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".