Of kerosene and weddings

This weekend saw me hunt for several random – non supermarket items. Firstly some kerosene with which to clean my bike chain, which the ever wise internet assured me would do in the absence of branded bike degreaser. Seeing as every other Nepali has kerosene stoves and it is winter you would have thought kerosene shops would be numerous. However I couldn’t find any anywhere until one shopkeeper volunteered a small boy in his shop to show me a kerosene shop. There followed a silent walk of about a mile down winding lanes until we came across the kerosene shop – which looked like every other shop, but had some tanks of kerosene out the back. Fortunately kerosene is sold by the litre (in old coke bottles) and I didn’t have to lug a huge tank of the stuff back to my house. Kerosene seems to work very well as a de-greaser, but it stinks, and is best administered outside me thinks.

The other item I was looking for was a crow bar, as there happen to be bars on all my windows and this is rather prison like and in a fire or an earthquake or armed robbery, or indeed any other calamity that could befall me, a crow bar could be most useful for prising open the bars and making an escape – should the normal exits be blocked… however I soon realised that not knowing Nepali for ‘crow bar’ made finding one impossible and so I gave up rather fast and returned home – cycling up the hill I encountered a hoard of Maoists waving red flags and chanting something (alas not directions to the crow bar shop) which was quite exciting given they had stopped all traffic…

The other excitement of the weekend was a Nepali wedding… some friends and I were invited to our Nepali teachers, brothers wedding, and we thought it would be an interesting experience so we decided to tag along, despite not knowing the bride and groom, and indeed not really knowing the Nepali teacher either. I was expecting some sort of lengthy Hindu wedding ceremony with Saris and people chanting and puja-ing all round, but no, randomly it was a Christian wedding, in a massive church – which even looked like a church at home… well if you ignored the large painting of Mt Everest underneath the alter cross and the fact there were no chairs. So we sat down on the floor, at the back, after beating away about 5 ushers who all thought the foreigners really should have pride of place at the front, even tho they knew no one in the church. The groom and our Nepali teacher sat on a platform at the front along with about 5 Nepali pastors and a couple of musicians. The wedding started without the bride… firstly there was praying (female members of the congregation covered their heads with their scarves) then there was very jolly singing (all done sitting down to ensure maximum pins and needles)… then at last the bride comes down the isle on the arm of her sister (?) and was wearing a most glorious satin white wedding dress – think very white, very shiny, very over the top, the bridesmaid also wore a white dress. It was weird they wore white as here it is the colour of death so kind of an odd wedding colour choice – although perhaps they saw ‘4 weddings and a funeral’ on star movie channel? After the bride had reached the stage and sat down in a chair her father wandered down the isle on his own, and then handed her over to the groom. All the time about 8 Nepali men with a range of photographic equipment (huge TV style video cameras, mobile phones, digital cameras, 35mm film cameras) rushed around recording and photographing every single exciting moment. Half the time you couldn’t even see the bride and groom as they were surrounded by a mass of cameramen! When you could see the bride she looked as if she had a cricked neck. Not once did she look up from her shoes, not during the 17 sermons (it was a long wedding), not when saying the vows to her husband to be, not when he lifted the veil from her face, and not when they walked back down the isle and out of the church to their dhal bhat (lentil and rice – traditional Nepali food) reception. I found this interesting as she didn’t smile either. Seriously, looking as if you want to top yourself isn’t a look people go for in weddings at home. However apparently here, if she looked even a little bit happy it would be ultimate disrespect to her family. The bride is supposed to look terribly sad that she must leave her family and join her new husband’s family, and so showing signs of pleasure at getting married is a big NO-NO. Sometimes city life is so westernised I actually find myself surprised by cultural differences – although this probably has something to do with the fact that after a while you are no longer surprised by many things that would surprise you if you just stepped off the plane from London.

Later that evening (about 10pm) a Hindu Nepali wedding party/procession set off from my street with much playing of trumpets, banging of drums and singing. 10pm would seem an odd time to start a wedding however the timing of strict Hindu weddings is decreed by an astrologer who works out the correct time based on details about birth-dates/times of the bride and groom. Apparently 10pm isn’t actually too bad a time, some weddings start in the middle of the night at 2 or 3am. Not sure ill be volunteering to go to any of those ones!

Oh the Joy

There will be power cut timing increment from this Friday 26 Jan 2007. Every household will face 3 hours of power cuts everyday amounting to 21 hours’ per week. This power cut duration is likely to be increased subsequently to exceed more than 40 hours per week.

