Interesting Times

The recent civil unrest in Kathmandu (and other parts of Nepal) provided, for some of us, an interesting insight into the way political differences in Nepal play out. I make no claims to being a political pundit and I will leave you to find out what the political history and current status is in Nepal – or you could ring Waltergator, M2 or Paul (three of the most politically savvy people I know). When the political rallies and demonstrations are being held, there is widespread disruption and the possibility of violence. While we, as foreigners, are not specifically targeted we are advised to steer clear of the demonstrations and political rallies. In fact for two weeks we were advised to stay indoors for most of the day except for when the curfew was lifted for the shops to be open from 6-8 in the morning and again from 6-8 in the evening. Demonstrations and bandhs (strikes) sometimes occur without notice and can cause major traffic turmoil and shut down all public transport as well as shops (no good for you Midgie). Shortages of essential supplies can occur with limited notice (we could all head to ‘Arraine’s place – she has the most well-stocked pantry I have ever seen). Electrical black- outs (or load shedding) periods are regular occurrences. During the latest demonstrations we were in ‘lock-down’ for approximately 20 hours from 24. Again, I want to stress that we were in no immediate danger, however, the atmosphere can be a tad unnerving.

There are plenty of bonuses though – the pollution level drops enough to be able to see the picturesque surrounding mountains, the constant traffic noise stops, you can’t go anywhere to spend too much money and the guys at the guest house cook great meals. There are also many idle hours to catch up on Nepali homework (as if) and the latest book – my new favourite author is Mavis Cheek.

In addition to the political instability, I had some issues with the management style of some of the ‘powers that be’ (nothing new there I hear you say Poddies). I was also still scratching from the bed-bug bights and suffering from lack of sleep (mainly because of the barking dogs).

On top of those trials and tribulations there were some family matters going on back in Aus (don’t worry – nothing wrong with Jordan or Bruce) and I was offered a ticket home – this time not for ‘disciplinary’ reasons but to have some time with my family and friends. Even though I was expected to return to Nepal, I came home in a rather tender state of mind, and thinking that perhaps Nepal just wasn’t meant to be!!!!

In the last two weeks, in addition to spending time with my family, especially with the remarkable Jordan, I have had the opportunity to be surrounded by my exquisite friends including : Midgie and Jackie who know how to do ‘girlie’ stuff with such pizzazz (no shops with shutters down in that city of Melbourne) : Mon Ami and Dr Paul met me at the airport in Canberra and I shared their fabulous meals, family and walks on several occasions.........the Canberra autumn held out to welcome me back : special sessions at the gym (and coffee shop and Delissio –suitable rewards for sessions at the gym) with the sensational Fran, Debra, Annie, Jo, Anji, Kathy, Sandy and Janene : fabulous times with Dawnie, Carlie, Phil and Alex and a special girls day out with Dawnie, Faye and Pam : lunch, coffee and GOWing with M2, Tuula and Lesley (what a team) : the best freshly ground coffee and long chats with Linda and Laura : less flash coffee but equally as special chats with Andy and Bruce. I’ve also had amazing support and messages from across the miles from the cherished ‘Arraine, Paul, Wally, Zen, Debbie, Sandy, Smiley Sis, Sweet Lips, Gloria, Dianne, WW, Susie Q, Pauline, my Poddies and other super friends from the A H&A Secretariat. I wish I could find some better words than extremely grateful to express how I feel about being blessed with the most incredible network of friends in the universe. I just hope you all know how much I appreciate your TLC. Thank you all for your encouragement, patience, words of wisdom, understanding and ‘being there’.

Tonight (Sunday 23rd May) I fly out to return to my placement in Nepal. Despite my initial decision to try to settle back into ‘life as we know it’ down under............. I now, more than ever, want to go to my post in Nepal and do the very best I can, even if that very best is seeing one more child have the opportunity to enter school.

As for the dear old lady sitting in my seat on the plane, bed-bugs, sh##y management, ferral dogs, pollution, civil unrest, monsoons, and 43 degree heat....................BRING IT ALL ON!!!!!! I’M READY.........................they have no idea who I have supporting me on my ‘mission’ . Please stay tuned.

