Can't Get Enough

Today Arjun started a dance, "Just do a regular walk... You know, just a regular model walk" and then proceeded to suck in his cheeks and then flip his head from front to side at every step as he kicked up his feet. It was amazing.

Then we performed the regular eight counts with the direction, 'Freak out garne.' That means, simply, 'freak out.' Simple but effective.

Pet Peeve

When people respond to mass emails back to everyone (when they clearly do NOT know everyone else on the panlist). Then, their email to everyone clearly shows that they did not read the entire original email.

Why Do the Druggies Make the Best Art?

Yesterday I attended an opening of a collection of art by Newari artists – painters and sculptors mostly, although there was also a mandala modeled after the sand mandalas made of a variety of significant Newari items, such as grains, in addition to the colored sands. The gallery from which all the artwork was collected is called the Bodhisattva Gallery and is actually run by the husband of the director of HimRights/BBC. In fact, after work the entire HimRights crew trekked to the gallery opening. It was quite nice to be a part of such a wonderful collection of individuals…once again I gush about my coworkers :).

The art too, was quite spectacular. There were a few pieces that really drew my attention, but the ones I liked most, of course….were a series of four small 12 inch by 12 inch paintings of the heads of deities framed by a circle of bringt luminescent teal. They were painted by an artist who, I learned this morning, had a drug problem, but stopped doing drugs to paint. Apparently, he is a very talented painter who moved easily from painting to sculpture but has recently stopped making art and returned to drugs…

I also found the iconography fascinating. There was a painting of a the compassionate Green Tara holding a hand with the palm out to signify ‘giving’ and the other hand was holding a lotus to signify ‘protecting.’ It was beautiful to see and learn how the deities actually embody these concepts. It also gave me some good ideas about my Bagmati River Project…which will be revealed at a later date…don't worry - there will be no drugs involved.

Cockroaches Tickle

Not a joke. They do. I was awoken last night by one crawling on my arm.

At first I tried to convince myself it was my hair. But no, hair feels different than cockroach legs.

I tried to go back to sleep, but caught the roach in my cell phone light. Darn.

I trapped it with a glass and managed to isolate it in a corner of my room out of the way to deal with in the morning.

When I awoke, I literally spent about 20 minutes deciding what to do with it. It was still alive in the morning (they can probably survive a while without food, yes?). I contemplated if I had a book big enough to kill it with, and figured it would just be wrong...or maybe right....to kill it with the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying...Then I tried to figure out which shoe I wanted to get roach guts on, and decided none. I thought I could drown it and not have to risk it escaping as I lifted the glass, but that drowning (after a bit of starvation) would be a terrible way to go. I could have dropped it out the window too, but that seemed too risky, as it was only a floor down, and he could crawl right back up...so I just left him there. And thank heavens for maids...the glass was washed and placed on my bedside table when I got back from work today. I love you TGH.

Powerpoint Fun

Part of the reason I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front, is that I have been consumed with putting together a two full day report writing seminar for the staff of HimRights and the BBC (Beyond Beijing Committee for those of you who might be coming just now to this blog). 

It was actually rather enjoyable to put together a powerpoint and present for two days - glad to know that Theater BA isn't going to waste. 

I reviewed most of the staffs past reports to identify and repair common mistakes during my presentation, and I think the staff appreciated it. My favorite part of the presentation was, of course, a role play. The director wanted the staff to begin practicing putting together grant proposals (as it is I believe she does most of the grant submitting, and the rest of the staff runs the projects and reports on them as they are being implemented). So I developed a fake call for grant applications, and they drew names out of a hat to determine who were donors and who were grant applicants. The applicants got put in groups and had about 25 minutes to put together a proposal. They then presented it to the board of three donors (all women, which was an exciting luck of the draw). It was quite lively and hilarious - the winning group wanted to build a community center, specially for children and the elderly. When questioned further about what activities there would be for the younger kids, the 'applicant' replied that there would be a nice playground. When asked about activities for the older folks, he stuttered, then regained his confidence, and explained that there would be a 'temple in the corner' for them to pray. Maybe you had to be there...

