Momo making!

What a weekend we just had. Friday night Carole and I 'took it easy' and headed into Thamel for an evening at the Delices de France - a French restaurant run by Christine which is an oasis for any Francophile living in Kathmandu. Christine really knows how to put on an evening and this was no exception with French Gypsy Jazz musician David Givone keeping us company as we chowed down a 3 course set menu. Saturday morning was spent trying to cram in some Nepali before our lesson at 12, and then getting ready for the annual US Army Marine Ball. Now it doesn't get much more over the top than this in KTM. Held at the 5 star Soatee Hotel, 12 year old Scotch constantly poured by one of the many abiding waiters, imported salmon (Nepal is a landlocked country!), speeches by various ambassadors, 400 people talking ex-oat shop, aye aye aye, it was an experience. The partying was great fun though. My stomach muscles were actually sore the next day from giving it so much on the dance floor! So needless to say it was as big night.

I was somehow up bright and early on Sunday morning with the motivation to head into town and buy myself an Indian bicycle. So hangover aside I legged it into KTM central, spent about $70AUD, and then road home on my brand spanking one geared Atlas - I'm sure to use this sucker a heap throughout the year getting too and from work and around town.

The afternoon was then spent at our incredible neighbours house making momo's! Momo's are similar to Chinese dumplings (but better!), and loved by everyone here. They come in vegetarian, chicken, and buffalo meat. Having had our fair share of momo's already, it was first on our list of Nepali foods to learn how to make. So at 2 o'clock we began our first momo making lesson from the best in the business. It was a great afternoon spent huddled together in Prabin's parents kitchen, learning about the different ingredients, laughing at how bad I was at getting the stuffing in the dough, and then consuming way to many of them once they were ready! They were delicious and just remembering them now is making me slightly hungry and has reminded me to make sure Carole doesn't eat all our leftovers which are in the fridge at home! I'll put some more info up about the recipe etc soon.

Once we had digested, we then headed to my boss's house, Rajesh, for dinner and some Nepali wine. It was a wonderful evening and the perfect end to a super weekend.

m@

Work!

A little bit now about the first week at ENPHO (Environment Public Health Organisation - www.enpho.org - for those who are interested!)

It's lunchtime on Friday at the new office. Didi (which literally means 'older sister' but is also used when referring to house keepers), has just plonked a sweet tea at my desk. She does this about three times a day which I'm starting to really get into - and partially expect (which I will have to be careful about!). I work in a building about 1 hour by public transport or 20mins by bike from where we're living. There are about 35 employees spread over 4 levels. The bottom level is admin staff, the second level is a lab, I'm on the third and share a small office with an anthropologist from Bangladesh and a Nepali intern who is about to go to Germany to complete her Masters. And then above me sits various managers and a conference room. Whilst the layout seems quite hierarchical, it is anything but with managers, interns, volunteers and other staff constantly bantering and chuckling in a sincere sense which gives the place a nice feel. There are also about another 70 staff spread throughout Nepal at rural postings. I should also mention that whilst ENPHO has a constant turnover of volunteers, besides a guy from Holland who has been here for a year and a half and is about to leave, I'm the only other volunteer......which is kind of nice ;-)

My exact assignment description has changed considerably since I first applied for the position due to staff turnover and acquisition. I have therefore spent the first week  familiarising myself with ENPHO by reading annual reports, going through some WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) and DEWATS (Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems) documents, and of course getting to know the peops! With more of an idea of what and how they do things here, I went and saw my boss yesterday to try and firm up a few projects to get me going. My main area of interest is DEWATS as it specialises in wastewater treatment for developing countries in a very practical manner, taking into account the locally available resources, socio economic factors, gender, and other such fascinating aspects which we don't necessarily need to to concern ourselves with in Melbourne to any great extent. It is also an area which my Masters focused more so on so it's nice to be applying some of that knowledge! There are various DEWATS approved treatment systems which have been researched and applied in Nepal and are implemented depending on the communities circumstances, but there is also constant research to try and identify further possible forms of treatment which may be applicable in Nepal. So incredibly I have been handed over a project which uses a technique called RBC (Rotating Biological Contactor) and investigating how practicable it is at reducing contaminant loads to acceptable standards at the community level. A prototype has been put together using locally found parts (which includes parts taken from one of the many Suzuki taxis' in Nepal!). So my task is to now simulate, record, and investigate if this device can be added to one of the DEWATS systems and implemented in appropriate rural communities. Heaps of work involved in all this but for engineering/science geeks it's super exciting!

