Go to your room

I went in to work yesterday, but everyone was so worried about me they told me not to come back today. I'll start interviews again on Monday. I've finished a first draft of the entire school health report, the newsletter is finished, now I need to interview 45 child workers and make a book out of it. Milan also mentioned a start up organization that is focused on child labor asked for someone from CWISH to look over a report they recently completed, so I'm doing that as well. I'm coming home in 36 days. I can't wait to see all of you, but I still have a lot of work to do here. I know I've been really sick, but I've read three books, played a million games of spider solitare and slept enough for a month. I'm ready to get back to work.

This picture of me is terrible, I have big hair (notice the gray coming in?) and it's blurry, but I can show off the 15 pounds I've lost, who cares if it was a parasite.

Back in the Saddle

I'm back at work today and feeling much better. I've definitely lost 15 pounds since I've been here, but it's not a fun way to lose weight. Last Night we had pumpkin vines and rice for dinner and I could only eat half, imagine that. Milan is doesn't want me to go out into the field so I finished up what I could on the school health report. I thought I'd post a quick picture of the Himalayas poking out above the clouds from my flight home on Sunday. I changed everyone from the Clinton School's blogs to CSPS, so If you want to see what other idealist are doing in Nicaragua, Vietnam, Malawi, Rawanda, Argentina, Tanzania, Kosovo and NYC check out the links.

Here kitty kitty

I went to the Doctor yesterday. I don’t want to go into details, but the alien prognosis was pretty close. David thinks it’s hardcore, I think it’s gross. Mostly I just sleep all day and eat as little as possible. I can’t go to work for a couple of days so I’m just cooped up in my room wishing my stomach would stop hurting. Did I mention I come home in 39 days?

At 3am I woke up to loud rustling in my 8x8 room. You have to understand, there is one door and two windows. No one else is ever in my room and I live on the fourth floor. I closed my eyes really tight and hoped I was dreaming and then there wasn’t just rustling, but crashing. I jumped up, switched on the light, and hoped up on the nightstand. One second later a stray cat ran out from under my bed to under my chair. I have no idea how it got into my room, but I was definitely glad it wasn’t a rat. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to shoo it out the window b/c I’m so allergic to cats that I break out in hives when I touch them, and I don’t need another rash.

A big thanks goes out to Dr. Adhikhari for figuring out what was wrong with me and giving me the medicine to kill it, literally.

P.S. Kimmy P., remember when we were joking about the weight loss opportunities of living in a country with parasites? So not funny now

"Knock Knock," "Who's there?" "Tropical disease"

Hey, remember that time I caught that tropical disease, oh wait, that's now. So last night I spent many torturous hours convince I had a kidney stone or an alien had laid an egg in my stomach and it was only a matter of time before it would finish off it's host. I feel a little better now, but it's mostly from the medicine the pharmacist gave me (that I have no idea what does by the way) b/c I went to her with the look of last-leg in my eye. I also have a strange rash on my left arm and can't seem to eat more than two bites of anything. I am definitely calling the Doctor Jenne gave me a number for tomorrow. I'm allergic to Nepal.

P.S. Hey, blog comments, Olly Olly auction free! I give up, come out come out wherever you are.

Pretty pictures

I'm sick, again. Booooooo. Here are some nice pictures

Know when to Hold 'em, Know when to Fold 'em

I went horseback riding to the World Peace Pagoda, Devi's Falls and a cave with a really long name. The horse I was on was named Rogers, but he was white and had grayish-white hair so I kept accidentally calling him Kenny, like Kenny Rogers. Well, it was extremely hot and Kenny Rogers wanted nothing to do with me or a pony trek. He kept trying to turn around and run back home. He stopped countless times and the guide (who was on foot!) had to try and pull Kenny Rogers up the mountain. The only time the horse walked fast was when he was trying to run away, and when we were almost home.

The views were great, but halfway up, my arms broke out in a rash I can only hope is from the heat. If I have a weird parasite or something, i will not be happy. Halfway down my stomach started to retaliate, and by the time I got back to the hotel, all I could do was sleep for three hours. I wake up to a colony of ants all over everything. Little, bitty, red ants that sting are currently on everything I own, so I told the guy at the desk and got out of there. I'm going to take it easy tomorrow. I wish you a rash-free weekend.