Stay well and khub kushi my wonderful friends.

Namaste and hugs from Melbourne in transit to Nepal.

Marguerite

The picces for Surviving Kathmandu...........

Surviving Kathmandu and other Katastrophes

The pleasant guest house the fifteen of us new volunteers are staying in for some of the eight weeks of in-country-training is situated in the northern ‘burbs’ of Kathmandu – that is if there is actually any structure to this crazy city. Surviving Kathmandu is similar to surviving the cyclic patterns of the H & A Secretariat, unrealistic expectations and no changes to processes!!! Nevertheless, just like my fellow CO back home, we are all trying to ‘rise to the challenges’ here in Nepal.

I’m no longer resentful about the dear old lady who claimed my seat on the flight from Bangkok – you can’t see the mountains anyway as you fly into Kathmandu or as you walk around this scrambled city most of the time because of the pollution. I thought I’d seen ‘it all’ in Dhaka but I think I prefer the madness of the rickshaws to the peril of the motorcycles and taxis – I think there are jobs here for you Andy and Sir Geoffrey to teach these people how to safely ride motor cycles and drive cars and which side of the road they should drive on. And after you fix this smozzle, you could visit Paul, my Aussie friend who is posted to Bhubaneswar in India where he unfortunately had an unpleasant encounter with a truck – miraculously he survived with ‘only 3 staples and 16 stitches in the wound to his head’ (his words). As he is now the proud owner of a new Enfield he is re-writing the road rules for his area – if only he could find some current ones his task might be a tad easier!!

For those of you who have been to Kathmandu and luved it, I wish I could share your sentiments. The potential is evident - this city (and I’m sure this country) is a tourist gold mine (even more so than it is now) just waiting to explode and at least have some impact on the distressed economic situation here. However, mainly due to the political unrest, this city is strewn with piles of garbage, ferral dogs (yep my fear lives on ‘Arraine and Midgie), hazardous traffic and pollution that sticks to your eyeballs as well as your lungs – we could use a few of those new vaccies like yours WW to try and clean this place up.

Despite that bleak picture, the laundry is hung in order, and the people are incredible, getting about their business with no fuss and smiles we should be able to package and send to those security people at Bangkok airport and any other lemon-sucking people we unfortunately encounter in our lives. The poverty here is as desperate and heartbreaking as the Desh, but there is an entrenched acceptance of fatalism here that is mind-boggling. If I could adopt the same acceptance to learning a new language I could be the next most sought after worldwide multi-lingual expert. Again, I am in awe of those of you – Jordan, WW, Mon Ami, Dr Paul (engineering is another language isn’t it) and Mr Don’t Worry – who find learning a second language stress free.

I am clearly a student with special needs when it comes to learning a second language (OK, and IT Evahn) but is it not unfair that I also seem to be being punished for my lack of respect for those in authority by having very unpleasant experiences with language school principals - those of you who followed my time in the Desh will remember my ‘encounter’ there. Well now the guy who is ‘in charge’ of our in-country-training (well he was until we arrived); expressed some distasteful comments about Australians and Americans. My response almost had me sent home – and that’s no joking – I was told ‘return to class or we can have a return ticket arranged for you next week’ (which in hindsight might have been the better option). Because of my compliant nature (I hear you all in the Secretariat and if that’s my Poddies laughing the loudest, I’m shattered) I returned to suffer the consequences – the principal and I hugged and ‘made up’ and thus far he has not erred again. In actual fact we danced around each other for days and I still haven’t learned any more Nepali than I knew before I quit class, but I think he now knows a little Bangla and how to line-dance Aus style (special thanks to all my boot-scooting pals).

