We have been out of touch, but all for a good cause. We are happy to report that we have obtained
a visa for a year. That process occupied
18 days of the last four weeks. Six of
those days were spent traveling to and from Kathmandu – a day-long trip on
crowded and cramped public buses. Who
would ever have thought that a middle seat on USAIR out of Philadelphia could
be made to seem posh?
The other twelve days were spent following our visa application
within and between ministries and departments, with much of that time spent
waiting for letters, waiting for signatures, waiting for official stamps, and waiting
because we were told to wait. We have
some amazing stories to tell, few of which are fit for print. We will say here only that it was a
remarkable process, the memory of which needs to fade before we are ready to do
it all over again next year.
We would not have made it past step one had it not been for
the tremendous help we received. Hari
Ram Devkota, the principal of the Shree Dumre Lower Secondary School, advocated
for us in Kathmandu and Gorkha Bazaar despite being sick…. Ramji Giri was with us every step of the
way. The consummate schmoozer, he never
took ‘no’ for an answer and moved the process forward even when there wasn’t a
clear path…. The Giri family in
Kathmandu offered a refuge every evening after long days and reminded us why we
are in Nepal. Their willingness to
activate networks and mobilize resources on our behalf was awesome and
humbling…. As we went through a series
of fire drills, Ted Rowland and son Jonah provided critical logistical support
from the States…. A heartfelt ‘thank
you’ to all.
So we are good to stay until the end of August, 2013. And now we can focus our efforts on teaching,
which if we recall correctly was the reason we came to Nepal in the first
place.
In other news…. Our
solar hot water system has been installed.
Buckets of cold water over the head are fine in the hot, sticky monsoon
but a hot shower will be appreciated as the weather changes…. One indication of the changing seasons: the
clouds to the north lifted long enough this morning to discover that we can see
Manaslu Himal from our second-story porch….
Nepal has an ongoing electricity shortage and Dharapaani often goes two,
three, or four days without power. It is
inconvenient, but it is what it is. But
it has also meant that the carpenter is unable to work on our furniture. We have a cabinet upstairs for our clothes,
but downstairs we feel like we are still camping out…. Of all the adjustments we have had to make,
one of the most difficult (not yet made) has been learning to share a very
hard, 40”-wide bed, a sleeping arrangement that Malinda refers to as “two
bodies on a morgue slab.” We may do
something about it at some point, but it is not a priority right now. (Note to Jonah and Elijah: do not marry a sprawler.)…. We are getting more proficient at cooking with local materials and tools. Daughter-in-law Biraspati has taken on the task of teaching us and that has been fun. Our latest efforts have earned from her only a Thikai ('okay') rating, but with practice we hope to earn a more enthusiastic response.... Malinda’s Nepali is coming along fine. She understands more of what is said to her,
and her responses are climbing on the understanding-to-quizzical-looks
ratio. She is getting the hang of
putting verbs at the end of sentences where they belong. Most impressively, she bravely plunges into
speaking even when she has no clear idea of where the sentence is going.... Apologies for the lack of photos in this post. For some reason our data service lately has been operating at sub-kbps speeds.
With the visas secured, we feel like we can reboot our lives
here and get on with why we came. On
Friday, we made the long, awful trip from Kathmandu and arrived in Dharapaani
in the early evening. As we were greeted
by our family and unlocked our door, we had that delicious feeling of being
home, followed by a marathon session of killing spiders that had taken over in our absence.
"Married couples, both 60 years old, were celebrating their 35th anniversary. During their party, a fairy appeared to congratulate them and grant them each one a wish. The wife wanted to travel around the world. The fairy waved her wand and poof -- the wife had tickets in her hand for a world cruise. Next, the fairy asked the husband what he wanted. He said, "I wish I had a wife 30 years younger than me." So the fairy picked up her wand and poof -- the husband was 90."
ReplyDeleteMake sure you wish for the right things when the fairy (or genie) appears. Quinn
Congratulations on receiving your visa! I thoroughly enjoy your updates. I look forward to sampling your Nepali cooking on your return. By the way, your plants have fared well outside on our deck. Eliot's wedding was a moving rite of passage and fun too. I look forward to more updates. Love, Donna
ReplyDeleteMalinda, "buckets of cold water" could describe the Lake Mistastin bathing, I presume? xxoo, Emily
ReplyDelete