Garbage

It turns out that I was wrong about the garbage situation: the garbage collectors were not protesting the load shedding. According to the Himalayan Times, there were a bunch of people striking in an effort to get some Maoists brought to justice following the murder of a journalist. (Such things are quite common in a country where you elect a bunch of terrorists to run the country.) The picket line was cutting off access to the landfill site where Kathmandu’s garbage goes. They obviously had to stop collecting the garbage as there was nowhere to take it. Kathmandu produces 10 tons of garbage a day so things were getting pretty rank after 25 days of this. The good news is that garbage collection has resumed and they are gradually working their way through the city cleaning things up. Garbage collection here is done with shovels and pickup trucks – it’s got to be the most horrible job in the world especially 25 days into the composting process. Of course it’s a long process and there are still some nasty messes, but it’s getting better. Strangely (or not), the reason for resumption of the service stated in the Himalayan Times had nothing to do with a strike or access to the landfill. Frankly, I have no idea what the heck was going on so I’ll just stop trying to explain it. (The English language newspapers here are so poorly written and riddled with undecipherable acronyms that they often leave you less informed than you were before you read them.)

In other good news, I think that I may have new living arrangements in a month or so. Nothing has been confirmed yet so I won’t go into detail but I’m really hoping it works out. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Warming Up

The last few days have been a bit warmer and it feels like the edge has gone off winter. I’m not sure if we’re having a “January thaw” or if it we have truly turned a corner. Whatever is going on, it’s nice that it’s a bit warmer, especially since we don’t have much artificial heat.

The load-shedding schedule has changed again and we are getting 12 more hours of electricity per week. This is coming in three four-hour blocks, one of which is from midnight to 4:00 AM on Wednesdays and doesn’t really do me much good. One of the blocks, however, is from noon – 4:00 on Saturdays, which is an absolute joy: I am at home and can actually get stuff done during that time slot.

The highlight of my week was the “unofficial inaugural ball” on Tuesday. It was a lovely affair and we had a live feed from Washington on two big screens in the ballroom. I fall more in love with Obama every time I see him. The crowd at the ball reacted to him like he was a rock star - they burst into cheers every time he appeared on the screen (and booed every time Bush did). I have yet to hear anyone speak a negative word about Obama; he seems to have cast a spell over the entire world.

I continue to struggle with upsetting news from home and am frustrated that I am helpless to do anything but sit and wait for each new email. It is difficult to be so far from home at times like these.

That’s it for this week. Sorry it’s not more exciting, but life has become fairly routine for me.

Darkness and Light

It has been a strange week. The load shedding schedule changed as expected and we're now up to 16 hours without electricity per day. The power is on for two four-hour blocks, one of which is usually in the middle of the night. It is increasingly difficult to get hot water for a shower and to warm up the apartment by a few degrees. There are protests about the power situation all the time; the streets are constantly congested and it's generally really hard to get around. On top of that, the garbage collectors aren't picking up the trash. I'm not sure what the deal is on that (I'm horrible about reading the papers) but I think they're also protesting the lack of electricity. Given that garbage just gets thrown onto the street daily without the benefit of bags, it's getting pretty nasty around here. Ah, the joys of Kathmandu.

I received some upsetting news from home this week, which has added to my frustrations. As the week progressed, the news got a bit better, but I'm still feeling quite uninformed and am struggling with being so far away. With the power outages as they are, it's difficult to communicate by email or Skype. I am hopefull that I'll have a good conversation with my mother later today and that it will ease my mind a bit. (I am writing this from an internet cafe as my power is off from 8AM - 4PM today. It's quite maddening to be paying for internet service at home and then having to go to an internet cafe and pay to use the internet there.)

Lest this all sound too depressing, let me reassure you that it's not all doom and gloom. I have made the acquaintance of a Scottish woman named Jackie who has been living here for some time. She has taken me under her wing and is getting me out and about in Kathmandu. I am meeting a lot of new people and attending some nice events. It's really good to have my social life pick up a bit, especially since there is so little to do on my own these days other than curl up under the covers with my headlamp and a book. I am spending a ridiculous amount of time in bed trying to stay warm. On Tuesday night we are attending the "Unofficial Inaugural Ball" in honour of Obama's swearing in. I am looking forward to it and hope to connect with more of the expat community. Last night we went to see "Slumdog Millionaire" - I recommend it for the not-too-faint-hearted among you.