Most of this scene was played out in the more picturesque (but still seriously polluted and ferral dog bothered) countryside township of Banepa where the accommodation is a bed-bug infested prison like building that had more than just this menacing Aussie complaining. I hear some of you saying ‘complaining – what’s new?’ but let me be honest my amazing friends and share with you that being covered in bed- bug bights (yep that’s a lot of bites my Inspector friends) is right up there when it comes to unpleasant experiences. Fortunately we are in the hands of fabulous doctors (one of whom several of us would gladly suffer more medical conditions that required his attention) and I was dosed up with some ‘big-gun’ anti-histamines. To assist with my recovery – OK, my emotional state - I also joined some of the others at early morning yoga class and walked/shuffled (where were you Waltergator) the surrounding hillsides – not a patch on sessions with my HI friends (thank you all for your awesome messages) although we did go to the local tea-house after yoga – where it became even more apparent that I was the problem child of language class with all the others holding fluent conversations with the locals. I would have given my right arm to have been chatting with my GOWers just to prove that I am actually an articulate conversationalist (is that you saying bullshipper, Adrian.........).

As you will have realised, I have made some extraordinary friends and we are banding together to meet the challenges – admittedly some of the others much more competently than I am. We’ve cruised the shops in Thamel and done our bit for the local economy there, eaten exquisite food (not quite as exquisite as Cafe de Dawnie’s), explored Durbar Square (how I would luv to see that place as it appears in the postcards and not the sad run-down ruins that I see), made friends in the ‘hood – especially with the kids who play soccer on the cement patch below our balcony. Actually, I was almost deported after an incident there too!!!! Quite innocently, I gave them a new soccer ball because the one they were playing with had obviously seen better days. When the big kids took over and wouldn’t let the little ones play with the new ball the commotion in the street was pointed directly at the balcony. So down I went to see what Australia was being blamed for now - after a conversation (in English) with one of the older neighbourhood guys, situ easy fixed, now both groups have a ball, each labelled for their groups.........the early flight home postponed again (for now).

As I try to upload this to my blog, most of you will be aware of the current civil unrest here in Nepal. That issue is another whole blog, but I just want to reassure you that we are safely accommodated back in the more pleasant guest house in Kathmandu. Thank you all for your emails, sms (no more worrying M2), facebook chat, Skype etc – ekdam ramro.......................excellent and so appreciated.

I have been asked to keep the post to manageable size for those who are unable to work up flex time to take time out to read my blogs. I hope I have achieved that and for those of you who are bored to snores at this point – remember the care fact = zero (just kidding –the one thing I never want read out in my eulogy is that I bored you.........pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease just make up lots of illicit stuff).

I miss you all for you own special place in my chain of friendship and look forward to hearing all your news – just about to read yours now Lorraine......... Stay well and khub kushi my wonderful friends.

Namaste and hugs from Kathmandu
Marguerite

PS – Unedited because I am ‘racing’ with the power and may not be able to include any piccies but will post ASAP and will ask for some assistance with the layout!!!!

Postscript: GO RAIDERS!!!!!

'I'm going to Kathmandu'

I know for some of you, my journey to Nepal has been a long time coming. Thanx to you all, I am now safely in Kathmandu. Of course I wouldn’t be here without the encouragement and support of each and every one of my amazing friends, especially my wonderful son.

I also know that my long suffering Poddies, Jane, Mr Mc and Auntie Al , as well as the GPs are probably stunned at the increase in work productivity since my departure. And Sharron, Pierre and Waltergator, I am delighted to take full credit for that due to my constantly distracting them before I left........however, I draw the line at taking any responsibility for the situation in the ‘noisy’ pod and wouldn’t want to mention any names but I’m assuming Adrian and Mick are still bossing, oops, I mean looking after, Pauline and M2 (I’m aware Lynne ‘escaped’ a few weeks ago). And to all of you, my special friends and colleagues at the Secretariat , I hope you are enjoying the peace and quiet. I want to thank you all so much for the perfect farewell gifts – I am actually using the head torch now, as the power is out (and yes Adrian I do look like a goose and Midgie if you ever show those photos that are proof of that to anybody, I’ll have to shred you). At least I can see and I still fancy the idea of becoming a doctor...............yeah, I hear you, more likely a miner!!!!! And the supersonic hand torch is fantastic for lighting up the alleyways when I’m stumbling my way home from the pub (as if!!!!!!!!!!). Seriously though, so thoughtful and appreciated, as was the happy hour farewell celebration (I hope there are still a few coins in the Nutella jar Waltergator) – and what a special touch Mr Mc and Elizabeth organising to play ‘I’m going to Kathmandu’.

