18 out of well... more than 24!

Greetings from beautiful Surkhet - a Hills district in Mid-Western Nepal. Many interviews have been done - out in beautiful green communities with difficult roads to master and uncertain foods! Yesterday, I even passed by a Maoist emcampment - a place where the fighting Maoist have been placed to do... well... nothing... but they get a compensation and they don't take up their arms. It was weird to be in a community with people walking around in Maoist gear! How a country can change in 4 years!

Interviews - well we've been doing about three a day - some feel good, some feel bad, some feel useless. Sometimes, I wonder whether I will be able to deal with all the material collected in Nepali! Headaches are a daily challenge and being misunderstood is a frequent frustration. Today, Indu is off outside of Surkhet, while I'm doing some alone - at least three. Two are already done and they went ok. (YEAH!) Every night, I'm frantically typing up the interview notes... I have a one day lag which I will catch up on today...

As soon as I arrived in Surkhet, I called Shirley and we almost ran to meet each other in the middle of the bazar. She spent lots of time with me in Ghorahi, I went to see her in England when she turned 50, and she is the OBS surgeon that travels all over Nepal making women smile with healthy babies and healthy uteruses... (or lack thereof - the removal of a 'fallen' uterus is a common procedure - I won't go into the details!).. We chatted a bit and we have plans for a sunset seat and dinner tomorrow night.

The plan for the next few days is as follows - another interview or two today - notes writing and editing - tomorrow, another 3 interviews and then the car and my colleague head back to Nepalgunj. I will stay for a bit to finish off the notes and then head back on my own to Nepalgunj. After at least another 3 interviews there, I will visit some NFHP field work and then head to GHORAHI! Unfortunately, it won't be all fun and games - before Clayton meets me, I need to write a paper for U of T, and finish all my notes while listening to over 18 hours of interviews.

Beware: mushiness ahead!

Albeit being in the west is a needed break from Kathmandu, having Clayton sicky and not within arms length is hard. Yesterday, after jumping off the land-rover feeling somewhat nauseated and exhausted, I went to the nearby phone shop and called Clayton. A little booth with a window was my simil-privacy... I was at my wits end and wanted to cuddle up to Clayton and have a good cry - well, all the people in the shop could see me talk to Clayton and since I was visible, everyone stared... the WHOLE time... I tried to turn and make myself less visible... but then the observers reshuffled to get a better view... ARGH! After 20 minutes, it was just too much. A Carlsberg beer was quickly ordered and I drank it ALONE on the roof of the hotel! I miss my love and I'm counting the days. At least, with the pace of our interviews, I'm starting to sleep even without him... insomnia followed me around at first... but now I can't have the luxury of insomnia!

Being sort of single

So with Catherine-Anne away for 3 weeks, my lifestyle has undergone some substantial changes. If I were in Toronto, of course, I'd be a busy beaver: dancing, seeing friends and attending quirky yet hip events. But, since I'm in Kathmandu with only one real friend in the city, things are a touch different.

High points

• Playing soccer today at the highly guarded (and car-bomb proof) American Club and then going out for pints afterwards
• Increasing my billable hours by 30%
• Going to the gym every day (I vil be hyuuge!)
• Actually doing some reading outside of the bathroom

Low points

• Monday night: being sick, cold and alone in a dark house without electricity
• Having mild insomnia for 3 nights in a row
• Not having Catherine-Anne to talk to! I end up talking to myself as I wander around.

15 more days to go. But the last 7 will be easier, as I'll be in Dhaka, Bagladesh for a UBS conference. And working lots and lots. Then off to Ghorahi to see where C-A lived for a year!

Eight interviews out of 24!

On Sunday morning, Clayton and I went to eat out at Red Dingo for breakfast. A foreigner we know told us that in Nepal, you should avoid any place that started with a B. or ended with a -gunj... well here I am in Nepalgunj, and heading to Biretnagar in Surkhet district within a few days! I would disagree with him though, since the Terai feels so much more familiar to me than the bustling life in Kathmandu.

Calls to prayer give a certain rhythm to daily life here in Nepalgunj. The Muslim population accounts for a significant portion of the city and mosques air their chanting calls throughout the day. I've come to call Clayton before bed when I hear the calls, not that I need a reminder to think of him. The prospect of three weeks without my love is honestly daunting! I'm having a hard time sleeping without him - which hopefully will end... caus' man do I need my sleep!

