Namaste!

 It has been quite a while since I posted anything so I thought I would update on how my mandate is going with the Centre for Micro-Finance, here in Kathmandu Nepal.
People warned me of the fact that the Nepalese work a bit slower and are more social in the office compared to Western standards. This I have discovered is a myth. I actually find the speed of work the same compared to back home in Canada. The Nepalese people work hard here!  a friend here explained to me that Nepalese people think that time is circular, therefor whatever you do not get done today you can get done tommorow…but this does not mean they slack off at all. The Nepalese are very hard working! This does not mean they aren’t warm and welcoming in the office though. They just have a very good balance  in the office environment. Perhaps we can learn something from them and realise that perhaps having to schedule coffee breaks a week in advance at home is a bit too schedule driven. Although I have been warned not to compare Nepal to things back home, I thought comparing office environments was interesting because there is not much difference.

Now on to what I have been doing for my mandate. I have been tasked with documenting the experiences and lessons learned of the Centre for Micro-Finance from the years of 1998 (its establishment) to 2011. Wow this is a bigger task then I thought it would be! One lesson I personally learnt with this task is that not every organization has their resources organized, managed, readibly available and easy to find.  I know now that it was very naive of me to think that I would come and have a pile of hard copy reports to sort through, read, and write about. Nope! instead I have been on a treasure hunt to track down any copies of any project the Centre has. This includes sorting through shelves upon sheves of books and reports without a management information system in place. Kind of like if you were to go to the library and not have access to the catalogue system. It has been proven pretty difficult. Even asking staff has been difficult because a majority of the staff was not working at the Centre in the Centre’s early development and existence.

So far my experience with the centre has kind of made me think abotu what I want to do once I am done with my undergrad and Ottawa u. Dalhousie's School of Information Management has been calling my name and I might pursue a masters related to that and somehow try to apply it to my field of studies of Human Rights. Maybe I can take up a job as a librarian for my field and help the NGOs in developping countries manage their information. Networking and sharing of best practices becomes very limited when you can not find where you have kept your information...which is a big shame when the NGOs are trying to learn from each others experiences and avoid hte same mistakes twice. Ok ok I am officially done my rant :)
Needless to say, I have been working with my mandate for about 2 months now and I am way behind schedule due to my difficulties in finding information. I just really hope I can get caught up eventually and be able to succesfully complete my mandate. I know it is a common fear among other interns that we will not successfully complete our mandates. I wonder if any other interns have had  a similar experience. I am sure it is a common problem to arrive in a new country and have limited knowledge and power to attain the information but be expected to work through a mandate despite.

I have been fortunate enough though to be placed within a work environment that I can not complain about. The staff is very friendly and are eager to help me out anyway that they can. One worry that I know other interns I had spoken to back home prio to my departure did not actually follow me to Nepal.  Tehre were numerous discussions about worrying about whther or not our mandate would change upon our arrival in the country. We were provided limited knowledge about what our tasks would be at our respective organizations and warned that mandates usually change by the time of your arrival. So far my mandate has not changed. I was also warned prior to leaving Canada that our mandates would most likely change once we arrived in our country. I have been lucky that my mandate has not changed so what I am experiencing I somewhat expected.

I will continue to blog about my experiences here at the Centre for Micro-Finance.  I think the next blog will be about the role the Centre for Micro-Finance has played within the micro-finance sector in Nepal reaching out to the poor.

Adios for now!

Nagarkot

This weekend, Jean-Michel, Nabin, his wife Rita, and I went to Nagarkot for one night. Nagarkot is located approximately 28 km away from Kathmandu and its the Nepali weekend get away destination. There is not much there but people go for the scenery.

You can see the Himalayan mountain range up close (on a non cloudy day).

 

Getting to Nagarkot is a challenge. Nabin wanted to give us the authentic (and very inexpensive way) to get to Ngarakot by local bus so we were up for it. The local buses are known for their horrible driving and this weekend once again proved their inability to properly drive with minimal safety precautions. It took us 4 buses to get the Nagarkot but we were only part of one accident(fewf). I am actually surprised I have not seen more accidents in the one month that I have been here. Somehow, the people are able to get from point A to point B alive. I guess it is all relative to where you live because in Canada, we are very strict about road rules. If you were to follow any road rules here in Kathmandu you would probably be a big danger to other drivers because you would be the only following any type of rules.