Anyway, one thing I have LOVED about working with HimRights and BBC is that every staff member I work with is really appreciative of feedback and constructive criticism. I know I haven't been in THAT many working environments, but generally it seems that people (myself included) think they know how to do it BEST and that prevents them from even listening to what the other person has to say or suggest. However, I have found that almost every time I have worked with a staff person, they have been eager to learn more and correct their mistakes. It makes for a pretty stellar working environment. 

Moment of the Mundane

In my preparation for the report writing presentation, I had to investigate the difference between an indefinite and definite article. Perhaps one failure of my public school education, or maybe it is a failure of American education in general...or my memory, I was never taught the difference. But when asked to describe articles to people whose native language doesn't even have articles, it's a bit difficult. Anyway before researching the true definitions, I was working with someone individually and turns out my intuitive definition (about the specificity of the article determining whether it was an 'a/an' or 'the') made me a little too happy.

Paani Paryoooooooooo

That's Nepali for It's raaaaaaaaaaaaaaining.

It rained hard yesterday. At about 4pm the generator at work went off, and the skies were so grey, that I had to read a report using the torch on my cell phone.

Monsoon Fashion Alert
Thank god we collectively decided to skip dance, because as I was walking home, i spotted the most impressive invention ever designed. Some background: Everyone here rides a motorbike or a scooter. Besides walking, it's the best way to get around KTM. But when it rains, one might be potentially screwed with just a normal poncho as they try to navigate the streets on their motorbike. However, yesterday I saw a man wearing a poncho that not only fit him AND the front of his motorbike (with a clear plastic window for the headlights of his bike to shine through), but ALSO the poncho had two head holes and covered the woman seated behind him on the motorbike. Genius. Pure.

MJ Update

Today Nepali MJ (whose name is actually Arjun) taught us how to moonwalk. It was awesome.

Orphanage Visit

I visited the orphanage this week.

It is clear that the lice outbreak happened there. ALL the little kids at the orphanage were getting their hair chopped off as I wandered in. (One of the other leaders of the YNepal trip traveled home with lice as well.)

I was at the orphanage on a Tuesday, so imagine my surprise when I saw about six girls - about 14-15 years old, in the orphanage when they should have been in school. Turns out the orphanage did not have enough money to pay for the necessary books and school supplies to send the kids to school. They were awaiting a donation from an Australian organization, I believe, and hoping to start school on Monday. 

NYT :(

I've been trying to keep up on the news, following my almost complete ignorance of the fact that the US government was potentially going to shut down and, or course, to find out how Trump is doing in the poles. But what a week for me to start being current event savvy - the NYTimes now charges if you want to look at more than 20 full articles a month...damn.

Kathmandu Guides

Nepal has an impossible system to direct people from one place to another. Often the name of an area is based on a temple (or mandir) that is in that neighborhood. Or, directions are based on the names of neighborhoods, but once you get to the neighborhood you have no idea how to get where you are supposed to go. The whole problem of getting around is compounded by the fact that the name of every place sounds exactly the same to me, or I can not retain it for more than 5 seconds even as I try to repeat it over and over again.

However I became quite proud of myself the past few weeks, as I have figured out the key to making sure I'm on the right path home: smell. I know I am crossing the Bagmati River when I smell toilet air wafting around the micro. And, I know which of the six lanes to turn down in the market place because I follow the lane filled with fish.

Additionally, my ride-the-wrong-microbus shame was alleviated by the fact that twice in the past week - once with someone who has grown up in Kathmandu and once with someone who has been here a year - we got on a microbus together and got on the wrong one.

Lice Check

Apparently sarging can cure lice...I think I might change my mind about this book after all.


As of today, I will not have to resort to cutting my hair. However, I am a little disappointed as I spotted the perfect hairdo the other day in Thamel - shaved head except for a pony tail of dreads that are like three feet long. Oh well.