Strikes

There seem to be a lot of strikes in Nepal, today was no exception - the 2nd day of a transport workers strike. They have called a national level strike because they want the government to compensate them for the damage caused to their vehicals during other strike action by other people.
This means that they block the roads and burn tyres and apparently deflate the tyres of people who try to defy them... tyre burning is a big thing in Nepal. Alas I dont have any photos of my own, however Mel got a great one (from a different strike) which I will attach below!


So, because there was a strike I had to cycle to work It was nice as there was virtually no traffic, which is my main reason for not cycling normally - fear of death by tuktuk/motorbike/Suzuki maruti taxi/land cruiser/bus... oh and fear of killing some cyclist or pedestrian by going too fast! Seriously it was so nice with no traffic that I am really hoping the 'infdefinate' strike will be indefinate so i can cycle everyday... or at least I'll think that until the food starts running out in the shops...
I took my camera with me thinking there would be exciting photos of tyre burnings, rocks on the roads... but alas nothing... just some soot on the ground where tyre burnage occurred yesterday. I think all the excitment was on the other side of town ;o(

I was thinking tho that all this talk on the BBC about British Airways cabin crew protesting could be brought to new levels if they took some tyre burning lessons from here.... How about 'cabin crew burn tyres in British airways planes'? or if that is too much like arson, perhaps they could burn tyres (plane tyres?) on the runways, outside all BA offices, and perhaps on the M25... i mean to say the lesson here is that tyre burning shouldn't just be limited to those directly affected by the issue being protested (which is often unknown)... the objective is to cause as much disruption to as many people as possible. The M25 would be a good start.

More photos...

I've put some more photos on Flickr if youre interested!

Pebar and the gym

Today is saturday... Pebar day. Now, i decided i should clarify once and for all whether he was a minor or not. Employing a child would be slightly tragic... so i said "Pebar how old are you?"... I held my breath, if he said 15 it would be awful - i'm not sure the landlord would appreciate me sacking Pebar because he was too young... so Pebar says 'I'm 20... I think...' so it turns out he doesnt actually know how old he is, but he thinks he is 20... so i think I'm fairly safe on the child labour front. The reason he doesnt know his age is because like manymany other people in developing countries his birth wasnt registered... in his case because his father died and his mother abandoned him, and so he has lived with my landlord for the last 11 years... interesting.

other news is that i went to a gym. I am not sure i will return. for 200 rupies or £1.40 I had the joy of using the following equipment:

1. 2x running machines – working fine, except the gradient was not changeable
2. 2x ski bikes – functional but not able to change the resistance – and there was no resistance as such so not much good.
3. 1x bike – lacking in one pedal but otherwise functional
4. 1x stepping machine – out of order

So, it was great value?


I'm off for some sightseeing now - I feel I need to be a tourist and find out what there is to see in this part of the world... I shall upload some more photos today or tomorrow

over and out

Earthquake proof???

so, i think i mentioned before that the chances of an earthquake striking Nepal are fairly high... in fact quoting my 'preparing for earthquakes' book that i got given yesterday it sayeth: " the last major earthquake in the valley [Kathmandu] came in 1934 and the statistics indicate that another devestating earthquake is not only inevitable in the long term but also highly likely in the near future".
Now, there are some people around and about who optimistically hope that the earthquake in Pakistan last year relieved some of the pressure on the fault line... however most people seem to just accept that an earthquake is going to happen, and that it will be worse than awful when it does... I think estimates are 40,000 dead and millions displaced... but i could be wrong. The thing is you cant live every day in total paranoia that your house is going to fall down and that you may be squished or be swallowed up into the earth... however I have now been pursaded that some preparation is required. So at the weekend my friend and i went out to buy some largish plastic barrels... we then went to the shop and bought all sorts of junk that i would never normally buy - tins of baked beans, tins of sardines, tins of fruit, tins of soup, tins of vegetables (all stuff that could be eaten cold)... cream crackers, digestive biscuits, peanuts, rasins... i also got in lots of baby wipes, loo roll, soap, liquid detol, a towel, pleanty of bottled water... (this seems like a lot of stuff but it is nothing like as comprehensive as the book suggests)... then i am supposed to put this barrel in the safest place in the house - preferably in an outside shed... well i live on the second floor - i dont have an outside shed... and how on earth do i know where the safest place in the house is should an earthquake strike. currently the barrel is by the front door, but i cant think that this should be a permenant solution... perhaps the back balcony - but thats where the gas cylenders are... oh the decisions. i figure if i am lucky to survive an earthquake in one piece then this stuff will be useful, but if my house falls down then the location of the barrel will be irrelevant...
other excitments are that i have a work permit now, and this means that i am registered with the UN in case of emergency evacuation... although whether i would be a priority of theirs i am not sure, as its not like i work for them... anyways they have the exact GPS location of my house, amongst other things...

I think that is all for now!
over and out roger roger?