We were going down the one highway in Kathmandu known as Ring road and our bus suddenly swerved into the oncoming traffic lane..I think he was attempting to pass a car that was in front of us by going into oncoming traffic. I guess a motorcycle was in the lane for the on coming traffic and we swerved so far to the right and into the other lane that the motorcycle actually got hit on the left side of the bus. We had completely gone across to the opposite side of the road.

We ran over the bike which made for a bumpy ride and we eventually stopped. The minute we stopped, people surrounded the bus. The driver got off the bus and a witness to the scene started attacking him!  I have never seen Nepali people get physical...they are very non confrontational to the point where they find it very difficult to say no to someone or state something that would develop into an argument. So I was very surprised to see people trying to attack the bus driver. Nabin went around the back of the bus to see the condition of the motorcyclist and he ran back to us and made us quickly follow him away from the scene...apparently it was pretty gruesome but the guy is expected to live because he was fortunate enough that he did not get "sucked under" the bus as Nabin explains is what usually happens when a bus hits a motorcycle. We saw a couple ambulances on the way though so I felt a bit better.

After the accident, we were once again on our way. The rest of the trip was very fun because we got to got seats on another bus and so many people were headed up to Nagarkot that people ended up riding on the roof of the bus (about 12 people were on the roof). The roof would not be my choice because the winding hill up to Nagarkot is very steep and is pretty much a single lane. It is very difficult to pass cars on this road and if a bus is to go off road, the bus ends up rolling down the side.

Nagarkots one main road

View from hotel on part of Nagarkot village

we arrived in Nagarkot around 3 and took a rest. We eventually went for a walk to see the sunset which was beautiful. It was a shame that it was a bit cloudy but I was still able to get a few good photos. We enjoyed dinner at our hotel afterwards and went to bed early so we could wake up to see the sunrise. 



The view from our hotel balcony. You are supposed to be able to see white capped mountains to the left but the clouds were covering it. We briefly saw them in the morning which was nice!



We woke up around 4:45 and the sun was slowly coming up behind clouds and made a brief appearance. By 6 am though the clouds had started climbing up the mountains and even surrounded our hotel completely. Our hotel was probably one of the best picked hotels in Nagarkot. The hotel was situated on the side of a steep hill and every room has a mountain view from the balcony. It is also in the middle of no where so there are no barking dogs, no honking horns, no funky smells from the piles of garbage and no roosters in the morning. In fact, where Nagrakot is situated, it reminded me a lot of Banff. The trees in Nagarkot and in that part of Nepal are pine trees . The air so fresh and it is really relaxing there because there are very few people there. And! Don't worry, they do sell goat heads in case you were wondering.



mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy!



On our way back to Nagarkot we hiked for about 2-3 hours to reach the oldest Hindu Temple in Nepal. it is known as Changu Narayan, and is the most ancient pilgrimage site of Kathmandu Valley. It is also a world Heritage site. The history of the site dates back to 3rd Century AD!!! It is a 2 storied temple made out of stone in what I consider the middle of no where. Where the temple is now, there is only a very small village with one street that stretches on for a few kilometres. But when the temple was first constructed, it was a village of 700 people.

Waiting for our bus :)

 The four entrances of the temple are guarded by life size pairs of animal like lions and elephants. The hike up to here was pretty fun because this area of Nepal does not get many foreigners so we got to see local people carrying on with their daily lives...there were a lot of Shepherd's with goats which were fun to watch and say hello to. Nepali people are extremely friendly so it is really enjoyable to talk with them. Check out how cute the babies are!

Funny Things in Nepal

Today I thought I would write about some of the funniest things I have noticed in Nepal. Well they are things i think are funny...you may not find them as funny as I do. I happen to be entertained very easily :) I will continuously add to this post as I come across more.

First up is the monkeys. I went back to monkey temple on Saturday and got a few good shots of the monkeys and one short video. The monkeys are very photogenic and love the cameras. I have been warned that you have to be careful around them because they like to steal shiny objects....kind of like humans! I got a few photos of a freshly born baby monkey hanging out with his parents and if you watch the video you can see his dad cleaning him but digging in his fur. Also notice how casual the monkeys pose for the camera.

