Radio talk

Last week my car was on national television and this week I am interviewed for a local radio station – the things one doesn´t do to promote MS Nepal.
It all started with a call from Herman, a guy from a local radio station asking me if I am interested in participating in a radio programme on women´s participation in the Constituency Assembly Election. Thinking this is just a random idea I said that it sounds like an interested programme. The next things I was told was to be in the studio for recording 20 min. later. So I had no choice than to jump on the motorbike and drive the 15 km. to the studio.

Despite limited vocabulary in Nepali I believe I did manage to say one or two things about women´s participation in democracy that did make a bit of sense. At least my colleague, Ishwori, who was with me and luckily did most of the talking, was just as excited about my performance as Herman. So who knows, maybe this wasn´t the last time I will be speaking my mind on Nepali radio.

Water and water and water and…..

Finally, the rainy season came and with that lots of water. As you have probably seen on TV South Asia is severely affected and the Southern part of Nepal has also seen serious flooding. In Banke district, in which I live, 42,000 people (of a population of 150,000) are affected. Also the paddy fields have been emptied after the flooding most likely resulting in a shortage of food in the spring.

I got an extremely bad start to the flooding. On the first day of the flooding I managed to drive my car into a ditch that I simply couldn´t see due to the 40 cm. of water on the road. It turned out to be quiet a show with UN car and a tractor trying to get my car out. In the end it took a crane from the Department of Roads to save my car from drowning.

Nepalgunj was completely flooded for 5 days with very limited mobility unless walking in 4 feet high dirty, polluted water seemed appealing. We went for 8 days without electricity and clean water and I certainly came to realize just how dependant I have become on my mobile, laptop, refrigerator and taps with water coming out of….

Nepalipan

I just saw this little article in a newspaper and found it worth sharing:

Nepalipan

To be Nepali, you need Nepalipan. But what constitutes nepalipan? What is this thing? Talking over with friends on evening we agreed that, in this age of globalization, cuisine, lifestyle and even dress code are becoming uniform, and so cannot hold the essence of nepalipan. We concluded the following: nepalipan is a set of unique characteristics that cannot be found in others. These are typical ways of being that do not change. These are some of the behaviours that we see as constituting nepalipanÆ

Hawking: Nepalis will noisily clear their throats at all times – while brushing, washing up, after a meal, and old time. No one can work their phlegm like a Nepali

Spitting: Everyone spits. But unlike all the rest, Nepalis do it in all places and at all times.

Smoking and riding: Lightning a cigarette and then zooming off on your motorcycle is definitely an indicator of nepalipan. But pedaling a bicycle and synchronously puffing away is an even more fundamental part of nepalipan.

Honking: Every vehicle has a horn that has to be used at times. But Nepali hand work a horn near-incessantly.

Queue-jumping: The English taught the world how to wait in line. But Nepal has never been colonized and we refuse to follow that English teach. To cut in line is not rudeness here, it´s a cunning move.

Overtaking: the free Nepali spirit does not care whether this is done from left or right

Hurrying: Who isn´t rushing about these days? But while others dash around with purpose, Nepalis, uniquely, do it with none. We shove other people while walking for example, and don´t even talk about motorbikes – ever seen on that can idle for a minute?

A year older...

...and also this year it was celebrated outside Denmark and far from family and old friends. But luckily, I have a bunch of new friends who were more than willing to celebrate just the way I like it.

Saturday I had a big party on my roof top:

Monday I got Tika, cake and presents on MS country office in Kathmandu:

Monday evening I had dinner with friends on a really nice restaurant in Kathmandu:

And now I am a year older……which was felt Tuesday morning!!!

Memory lane

This is not my first time in South Asia and my last two holidays were actually spent going down memory lane.

Annapurna Circuit
Now you cannot live in Nepal without a trip to the Himalayas. Last time I visited Nepal I went on the Annapurna Circuit – a 21 day trek crossing a mountain pass in 5.416 meters. This April I went on the Circuit once again. It was still a wonderful trip but a bit different this time partly because I was there late in the year and because road construction is taking place in many parts of the trek – yes, it is hard to stop that development. Still, an amazing trip that I really enjoyed – I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Dhaka round-trip
Due to an exceptionally cheap plane ticket and some friends left in town I went to Dhaka, Bangladesh for a few days of R & R. It was great to see the city and the friends again. People had gotten married – some willingly and others not – and babies had arrived. I also made it just in time for a going-away-party, so it seemed like last minute I came back. I will share only one (out of the three) pictures from my trip: one of a happy and long anticipated moment where I have some delicious sushi.