123 Baby You and Me

Okay, so Flat Stanley is a great idea for the kids and for the state, but nothing says "crazy" like traveling alone in a foreign country and occasionally taking out a paper doll and shooting pictures of it. I went out on the lake yesterday in a paddle boat for two hours and it was really nice. I decided, hey, this would make a nice flat Stanley picture. I took him out and set him across from me in the boat, got out my camera and took his picture. I heard some commotion and I turned around and saw a large boat full of people laughing and pointing at the crazy American and her paper doll. You know how Michael Jackson supposedly puts mannequins all over his house for company, and reserves seats on airplanes so his monkey or doll can sit with him? That's the kind of crazy I'm thinking these people thought I was.

Sunrise at Sarangkot

I drove up to the viewpoint at 5am, and it was definitely worth it.

Bus of Doom

I just had to post the picture of the babies hugging.

So I'm in Pokhara, using my skype b/c it's on the computers here. This is awesome. I can now call my parents and David for cheap and upload photos. I'm waiting for a video to load, but it's taking forever.

The guys at the hotel made a little money off of me by putting me on a local bus instead of a tourist bus. I didn't know this until I was the only foreigner and people were climbing on the roof. Driving 70 mph, passing other buses around blind curves on a mountain allows you to think about the real important things in life like, how effective would micro loan lending be in Nepal, what do I want to do when I graduate, and what was the name of that kid in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that always said "Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones?" Was that movie filmed here? It looks like it, and the irony that Indiana saves all the child laborers at the end is too much.

My grandma and my mom say to "stop losing weight" but a kid pointed to me several times yesterday and said "fat, fat, fat." I don't know who to believe.

Tomorrow I'm watching the sunrise over the Himalayas and doing some shopping. Taking a week to see the countryside was a great idea. I'm also planning to go "pony trekking" up to the World Peace Pagoda, seeing David's Falls, visiting the bat cave (full of hundreds of Nepalese bats, no Bruce Wayne here), and canoeing on Nepal's biggest lake.

Welcome to the Jungle

C hitwan has been great. I went on a Jungle Walk, gave an elephant a bath, visited the elephant breeding center and rode an elephant through the jungle and ran into an endangered one horn rhino and her baby. The hotel had air conditioning, fluffy pillows and hot water. I also could take a shower as often as I wanted, which was great b/c I’ve never sweat so much in my life. It’s over 100 degrees here and has the humidity you’d expect from a jungle, along with the bugs. There was a tarantula in the lobby and I screamed like a little kid. I don’t have anything planned this morning, so I’m hanging out in the air conditioning, writing a blog post and singing along loudly to some Old Crow Medicine Show.
The best part of the trip was swimming with the elephants. I didn’t have a bathing suit so I just swam in my pajamas. I felt like a kid again. You could tell that they really like being in the water, and when you get up on their backs they spray you with their trunks. They are such enormous creatures but they just lay down in the water and let you scrub behind their ears, occasionally trumpeting in gratitude for getting that hard to reach place. I climbed up on one with its guide. It stood up at least 9 feet from the water. He asked me if I could swim, and I said yes and then he started shouting "pattak pattak pattak" and the elephant began shaking its entire head and sent me plummeting into the water. I may have pulled a muscle, but it was fun. I’m having some trouble walking, so I think I’ll just limp to the river and watch the bath time today.
The breeding center provides employment for several people in this village. A baby elephant at the breeding center would lift it’s trunk up every time you said "Namaste." It was super cute. They start training them for work when they are two or three and it takes them about a month to learn the basics.
I went to the internet café, which was slow, but hey, it’s the jungle. The power went out so I discussed the issues in the Terai (the region I’m in now) with the clerk. He said that the government is giving the indigenous people here free education, books, and materials and providing families with 1/3 of the income generated from the park. This area is known for Maoist rebel activity, agriculture and heat. It sounds like the government is doing a better job with providing for the people in this region. Most of Chitwan is employed in the tourist industry, and numbers are down right now due to the insane temperatures and the Maoist. He mentioned that Nepal is the second richest country in regards to water power, but isn’t utilizing it. The German engineer I met last weekend, Frank, is working to harness some of this water power into electricity, which would really help the Nepalese people. It would also be great if the government provided the same support for school children in other areas. There isn’t a problem with domestic labor here, but there is a problem with child labor in agriculture. Since school and supplies are free, it does reduces child labor in the Terai.
Most of you know I wrote a big paper about child labor before coming here. I think I’m going to revisit that and modify the solutions to what I’ve seen while working here. It would be good for me and CWISH to combine research and experience.
I’m headed to Pokhara in the morning to see the "real Himalayas". I love that the giant mountains I’ve seen so far are technically the "hills." The scenery is breathtaking. I’m glad I’m getting to see the other areas of Nepal. I was going to go horseback riding for half a day, but I think that elephant may have changed my mind.