2nd Funny Thing : THE POWERLINES

Nepal does not provide the best power (load shedding) and I think I know why. Look at the pictures below. Notice anything that does not look too safe? Often you can walk into lines that are dangling and lying partly on the ground as well.

Third Item: Meat anyone?

How about a goat head for dinner MOM? It is very tiny but there is a small goat head with teeth intact sitting on that table. Next time I am in Thamel I will try to get a closer picture. Goat heads are a delicacy here. Beside the goat head in the picture is other animal meat slabs laying out on the table for the day. They don't refrigerate the meet here...they just sell it on the street like you see in the picture. You only refrigerate it when you get home I guess.

Item #4 : The Washrooms

GROSS GROSS GROSS

I do not need to write anything because I think the photo is self explanatory

Item 5: The Driving

I am used to the driving by now but I am still getting used to the safety standards for driving. Only the driver wears a helmet and the children seem to sometimes ride on the handlebars or sandwiched between parents. Check out the photo below I got when I was sitting in a Taxi on the way to Buddha's birthday. 4 people on a bike seems to be the maximum they do around here.

Item #6: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The cows are everywhere and they can stop traffic :)

Item #7: The heatttttttttttt and sun

This is not so much funny as it is painful and inconvenient. But I think it is partly funny because somewhere along the way while packing I did not think to bring sunscreen or any aloe vera...apparently i thought they wouldn't have more intense sun here. WRONG! Check out my bubbly skin I got from a burn this weekend. I think this is what you call a second degree burn from the sun or as some people say  "Skin poisoning". It is ok though cause to day I went out and bought the last bottle of spf 60 sunscreen at the department store. As the days go, my burn is turning yellow and is swollen and really funky gross looking, like a flesh eating thing going on. Its even got a ripple going on in it. Sorry to gross you out with pictures but I have to ...you are very lucky the camera can only pick up a bit of the yellow funky tint and ripple going on.

Pokhara - Nepal

The first westerners to reach Pohkara in the 1970s were hippies according to my lonely planet guide. And before the highway was constructed, to get to Pokhara, you needed to adventure on a 10 day pony ride. I decided to take a 30 minute plane ride from Kathmandu international airport.

We started off with rain and downpour in Kathmandu but when we arrived in Pokhara it was nothing but sunshine and heat. Pokhara is beautiful. Pokhara is a small town set between the mountain and is known as the city by the lake. Pokhara sprawls along the eastern shore of Phewa Tal and most visitors stay on the lakeshore in Lakeside.

It was early morning when Sandy and I arrives in Pokhara so we were fortunate enough to be able to see almost everything we wanted over a span of two days. We stayed at the Fewa Prince hotel which was absolutely gorgeous and great. It felt like we were the only two visitors in the whole hotel. I read some bad reviews of the place but the reviews certainly did not match our experience we had there. The moment we arrived the hotel concierge was very thrilled to have guests. He helped us plan the day and hired a guide and car for us for a reasonable price of 40$ a day. Not many places you can get a private car, driver, and a guide for only 40$ a day.

We first visited old Pokhara and the old bazaar but there was not much going on there as it was Saturday (Nepal takes there holiday on saturdays so most things are closed and quiet). We then ventured on to Bindabasini Temple set up on a hill over looking Pokhara. We also visited the Seti River Gorge. The Seti River Gorge is a foggy white colour surprisingly. Pokhara uses the river to produce electricity for the city.

Bindabasini Temple

Bindabasini Temple

Seti River

We went on to visit the bat cave and 2 other caves. the bat cave was the best out of the three caves because it is the only natural cave left in that area. The other two caves we visited had been carved a bit to put in steps and was no longer natural.  At the bat cave we hired a local boy to guide us through the cave and I am very glad we did. This boy was the most entertaining person we met yet. He kept telling us he was the hero of the town which we thought was very amusing. He did a very good job guiding us around and knew all the history of the cave. He also knew where the exit was since there are a lot of :false exits". Exiting the cave was very difficult and was a very small exit to the average westerner. Nepali people are built very small so it is not such a struggle to climb through holes that are exactly the width of their body. However, to Sandy and I we had big difficulties getting through certain passage ways because our legs were to long and did not bend in the right ways to fit exactly right through the exit. We eventually got out with a ton of dirt on us!