This evening, after work, I took public transportation across town (a proud moment but also a very long moment) to meet with Kolpana, a former Bal Mandir orphan who is studying for her B.A. She took me to a baby formula supply store, where I used extra YNepal donated funds to purchase about $350 of bulk formula for the babies at Bal Mandir. Thank you YNepal and supporters!


Note: Sadly it is the infamous Nestle formula, however the orphanage boils the water it mixes the formula with.

In A Different Voice 1970s/The Game 2000s

I just finished In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan. It's taken me forever to finish this book as I am struck with thoughts to journal after almost every paragraph I read.

It has helped me understand women, men, myself, and although one might find it to generalize based on too small a sample, I cannot deny that it has rung true to my experience and enlightened my own behavior in this especially difficult early-mid 20s phase of development.

The book identifies differences in the psychological development of men and women, positing that women mature into an ethics of care, while men mature by an ethics of justice...and how those systems of though relate to one's understanding of the self in relation to others...It describes how women come to conflate goodness with selflessness, and that relationships and responsibility to others are manifest in women’s actions, while men manifest their need to separate as they develop into adulthood. In addition to many other things, it has got me thinking about my work in Nepal, the responsibility I feel to return and care (in a way) for the girls that were not adopted. 

Anyway I would HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone - female or male. And if you read it, please let me know your thoughts!

That being said, I'm following up one of the seminal American feminist's texts with The Game by Neil Strauss. I realize I’m coming late to the buzz this book has created, but I am finally getting a chance to read it after hearing some rave reviews by men in my life and, of course, falling for the negging and peacocking that have become so notorious.

I must admit, I’m already offended at the use of two of America’s biggest feminist quotations to justify the supremely disrespectful behavior towards women…however I’m trying to keep an open mind. We’ll see if it lasts for 452 pages…

Success!

So I became a tiny bit obsessed with this book Half the Sky a few months ago, particularly the parts about Nepalese girls being trafficked to brothels in Mumbai. I was delighted to start working with HimRights on their anti-trafficking proposal and to learn about all the wonderful things they are doing to prevent trafficking at both a grassroots and national/international policy level.

I found out they were organizing a nine day trip to Mumbai to meet with NGOs working in trafficking and to actually visit the red light district of Mumbai to see first hand what the girls go through. Today I got up my courage to ask the organizer of the trip if I could go if I paid my own way. She said yes!! We'll see how it ends up as the logistics have already been a nightmare for her, but I would love to go, so wish me luck.

Swoon

Arjun, the dance teacher knows my name :). My work in Nepal is complete. I'm flying home tomorrow. No but really rumor has it that his dance troupe is going to be in a Kollywood movie (Kathmandu Hollywood, duh), and a few o' the girls and I are plotting to see how we can be in it!

Happy New Year's Eve

Tomorrow is Newari New Year's Day in Kathmandu. Since they are on a solar calendar here, I believe it will be the year 2068.

Apparently the tradition is mostly to spend time with family and eat. However given my current health challenges and the fact that the KTM pollution cold is hitting me hard again, I will be eating laddu in bed and inaugurating my pirated copy of Blue Valentine. 

I don't know much about the religious traditions in Nepal. They all baffle me as I can't really tell any of the names apart (well no one has sat down and formally tried to teach them to me, but I imagine that would just be embarrassing) and there are tons of traditions that are caste-specific or Hindu or Buddhist-specific or celebrated by both in different ways on the same days or the same ways on different days...or something. However, almost all Hindu/Buddhist ceremonies I have seen in Nepal have two things in common: They are beautiful. And they last forever.