Eyebrows, before and after

Okay, so you can't really tell, but it hurt I tell you.

Happy Birthday Guys

This week is the birthday of two of my favorite guys, and since I’ll be spending most of next week in the jungle, Happy early Birthday Dad (17^th) and David (19^th)!

Daddy,

You’re stubborn, brave and hardworking.. Yep, I’m definitely your daughter. J Thanks for being such a great Dad! Happy Birthday, I love you.

P.S. Happy Father's day too, believe me, I wish I were going to Phil's with you. I'll bring you home a Nepalese knife.

David,

You’re the love of my life. I miss you every day.
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”
-- E. E. Cummings

P.S. Somebody take that boy out for a drink on his birthday.

Holiday.........Celebrate

So I’m typing up the school health report, and it says that primary school children mentioned not using the zebra crossing as a major cause of accidents. Being the westerner that I am, I pictured a kid not looking as he crossed the street and being way laid by a giant zebra. It turns out they just call crosswalks this b/c they have stripes.

I got my eyebrows done yesterday; they do it with a piece of thread. It pretty much feels like a carpet burn and now half my eyebrows are gone. They definitely look better though, and it only cost 50 cents. Whoo hoo

I am going to the jungle tomorrow. I’m really excited. I probably won’t be able to post for a few days, but stay on the lookout for pictures of me riding elephants on safari with well groomed eyebrows. I will also have an air conditioner and, wait for it…………HOT WATER! I can’t stand the anticipation.

Last night a CWISH board member read my palm. She used to do it for a living. She said I was intelligent, I would have success in my career, I was a social servant, and I would marry late in life: within the next five years. Ha. She also said I would have a very happy life.

Pin the public intoxication on the horse

Today I was working on the newsletter, when everyone ran to the window. On the street there were massive amounts of Maoist chanting. I'm not sure what's wrong now, but I walked home. Because of the monsoon, the road to work looks like this. Yuck. I saw someone pooping in the street yesterday. The chances of poop, chicken guts, and various other bacteria floating in the water here is pretty high. This causes a lot of disease, leading to the Nepalese calling the monsoon the season of the dead. Prakash says they have a festival where they take a blind horse and get it drunk. After this they mess with the horse all day. This somehow commemorates the dead. I request that someone please keep this tradition at my funeral one day.

Flat Stanley and me at the World Day Against Child Labor event

I'm all sweaty from walking, but Stanley is keeping his cool

I Don't Want to be Paris Hilton, with a side of okra

The program went really well yesterday, and hundreds of kids made it. I'm currently trying to crank out a newsletter. It's coming along pretty well.

On another note, I'm kinda tired of EVERYONE staring at me all the time. Writtu says it's because I'm pretty; David said it's because I'm an oddity. Regardless of who is right, stop with the staring for a minute. Every day 50+ people stare at me. At least once a day someone stops dead in their tracks to stare straight at me, sometimes within inches of my face. Routinely people point and look at me with their mouths open. I try to go for a walk, but every other taxi cuts me off and tries to get me to get in. Ahhhhhhhh! I feel like I need to dress up or something, like the people staring at me are like paparazzi. I'm not famous and I'm not rich, I'm just a normal college student trying to walk to work.

And now for the okra. I think I might need to be a vegetarian. If you order chicken here, more likely than not, one of those cute chickens in the wire cage outside looses it's head. Also I have to pick little dead chicken bones out of my teeth. The only other meat on the menu is goat, and I don't eat goat. Also, most of the time I don't know what I'm eating, so the reassurance that it's just vegetables makes me happy. I love animals, but in the states I have enough distance from the reality of eating meat that it doesn't bother me. I saw a man break all these chickens legs so he could lay them on the street and they wouldn't run away. People go to the market and buy chickens with broken legs and stick them in plastic bags, and they are still alive! I absolutely hate it, and I know it's stupid, but I still hate it. There is also a notable lack of refrigeration.

I enjoy trying new food, but there are somethings I just can't do. One of these things is "Jolly shandy Lemonade. It' s beer plus lemonade "fuel for the living" is the slogan. Sick. I was asking someone what something was on the menu and they said "I think it's balls, I think in English, balls" I think I'll pass.

