Little Britain Coffee Shop

Sitting here in little Britain Coffee Shop with Michael. This is the first place we have found with free, fast, and reliable internet. Something I take sorely for granted back home. This post comes to you in a few parts. Some will be travel woes, so be prepared to hear me whine a little bit.

One thing that made me happy is I finally found out HOW I lost my debit card. Turns out the ATM I was at only returns your card after you hit 2 buttons. The first one being that you do not want another transaction, THEN it asks you if you would like your card returned. No Joke. The options are as follows. Return Card? Yes or No. Who would ever... EVER hit no? And if you do hit no, what then? Does the machine just eat your card? Questions I do not intend to ever find the answer to(Again).

Today we had a meeting with the Citta Nepal board members. They are all very nice people and seem like the want to be more involved in the Humla and Gaikhur project. I got to work with Sushila at the office during some of the meeting. Sushila is brilliant. No joke. She is an extremely capable woman. On top of maintaining the office and keeping things running here in Kathmandu, Sushila is about 8 months pregnant, and still hard at work.

One of Michael's problems in Nepal or India is finding dynamic and intelligent women to work or run the woman's center. Women here in Nepal seem to either be extremely outgoing and smart, or extremely conservative and shy. There appears to be no middle ground. Sushila is a rare breed in that she is down to earth and humble, and extremely capable.

Another woman issue Mike is having is this: He needs a woman who is educated, stylish, well spoken in both English and Nepali, AND able to do handicrafts. These qualities combined seem to not exist together. Either the women here are very educated, OR they are very capable in handicrafts.

Enough about the Woman's Center and on to my immediate future. Next Thursday Mike and I are heading out to Kolkatta, India. We will be spending one day there, and then we are off to Orissa. I have been in Kathmandu for (almost) a whole month! It feels like 6 months, or 1 week depending on what is going on at the time. Time has different meaning here. In the US time also feels varied, but it is different back home. There when you are busy or having fun, time seems to fly, but if you are bored and doing nothing, things seem to take forever. Here EVERYTHING seems like it takes forever while you are doing it. The trip from Thamel to Bhaktipur is only 8 miles, but it takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour, and feels like 5 hours. when working in the offices or working in an internet cafe, everything seems to take forever. The days seem so long and feel like they drag on and on. However the next day, yesterday's worries and troubles are passed in a blink of an eye. Every day here is fresh and new. I think that is what makes the time feel so different here.

Speaking of between days. I don't usually have dreams I remember, but whenever I am traveling, I find myself having the most vivid dreams. Most of it is processing my experiences from the day, but in really weird ways. For instance after one particularly long day I dreamed I was watching Cricket, and even in my dream, the match felt like it took 3 days. It is odd how the mind deals with information, or lack thereof.

The people here in Nepal are all so friendly. They give you personal space, always smile, and are generally very peaceful in their daily actions. Most people in Nepal seem to glorify a simple existence. The ideal of most people I have met is earn a little bit of money while young. And then return home to the family farm, get married, have kids, and work in the fields.

I apologize for jumping around so much in this post, but I have the time to just sit and type today.

This happened to me yesterday:

A man rode up to me on a rickshaw and asked
Man: "Rickshaw?"
Me: "No Rickshaw."
Man: "No Rickshaw?"
Me: "No Rickshaw."
Man: (Big smile) "Ahhh, Rickshaw!"
Me: "No Rickshaw."
Man: (Puzzled look) "No? Rickshaw?"
Me: "Rickshaw Na."
Man: (Big Smile) "Ah! Rickshaw?"
Me: "Ughhhhhhhhh...."

This continued a few more times until finally I just stopped engaging him. after him saying Rickshaw a few more times, he finally got the idea that what I meant was No Rickshaw.

I really hope everyone is having a good time back home! I miss almost everyone. Except Donnie. He never writes to me or calls me. I bet he doesn't even read this.

Motodaai Out!