Two days ago when walking back from dance with my friend, we wandered through Asan Tol (the local market area that I am just beginning to figure my way through) and came to an intersection blocked off by police. There was a gigantic cart (the wheels were probably twenty feet in diameter) with a tower built on top. In the tower looking out the window was, I believe, a priest of some sort and other religious figures sat outside the window perched on the tower. The tower itself was decorated with what looked like pine tree branches, making it look like a tremendous Christmas tree...The other temples in the square were lit with candles. It was beautiful. I was hoping to spot the Kathmandu Kumari, the living goddess, but we couldn't stay for all the festivities.

Dancing Queens

Okay, now to the fun stuff:

I went to dance yesterday because I had finally recovered from the soreness of the first two classes and could move again.

We started a new dance, and about two moves in, I realized, as I was fist pumping in the air, the this move reminded me of something. A few moves later, after stepping side to side and clapping in the air, I also realized I recognized this move.  After a whole sequence of moves I swore I had done before, but not to the Bollywood song we were currently dancing to that I had never heard before, I realized where these magical moves had come from: Dance Central. They came STRAIGHT from Dance Central.

To be honest, at first I was a little dismayed that I was paying for lessons when I could just play a video game and learn those same moves, however, I also realized that Dance Central seriously pales in comparison to the way that Nepali MJ does these moves. (And I also realized I was paying 75 cents a lesson vs $10 in the US - very "cost effective" as a coworker of mine said.) And I know, from other classes, that he has a much larger repertoire that was he exhibited in that class.

Plus, one thing he taught us that I don't recognize from dance central is probably my all time favorite move. I have titled it "The Lyger" - remind me to do it for you next time I see you.

Are you serious?

So, I was ready to regale you with stories of my completely entertaining dance teacher, but instead, I have some very sad news. It turns out I have lice. Well done. And not just any lice, oh no...My friend at work – the only person I know well enough to ask to see if there are bugs climbing around my scalp (but even that took me a while to build up my courage, while the lice feasted) is apparently the official de-licer for her entire family, and she said I had more alive than she had ever seen and we caught six GIANT lice…like REALLY F-ING BIG LICE. Awesome. I was/am actually really really really freaked out about the whole thing, but I was calmed by the fact that she didn’t think it was a big deal. I asked her about washing all my clothes and throwing away my brush, and burning my sheets, beheading my teddy bears, and all of that…but she looked at me like I was crazy and said none of that was necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely taking precautions, but it was calming to know that it was all going to be alright…that being said, I still want to cry in a corner.

I cut out of work early and ran to my favorite pharmacist, who is familiar with every ailment I, my mom, or my friends have had while in Nepal, to get Mediker and then I shampooed like I have never shampooed before...wish me luck.

In other news...last night, a friend showed me a new swanky Thamel hangout that serves the best ice green tea smoothie EVER – it’s my new obsession, so I'm writing from there now…but it's a small consolation....very small.

Bots

A belated summary of my time in Botswana. Some of you may know that I am working for an international human rights org called Minority Rights Group International (MRG) based in London consulting for their street theater to combat racism project in Kenya, Rwanda, Botswana, and the DR.

Well, I lucked out, not only in getting the job, but also in getting to travel to our partner countries to help move the project forward in each country. Two weeks ago, I flew to Gaborne, Botwana to tour with the Botswanan street theater group. 

Botswana was lovely - it was warm and I love working with our project officer and artistic director, so I was especially excited to see them.

The first performance I saw was a cultural event organized by our local NGO partner, RETENG, and our project office, Chanda. The Acting Vice President of Botswana was there, and he was amazingly supportive of our and RETENG's work. The group also performed in a church, a school, and community centers in Gaborone and Francistown.

The performance itself was in Tswana, so I understood not a word, except the name of the main character, Ndwana, yet I did understand the meaning of the performance. After seeing it six times in a row, I did not get tired of it, and the design of the performance and the commitment that the actors demonstrated inspired me to get back into my own art-making.

MJ Returns

This weird thing happens when you are in Nepal for a while. You start to see 'Nepali versions' of your non Nepali friends and family. Today I realized who my new dance teacher looks like: Michael Jackson. It's super entertaining to watch him....even when he's not dancing.