Last Thursday and Friday, something went terribly wrong at the power company and I got an extra 3 hours of electricity both days. (It could be that they were making up for depriving me of three precious hours last Friday, but I can't imagine they're that organised.) I was at work on Thursday so it didn't affect me too much but I was home on Friday and had power from 9AM until 4PM. It was a miracle. I didn't get off my butt for 7 hours and had my heater, TV and the computer turned on the whole time. I refuse to apologize for this. At 4 I went and ran some errands and then had a couple of drinks in Thamel, barhopping so that I could visit Nepalese friends who work in various establishments. I'm not sure if the extended electricity boosted my mood or if there was some other factor at play, but I was just in a fabuous mood and I had a great time. I decided to walk home, which I don't normally do late at night. I put on my MP3 player and sang and danced my way home. Sadly, I learned that dancing your way home late at night in Kathmandu tends to attract unwanted attention (as it likely would anywhere), so in future I'll try to contain my nocturnal expressions of joy. I always feel safe here, but there's no sense tempting fate. I had to peel one amorous little man off me several times, and turned down an offer of $200 for sex from another guy on a motorcycle. The offer was presented in a particularly coarse way and my refusal was equally harsh. The guy was so surprised that I was rejecting him that I have to assume that his approach has been successful in the past. I guess $200 can be pretty tempting here - probably more than two month's rent to the average Nepali. Nothing like this has ever happened to me here before and I have to attribute it to my overt displays of happiness. Perhaps I looked stoned and like an easy mark?

Things have also sorted themselves out at work. I am now comfortable with what is expected of me and feel that I can make a useful contribution. Some issues turned out differently than expected, and while disappointed at first, I am now seeing that everything is happening for the best. I have asked not to be put in a teaching role anymore as being in the classroom was just a fate worse than death for me. I will still do some one-on-one tutoring, which I enjoy, but they'll have to find someone else to fill in when teachers call in sick. That has been a huge weight off my shoulders, and I wonder why it's so hard to admit that I am so uncomfortable teaching. It just seems so unacceptable, kind of like not wanting children.

We have put together a schedule for running the generator at the college, and I have worked my schedule around it. For the time being I will have power for about 6-7 hours of my work day, which means I can be really productive. While I don't want to do personal business at work, I can at least check emails and feel a bit more connected to home.

Aaaaaaaargh!

It's Friday so I'm not at the college today. The power was off from 8AM - 2PM and again from 8PM - 2AM so I thought I'd run some errands in the morning and spend the afternoon working on personal and business stuff. I made it to the post office and got my second box of clothes and shoes. It also had some surprise chocolate and well-intentioned but somewhat late Christmas decorations. It was great to get it all, and the process went much smoother this time than the last. It was also cheaper to pick up this box than the last - no idea why.

I went out again around lunchtime to drop off my laundry and have a salad for lunch. (I'm too lazy to treat my raw veggies here, so once a week or so I go out to a reputable restaurant for a salad that I know someone else has taken the time to treat.) On my way back I stopped in for a pedicure. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the Kathmandu roads and my lack of closed shoes have taken their toll; the pedicure was a necessity not a luxury. I got home at about 3:20 expecting to have almost 5 hours of computer time. I didn't even have time to boot my laptop when the power went out again and I have no idea when it might come back on. The bottom line is that I had a total of about 1.5 hours of electricity today, and I wasn't home for any of it. I am posting this from an internet cafe which is powered by a generator.

I'm not sure what is going on, but I have to assume that the load-shedding schedule has been changed again. We are likely up to 16 hours per day without power now but I have no way of knowing. The power company typically makes these changes late on a Friday so that they can go away and not deal with the fallout for a couple of days. They generally post the new schedule a few days after the change has been made. It's really very frustrating, and I have to tell you I was almost in tears when the power went off this afternoon. It's getting pretty disheartening. I also just got my "letter of appointment" at work (sort of like a SOW for those of you in the consulting industry)and it looks like I'm expected to be superman on campus. I just don't know how I can possibly achieve even 10% of what they're expecting with no access to my computer or the internet.

On top of that, I have a bunch of emails from friends and family sitting in my inbox. I was planning to spend this afternoon responding to them, as I have so little time to do personal business during the work week. Needless to say, they are all still sitting there unanswered. If any of you are reading this, please know that I value your mail so much and I'm not deliberately ignoring you. As soon as I have time I'll reply to your letters.