The last couple of weeks preparing for departure went fairly much according to plan after the hiccup with the minor wrist operation. I can’t remember whether the surgeon was wearing a head torch or not but my wrist has fully recovered - thank you for all your good wishes (I hope your recovery is as swift Lesley). I’m not sure I would have been as organised without Jordan helping me ‘stay on track’ - no easy task with all the fabulous coffee dates, lunches, dinners and parties. For all of you who organised and participated in those celebrations – the fanciest restaurant in town (you know where that is Alex), GOW luncheons, Lorraine and Judith coffee meeting, my Gym Gal Gang dinner as well as an awesome outdoor coffee session at HI with Annie, Jo, Kathy, Janene, Fran, Sandy and Debra, many happy hours with Dawnie, Glor, Andy , Bruce and Dianne as well as afternoon tea with my boot-scooters – long phone calls with Susie Q, Stuart, Gwen and WW, what fabulous times...... I will treasure the memories always. The risk of naming names is that there is always the possibility of leaving somebody out and offending...............if I have done that, can we blame it on the Kathmandu pollution and I will ‘catch you up’.

After an emotional farewell with Jordan and Bruce at Canberra airport, I flew to Melbourne to spend a couple of days with friends – thank you Sir Geoffrey, my Sergeant’s stripes are now safely sewn on to my Australian T-Shirt – can you send me a cap so people in the ‘hood can start taking me seriously. Midgie and I flew on to Launceston to have a few days with ‘Arraine. We were reprimanded by the hostie for chatting during the safety demonstration – I apologised to her, explaining that we had a very critical conference to attend in Launceston and were running out of time for preparing our strategic plan (just kidding!!!). What a fabulous time we enjoyed – except for the Easter egg treasure hunt. Even though I have fully recovered from this particular event, I do have to ‘get this off my chest’. Julie and Ali, two of ‘Arraine’s Tassie friends came along to join in the fun. Now ‘Arraine and I have been friends for a bazillion years (well at least 20) and she is one of the most honest people I know. But I think she gave the others maps or clues because I was the only one who didn’t find a single egg or chicken and had to resort to stealing from the others. I can hear you saying ‘build a bridge’ Midgie – that’s only because you found (with the help of your map) enough chocolate chickens to hold a chook conference .................geez did I say I had recovered??? – maybe I have a little more work to do on that ‘I didn’t find one egg or chicken’ issue!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midgie, ‘Arraine and I flew back to Melbourne on Saturday – and I didn’t mention the Easter egg hunt once – and we had a fond farewell night at the Holiday Inn near the airport – almost added to the list of places ‘please don’t come back’ . Many, many laughs, much bullshipping, reminiscing and of course a few (well maybe more than a few) tears. Nevertheless, some of the tension was relieved when Midgie was repacking her bags and discovered some Easter eggs covered in knitted chicken cosies (don’t worry, I’ll send a picture) – I’m actually saving mine for next year’s Easter egg hunt – OK, I’ll book for therapy!!! Dhana (or Mr Don’t Worry as some of us know him) one of my best friends from Bangladesh is currently studying at Latrobe University in Melbourne. He met up with us on Sunday and we all spent a fabulous day in PJ O’Reilly’s. Jackie (Midgie’s glorious daughter) also joined us at the airport to wait for my 0300 flight.

