Cricket....please explain it to me........again!

I have started reading two new books. One is Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl and the other is entitled Leadership and Self-Deception. I had started reading both of them years before, but got side tracked with school and all. It is nice to have guilt-free time to read books I have been meaning to read for years. What a good decision to come to Nepal.

I was supposed to hear today from Dr. Harish. He is the guy I am to be working with on the hospital. Apparently he is a leading Nephrologists here in Nepal. I am looking forward to meeting him and starting out work together on the hospital. Perhaps I will hear from him tomorrow.

I went and got a sim card for my cell phone so it will work here. That will give me the freedom to head out during the day and not worry about missing any calls. I would post the number on here, but I doubt anyone would call. So we will just have to resort to email to keep in contact.

It is amazing how progressive this country in becoming, especially as it pertains to the women. I don’t recall ever seeing a Nepali woman in jeans before. Now it is a pretty common occurrence. This is in just 5 years. Also for the first time today I saw a Nepali man and a Nepal woman walking down the street arm in arm. Any sort of public affection between man and woman has always been forbidden. I asked Kiran about it, and he said things are changing quickly in that area as well as others. It is interesting to note that where public affection between man and woman was always frowned upon; public affection between individuals of the same gender, especially men, is very common and very accepted. It is common to see men walking together arm in arm, or holding hands or embracing. I was a bit taken aback by it my first visit to Nepal, but quickly learned that it is not shrouded with it the same negative connotations that would be placed upon it in the states. Where it is not something that I am accustomed to, I think it is great that a society accepts and encourages open displays of affection between individuals of the same gender. I will probably take some crap for saying that, but whatever…. be narrow minded if you must.

Rich and Nige came by last night to pick up their bags. They had left them in my room while they went on a rafting trip. Apparently their raft flipped over in a dangerous stretch of the river and they both came back pretty banged up and feeling lucky to be alive. They ended up coming up to my room to watch some soccer and cricket that Rich was interested in. Rich struggled to explain Cricket to me but try as he might, I just was not getting it. I am not going to lie to you, I felt pretty retarded and I am sure that is what he was thinking of me at the moment. We went back to watching soccer, which makes perfect sense. I think they are headed out on a trek today. They will be gone for 12 days, have a week to recuperate and then they head home. They have been traveling for about 6 weeks now, and have just three left.

I have to say, I came here thinking that nine weeks in Nepal was a very significant amount of time for a “vacation”. What I learned is that we as Americans get hosed when it comes to vacation time, and that 2 months is pretty standard for travelers from other counties. I have found that most of the Europeans I have met get two to three months off a year as paid vacation. As Americans we are obviously obsessed with work, and I think we need to look to our European cohorts for an example of how to structure vacation time. I will have to keep this in mind as I go home and start negotiating contracts……yeah right!