P.S. Smriti asked me why we didn't eat goat. I told her I wasn't sure. Writtu said they don't eat cows b/c cows give you milk like your mother so they are like your mother and you worship them. "Oh," I said, "well we eat cows, so maybe that's why we don't eat goat."

Bandh IV, the monsoon walk

So today is the World Day Against Child Labor, but somebody else called a bandh and there is no driving. This is getting reeeeaaaallly old. I have to walk 4 miles to the convention center for the program and then home and it's pouring rain. I also feel like the day is kinda ruined for the kids since they can't make it there easily either. I'm reading all your blogs a lot, but for some reason it is really hard to post comments on them. It just tries and tries to load for ridiculous amounts of time.

I wouldn't be on the Internet so often, but I'm a little starved for meaningful, understood interaction. Ninety-five percent of the words I hear all day are Nepali, of which I can only say maybe 7 words, so I'm alone with my thoughts too often. I have to read about what your doing to stay sane. The letters are totally different though and look close to Sanskrit writing. I can't read anything. Check out the alphabet above, one of the letters has 4 letters used to pronounce it.

Here are the words I know:

Hello/ goodbye: Namaste

Thank You: Dhanyabad (pronounced donyabod)

Little boy: Babul

that's enough: pugyo (pronounce poogyo)

how much?: Kati

pretty: Ramro (pronounced rumrow)

yes: Cha

no: ni or something that sounds like china

Tea without milk: Fica te

Breakfast and dinner: Dalbat

Bread: Roti

Try having a conversation with these words, "how much is breakfast no tea without milk little boy thank you bread yes?" It doesn't work so well. Everyone in Little Rock, please go see the Hold Steady and think of me. And now for my favorite line from a Hold Steady song: "I came over the counter just to kiss you." and yes, kids, if there was a counter, I would jump it just to talk about the weather.

Welcome to trivial pursiut pop culture (90s edition) or Kathmandu edition

1.What popular hair accessory (along with the scrunchie) graced the manes of most preteen girls in the United States in the 90s, and currently is seen all over Kathmandu?

2.What two music icons started the rap and grunge movements in the United States in the 90s and also died in the 90s, but currently are alive and well in Kathmandu?

3.What verb was used to describe using the internet in the 90s, but is still frequently used in Kathmandu?

4.What popular sitcom from the 90s featured the hit song “I’ll be there for you” and is being shown in real time on Star world in Kathmandu? (and is one of the only things I like to watch on Nepalese tv)
scroll down for the answers, b/c they're such tough questions.







1. Clippies 2. Tupac and Kurt Cobain 3. Surf 4. Friends

Say Pashupatinath 3 times fast

This weekend was really good. I got a chance to sleep off the respiratory infection I got from breathing in fumes of Black Death from the ancient buses that barrel down the roads here. I also got a chance on Sunday to visit Patan, a city close to Kathmandu with a lot of temples and metalwork. I got to see three snake charmers there play wooden flutes and irritate black cobras. I also got a chance to wear a python as a necklace. Elizabeth, avert your eyes, snakes appear to be a plenty in Nepal. They even have a festival here were you leave out food for the snakes. Anyway, I ran into an engineering student from Germany, Frank, and we paired up to extend our trip to Bouda and Pashupatinath and back to Thamel. The weather cooperated and we only got rained on a little bit. At Pashupatinath we saw a couple of Hindu funerals, where they take the shrouded body and cremate it with logs near the river. I was totally creeped out. I also saw a lot of monkeys, way more monkeys than the “monkey temple” at Swambudynath. There were several super cute baby monkeys there too. It was a nice day; I felt better; I finally met a nice person to take my picture, and I walked off all the chocolate cake I ate at lunch.

Only in Kathmandu

So I don’t write for one day, and now there are a million things to say.

First, they put the article about me in the Herald Leader on the front page! I’ve never had anything remotely like that happen before. PJ has been delivering papers in the morning so she had like a million of them. My dad said Ashur saw them and said “Hey, mama, mama, Aunt Chandle’s on the paper.” He then proceeded to make up what the words said about me. They probably went something along the lines of the email I sent him, telling him that if he lived here, he would have to carry Izzy on his back, and there are cows in the middle of the road and you have to take a shower with a bucket. Jed also kept babbling and hitting my picture in the paper. Hearing that made my day.

And now for things I saw today that could only happen in Kathmandu:

1. 3 men open up the luggage door underneath the bus and pull out a 3 foot tall, very disoriented goat.
2. A woman that could not have weighed more than 90 pound carrying a 6 ft tall dresser with her head and a sheet. I wish I could explain this better.
3. A large cow asleep in the middle of 4 lanes of 40mph traffic. It was like a cow asleep in the middle of Cantrell in Little Rock.