Saturday in Kathmandu

Hello.

Today saw the return of Pebar - the cleaning boy. He had disappeared to the countryside register his birth or something… this seemed to take a month, and I am sure you can imagine my distress at actually having to do some cleaning for the first time in the last year. After realising I had been abandoned by Pebar I had to venture out and buy things like brooms and buckets and cleaning fluids… which interestingly I couldn’t find, and so I moped the floors Nepali style – using washing detergent… Anyway as soon as Pebar returned the landlord was on the phone demanding Pebar come over and clean, so he did, and he even did the washing up too. Most excellent.

After he had cleaned and I had done the washing I went out mountain biking with Callum, who is exceedingly fit (unlike me who really hasn’t done any exercise to speak of for the last 2 months). It was so nice to get out of smogville and into the hills, and of course test out the spangly new bike. The bike did good… I did ok… but I found the off paved-road uphills very hard, you have to concentrate so hard on all the rocks and bumps… coming down isn’t much better. I feel as if I have been well and truly shaken up. The views were a bit hazy, but it was so nice to breath fresh air and see village life… and I made it home ok, if rather slowly… We shall see how stiff I am tomorrow!

a pink hatted taximan

I thought I should write a block as an ode to the most lovely taxi driver in Kathmandu. On the whole you get into taxis and they smell, are covered in a selection of stickers that usually include Hindu gods, bollywood stars, Britney and Avril Lavine stickers. Then the driver storms off at top speed and proceeds to try and rip you off for the privilege of a near death experience in his bashed up piece of metal - that would never pass for a car in the UK.

Not however my lovely pink hated taxi driver. If I have to get a taxi to work in the mornings he is always around, so whilst my usual ‘drivers’ have been on holiday I have been getting a few taxis and have become more and more amused by this lovely taximan!

Firstly the pink hat is very cute, and I haven’t seen him without it… then there is his spangly new car – still a Suzuki maruti, but it is new… then there is the fact his meter is very accurate… oh and perhaps because the car is new he drives very carefully – this is very unusual in this country… people hooon it around like no ones business.

He is very polite and speaks good English… one time his mobile rang and he actually excused himself before answering it. When he came off the phone he said he had been speaking to his mum who was like his mother, father and best friend all rolled into one!! Another time he started singing a song ‘… lonely I’m so lonely…’ and explained his wife and sons had gone to Darjeeling and he was missing them very much… now this man doesn’t really look 30… but he has 13 and 8 year old sons. He met Anthony whilst he was here and so after the singing of ‘lonely’ he proceeded to commiserate with me that Anthony wasn’t here anymore, and that he wouldn’t be able to be without his wife for such a long period of time…

Other traffic related news is the discovery that here in Nepal if you run someone over and they are injured you are required to pay all of their medical expenses, however if you kill them you just have to pay funeral expenses. Apparently it is a frequent occurrence that drivers who knock someone over but don’t kill them deliberately reverse, or go round and hit them again as funerals are cheaper than medical bills. This almost sounds too horrible to believe, but it really is true.

load shedding

So, here in Kathmandu we have load shedding. This means official power cuts. It seems to be fairly predictable. I get mine every sunday from 5pm - 7.30pm, and the timing is spot on. So you know when the majority of the powercuts are coming and that is fine.

However, today I discovered that as we are heading into the dry season most of Nepal's hydro electric power stations are at too low a level to work and so load shedding will be increased. As of this week we will have no power between 5am-8am 1x a week and 5pm-7.30pm 2x per week (i know not what days)... so thats ok i guess 8 hrs of powerouts per week is fine... but oh no it shall get worse, apparently by the end of the month we will reach 40hours of scheduled power cuts per week (eeek) - and this is announced by the national electricty company, and it happened last year too... so seems fairly reasonable to expect it will happen! It seems Nepal cant buy more power from India as the systems arent totally compatible, and so we shall have to wait for the rainy season I suppose until full power is resumed!

I have a lantern and many candles and wine-bottles-holding-candles and candle holders so all shall be well... and my shower is heated by gas and i cook on gas. But you know it seems strange to be in a capital city with so many power outs... I remember in mongoland in the winter it got rediculous - we had more power cuts than power - but i wasnt in the capital city then, and the problem wasnt suply, rather a dodgy power station. There is a lesson here somewhere, and I guess it is that we in the west are so used to 24hr electricity, that it befuddles us when we dont have it... stumbling around in the dark, feeling cold, no TV, computers, music and so many other electrical appliances that we use etc... however if some predictions about the future are realised it is something that people in the UK may have to deal with in my lifetime... interesting.

internet

hello,
I've added some random internet links that I like to the side bar... might be worth a look xxx