Political Unrest and Rice Planting

On May 3rd Nepal's Prime Minister, known by his Maoist code-name "Prachanda", fired the Army Chief due to a disagreement about incorporating Maoist Rebel Fighters into the country's national army. The army was engaged in a violent battle with the Maoists for a decade and only recently is the country enjoying peace. However, the next day the Army Chief was reinstated by the President of the country, who actually has power over the military. That day the Prime Minister stepped down. Now the country has no clear leader and since then, busloads of Maoists have been coming from the rural areas of Nepal to demonstrate and protest in the city. I am amazed at the response of the Nepali people. I imagine that in a similar situation in a Western country, there would be some kind of chaos. We like to know who is leading our country. But perhaps people in Nepal are very accustomed to chaos and, prime minister or no prime minister, everyone goes on with business as usual. I asked my friends about this and they said that it happens all the time. The don't have any expectations of political stability.
There is a lot of infighting amongst the political parties, many of whom seem to be very self-interested, while many others are trying to satisfy the very diverse needs of their constituents. Thus far, the protests have been peaceful, but there does not seem to be a clear end in sight. I will keep you updated as I learn more.

I recently took a trip with three Nepali friends to a small mud and stone house in a small, mountain village north of Kathmandu. We had to walk uphill, carrying all our rice, lentils, and potatoes for about five hours to reach the house, which is owned by Guru Dev. This spiritual teacher used to be a wandering holy man who spent 22 years of his life living alone in this hut. Now he runs an ashram and school and he has a large following of devotees in the Kathmandu area. He allows anyone to go and stay in house in order to practice meditation in a peaceful environment, far from the city. It was a difficult experience and it made me realize that I am quite weak and reliant on others for so many of daily needs. I don't think I would survive for long alone up in the mountains. I was very appreciative of my Nepali friends' expertise in cooking on an indoor, open fire. Every meal was a delicious, heaping mound of hot rice, lentils, and curried vegetables. We spent our days collecting firewood, walking down the mountain about 15 minutes to buy buffalo milk from an old woman twice a day, and digging a big hole as a compost pit for the hut. I had some amazing conversations with the villagers in the area and I even visited a school that had received a lot of benefit from Rotary!

Three days ago I had another unexpected vacation from school, so I took a three day bicycle trip to different towns around the Kathmandu valley. I went alone so that I could more easily make friends and interact with local people. This decision turned out to be very fruitful. Everywhere I went I was greeted with smiles and invitations for tea. I saw so many beautiful scenes of mountain and village life and I even spent an afternoon planting rice with women in the small village of Soontan. After a long and bumpy ride down a mountain road that was paved with small jagged boulders, I was so happy to finally see pavement again. I quickly rode past the women, dressed in their bright red traditional clothes, knee deep in mud, quickly but carefully pushing plant after plant into the muddy water. I have long been interested in the cultivation of rice, so I turned my bike around and rode back to ask about the process. Two minutes later my boots were off and I was knee deep in mud, clumsily trying to plant a handful of the small starts. The women thought it was hilarious and they immediately began asking if I was married and if I wanted to marry a Nepali girl. After finishing that field and planting one more in a rainstorm, the women took me back to their home, where they live as a joined family, with all the uncles, aunts, and cousins in the same block of houses. I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with them and I slept in the room of a boy named Kedar. His family is from one of the higher castes in Nepal, and they seem to be having some great success with their agriculture. They own a lot of land and now all of the cousins are studying in good schools and going on to higher education. The family's prosperity will most likely lead to an end of their agricultural practices as they transition into the modern age. We spent about an hour that night trading MP3s of my American songs from my USB drive and in exchange I received several hundred Nepali and Hindi songs! That is not what I expected to find in a small, farming village. I promised that I would definitely be back in four months for the rice harvest.

The next day I rode down into the ancient town of Panauti. The town was full of beautiful Newari architecture and elaborate wooden temples. I found a Saddhu sitting on the steps of one temple and he beckoned for me to come and sit with him. I was surprised to find that he spoke English quite well and I spent the next couple of hours learning about his life as a wandering, ascetic holy-man. He said that he was orphaned in India by his mother, who was presumably a prostitute, and that his whole life has been very difficult because he has no people to call his own. He just wanders around the world, surviving on the charity of people who believe that they ought to give something to these holy men who sleep at the temples. This man really changed my perception of Saddhus and helped me realize that, despite the long dread-locks, big beards, and lack of any attachments of material possessions, they are still humans that suffer from the same fears, desires, and pains as the rest of us. In fact, this particular Saddhu begged me to take him to the U.S. This was a common theme on my trip through the country. I was asked by at least four different people to take them or their family members to my home. I wasn't sure how to respond to such requests, so I mostly kept silent.

During a slow climb through the remote villages between Panauti and Kathmanu, I gained a clearer perspective on the beauty and hardship of living in such a rural area. Although the houses in that area are connected to the electric grid, many of the children must walk along the muddy dirt road for nearly an hour to reach their school. Access to transportation is limited to maybe one or two buses that pass each day, and it would be extremely difficult to get any kind of emergency medical services. After reaching the rim of the Kathmandu valley, I began the adrenaline-ruch of a downhill ride toward the city. The road was muddy and steep and my brakes were in poor condition. I survived the ride and rode into Kathmandu feeling exhausted but gratified.

Classes are wrapping up soon and on Thursday of the coming week I'll be taking a four-day class trip to learn more about Natural Resource Management and Environmental Impact Assessments. My good friend Paul Sparks, who graduated from Manchester College one year before me, will be arriving in the city on June 1st and he will be staying with me for a few days. Around the beginning of July I'm planning to spend about two weeks traveling around India!

That's all for now. Thanks again for reading. I just posted 10 new pictures.