We're Still Alive

Nepal has turned out to be quite the adventure so far.

We met our American friends at the airport on Sunday, only to find out from our Nepali contact that a political strike was in progress that had all roads into Kathmandu blocked indefinitely. So we weren't able to leave straight for the border region as we had hoped. So we went out for pizza and ice cream instead and had lots of great conversation.

We woke up early the next morning (5 AM) to catch a 7:30 flight to Pokhara as a means of hopping over the roadblocks. From there we hired an SUV to drive south towards the border regions where our Nepali contact has his operations. It was a 6 hour drive, at an average speed of about 40 km/h, through winding mountain roads. We found out that the head of the national military had been sacked and that the Maoists were putting pressure on the coalition government to appoint one of their own as military chief. Strikes and demonstrations in Kathmandu continued.

Jency got pretty car sick and we had to pull over for a minute. But she's a trooper. She got right back in and kept going. We checked into a hotel in a town close to the Indian border, and then went to visit some of our Nepali contact's points of operation, which was a very good experience.

Tuesday we visited some more areas of interest. That night the Nepali news broadcast a leaked tape recorded 2 or 3 years ago of the prime minister outlining the Maoist plan to take over the country by first staging an election that would put them in power (which happened last April), followed by a takeover of the military (which is what they're struggling for at this very moment). The president, who represents the non-Maoist portion of the coalition government, refused to give into pressure to appoint another Maoist as military chief. The prime minister resigned his position out of protest, basically bringing the parliamentary process to a halt. We went to bed uncertain of what the next day would bring.

This morning we woke up at 4 AM to get on the road by 5 AM for a beeline to Kathmandu, in hopes of arrving before too many strikes got into full swing. Along the way we visited a couple more points of interest, and had some awesome Dhal Bhaat (traditional Nepali dish - rice with lentils and other stuff) for lunch. We were 20 km outside Kathmandu and making really good time when traffic came to a complete stop. Our driver skillfully weaseled our vehicle in and among the trucks, buses, motorcycles, and pedestrians that were jamming the roadway, occasionally leaving our vehicle to negotiate for a better position and rearrange other vehicles. We found out that some villagers up the way had lost a child in an accident on that very roadway, and their request for compensation from the government apparently fell on deaf ears. So to begin a clamor for justice, they organized the village to block traffic in both directions for an indeterminate period of time. We made it close to the blockage point, and could go no further. We paid our driver, picked up our bags, and began to hoof it. Our Nepali contact whipped out his cell phone and arranged for a couple of taxis to meet us on the other side of the blockage. We passed through the central point of the demonstration where several dozen people were quietly gathered to block the road (this demonstration had nothing to do with the current political situation). They had been there for several hours and intended to stay until the night. They had cars backed up for several km in both directions. We found our taxis, loaded up, and slowly and laboriously passed through all the traffic gathered in the opposite direction, and after a while we broke through to the end of the line of vehicles and it was smooth sailing into Kathmandu. The whole ordeal added 2 or 3 hours to our trip. Most of the hundreds of bus passengers and truck drivers are probably still out there. It sure does help to be friends with a savvy local.

Sorry for the vague language concerning our work over the last couple days. We haven't yet had a chance to discuss the level of information we can disclose. We have another meeting later in the week with our Nepali contact, and hopefully we'll be able to share more after that, once we determine how much we're all comfortable with sharing. I'll try to get some more pictures up soon -- it's kinda hard to find a computer that I can upload pictures on.

Thanks to all for reading!