We decided to get my bags booked in as soon as the check-in opened. I had been ‘negotiating’ with Thai Airways for weeks before my departure to waive the excess fee for an extra 20 kilos of luggage – as most of you know, I will not travel anywhere without my tool kit – well there was an agreement to waive some of it right up until I put the extra bag on the belt. The details of what followed are another blog so here are the main points – that will cost you $950 madam – are you kidding? – well you can put another three kilos from this bag into your first bag and we will waive that fee – how kind of you. Thank goodness for Jackie – she very calmly helped me wheel the bags away and repack before we decided that she and Midgie would take the second bag home with them and have it freighted to Nepal for me. At least the generous (not) Thai Manager let me jump the queue to re-check in my ‘three kilo fee waivered’ bag. After that little fiasco we decided we should take coffee (in Nepal, as in Bangladesh you take, not have, coffee). While we were waiting for our coffee, a woman walked past and spilt her whole cup of coffee over my bag – she promptly turned around and went back to the counter to demand another cup of coffee. I even more promptly walked over to her, tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she could care less that she had just spilt her coffee all over my luggage – and the reality was that, no she didn’t. Midgie and Jackie came to the rescue – not because of the risk of me harming the stupid women – but to take the bag home with them and clean it and now they are kindly re-arranging the contents of the bag and in due course they will send them.

The flight from Melbourne to Bangkok was comfie and apart from watching Sandra Bullock’s Academy winning performance, I managed to sleep most of the journey. The six hour wait in Bangkok passed very quickly after two hours of massage (what a great tip that was Tuula), a couple of half decent coffees and a little duty free shopping. The security people at Bangkok airport have all had plastic surgery to remove the smiles from their faces but check-in was relatively easy because my baggage was already booked directly through from Melbourne to Kathmandu. However, when I got on the plane there was a woman sitting in my seat and she refused to get out. Now, I know this woman had no idea I hadn’t found any eggs in the Easter egg hunt and that the Manager at Thai Airways in Melbourne had wanted to charge me $950 for excess luggage, and that some idiotic woman had spilt a cup of coffee all over my luggage, and that I was leaving my fabulous son and friends for a very long time and my iPod battery was running low, but I swear the only reason I didn’t physically eject her from the seat myself was that she was about 90 years of age. Her son explained that she wanted to sit next to the window. I told him not to worry; I would be happy sitting in the aisle seat and miss seeing the Himalayas from the air as we flew into Nepal –ARGHH!!!! I consoled myself with the wonderful book Ali gave me – awesome, thank you Ali. There was one minor ‘moment’ - as you would know the special dietary meals are delivered to seat numbers rather than actual people and when my meal arrived at the same time as ‘the son’s’, I was so tempted to have a few mouthfuls of the delicious looking dhal but realised I’ll be eating that every day for the next two years. The dear old lady was so pleased when I handed it over I thought she was going to give me back my seat. My meal was delicious anyway and the flight was only about three and a half hours.

Arriving in Kathmandu was a bit of a non-event – although I’m sure the dear old lady in my seat enjoyed the view. Slipping through customs and immigration was no fuss – apart from greeting the officers with Namaste, I decided to stick to English rather than use the four other words of Nepali I knew to try and avoid the hug faux pas I made in Dhakka that most of you are familiar with. After the hour long wait for my bag to arrive on the carousal, Jeeven, from VSO Nepal, met me in the airport grounds where I was already choking on the polluted air. We waited for the other volunteers, five from the Philippines (who had actually been on the same flight as me from Bangkok) - and John, from Uganda and Caroline, from Kenya to arrive. After introductions, packing ourselves and luggage into two mini-vans we were ‘on our way to Kathmandu’.

During this drive I realised time does not provide a buffer for the shock of seeing poverty in all its rawness. Kathmandu is similar in many ways, only on a smaller scale, to Dhakka, the shanties, the poorest of the poor, the crazy traffic (minus the thousands of rickshaws – which means I may have less chance of being run over by one on this trip), the desolation and the dust. The population density is much less, however, I think the pollution in Kathmandu is worse than Dhaka – it’s a huge challenge to walk around and enjoy the treasures that are on offer here. Nevertheless, it is happening, so stay tuned. The people are wonderful and the children in the neighbourhood where we are staying in a guest house (upper level backpacker style) have already claimed the Aussie who can kick the soccer ball fairly impressively, as their bondhu (friend).

I realise this ‘chapter’ does not report very much about actually being in Nepal – I just wanted to share how grateful I am for your support, encouragement and patience in getting me here. I look forward to more yakking from Nepal.

Stay well and khub kushi my wonderful friends

Namaste and hugs from Kathmandu
Marguerite