I try to take pictures of all these things, but it happens so fast I end up staring sheepishly. Also one of the girls at work told me I would look really pretty if I lost some weight. Ha

Disclaimer: Don’t read this if you’re feeling a little emotional today. I got to go to the Drop in centers today and watch a program on child rights. There were some really little kids there, like maybe 4 or 5 years old, and I got a little teared up seeing them. All the kids at the drop in centers are workers. The facilitator was asking questions like “What is a child?”, “What is Child Labor?”, and “What are your rights as a child worker?” Some of the kids said they had the right to not be beaten and the right to eat the same food as their employers, not the dog. They also mentioned that they had the right to medical treatment and to be allowed to leave the house. It was good to hear them standing up for themselves, but when I think about what must have happened before they could…

I started thinking about this whole individual right thing. In the States, from the time you’re little you have a fundamental understanding of the concepts of freedom, of property and of rights. In fact, our rights are our most precious possessions and this is engrained in everything we do. Some of these kids are 15 and are just hearing that they have a right to sleep in a bed and not on the floor; they have a right to see their family again. If anything like this happened in the United States it would be all over the front page of every paper, and it happens here and a lot of other places in the world every single day.

Imagine being 9 years old and sold to a family to do all their housework and never seeing your family ever again. This happened to one of the kids I interviewed yesterday. He’s 15; he doesn’t know what happened to his parents or his little brothers and sisters. Now he’s been in school for a year and he is happier. He wants to be a chef.

I talked to a 16 year old girl yesterday. She had to begin working when she was 10 because her little brother had a heart condition and her family couldn’t afford the operation. Her employers said they would pay for it, but they contacted World Vision and he’s still sick. A CWISH facilitator came to her employer’s house on many occasions asking them to let her go to classes at a DIC. They said they wouldn’t and the facilitator told them they had to, so she’s been in school now for 9 months. She says she is much more positive now. She can read and write and she isn’t afraid to go shopping anymore. Before she couldn’t add up the prices and she never knew if she had enough money or if the shopkeeper had given her enough back. Now she is confident and talks to more people. She says she also tells her employers when they are violating her rights and now they stop.

I am continuously inspired by these kids. They have a resilience I don’t see in myself. I used to wish I had been alive during the 60s so I would have something to fight for; there are still things to fight for.

I went to a dinner last night with Shanti. A man from the International Labour Organization was throwing a party to kick off the south-Asia child fund. There were a lot of prominent Nepalese activist there and I got to talk to some of them. One young woman is a Sherpa and she has been a leader in the fight for child porter rights, especially girls. These kids are carrying 5 times their weight up mountains for pennies. Another man was fighting for the rights of Bhutanese refugees who have been stuck in Nepal for years. Some of them tried to leave last week and one man was shot and killed by police. There was also a young guy who brought satellite internet to a remote village so everyone could have access to education and news. These people were amazing and I was really honored to be with them.

On another note, I’m not sure if the government is really falling apart or if this is just par for the course. Yesterday I walked home b/c there was a taxi driver, bus strike. A taxi driver was stabbed and killed and the police didn’t arrest the man b/c they were friends with him, so the roads were blocked off everywhere by taxis and buses. Also yesterday, the Maoist arrested a prominent banker for embezzlement. Let me explain something really quick, the Maoist were taken into the government last year as an equal party to the rest of the government, many of the soldiers joined the police force. Well this banker has had a warrant out for his arrest for a long time and he’s just been going about freely w/o any threat of being arrested b/c he is friends with the Prime Minister. Well the Maoist wouldn’t have it anymore so they arrested him and took him to the square and said “Hey, this is the guy that stole all that money.” The Prime Minister let the guy go and punished the Maoist. The Maoist in turn say if this is the government they are in, they don’t want to be a part of it anymore, and then the country is back to rebels running it. At about 8pm I hear this really loud chanting coming from outside. I go out on the balcony to see hundreds of angry people carrying torches. The street was glowing this smoky orange and the people kept raising the torches in the air and shouting. I asked Prakash what they were saying, and all he said was “The Prime Minister has made a very big mistake.” Do you ever have those moments in your life were you’re almost positive you’re either in a movie or watching one? Well that’s the moment I had, so let’s just wait and see how real it gets.

