Kathmandu!

I have yet to finish blogging about my Laos/Cambodia adventures with Margo and Michelle, but since I left my laptop and diary in Bangkok, I will share some stories from Nepal first.
Upon returning to Thailand after Cambodia, Michelle, who wasn’t feeling well, stayed at Ba Ahe’s house in Bangkok with Margo while I headed up to Lampang to visit P’Ple (Apple) and Maprang. I ended up hanging out all week with Maprang, while P’Ple had school and partying with them at night. I got back to Bangkok on Friday, the day before our flight to Kathmandu, just in time to pack my stuff.
All of our bags were completely stuffed with various things that Ba Oy requested from Bangkok- everything from frozen fish to ziplock baggies to shower curtains to wine. Luckily, we got away with 100 kg between the 3 of us.
We arrived in Kathmandu on June 6th. Ba Oy and Lung Jacques met us at the airport with a UN driver and we set off to their new home in the center of the city. Although their house is in the middle of the city, it is in a quiet neighborhood and the only bothersome noises are the dogs howling at night and the sound of the generator when the power goes out. Their house is large and beautiful. Margo, Michelle, and I each have our own room, and I actually have my own bathroom!
We arrived with volunteering at an NGO in our minds, since we'd be here for a month and should put our time to good use. Lung Jacques had went to the Environmental Day the day before our arrival and picked up a brochure from an NGO called Environmental & Public Health Organization (ENPHO) in Kathmandu. I read through the pamphlet about 3 times I was so excited. All the projects they worked on were related to environmental engineering, and it was exactly what I was looking for! So I called Monday morning and set up an appointment with the executive director for Tuesday and have been volunteering there since. I've been focusing on decentralized wastewater treatment plants in the Kathmandu Valley. Basically, they are trying to identify key demonstration sites for treatment plants near the Bagmati River. The treatment plants generally include a septic tank and then constructed wetlands or other low-maintenance technologies such as ponds.
I had heard that the Bagmati River was polluted, but it wasn't until my first site visit that I realized to what extent. I could smell it before I could see it. The river is absolutely black and dead. It is essentially an open channel of sewage flowing through the city. There's definitley a lot of work to be done.
We all settled into a routine quickly. I wake up around 8:30, get dressed, enjoy coffee, oatmeal, and sometimes a croissant for breakfast, read the Kathmandu Post and Himalayan Times, finish getting ready, and head off to the ENPHO office. The walk takes me about 40 minutes each way. I pass the markets of Dilli Bazaar, through crowded streets and sidewalks (occasionally I even get beeped at while walking on the sidewalk- by a motorbike), around women with umbrellas that almost poke my eyes out, around or through the piles of garbage on the streets, pass the guards at Singha Durbar, and pass the same cow (which is generally in the same area everyday). I come to the office and work on reports for three sites in Kathmandu or head into the field to see the potential sites. I've been to quite a few inside and outside Kathmandu, but two seem to be more promising than others since they already have land available and land is a huge issue.
For lunch at the office, about a dozen or so of us eat together. We each bring a small portion- either a cooked dish, fruit, or cookies- and share. We never have enough plates or utensils, so we share those too. So I've gotten to try lots of interesting and yummy dishes. In the afternoon we are served milk tea while we work (something I look forward to everyday). Lunch time talk is usually in Nepali, so I can only understand the few English words that are thrown in, and when they switch to English to talk to Silli and I.
Besides working at ENPHO, I have done a little traveling and exploring on the weekends. Our first weekend we went to Nagarkot, which is about 2 hours East of Kathmandu. The Fort Resort, where we stayed supposedly has views of the surrounding mountains, including Everest, but it was so cloudy, we couldn't see anything. We took a 12 km hike to a lookout tower, but there too we couldn't see a thing.
That following Monday, my first full week at ENPHO has an interesting story...
I left the house as usual, but it was eerily quiet. There were no cars, no taxis, no trucks on the road- only people walking and a few motorbikes. I was confused my entire walk to the office. I thought "Did I miss a memo? Is it a no-automobile holiday or something?" I saw a road blocked off and then saw people re-spraying the traffic lines on the road, but further down there were still no cars on what is usually a hectic road. In the last stretch of my walk, I saw a familiar face. It was Silli, another volunteer at ENPHO. We walked the rest of the way to the office and found the gate locked. It turns out the "no auto-mobile holiday" was actually a city-wide protest/strike called banda. So I turned around and walked all the way home, where we stayed the rest of the day under Ba Oy's orders. The next day there was news in the paper of protestors attacking cars, even cars with people on the way to the hospital, and protestors deflating tires of bikes. I don't remember the cause of this particular banda. Bandas are fairly frequent, but usually contained to only a part of the city.
On our second weekend- we spent Saturday walking around the city sight seeing and shopping. Sunday we went to Baktapur, a historical city not too far from Kathmandu. As foreigners we had to pay a steep $10 entrance fee to the city. We spent the day walking around taking pictures of temples. We saw various stages of the wood carving industry. All of the windows in BaktapurMichelle and I went in search of the "Peacock Window" which is supposedly the most famous/best carved window in the Kathmandu Valley. Next door was a paper-making factory- so we got a tour of how they make the hand-made paper that Nepal is famous for.


This past weekend we went to Patan, where Margo, Michelle, and I went to the Rato Machhendranath Festival. Machhendranath supposedly has power over the rain, so the festival is a plea for good rain. A tall wood-carved tree-looking temple is paraded around by a chariot for a month. We caught the last day in which the Prime Minster and President and other government officials participate in the "showing of the sacred vest." It was all very confusing because we couldn't see very well, but we could see a guy holding up a black vest and the crowd clapping and cheering.
On our way back from the festival we ate a type of street food called poni puri. They start as little hollow balls. The vendor uses his thumb to poke a hole and then pours in an unknown liquidy mixture and hands it to the customer on a plate, and keeps handing you them until you've had your portion. They were ok, but the next day they didn't feel so ok anymore. I ended up sick for 2 days and cautious with what I ate for the next 2, so today is my first day of 3 meals all week. I'm glad to say I feel much better after stomach issues, caused by (I'm assuming) the poni puri.
This week I've finished up the reports I was working on for the wastewater treatment plants at work. Yesterday was my last day. I didn't have anything to work on but I went in for lunch and to say goodbye. Lunch was a feast. On top of the usual dishes, there was just as many desserts and snacks. After lunch, lots of pictures, and gifts, most everyone hung around and talked. It was sad to leave when I feel like I was making friends. If timing had been different, I could have seen myself staying here and volunteering for longer. I really enjoy what I do at ENPHO, and I've learned a lot...who knows, maybe I'll be back!


We leave in about 2 minutes...a month in Nepal sure went by fast!