A week at DWO

Though I spent much time behind the desk still, some time is spent on different activities with our women groups. Some of which can be quite long –especially in this heat and everything being in Nepali – but mostly it is just great to get to spent time with the women I work for and try to support in their battle for a better future for them and their family.

This week has been particularly full of meetings and programmes so much that it deserves a spot in the blog:

Nepals first Dalit women co-operative

DWO Bankes women groups have just formed and registered the first Dalit women co-operative in Nepal. In this connection, a General Assembly was in order with the 70 members and special guest (including me) participating. There was election for the board and lots of speeches followed by some fun, joking and snacks. It all ended with the mandatory group photo in front of the office. PMC meeting
I most development organisations in Nepal a PMC – Programme Management Committee – exists and of course DWO is no exception. Every quarter there is a meeting where the different activities are being discussed. The PMC consists of different representatives from staff and board as well as 4 members from our women groups. It is a good forum for them to influence our and it is part of their responsibility to visit the many women groups to get their comments on our work especially the training we provide to them. During this weeks meeting there were several things to be discussed amongst these the newly signed 3-year partnership agreement between DWO and MS Nepal. The PMC needed to be informed of the details of the agreement and the next years (2064) activities and budget. The agreement was thoroughly studied by the group members (see pix) and we received several comments. Since we just started ten new groups the "old" groups were a bit unhappy with the huge amount of training given to "the new ones". On top of this we were told not to arrange any training during June and July, since these are the months were the women are most busy in the paddy field planting rice.

After this discussion it was no time to elect new members for the PMC. It is a sough after spot for these women, since it gives prestige and influence on the work of DWO. There were many discussions and deal made here and there; some would only support ones, if promised their support in next years election etc. I tried to mediate the process but the women were doing just fine.

Visit to a women's group
I very often go to visit our women groups and the visit mostly follow the same pattern, so here are the main features:

Welcome Tika and discussion in the group

(you can read about Tika elsewhere on this blog)

Informal talk with villagers (I am not exactly

able to "disappear in the crowd" and just

leave after a visit)

Moving things from the road so the car

can get through....

Having snacks with the colleagues discussing the group visit

New year – new experiences

Finally we entered a new year here in Nepal – more precisely the year 2064. And it seems to be a really exciting year.

Work has finally kicked off leaving me with plenty of exciting tasks. After a long time as an observer I now feel like I am able to contribute to the development of the two organisations and their work.

Also the language I am starting to master quite well, which certainly has made life a lot easier for me. I am still struggling with the alphabet but have accomplished to write small notes to my cleaning lady – some of which she actually understood.

Finally, my social life as taken an unexpected turn; as part of the peace process and upcoming election Nepal has asked the UN for assistance. And it certainly has arrived now. In my town around 40 new UN people have arrived. Some to support the election commission but most of them to monitor the arms management of the Maoist guerrilla army and the Nepali army as well. It is a mixed group from the Middle East, Afrika, Latin America and Europe. They spend a lot of time in the Maoist camps but whenever they are in Nepalgunj, they enjoy plenty of football and parties – some of my favorite hobbies as well.

Also on new years eve these festive guys arranged a BBQ prepared on the remains of a satellite disc by a guy from Paraguay – and what a party.

Yes, 2064 will for sure be an exciting new year.

My office – a typical Terai house

My office at DWO looks like a typical house in city areas of the Terai. For reason that mostly are based on economy rather than logic the house is painted on the front only as if it is expected that any day a new house will be building in connection with the unpainted side of the house, so that the boring grey cement doesn’t show.

The office is in two stores with the district office on ground floor and the regional office on the first floor. My office is on the first floor with my desk right by the window you can see on the picture. In the summer the curtains are closed to keep the strong sun out, so we sit in the dark and work. During the monsoon it rains in through the window so we have to cover the window with plastic and once again we work in the dark. Only in the cold season do we get a bit of light for our work, since the office is so cold that we work on the roof top in order to get a bit of sun…..and that is how a typical Terai house is….

Weekend getaway

It is starting to get warmer in Nepal and the perfect weather for weekend trips. I am lucky enough to live less than 2 hours drive from Bardiya national park – the perfect spot for weekend trips.
We were 12 friends leaving Nepalgunj early Saturday morning to get to the park in time for a full-day rafting trip on the Karnali river, the longest river of Nepal. 7 years ago I was on a 10-day rafting trip on the same river but further up north. It was a wild trip with lots of white water. This weekends rafting was quite different. The river was very calm and we could just float along enjoying the nature and the cold beer. However, there were other elements of excitement such as river dolphins, beautiful birds and a rhino with its baby. We stayed on the river to watch the sunset and reach our lodge just as it became dark. All in all a really beautiful trip.