Okay, I have to run and get some other stuff done while I have internet access.

Happy New Year

I know it’s been ages since I wrote. So many times I’ve thought “I’ve got to put this in my blog” but it never seems to happen. The truth is that with the power off for 12 hours per day, when I do finally get to sit down at my computer there is so much to do that blogging gets put on the back burner. Right now the power is off so I can’t really do anything else, and I have a bit of battery time left on my laptop so I thought I’d write a bit and post it when the power comes back on.

New Year’s Eve was a bizarre day for me. I wasn’t at my best physically and I was in a total funk emotionally. On top of a bunch of little irritants, I was convinced that I had had yet another cell phone stolen, and this time on campus. I started questioning everything I was doing here and wondering why I would stay in a country where I was trying to help and was rewarded in this way. The good news is that by the en d of the day I was proven wrong (my phone had fallen behind a bookshelf) which helped my mood considerably. Of course I felt guilty for suspecting the students but fortunately I hadn’t made it public so no harm was done. I wasn’t sure if I felt like celebrating the new year or not, but since the power was off at home, I decided I should at least go somewhere where the lights were on. (I often take myself out for dinner when the power’s off at home – it just gets so dismal sitting and eating in the dark night after night.) When I finally found my phone, there were a few texts from the young girls I had spent Christmas Eve with, so I decided to join them in Thamel. It was a fun night of pub crawling and I’m glad that I made the decision to go out. Still, it didn’t totally lift my spirits and I am only now returning back to the land of the light-hearted.

I am not oblivious to the fact that we create our own moods, so I knew I couldn’t totally attribute my blues to the season, the darkness, the cold and the power cuts. I made some resolutions to look after my emotional health and have started to put them into practice. Last Saturday I went out to Bouddhanath, the temple in the Tibetan refugee part of town. Once you pass the gates onto the grounds of this temple, you truly feel like you’re in Tibet. The stupa is frequented mostly by Tibetans, and all the shops in the vicinity sell Tibetan goods. There is a wonderful vibe there and it’s nice to escape into the Buddhist world. I plan to visit as regularly as possible.

Later that night, I went out for dinner to find some light and warmth. I’m getting to know the local restaurants and often don’t venture as far as Thamel if I just want to escape the darkness. There’s a great pizza place around the corner that has gas heaters and a very cozy atmosphere (and also a decent house wine!). I enjoyed a really nice meal and could feel my spirits lift as I sat there. I’m not sure what element of the day held the magic: the visit to Bouddhanath, the two glasses of wine, the beginning of a new year, the 10 extra minutes of power we had that evening or the leather loafers and socks I was wearing. Whatever the reason, it was great to feel happy again.

A note about the loafers. I had a friend at home box up some of my winter clothes and shoes and send them to me. They sat in Canadian customs for ages before finally being sent here, and for some reason the two boxes arrived about a week apart. Only one of them has made its way to the post office, and I spent about 2 hours in yet another Nepalese ritual of insanity trying to pick it up. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to have warm clothes that fit and aren’t trekking gear. I wore the loafers out with my regular jeans and felt like a princess simply because I wasn’t in flip-flops or ratty old running shoes. I’m now wearing pumps and pantyhose to work, which has similarly boosted my sense of self-esteem. I’ll pick up the other box on Friday – can’t wait to find what’s in it.

As for work, it is definitely proving interesting and challenging. There is just so much that we take for granted that cannot be taken for granted here. The culture and education systems are entirely different and I often feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall. Obviously there are some big issues, but I’m talking mostly about little things, like when you create a calendar you arrange it in 7-day weeks, preferably starting on a Sunday. The class schedule for this semester was arranged starting on Thursday, January 1 and running 11 days across. (And yes, they do operate on 7-day weeks here just like we do.) Anyway, you can imagine some of the obstacles I’m facing, given that my main role at the college is to organise everyone and keep them in line. As one friend at home said, it’s like pushing a rope uphill. On the plus side, I am getting to know the students better and am helping to implement processes and activities that are definitely having a positive effect.

Okay, the power is back on so I have to do some work. I’ll try to be more diligent in my blogging, but if you don’t hear from me it’s likely just due to the constraints of load-shedding.