Stage fright

Okay, so I'm sort of nervous b/c I start interviewing the kids today. Smriti is going with me and she has to translate the child's native language into Nepali and then into English and I have to write that down. It seems a little tedious, but I'm more worried about holding the kids attention while we mess with the technicalities.

I'm really excited about my trip in a couple of weeks. I'm staying in a hotel with air conditioning!!!!! I also get to give the elephants a bath, and ride the elephants on a jungle safari, and see the elephant breeding center w/ baby elephants. Elephants to the third power. I then get to go to Pokhara and visit a cave full of vampire bats, ride horses, and take trips out on the lake. All of this, with food and accommodations is under $250. I'm using a travel guide Shanti knows so if anything happens, like another bandh, he can help me out.

I also emailed Jenne from Peacework and she says she knows of another volunteer coming at the end of June. I don't like being the only clueless person in the room; I need another one to bond with. Well, my Internet time is running out and I need to go get lost on the way to the drop in center. Love you, guys.

Food in Kathmandu

People keep asking me what I'm eating so here it is. I have this dish and fruit practically every day. Me and Flat Stanley that is. The food is really great.

Say yes to life, Britney Spears.

Yesterday it rained, which was really nice b/c it cooled everything off. It’s like Kathmandu is this huge frying pan, and we dropped it in a sink full of cold water. I’ve been really sick for a few days. Let’s not go into detail, but it’s bad in every way. I also discovered that my collective fees for using the ATM is 12 US dollars a transaction and I've already had 3 transactions, so $36. boo

I went to Bhaktapur on Saturday and loved it. It’s this really old (14^th century?) city with cobblestone streets and no cars. I found a lot of great souvenirs there and saw a lot of wonderful temples. The tallest temple in Nepal is there and they say that each level hold a figure 10 times stronger than the one below it. They also have this creepy green pond that has 2 large snake statues in it. They say that a priest went down to the water to become a serpent and he was supposed to scare off the real serpent or something. His assistant was supposed to feed him this food so he could become a priest again, but when he saw the snake he was so scared he ran away, leaving the priest a giant snake forever. (I knew you’d like that Elizabeth). Excuse the picture of me, I was sick, and it was at least 100 degrees and my pants are 2 sizes too big.

This group of Nepalese people stopped me, and I thought they wanted me to take their picture, but then they posed next to me while one of them took a picture. It was like I was Britney Spears or something, which, might I add, is still the hottest pop star in Nepal. Along with her, the teenagers wear shirts with Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, and well, more Britney Spears on them. Another really weird thing is these cigarette adds everywhere that say “Say yes to life” and underneath them say “Smoking is injurious to your health”.

It’s been a pretty quiet weekend. Next week starts the work on the World Day against Child Labor Newsletter, the week after that I’m finishing up. The week after that I’m going to Chitiwan and Pokhara for a 7 day “holiday” and then I come back and work until I leave. I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you.

P.S. I sent everyone who sent me their address or whose address I knew postcards yesterday. Maybe you'll get them before I come home.

Valley of the Bandhs

monk on cell phone
Originally uploaded by Mr. Mark

Okay, so there's another strike today. I can't go ANYWHERE, even work. I stayed home and have now officially typed up 73 double-spaced pages of school health survey report. I know, I'm ridiculous. One of the questions was "What would you use if you were in an accident" Most of the answer choices were normal like, medicine from home, a faith healer, medicine from a doctor, but one of the answers to choose from was dung!??? Thankfully no one picked it. I have no idea why anyone who was hurt would say"hey, let's put some poop on it."

Kathmandu is this weird paradoxical place. There are strikes and demonstrations w/ no government action, Buddhist monks with cell phones, and concrete commercials with effeminate men singing in bollywood style about building material. Like right now, I'm in an internet cafe, where there are no women, and the power goes out frequently, and everyone has tikis on their heads and "I Ain't Mad at 'cha" is playing by Tupac. It makes me laugh and baffles me all at the same time. It's this incredibly overwhelming experience that is really quiet and peaceful at the same time. I was standing on the Boudanath stupa and the wind was blowing and massive amounts of people were all being really quiet and walking around the stupa in the same direction, and I could see the Himalayas in the background and it was this really amazing, serene experience, then I walked out onto the street into absolute chaos and hailed a minivan with at least 22 people in it and rode home. All the kids couldn't go to school b/c of the strike so when my back hurt too much from crunching numbers I would get up and watch them play soccer. Sometimes they stop and look at me and point and laugh. I'm still not really sure about what's so funny. People are always asking me "What is different about America?" and my consitent reply is "Everything".