The following day we went on a jungle walk hoping to see a glimpse of a tiger. However, being 12 tourists walking around between the trees makes more than enough noise to warn any tiger with a kilometer. Still, the nature was great, the monkey funny and the “bambis” adorable.

It was a wonderful weekend and far from the last weekend spent in Bardiya – actually I have already planned a trip in 10 days with my colleague, Jeppe, and his family. Now is the perfect time to spot tigers so I will try again – this time in a smaller group ;-)

News from Nepal - and Anne

I know that it has been a while since I last wrote on this blog, but the routine of every-day-life is getting to me. Still, here is a small update from my life:


MS’s annual meeting
In the beginning of February I went to MS annual meeting in Kathmandu. Representatives from all of our partner organisations were there as well as all development workers. Besides from this we also had prominent guests from Denmark namely, our general secretary, Frans Mikael (see the pix) and the vice chair of the MS board. It was an extremely interesting 3 day meeting and also a great opportunity to get to know many members of the MS family.

My bike
My motorcycle has finally arrived to Nepalgunj. Because of the many bandas it has been useful whenever cars are not allowed to drive on the roads. However, we have had a week of tropical storms and I learned the hard way that my North Fake rain trousers bought in Nepal 7 years ago no longer are water proof – so now the bike stays at home on rainy days.

My home
I have finally managed to furnish my apartment to a degree that I would actually call it a home. Still, I need to find lamps, plants and stuff to hang on the wall, which is quite challenging, since there is no IKEA in Nepalgunj. I have put a few pix for you.

Work
At work my colleagues and I have just produced an action plan for me for the coming year. There plan contains many different assignments such as revision of monitoring system, baseline study of new Dalit groups, producing a new documentation system just to mention a few. There are plenty of things to do and lots of challenges which is how I like it. Unfortunately, the many bandas and fighting on the streets has made it difficult to go to the office so I have spent a lot of time at home lately.

Weddings
It seems that everyone is getting married these days that I am to be involved in these festivities one way or another. Either through sleepless nights due to celebrations through big speakers blasting Indian music all over town or through invitiations to wedding of people I have never heard of. I have, however, only participated in one where I knew the brides brother. The others I have avoided since I still haven’t gotten used to going to weddings of total strangers. There is one wedding, though, that I regret haven’t attended namely, that wedding of a 12 year old girl and a fruit!!! A tradition belonging to the Newar people, which seems rather odd. It would have been extremely interesting to witness this ceremony but unfortunately I had an important meeting at the time of the wedding. Still, I hope that the happy couple - a girl and a fruit – will have a long and happy marriage.

The King of Nepal

Nepal has always been known as the Worlds only Hindu Kingdom and it was believed that the King was in a direct line from the Gods. Previously this was something the Nepalese were very proud of but today the attitude towards the royal family is different. Everything changed the night of the 1st June, the date of the royal massacre. A drunk and upset crown prince (his parents wouldn’t allow the marriage between him and the woman he loved) shot and killed 9 members of the royal family including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya before shooting himself dying 2 days later.

Though this is the official version there are plenty of conspiracy theories involving both CIA and India. Most theories do point toward the current King Gyanendra (brother of the old King) since he gained the most from the tragic night. Most Nepalese believe that the direct line to the Gods have been broken and when the King in February 2005 through a military coup took power from the parliament to stop the Maoists and the 10 year long conflict, he lost most sympathy with the population.

In April 2006 the political parties alongside with the Maoist went to the streets and after several days of mass demonstrations in all of Nepal – and 16 dead – the King was forced to give up power and make space for the democratic process that Nepal currently is in.

Once of the first things done by the reinstated parliament was to strip the King of all power thereby reducing him to a ceremonial figure. In the upcoming election the population will then be asked to decide the fate of the monarchy and already now the Maoists and other political parties are asking to have him removed completely claiming that he and his supporters are behind the unrest in the country today in an attempt to stop the democratic process.

It will be interesting to see what will happen to the King but one thing is for sure; the King has lost his status in Nepal. These pictures shows; a roundabout in the West where the statue of an old King has been destroyed and replaced by posters of Prachanda – the Maoist leader. The other is from the centre of Nepalgunj where a statue of King Tribhuvan has been renamed Madhesis Chowk decorated with Madhesi flags.