Sandy attempting to get out the exit of the Bat Cave

YAKS by the Bat Cave

After the three caves we visited, we went to visit Devi Falls. Devi Falls was just Devi as the water was running dry pre monsoon season. It was a bit of a let down but that's what you get for travelling pre monsoon season. It was still nice to see how the water carved the rock. It reminded me of some of the falls you can see in Banff National Park. Devi's Falls is also known as Patale Chhango. This water fall marks the point where the Pardi Khola stream disappears underground. Devi Falls is named after a Swiss visitor in the 70s who unfortunately fell into the sinkhole and over the falls and drowned, taking his girlfriend with him. the couple were from Switzerland and the ladies body was finally recovered years later.

Devi Fall's wihtout the Fall

Devi Fall's advice

After the falls we visited the International Mountain Museum which was something really unexpected. It is a really developed museum that is almost out of place for Pokhara. The mountain is devoted to the mountains of Nepal and the people who have climbed them. We read about past expeditions on Everest and current environmental clean up projects for the Everest region.



Fewa Lake



Our last stop of the day was Fewa Lake which is the big tourist hang out area because it is the most beautiful area in my opinion. We were able to hike along the lake for a bit and sit down to enjoy the view. Locals come to swim and rent boats there and enjoy a picnic or the many restaurants around the lake. I took many pictures here because it was so great.

The second day spent in Pokhara was another great day. We woke up at 3:30 am to get to Sarangkot and see the sunrise at the top of the mountain with the other 100 tourists. We were one of the first groups to arrive so I got some good photos before the crowd showed up. Unfortunately our second day in Pokhara was cloudy with rain. As the sun rose, the clouds moved in to cover up the mountains. It was still nice to see despite not be abel to see most of the peaks of the mountain. After seeing the sunrise, we went back to the hotel for breakfast and then back to Sarangkot to go Paragliding. Be ause of the clouds, our paragliding appointment was delayed until the sun came out. The pilots explained to us that they need the sun to heat the surface of the earth before we can go out because the hot air rises and creates "the currents" that allow us to stay floating in the air as opposed to sky diving and doing a very short trip down the side of the mountain. Eventually the sun did its job and we got set up. I actually met a Canadian couple who were going paragliding at the same time we were. The wife was going but the husband refused and was annoyed his wife wanted to sooo badly. They were the funniest couple. She was pretty scared and was very talkative the whole time because she was so nervous. She was in her mid 60s and one of the pilots joked that she could set the record for the oldest women paragliding.

 The first thing we had to do was take a ride all the way to the top of Sarangkot on a jeep, higher then the spot we stopped to see the sunrise. I was the first to get suited up and attached to my pilot and the first to take off. it was kind of funny to me because all of a suddent the pilot says ok start running! You take of the instant the pilot thinks there is enough wind so there is not much warning as to when you are going to be going.  I originally thought we would be running off the side of the cliff (silly me knew nothing about this sport and was signed up by Sandy) but you actually just run down part of the hill maybe about 7 steps and the kite fills with air very quickly and suddenly you are floating in the air with ground still under your feet. It was not as scary as I imagined it was going to be. In fact I hope I can go again next time I am in Pokhara with my dad and brother. We were in the air for about 30 minutes when the pilot decided we should probably come in because a very dark thunder cloud was headed our way. We actually got into the edge of the cloud which was a little intimidating. The pilot said if you get sucked into a storm cloud you get pulled backwards and usually end up on the other side of the lake and the mountain close by. I easily agreed that we should go down before the cloud sucked us in.

Landing was so much fun. You kind of do this very slow large spiral and gradually draw closer to the target circle on the ground. When you land, you have to run a bit but it does not hurt at all. I thought we would kind of hit the ground but it was really gentle. I was nervous at first because the pilot did not explain how to land prior to take off. He told me he would explain it all when were in the air and I thought that was not exactly the best time to explain how to land and do an emergency landing haha!

After the paragliding experience we went to the airport to head back to Kathmandu and our CECI home :( I could stay in Pokhara for the rest of the trip since it is so beautiful there and quiet.