Dance dance dance

Very cool: Today I went with five young ladies from my office to a DANCE CLASS taught by this awesome Nepali guy. Today we did 'jazz contemporary' with a little traditional nepali dance (sort of) thrown in. Apparently they have also done Bollywood, the jive, and tango is on the schedule. This is going to be awesome.

Not so cool: I remembered why I hate office jobs and hierarchies...boo. 

Public Transportation

I was super proud of myself because today I finally figured out how to get to work on the public transportation: white mini vans with signs - written in Nepali - telling the patrons where the van is headed. You can flag them down and jump in while they are still rolling or hop on at one of the stops, designated only by the fact that there might be a few people congregated in a certain area on a main street, but those people might just be trying to cross the street...you never really know. Anyway I had figured out how to get home FROM work, but I hadn't figured out how to get TO work. With the help of a coworker, I figured out the destination of the bus I needed to get on, but, when searching for it, accidentally asked, "Where is Lagankel?" instead of "Does this bus go to Lagankel?" in Nepali...oops. (I guess it's better than when I tried to outsmart a shoe salesman who had been selling the same shoes at a cheaper price one week before and said, "Next week, it was 260 rupees..." I always get next and last mixed up.)

Anyway once I figured I had mastered the bus system I was chatting with some other coworkers at lunch and asked them about the pricing system. Apparently, there isn't really one. Each bus charges what it wants to. I was giving all the drivers 11 rupees because that was the price the first time I got on a bus years ago, and I thought that was the fixed price for all public transport, but when I learned I may have been giving them my 11 rupees and shortchanging them as I jumped off the bus, I felt bad. That, apparently, was a hilarious notion. Oh, and I got lost walking back on a supposed 'short cut' this evening. I guess I still have quite a bit to figure out...

Ninja Zombies Premieres THIS WEEK!

The long awaited film, Ninja Zombies, premieres THIS week at the Litchfield Hill Film Festival (last year Underground Sonata screened here - it was called the Ken Film Festival then and we recruited one of the main actors for NZ at the festival!)

Not only am I totally stoked for the premiere and wishing I was a millionaire so I could fly back to CT to see the final film, but I am also psyched because my long distance press attempts paid off: Noah and my joint effort press release was published in the Litchfield County Times (that's right...) online: http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2011/04/05/entertainment/doc4d99ff10a034f081527198.txt 

I've never gotten anything that I wrote before published in a news source!

Anyway for all you nutmegers out there, go check it out. The town of Kent is delightful and surrounded by an incredible golf course and water fall in addition to housing lovely bars, restaurants, and a chocolatier if I'm not mistaken, and the festival is one of the most intimate in the country.

Good luck NZ! I wish I could be there!

Elation in Nepal

When I was eleven years old, my super cool older cousin, Graham, visited my mom and me in Nepal. He was in the middle of years of traveling what seemed like everywhere and anywhere. I still remember him telling us about sharing a flat in Spain with a group of people who were so poor, they couldn't afford to buy food. Thankfully, one of them happened to be a gourmet chef, who would sautee canned tuna and cornflakes in honey and garnish it with grass from the lawn downstairs.

Not only did I envy Graham's glamorous and exciting travels, I envied his passport. He had so many stamps, he actually had to have extra pages added into his passport. Well, for the first time in my life I am SO close :) My Nepali 90-Day on-arrival VISA took the last blank page of my passport, which means I will have to apply for those glorious 'extra pages' when I return to the states in June.

Woohoo!

Frustration in Mumbai

Well, I am back in KTM, but with a sad story of bureaucracy to tell. Well, it's so boring I won't rely it, except to say that my transit VISA, which I waited for which I waited about 2.5 hours for which I paid $50, ended up only allowing me to leave the airport in Delhi to collect my bags and recheck them in the domestic terminal to go to Mumbai. My VISA, did NOT however, allow me to see my good friend Kaushal and get a night tour of Mumbai as my first experience outside of the airports of India. :(