News from Nepal - the political situation

News from Nepal – the political situation

As you probably know a peace agreement was signed by the Maoists and the government in November 2006. Since a lot of work has been put into writing an interim constitution and appoint an interim parliament including both Maoist, politicians and representatives from the civil society. This has happened and this parliament will function until second week of June where elections for a constituent assembly, who will be in charge of writing the final constitution, will take place. After this another and final election will take place.

It all sounds very simple but there are many things that has to fall into place before the elections in four months. First of all the peace process needs to be finalized. The Maoists have agreed to place their soldiers in 7 camps different places in the country and at the same time have their arms locked up (keeping the key themselves) under the supervision of the UN.

Besides from this government officials are also busy giving citizenship to the 6 mill Nepalese who have never been recognized as citizens of Nepal (yes, 6 mill of the 24 mill Nepalese). The rules have now been changed so you now can get citizenship based on your mothers documents and not as before only on your fathers documents.

But the process of creating peace and a democracy is never easy and there is a long way to go. The Eastern Terai has just been through 2 weeks of street fighting and curfew. The result is 27 killed, many injured and lots of burned down shops, cars and busses. The demand from the Madhesi-people was simple: more seats in the parliament. And thanks to the riots the Premier Minister G.P. Koirala late last night promised the people in the Terai 49 % of all seats in the parliament. And since 49 % of the population lives in the Terai is makes sense. This means that 10 days of general strike/banda have just been cancelled and the roads have been opened again. Unfortunately, it is quite sad that it has to go to these extremes to ensure a representative democracy.

Almost certainly there will be other groups trying to make demands for a place in the parliament – and most of the demands will be legit – but never as big a group a the Madhesi, so even though “Banda-season” probably has not ended the effect on the country will be less. Besides from that several groups have no interest in a democratic Nepal and most likely there will be further attempt to stop the process the closer we get to the election.

I will try to keep you posted.

To kill a cow....

Though Nepal no longer is the world’s only Hindi Kingdom, now that the King has lost power, the parliament has still just decided to keep the cow as the national animal – despite strong protests from the Maoists.
If you kill this holy animal it will by the law be considered manslaughter and you can end up spending many years in jail. However, mostly it will be enough to pay a huge fine. For many people here it is not possible to pay and instead the “killer” will run away from the crime scene.

This was exactly what happened today on my way to work. In the middle of the road was a half dead cow laying and around it many excited people, who told me, that a jeep had hit the cow and then driven off.

With a huge cow in the middle of the cow a long line of cars was quickly formed on both sides of the road. Had the police stepped in and done their job it would not have been a problem, but it is not that easy in Nepal. I several times told a police officer to do his job, but he obviously did not what it was.

When a Nepali bus driver sees a line of cars in the road he does not stop but instead he goes to the opposite lane and drives to the beginning of the line to see, what is going on. This happened on both sides of the cow and created a big traffic chaos. I sat for a while looking at the madness having a laugh, but also realised that I would have to get into the game - otherwise I would have been stuck there for several hours.

Well, there certainly isn’t much logic on the roads of Nepal. In this situation I do not understand why they didn’t kill the cow (who was in so much pain) and pulled it to the side, so that the traffic could move on – but in this country there are many unanswered questions. Despite the madness and the fact that I came to work late, it is episodes like this that makes Nepal an interesting country to live in – you never know what is around the corner!

Maghi – yet another festival

In Nepal we follow a different calender, which means that I am actually living in the year 2063. We have just entered the 10th month of the year, Magh.

The first day of Magh, known as Maghi, is one of many holidays in Nepal. But for many young Tharu girls this day is met with mixed feelings. These young girls, known as Kamalari, live like slaves; there parents are very poor and often forced to “sell” their daughters as maids in other families. Already from the age of 5 are they sold. Their working conditions are poor with 12-14 hours work a day, a bed in the kitchen and a yearly salary of 35 US – yes, a year!

The parents negotiates one-year contracts for the girls and according to customs this always happens on Maghi. This means that every Maghi the girls leave their work place to meet up with their parents. Often this is the one day a year where the family is together. However, Maghi is also the day that a new contract is being negotiated and the Kamalari will leave on that very day to work for a new family in a new area. It is with a lot of insecurity that the girls move to the new household, since they do not know what to expect regarding work conditions, physical and psychological violence might be part of their new life as well as sexual abuse.

