Home in Kathmandu

One of my favourite quotes is by writer. E.B. White:

“Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savour it. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

I feel the past three weeks in Kathmandu since I began my program with Tevel B Tedek, I can really relate to his dilemma. On the one hand our days are filled with discussions that cover issues ranging from globalisation and poverty, to domestic violence, child labour, street children and the country’s severe health issues. Yet at the same time I am having more fun than I have had in a long time, I have slipped very easily into the lifestyle here in Kathmandu and feel as at home and happy as anywhere in the world.

The Tevel Be Tzedek Bayit is located in the Swayambu neighbourhood of Kathmandu, best known for its “monkey temple” a fitting name, given that there is no shortage of monkeys around, (one of whom stole eggs from one of the girls on breakfast duty this morning). Each morning a different room is responsible for making breakfast. This entails going to the shops in Kimdol Chok (the main square) and buying whatever we want to the value of 700 rupees (approx $10), enough to provide a 5 star breakfast for the 21 of us in the group. My room was the first on duty, so armed with zero Nepali skills we set of at 6:30am to buy the ingredients for pancakes from shopkeepers that spoke hardly a word of English. With a fair amount of pointing and hand gestures we succeeded in our mission and were able to produce a massive stack of pancakes along with caramelised bananas that set the tone for the upcoming month. We have since been treated to a gourmet variety of breakfasts: shakshuka, hash browns, omelettes, oatmeal with peanut butter (actually peanut butter is our secret ingredient for everything), salad, French toast, you name it!

But breakfast is not our only responsibility in the house; each of us has tasks we volunteered for on the first day. I signed up to help look after Betsie, the dog. But Betsie is no ordinary dog... having been fed iodine as a puppy she is supposedly brain damaged (although I personally don’t find her any weirder than my own dog in SA Rambo). Betsie also happens to be a vegetarian, given that her diet consists of our left-overs, her meals usually comprise of anything from Dalbad (rice and lentils, our daily lunch) to eggs, yogurt and potato curry. Apart from feeding her, we also have had to wash her, de-flea/ tick her, and have her nails cut. In that order, because in order to take her to the vet to have her nails cut, we can’t walk her like a “normal dog” (apparently previous Tevel dogs were tragically lost this way when they were attacked by the tougher local strays which are almost as prevalent as the monkeys). So we had to carry her, but we couldn’t do that until we had washed her as we were warned the fleas will jump up and bite us. Therefore this Friday after much procrastination, while everyone was preparing for Shabbat, so was Betsie, we washed her and then carried the wet dog to have her nails manicured at the vet down the road, so much for roughing it in Nepal.

I’ve really fallen easily into the daily routine here. My day often begins with a run in the neighbourhood, which is always interesting passing the Nepali army jogging (I run around the army base), people out selling vegetables or praying at The Buddhist temple. We also have Yoga classes every now and again, given by one of the group members. Its then breakfast and Nepali lessons (I have been christened with the Nepali name of “Camala”, which means lotus, but unfortunately every time I try say it I get it wrong which is a bit of a problem since its my own name!) and lectures or tours in the afternoons.
The “tours” here are no quite what you would expect. Our first such tour was on our third day in Kathmandu, we were sent to explore the city, with the instructions to 1. Go alone, 2. Invite someone for a cup of Chia, 3. Discuss politics with someone, 4. Use at least three different forms of public transport and 4. Let loose, explore and enjoy. I landed up wandering through the Kalinki neighbourhood, wondering how exactly I was going to fulfil my mission when I stopped to ask directions from a middle aged lady. We began chatting and very soon she had invited me into her house for some tea. One task accomplished, I didn’t realise I would land up sitting with her for over two hours, not only discussing politics, but covering a wide range of topics from globalisation and the brain drain (her daughter is studying medicine in China and her son studied business in the U.S.) to arranged marriages (her marriage to her husband was arranged), to religion (I had to answer the not so simple question of so what is a Jew.) The truth is the conversation was really interesting, I felt a little like she was a Nepali version of my own mom and the issues she spoke about sounded very familiar to the issues my family faces in SA. (Political instability, an uncertain future, children all over the world, yet Nepal is still home.) Eventually two hours later we parted after exchanging details and a promise that next time she would take me around on her scooter (I plan to take her up on that).

Another outing was a “poverty walk”, we were sent into the city to walk through and take in some of the poorer neighbourhoods and afterwards we had a discussion on poverty and what it means. It was an eye opener for many to see the squalor in which so many people lived. In the village we witnessed poverty, yet in the pristine mountain setting, with the comfort of families and a community, it seemed far more bearable. Unfortunately the reality is that many of these poor villagers are driven by poverty and dreams of success to the cities, where they usually land up in the squalor we witnessed in the shanty houses and along the filthy river banks.

Yet despite all this we have managed to have a lot of fun, chilling in the house (something for the first time in my life I am learning to do), playing poker with curtain hooks, toothpicks and pick-up sticks as chips (particularly fun given the fact that I won, earning myself the handsome prize of 70 rupee or $1), last night we even landed up dancing Salsa at a bar in town (and the WakaWaka), -now that’s globalisation!( the main topic of many of our classes) Last week we even had a party on the roof, two of the girls in the “pent house”, put mattresses on the roof, hooked up speakers, made some punch and organised games including twister and “pass the parcel”. We then did Kiddush Lavanah and danced around and sang along with the guitar. (It kind of feels like I’m in a movie writing about this.)
Shabbas’s have also been really special, Friday afternoon we all help preparing the meals, cutting veggies and cooking an amazing variety of dishes, especially given limited ingredients and utensils: Challah, home-made hummus, Persian rice, even Indian Malai Kofta, we have not been malnourished! We do Kabbalat Shabbat on the roof; singing Carlebach tunes, overlooking Kathmandu with a diverse group of Jews, some of which had never before done Kabbalat Shabbat, this cannot but be a moving experience. Even on our free Shabbat last week we landed up staying in, doing Kabbalat Shabbat on the roof, and then going to the Buddhist Monastery down the road where there is a vegetarian restaurant and we had pre-ordered an entire meal for Shabbas dinner. A real cross-cultural experience!

So, in all it’s been great so far, great people, a lot of laughing, a lot of learning and just a lot of fun. But I must say I’ll be very ready to start working in another week (although I’m still not sure what exactly that will entail) I feel this past month I have certainly had a good share of “savouring the world”, its nearly time to try get down to this business of “saving it” or at least taking a shot at it...