searching for an old friend

I woke up this morning (absolutely no idea where I was at first!) and instinctively reached over to my bedside table and switched on my mini FM radio. Now, the usual result of this morning ritual is the dulcet tones of Ros Atkins or Carey Gracy or some other BBC-ite, informing me that this is the World Today on the BBC World Service (words cannot describe my excitement on first realising that I could get the World Service on FM in Kathmandu). But this morning instead of being gently drawn me from my slumber with world news, intelligent discussion and witty repartee all i heard was grrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhcracklecracklehissshisssgrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssjjjje

I figured I must of knocked the tuner during my recent travels (I have spent the last 5 days doing training in the mountains - will write more on that another day) and so spent the next half an hour wandering aimlessly round the room pointing my receiver in various directions, twiddling the dial gently up and down, up and down, holding the radio in the air, out the window, upside down, shaking it, begging it, stroking it. But nahthing. I felt bereft but decided the only thing to do was to head down for breakfast, as no disaster can be dealt with rationally on an empty stomach (I am still in a hotel for the moment).

Now for the point of my story...

As I sat down for breakfast, I opened the paper (The Kathmandu Post) and saw the headline "Govt Shuts Down Sagarmatha FM". Sagarmatha FM based in Kathmandu is South Asia's first community radio station (started by my colleague), it doesn't broadcast news (the government are opposed to radio's broadcasting news) and as far as I can tell, it isn't controversial. It is simply a large and respected station run for and by the community and yet the government have the power to enter the control room, seize the transmission equipment, arrest journalists and shut down the station...they government also suspended the World Service relay transmission, which is why I couldn't receive it. The reason behind it was linked to a BBC interview with the Maoist chairman, but even that is a hazy reason as although the FM do play out BBC NEpali programming, they were not planning to broadcast this particular interview. Now, I knew the rights of the media and even the rights of NGOs in Nepal are severely restricted, I knew that FM stations got shut down in the middle of the night, but I guess until something actually affects you directly, until you go to tune into something that suddenly isn't there, the reality that this can happen doesn't really sink in. It's like going to sleep listening to Radio 4 and waking up to find that the Government have arrested John Humprhies and you can't listen to the Today programme anymore. I have no idea what this means, my colleagues are all shocked and a bit confused by it all too. The Maoist cease fire is due to end on Dec 2nd and I am not sure what that means either...they want the king to agree to holding free elections for a constituent assembly, but I'm guessing that's highly unlikely...

I guess I just wanted to share this with you as it was the first time I really, truly understood that I am living in a country in the middle of a conflict, where normal rules, rights and regulations just don't apply and you realise that when things like this happen there is really nothing you can do about it - except tell your friends so that people outside Nepal, know more about what is happening in this tiny land locked country. so go check out nepal news . com and read more about it all.

Top 10 things I've discovered so far...

1 - That everyone here is lovely. I know I tend to say that about everyone everywhere, but so far the Nepali's take the prize. I got sick whilst away on the field trip (sun stroke - see point 2) and all my colleagues came to my room to give their get well quick tips and feed me rehydration sachets. Then the next day I found out that the hotel reception had stayed open an extra 2 hours, just in case I needed them.

2 - That when a Neplese person says it will be cold, it will in fact be warm, when they say warm it will be hot and so always take your hat and a bottle of water out with you on warm days or you will get sunstroke! (see illness above)

3 - That a dry packet of instant noodles crushed up and with the flavourings added can make a tasty snack. Like bombay mix without the peas.

4 - That drinking water from a bottle without touching it with your lips is harder than my nepali colleagues make it look.

5 - That you can generally spot a maoist because he is wearing a cap. We went to a Maoist village whilst on the field trip, supposedly they were all over the place, I just thought there were a lot of men in caps about.

6 - That my name in Tibetan means beautiful

7 - That so many people have so many stories

8 - That Nepali-time is even slower than Gem-time...if someone says lets meet at 7.30, you know that 7.30 means, 7.45 which means 8.00 , which is 8.30, which generally means 9.00!

9 - That being able to count from 1-5 in Nepali is a simple party trick that will always raise a smile and occassionally a cheer

10 - That I am living in the future here and the year is 2062 (the future is bright people, fear not!)

10 (and a half) - that this blogging business is not as scary as it looks!

24 hours in Nepal

Ok, Ok so it's been more like 240 hours in Nepal, but I have been far, far away from the world of internet and lots of stuff has happened in the last 10 days, so rather than write a long and endless first entry, I thought I'd keep it snappy and limit it to my first 24hours (cos you know how I can ramble!)

I had expected to arrive Thursday night, have Friday to acclimatise, the weekend to explore Kathmandu, before starting in the office on Monday. Instead I arrive, meet some of my colleagues, get told I am going on a 9 day field trip, unpack, repack, negotiate drying my hair with intermittant electricity, crash out, wake up at 6 (with crazy hair) get a taxi back to the airport, meet back up with colleagues and 6 of us fly (in a 16 seater Buddha Air plane) to the terrain area in the center of Nepal. Once I had got the words of the ever dismal rough guide out of my head: "internal flights in Nepal are risky, they overpack the planes, which generally end up crashing into the mountains" (not an exact quote, but the general gist!) the flight was amazing. Only 12minutes long but over stunning scenery AND you could see the pilot and everything! We were met at the other end by a jeep and a local guy and drove for 2 hours to a town called Hetauda, where we dumped our stuff and got in a rickshaw (so small, everything in this country is so small and each day I have had to fold and roll and bend and stuff myself into various forms of transport - I was solemnly told that if I was Nepali, I would never find a husband on account of my many inches!). I still have no idea which side of the road vehicles are meant to drive here, all I know is that in Britain cars are far too complex. Here in Nepal vehicles have evolved past the need for wing mirrors or breaks or indicators or any of that nonsense, all you need is your foot on the accelerator and your hand on the horn. Even the buses have "horn please" written on the back. As we weaved in and out of bikes and mopeds and cars and people and cows and vans and buses, again the words of the rough guide came to mind "the roads in Nepal are death traps and you will probably die on them"(again not exact quote) but despite the ducking and a weaving we arrived safe and sound (see how I laugh in the face of your pessimism rough guiders!) at our destination, a partner NGO where we Namaste’d (my own verb, meaning lots of introductions and saying Namaste to everyone) before getting in yet another form of transport called a tempo (like a cross between a tuktuk and a 4 wheel drive kinda tin thing) and heading for a rural village, where Equal Access (the NGO I'm working with) has a multi media project. TO get to this village we drove, walked, crossed a river, walked some more and finally arrived. We were here to conduct Ethnographic Action Research (development speak for talking to people in rural areas about their lives, their concerns, their issues, their views on our programmes...). Once we'd finished we walked back down the hill, back over the river bed, back in the Tempo, back in the rickshaw and back to the hotel for my first dal bad* supper. After dinner I admitted defeat and crawled to bed, falling asleep to the sound of horns and people arguing and drills drilling and water pipes banging. Next day I was up at 6am the and did it all again...(in a good way).

Ok so not that snappy, but it was a busy 24hrs!

* dal bad is a traditional nepali meal, it consists of curried cauliflower and potato, salty spinach, runny daal and pickle. The amazing thing about dal bad is that no matter how often you have it (I ate it at least once, sometimes twice a day while I was away) everytime tastes like the first time and although you think you couldn't possible have it again, you find that you miss it went it isn’t there.