I arrived on Sunday afternoon and started interviewing private health providers (PHP) about their management of childhood illnesses at 7 am on Monday. We've had the privilege of having access to a land-rover to our travels here and there throughout the countryside. Yesterday, I thought the land-rover would topple due to the condition of the roads - bumpidy-bump all the way! We interviewed PHP in relatively remote areas where they dispense from mud huts... Fascinating...

Interviewing in Nepali is more than a challenge... it's exhausting and inefficient. I've recorded the interviews and will need to revisit them at length... lots of work is ahead of me...

Saturday, I'm heading up to Chinchu - a little town between Nepalgunj and Surkhet. We will stay there for 1-2 nights to do interviews, then up to Surkhet. Following that, back to Nepalgunj to finish off what is missing. A third of our interviews is already done!

I'm presently staying at an INF-friend's place. She's away and she has generously let me stay... it's a real blessing to have access to filtered water, to a phone to call Clayton every day, and a mosquito net. My old friends, the geckos, are there to haunt me though!

Much love to all! And hopefully Clayton will edit this today!!!! (he did...)

Achoo! *cough*, *cough*...

Maybe I shouldn’t write on my blog when I’m sick like a sneezy dog with nasal incontinence… maybe it would give the whole entry somewhat of a foggy grey haze if I were writing with muscle pains all over, a red irritated nose, and a very significantly shortened concentration span… but oh well, here I go.

I wanted to let everyone know of our plans for the next few weeks… because it is the cause of some concern for both of us.

I’m leaving alone for the Mid-West on Sunday for an indeterminate period of time (up to 3 weeks). Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get to Ghorahi due to new strikes. I will be staying in hotels, eating whatever food available, and missing Clayton like crazy. The purpose of the trip is to interview about 24 private health providers in two representative regions: a terai and hill district. This will be done in Nepali…Lord, Help Me!... and I will then be analyzing the information for NFHP and for U. of Toronto.

The situation in the Terai is unstable. The elections are approaching and academic deadlines are hovering over me. Prayers would be appreciated…

Six wonderful months*

(*except for a few very minor incidents, none of which are worth mentioning here)

Hint: kitchen + french toast + Catherine-Anne = smoke inhalation

Faces from other incarnations II

Last weekend we also got the chance to return to Gandaki Boarding School in Pokhara, where I taught 11 years ago. Way back then, I accepted an eight-month position with United Mission to Nepal teaching computer science to high school students at GBS. I had a fantastic, though occasionally interesting, time. Much to my delight, a surprisingly large number of my students have ended up in computer science, and some of them even credit me with having kindled their interest in the area. I also wrote a kickass 3-D, networked, multiplayer game called Hawk while I was there (in a scant 580 lines of C code!), but that’s another story.

So, being back. It was quite an emotional experience for me. That piece of my life felt like it was disconnected from the rest. Indeed, no one from my life in Canada had ever met anyone from my life there, and I felt a strange need for closure on the time.

Fortunately, a few of the teachers who are still there from 11 years ago remembered me, and one even remembered my last name and exactly which of his classes I had attended. “Clayton? As in Clayton Grassick?” (followed by exclamations about how different I look now). I don’t see it myself...

The campus, with the exception of some new buildings, looks pretty much identical and I was able to show Catherine-Anne where I had taught, played badminton, lived, and even the boys’ toilet in which I camped out to prevent students from cheating.

The most touching moment was when by chance I ran into my former didi (house help) who recognized me and who had spent 8 months cooking for me, doing my laundry, and cleaning. I told Catherine-Anne about her fantastic fried rice, and she reminisced about making pancakes for me (the making of which, incidentally, visibly depleted my bottle of cooking oil).

A very strange feeling to be back. One of the teachers invited us to attend the cultural event at the school that was planned for the next day, but I felt like it was enough just to see it one more time. And to have C-A see that part of my past.

Now it's my turn (with a little luck) to see Ghorahi later this week and experience her world.

Nepali men hitting on my wife

(I mean, wouldn't you?)

Fortunately, Nepali men are also on the shy side, so I didn't have to get medieval on anyone.

Nepali wedding receptions are fun, but the lack of dancing at this particular one was a definite minus. In fact, after you eat, the next order of business is to simply leave. Weird. But the florescent yellow plastic palm tree decoration consoled me immensely.

Critical journalism

Some of you have been worried about the security situation here with the blockade, strikes, shootings, fuel crisis and upcoming elections. I'm happy to report that you can set your mind at ease:

(click to see the full-size version)

In other news, some fuel trucks reached the capital city today. So there's hope at least for this particular piece of the crisis to be resolved.