“waiting on the world to change” Saturday, Sep 30 2006

This post comes perhaps a few days late. (The first time I came to blog, there was a blackout)

The video team and Xiaobin had a pretty good experience in Nepalgunj, West Nepal in our 3 days there (Sunday to Tuesday)…

The video team visited several community radio stations, the first one being 3 hours drive away. I think I speak for all of us when I say the bumpy (and painful for tiffy) ride was one of the most fun we had in this trip! It was like a simulated theme park ride through the rough terrains of rural Nepal on pathways not made for cars to drive through. I was too busy holding on to the seats to bring out my motion sickness.

We had an excellent Mafia-looking driver who manouvered a 4 Wheel Drive skillfully on a 2-way road that’s probably only big enough for one-way traffic. On our 2-hour “shortcut” drive back, we drove through the evening, catching the horizon lights on our way…we even managed to catch a hyena crossing the road..no kidding. And a rabbit that enjoyed being chased by our vehicle. O what fun these city mice had.

While I did manage to catch maybe a 10-minute snooze time on our long journey in the vehicle, the rest of the time was spent spacing out on the scenery and doing some “emotional observation”..

….after having visited rural areas and seeing how these people are kept busy just barely surviving…and now after having visited a community school that was struggling with a half-built building…and the principal telling us that children in the villages are more encouraged to work instead of study since it would be an instant solution to surviving in their state of poverty, it makes me feel a tad helpless…that even if I feel affected by these, that even if I wanted to help, how much can I do?

I just think that kids in these rural areas need to know that there can be a better life out there for them instead of crushing stones all day…But then again, if they knew that there was a better life out there for them, it might make them more miserable since it’s almost fact that this “better life” is barely within reach for most of them. Most are contented to survive day to day earning just enough.

I used to have big ideals about journalism, that writing about problems of the world would make people sit up, pay attention and “do something”. But now I’ve realised that by writing about an issue, most people only sit up and pay attention. Not many of us will actually “do something”. And by writing about issues, who are we, as journalists, to tell others to change the world when what we’re doing rarely does so?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be cynical about the value of journalism, (or maybe I am)…I still think it’s a noble profession/passion to have, I’m just wrestling with the decision of whether I have what it takes to pursue it seriously.

I think having been in very close proximity to poverty during this trip will wake my senses up even more when I get back. That while those I’ve met in the villages may not know that there is a better life out there for them, I should keep in mind that there is a lesser way of life out there that I don’t always see. And knowing that, I will somehow always commit myself to encourage better change, even in the littlest ways.

I suppose my first step at having “the right mentality” is to promise myself that I will never fall into the category of people out there who are just simply (as John Mayer would sing) waiting on the world to change.

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flipping through the travel journal Friday, Sep 29 2006

i’m finally sitting in front of the computer typing my heart away.

Let me give you a sense of the place now using my different senses so you guys can run along in this journey with us.

The internet cafe is playing some oldies at the moment. Don’t know what song is this but the previous one was “Sweet Home Alabama”. There isn’t any air-con here (information for you spoilt Singaporeans back there), the weather is cooling cos I’m in the shade. The sun here is merciless but who’s complaining? It’s good for our video! I hear horns erupting periodically from the road downstairs and my stomach is growling for some food.

I haven’t had the chance to blog about my own experience so bear with me. This is going to be an epic piece.

I’ve been carrying a travel journal with me and jotting about what I’ve been doing and how i’ve been feeling every step of the way. So let me just flip that for you… Aha!

As you would know by now, the video team and Xiaobin went to Nepal Gunj (West Nepal) on the 2nd day we arrived. I guess the part stuck most in my head was as we were travelling back to our hotel in our bumpy road trip, I had the honour of appreciating one of nature’s beautiful scenes.

We took the trip back and I decided to keep my eyes open for two reasons.

1. It was just impossible to sleep with the tailbone crying for mercy.

2. How often do you get a chance like this to come to Nepal and experience what you have been experiencing? No way am i going to fall asleep and waste my time. I’m seizing every moment man.

And just as i stared out of the open, i saw… the last light in the Nepali sky.

The crimson brush across the blue background provided the backdrop to a possible romantic situation. It was just gorgeous. I didn’t want to spoil that moment and take a picture of it cos sometimes pictures just don’t do justice to the experience. So I committed the image into my memory and I’m going to be very selfish about it and relive it alone as and when i start having my “I miss Nepal” moments.

The domestic airport in Nepal is far different from the international one. Here they check your bags manually and frisk you instead of relying on sensors, but hey, i don’t have any issue with that.

We had another fantastic intepreter when we were in Nepal Gunj. Special mention to Rudra who’s a native there. He’s 27 and a father of a 6 month old baby. We had a chat with him once and he asked when we intend to get married. Hmmm.. I wonder too. The guy had an arranged marriage and his views are very different from us. Though he’s a journalist and rather modernised, he feels very strongly for arranged marriages. He loves the idea of it and encourages the whole see-your-spouse-on-the-day-you-get-married. To him, love marriages usually result in divorces and not for arranged marriages. It’s just so interesting seeing things from his point of view and realise that the world is really bigger than you think it is.

