Back in Kathmandu

I always love traveling with Kiran. We always do everything “Nepali” style and this trip was no exception. Last week someone mentioned that I need to add more details to the blog and that more pictures might be good also. So here is a detailed accounting of the trip to Badaguan, Pasachaur and then Pokhari Bhanjyage (the village where the Waterfalls did their water project and where Bharat lives). We were to leave at seven in the morning and planned to take a micro bus. Kiran had purchased the tickets the night before, but when we arrived we were informed that since they weren’t sure we would actually use the tickets we had purchased the night before, they had given our seats away. We waited for the next micro and by seven thirty we were ready to go. The concept of “purchasing a seat” apparently doesn’t mean what it might mean in the US. Indeed I had a seat, but on a seat that was made for 3 at the most, there were five of us. To only add to the discomfort is the fact that here in Nepal most people don’t have hot water in their homes and so showers don’t happen as frequents as they otherwise might. I was fortunate to be sitting between Kiran and a window, so there were no immediate odd smells.

In a van that was designed to seat ten, we at times had nineteen people inside and several on the roof. The road from Kathmandu to Besishahar is only about 100 Kilometers (62 miles), yet it takes about 5 hours to travel that distance. Although the road is the main highway that winds its way through Nepal, it is rough and narrow. I have never traveled the road and not seen at least two accidents.

I am constantly reading in the local paper about bus accident with massive fatalities. When all seats and standing room is gone in a bus, then passengers climb on top. This combined with the narrow, mountainous roads and the lack of enforced driving laws is a perfect recipe for disasters that are regularly seen. Last week I read a story about a group of young students who were on a field trip. During the time the driver was waiting to take the students back home, he decided to get drunk. When it was time to leave, the principal and the teachers realized the driver was drunk. They forced him to eat a slice of lemon, thinking that it would make him immediately sober. They then forced him into the driver’s seat and made him drive them home. The results were of course disastrous. A short time later they were involved in an accident and the principal, the teacher(s), and quite a few students were killed.

About three weeks ago I went to Pokhari Bhanjyage with Ramesh and the Tophams. We had rented a vehicle and driver for the day. It was a driver that none of us had used before and we immediately realized that he was not one of the better drivers we have had. Things were particularly bad on the return visit after we spent the day in the village. The driver was using extremely poor judgment and was all over the road. We came around one corner to see a group of people walking along side of the road with large loads of wood upon their backs. I noticed that he was getting very close to them and just as I was about to say something there was a loud bang that came from the rear side of the car. Fortunately, the car had just grazed the pedestrian and he was able to continue on unharmed. That was the second time during the day that this driver had hit a pedestrian. Both were fortunately minor, but concerning none-the-less We assumed at the time that it was due in part to lack of experience and part to driving in the dark, but later found that the driver had been drinking.

Aside from breaking down twice along the way, we arrived without incident to Besishahar. We grabbed a quick lunch and went on our way towards Badagaun. This is a village that I was fortunate to spend time in about 5 years ago. We were involved with the building of a four room school building. It is also where my friend Santosh lives. I was excited to return and see the completed school and also to see people that I had not seen for so many years. The walk into Badagaun is amazing. You walk through the country side winding your way through the century old terraces that the villages continue to use to grow their crops. As we were walking, Kiran pointed up ahead and said “look they are carrying someone to the hospital”. Coming towards us was a group of men carrying a stretcher followed by women and younger children. As they got closer I suggested that we offer help even though I did not have my first aid kit, I thought perhaps we could be of some assistance. Kiran insisted that it was better if we did not get involved. He said that if the man was to die, it would be us who would be blamed. One thing I have learned here is that you do not want to be responsible for someone’s death especially when you are the driver of a vehicle.

On another trip from Kathmandu to Pokhari Bhanjyage, we saw a group of people standing along the road looking over the steep cliff alongside. We knew immediately that a vehicle had gone over the edge. We stopped to see if we could offer any assistance, and saw that it was a large truck that was on its side about 200 feet down. Ramesh asked what had happened and was told that a day or two prior this truck had struck and killed a small child. The driver fearing for his life intentionally drove the truck off the cliff. He jumped out just before the truck went over and fled. The police eventually caught him. Later that day as we were returning from the village we came to a stand still in traffic. It turns out that the family of the child was protesting and had blocked the road. They wanted to meet with the driver face to face to negotiate a settlement for killing the child. The family ended up blocking traffic for 8 to 10 hours a day for three days. We were lucky in that we only had to wait about 3 hours on the last day and a settlement was reached. On many levels the driver was lucky to be in police custody as often time a driver that is responsible for hitting a pedestrian is immediately pulled from his vehicle and beaten by the local villagers. It is not uncommon for the vehicle to be set on fire and destroyed. As I have read story after story in the newspaper about such tragedies and about the ultimate settlements it seems that about 600,000rs is the going rate which is about $9,500us.

I decided long ago that I would implicitly trust the judgment of my Nepali friends like Kiran, Bishnu and Ramesh. And although it went against every instinct within me, I could only watch as the group carried this young, unconscious man down the long trail to Besishahar. As they passed Kiran asked what had happened and was only told that the man had fallen. Upon arriving to Badagaun we learned that he had actually tried to hang himself from a tree.

Upon arriving into Badagaun we were met by Santosh and the school teachers. The students had planned a big welcome for us, but because of the micro bus breaking down we were very late and school was over for the day. None-the-less there were tikas and flower leis aplenty. We spent a about an hour touring the school grounds and the building we had helped build years earlier and then were invited to stay the night in the home of one of the school teachers. After about a 30 minute walk we arrived at a cluster of homes which included the home of the teacher. We were given more flower leis and handfuls of fresh flowers and then invited to sit and talk with the villagers. We sat in chairs as the villagers sat on grass mats on the ground in front of us. I have always found it difficult to accept and am very uncomfortable with the near adoration that the villagers bestow on us when we are with them. They always provide us the best seats, the best food, the best accommodations, the warmest blankets and on and on and this trip was no exception. I was grateful that when it came time to eat dal bhat, I was invited to sit on the floor in the kitchen with the rest of the family.

Dal bhat is the staple meal here in Nepal. Dal is lentils and bhat is rice. So the main course of the meal is rice with a lentil soup poured over the top. There are then other items that most commonly go with the rice and lentils and include spinach, a curry of some sort, and a spicy dish called “pickle”. On special occasion there might be meat of some sort whether it be chicken, mutton or buffalo. Nepalis typically eat only two meals a day, one in the morning at about ten and another at night at about seven and it is typically dal bhat. I have asked many people what their favorite meal is and I have never gotten any response other than dal bhat.

To be continued…..