotation, and utilize all that the land has given us without waste (making compost and biofertilizers from buffalo manure).   It includes training, trial and research, and a phase out period to help ensure its sustainability.

We aren’t changing the country.  We are working in small villages and in the cities, along with the thousands of other NGOs, and have been doing so for 6 years.  The NGO is headed by an incredible man, and staffed by extremely competent, professional and amazing individuals.  The group of 23 comes from different walks of life, countries, and ranges in age from 22 to 51.  The open discussions are stimulating and engaging.  The videos, activities, trainings have been exciting and challenging , both intellectually and emotionally.  I could write pages about each day of the last month, detailing stories of Shabbat dinners to microbus rides en route to holy rivers where bodies are burned to guitar and songs on rooftops to the amazing race in Kathmandu.  I will refrain for now, though the 3 days of living in a Nepali Village with a family of women does deserve and will find its place in future writings. 

I write all this now before I leave to Ramechhap.  I will be living a simple life with 7 other volunteers.  We will be together for the next 3 months, in the Nepal winter at 1900 meters without running water, heat, and electricity, about an hour walk from a large vegetable market.  We have great ambitions and I will update what we build and grow in the future.  As well as documenting our interactions as a group and my personal experience  with the Nepalis in the area. Our understanding of the Nepali language is improving and we have many life experiences that prepare us for this, though there are strong elements of the new for all of us.  There is a medical student, a veterinarian, a public health graduate, a nutritionist, a social worker, two teachers and leaders of communities, and myself.  We are from Israel, California, New York.  We all have different reasons and forces that drew us here and we will soon learn a lot more about each other.  Through this community of orientation, the group I will live with in Helmo, and all interactions with Nepal as a country and its people, I consider this:

What persists is the question of giving and receiving, and how one gives and receives.  As we enter this village that has never had a large group of westerners enter previously into its existence, I will be conscious of a negotiation of choices, this harmonious balance.   I begin by listening, giving myself to the culture, attempting glimpses of understanding.  I hope to be with the good intention of learning and living before thoughts of changes or improvements or western values emerge.  So here I go, walking humbly, open to whatever may come.

And I end with what I wrote about Daisin, the 15 day festival in October where a million people left Kathmandu to go their home village  to be with their family and celebrate life.

It would be best to first mention the row of taxis with the hoods all popped up, maybe 30 in a row, all being blessed for Daisin (Hindu/Nepali nationwide festival). The incenses are burning, the flowers are scattered helplessly across the engine, the bumper, the earth.  Elegant plates with flower, herb, incense arrangements are placed as offerings for each one just above the bumper. The bamboo swings are erected, children are flying 8 or more meters in the air in pairs, and the kites reflecting the colors of Joseph's dream coat are soaring with the eagles.

The streets are crowded, to put it lightly. Music, chickens, goats, ducks, cows, buffalo, pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes, cars, tuk tuks, microbuses and buses are making their way across town to the rhythm of Daisin. The Buddhist and Hindu gods share history in specific regions and the integration of architecture, art, temples, caste system are fascinating to me.

The colors of the city are like the stimulation of the classroom, with passionate Israelis throwing ideas around on topics of social justice, poverty, globalization like a food fight in grade school.  People amaze me.

I walked today by a river where they cremate bodies. From there I walked up through a large temple and into a forest and was surrounded by large trees and interesting looking plants and wild smells. I sat for awhile watching the monkeys, either playing or resting, or sleeping with their baby on its lap.

I sat with some holy men from India. I took a microbus with 40 other Nepalis and found my way to my present home in Swayambhu. Shabbat is just around the corner. I love these long weeks knowing there will be a special day with a special meal, and great rest, and laughing and sharing stories. This group is already more than friends with each other.

There are holy places, holy people and then there is us, living these moments. Life's only certainty is it is here in front of us, like morning winter breath, beckoning us not to miss it.