The tradition with Kamalari is practiced in all of Terai. Often the negotiation is done privately but in the Dang district there is an actual market for this. Marcus, Sara and I spent this Maghi visiting that market.
In the beginning it looked like an ordinary marked with plenty of food stalls and junk. Rather quickly we realized though that there also were Kamalari and not only that but entire families looking for work carrying around their small bundles with their few private belonging. Most likely that was ex-kamaras – free bounded labours – looking for a way to survive.

Since some locale organization has started to work against this tradition nothing was done out in the open and it was difficult to get people to talk. I did manage to talk to an Indian farmer, that had come to the market to purchase 10 workers for the farm in India. He told me, that a good worker would cost him 5.000 Indian Rupees a year – roughly 100 US.

This kind of slave trading cannot be classificed as human rights violations (as Sara and Marcus told me), since the people freely enter into this one-year contract. For many people the market in Dang is their only opportunity to find work and ensure the survival of the family. Still, it is sad to see these people sitting in groups with all their belongs waiting for a buyer. The Dang market gives a clear picture of the extreme poverty that a great part of the population of Nepal lives in.

There was, however, one good story to tell from that day. On the way to the market our driver “unfortunately” hit a chicken on the road. He and the photographer went running after it into the forest and came back proudly carrying a dead chicken – a great contribution to the Maghi feast at their homes.

Nepalgunj Riots

After a lovely Christmas holiday in Denmark I am now back in Nepalgunj. Though having read about the riots in Nepalgunj during Christmas, I had actually completely forgotten about them again. However, the many burnt down shops and furniture and motorcycles on Surkhet Road drew a clear picture of a town that had been through 2 days riots. End result was 150 looted and burnt down shops, one dead and 20 wounded.

Since then I have participated in meetings about the riots and it seems that everybody is confusing about what had happened. Most people seem to believe that royalists were behind it. These are people very much against the democratic process that is taking place in Nepal in these days. It is also believe that the people doing the actual looting were outsiders paid to start the riots. At the same time the authorities didn’t act at all!

Video recordings show 200 police officers watching a handful of people looting a tv-store and carrying the goods pass the police. This happened on the 26th of December – a day there was curfew in Nepalgunj, which the police – obviously – was unable/unwilling to enforce.

To motive for starting the riots was the many different groups of people living in town. There is a big difference between Madhesi – the original Terai people with great affiliations to India and their own language – and the Pahadi people, who have moved to Terai from the hills and are now holding all important positions in the area.
Also between the large group of Muslims in town and the Hindis have there been conflicts. However, it is believe that there conflicts were merely used as an excuse to start the Nepalgunj riots.

It is worring to know that it takes so little to start a riot of this nature. In the moment everybody is working on finding out what happened, why it happened, why it wasn’t stopped and most importantly how to ensure that it won’t happen again in a town with so great differences in politics, economy, religion and life conditions.

Pictures will come later!

Christmas in Denmark

Christmas at home was just as nice and relaxing as expected. Naturally, I ate too much food and candy joined by too many beers and glasses of wine and too little exercise – but since it is once Christmas once a year, so it is allowed…..

It was great to see the entire family especially my niece and nephew, Simon and Sara, how have gotten so big. After spending about a week in Horsens with the family, I went to Copenhagen to see the friends and celebrate new years. Those of you who know me can probably guess how my days in Copenhagen were spent…and that I now need an extra vacation just to get over my vacation ;-)

Pre-Christmas in Nepal

Though coming home for Christmas there was still time for some Christmas traditions in Nepal.
Having enjoyed several glasses of Glögg here and there (hot red wine with some good stuff in it!) I did have the best one served at my Nepalgunj colleagues, Robin and Nanna, house for the Santa Lucia celebration - following the nice Glögg there was a mini Lucia-parade performed by Nanna and Sara followed by dancing in the living room. A lovely night in Nepalgunj that ended with Greg momentarily losing his car keys and waking up the entire neighbourhood with the help of his car alarm.....



No Christmas without a very wet Christmas-lunch/dinner. Since all the MS Development Workers were gathered in Kathmandu for first aid training, this was a golden opportunity to have a Christmas party. And where else to go than Baryo Fiesta, a restaurant owed by a Danish chef, to eat wonderful Danish Christmas food. Unfortunately, there was no snaps to go with the food and there was plenty of Vodka – check out the picture of Sara demonstrating how the Swedes manage to get drunk as fast as they do.
After several bottles of Vodka we also felt comfortable enough to follow Sørens numerous Karaoke performances – not a pretty sight but a very fun night!

And then is was off to Denmark….