We had a chance to meet several Maoists in Nepal Gunj as well and it was definitely unnerving, at least for me. Like hello, how often do you see someone on the streets carrying an AK47 and talking to you? So yes, I mustered up my courage and my best smile. But I was definitely reassured when our two intepreters Rudra and Kopila told me i just had to ask for their permission before we shoot or they might shoot.

Nepal Gunj is very much like Dading (our stone quarry). Houses far apart, mud bricks, fields etc.

Back in Kathmandu, I felt instantly at home. Yeah, I’m the one with the “I miss Nepal” problem remember?

Travelling back to Dading on the familiar roads, there was a sense of nostalgia and the sick feeling that this is the last trip there kicked in. Yeah I’m a sob story.

I met Granny again (our profile’s grandmother) and I choked when I called out to her, “Namaste Azurama!” (Hello granny!) She’s this sweet little thing who never fails to look at me in the eye with so much love as we communicate in my halting Nepali and gestures. We gave the family photographs we developed from our previous trip and all of us relived the great times we had.

Before I left, I had to touch Granny’s feet. Heard from Shyam that it is a form of respect you give to people in this culture. Shouts of “Namaste” rang as we kept turning back to take in one last look at the house in the middle of the glossy green paddy field.

It was terrible saying goodbye and I’m never one good at that. It’s a skill God has forgotten to give me. We held Ram’s (our profile) hands and thanked him for the wonderful experience and generous hospitality and as he thanked us, the moment froze.

We didn’t speak the same language but as we vocalized our smattering blend of Nepali and English, the emotions and gratitude spoke the bulk of the story. I promised that if I get the chance to come to Nepal one day, I will visit the family again and that’s a promise I don’t intend to break.

3 more days and we are going home.

If you ask me, at this point this feels like home.

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Nepalgunj: Of killer heat, giant mosquitoes and 4WDs Friday, Sep 29 2006

When we 1st touched down in Kathmandu on the23rd, the weather was really cold. Hence, for that reason perhaps, I expected Nepalgunj to be colder (the last time we were here, Kathmandu was very hot, and people told me that it’ll be hotter in Nepalgunj, hence my reasoning is that if it’s cold in Kathmandu, it’s colder in Nepalgunj).

With that in mind, I packed for the cold, even borrowing an extra sweater from Melanie. Thus, it came as a humongous shock when I stepped out of the plane in Nepalgunj and was greeted with a 31 degrees temperature and a cloudless sky, with the sun beating merciless down on us. Immediately, i took off my jacket as I was ‘glowing’ like a pig. I was totally not prepared for the heat.

Later in the hotel we were staying in, I learnt that Nepalgunj will be colder than Kathmandu only in winter which is a couple of months away. In fact, to the locals, 31 degrees is considered to be cooling as the usual temperature is around 42 degrees!! The only saving grace was that there was air con in the hotel, hence the heat was more tolerable (from what I can see on the way to the hotel called Traveller’s Village, ran by an eccentric American-Nepali, it’s either this or really really rundown motels that looked really dubious from outside).

However, the 1st night at the hotel, there was 3 blackouts throughout the night! the utter silence when all the electronic applicances stop working would wake me up each time. When the electricity was down, it would become v v warm in my room and I would kick off my blanket – this led to me waking up with angry red bites on my legs the next day. (incidentally, I thought the electronic mosquito repellent was air fresherner – it really looked like one – and hence neglected to plug it in). The mosquitoes there were all so huge I thought they were flies.. Oops…

The next morning, we were to go to a community radios station in the district of Dang, a 3 hour drive from Traveller’s Village. The road was also quite rough at parts, hence a 4 Wheel Drive is needed. The ride was great, and the driver very skilled. The trip there was actually quite smooth. However, on the return trip, we took a shortcut that cut through the mountains, going up and down a rocky trail – this was where driving a 4WD really came in handy. It was like sitting on a 1 hour roller-coaster ride. Poor Tiffy sitting behind was complaining that she had no tailbone left by the end of the very rough portion of the ride. But it was a really exciting ride and not one we would ever take in Singapore as Singapore has no mountains, much less rough rocky trails – nuff said!

And that ends this entry about killer heat, giant mosquitoes and 4WDs. More on Nepalgunj to come.

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My experience with the Yeti Thursday, Sep 28 2006

We’re back from Nepal Gunj and I have more stories to tell later when I don’t have to rush off for an interview.

I have to say that Yeti Airlines was not as horrible as we imagined it to be. According to Shyam, we were lucky enough to have our flights on its newest planes. (There are three airlines that deals with internal flights within Nepal – Cosmic, Buddha and Yeti, and Yeti Airlines has a notorious record for the most number of airplane crashes. But it’s the Dasain Festival and Nepalis are also fighting to get airplane tickest, so beggars can’t be choosers. We got Yeti Airlines.)

But it really wasn’t too bad. It was a small plane, with a capacity of less than 40 people, so it was funny to see the plane having a service button where you press if you require the help of the stewardess. We were laughing about how once anyone’s hand reaches for the button, the stewardess would have seen it and gone over immediately.

The engines were really noisy and it was really funny to see the stewardess hand out cottons balls for us to stuff into our ears. We weren’t very sure what to do with them when we saw it so Tiffy had to ask if we were supposed to put them into our ears.

Take off and landing wasn’t too bad also. And it was beautiful to see the mountain ranges from such a near distance.

Anyway, got to go. More updates later on!

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