The other project is assisting Kathmandu to become prepared for a major earthquake! What on earth am I doing working on that you might say? Well let me tell you! We've been warned numerous times now that a major earthquake could happen any day. This fact was conveniently not disclosed before we arrived in the country! Estimates are that as much as 40,000 people would perish if a earthquake struck KTM due to the over population and poor construction of buildings. Scary huh. Then there is also the damage to other infrastructure such as roads, water pipes, the airport, which make an Earthquake here even more catastrophic and ranks KTM the most at risk major city in the world for earthquake disaster. Now Mum, if you are reading this please don't concern yourself - I have a go-bag packed and waiting near my door with water, muesli bars, a compass and spare underpants in case an earthquake strikes ;-)
Seven sites have been identified in KTM valley for displaced person camps which range in size, but in total could accommodate up to 300,000 people. The displaced persons will need shelter, food, and most  importantly, access to water and appropriate levels of hygiene. Due to the location of KTM it could also be up to a week before international aid arrives so god knows how long it could be before people will be able to leave the camps and become self sufficient again. So that is where I come in. Some work is already underway but I will be helping to put together a report which focuses on applying WASH practices to establish the necessary access to water given the possible sources available at those sites, locations of latrines, solid waste removal, communication and distribution of hygiene material to prevent disease spreading and so forth. This project also links in with other organisations such as OXFAM (who are coordinating the overall preparedness project), the Red Cross who have a huge presence with Nepal and also the Army who will be responsible for logistics, to name a few. This project is an absolutely massive task but it's importance is undeniable. Lets just hope all this preparation will not be necessary!

Anyhow, that's some of the initial work in a nutshell. Plenty more to come no doubt once I sink my teeth into the work that lies ahead.

m@

  

The Day to Day

Ok, so now onto more of life here in general. Lets start with...........HOME!

The program was orgnanised to give us two weeks worth of orientation before work started. In that time we had sessions on Security, Earthquakes, Health etc. We also had time to house hunt. It's pretty intense though to try and find an apartment/house you'd be happy living in for 3 months minimum without knowing much else at all! - where the parties are, how to get to the work, who your friends will be and so forth. I was therefore lucky in that someone who used to work at my organisation (ENPHO) had just moved to Bangladesh with his family to take up a position with the UNDP. Knowing my predicament, my manager - Rajesh - organised with Dr Roshan (the guy who owns the house) for Carole and I to stay there for as long as we like. Pretty neat. Now this ain't no ordinary home either. It's actually a UN accredited ECO-Home which Dr Roshan built about 10 years ago as an example of how you can live more sustainably. All power is solar or hydro, hot water is solar, organic waste is composted, grey water is filtered through reed beds and reused for toilet flushing, rainwater is collected, dug well water is pumped through a bio-sand filter and used during periods of little rainfall. Not bad huh. The only condition of living here is that I look after the house and the various eco installations - and for those who know me this is right up my alley and something that interests me greatly - although I've rarely practised it back home! Whilst a little further away from Thamel - which is the main hangout and general entertainment area, we are close to one of Kathmandu's main temples, Swayambhu, which is nestled upon a hill and boasts some of KTM's best views. This morning Carole, Prabin (the nephew of Dr Roshan) and I got up at 6am and walked around the temples perimeter for an hour or so. So nice and something we plan to do a lot more of - if not for the beauty of it but to work off my curry gut! The other bonus of living here is that we have found a special niche in the neighbourhood by being a guest of Dr Roshan. The Nepali's are very communal people so we either have various family and community folk over at our place just hanging around or we go to there's for some broken banter. Since Nepal's power is derived from Hydro, the dam's gradually drop in level during the winter months (when there is little rain), and by mid winter Nepal is without power for up to 20 hours a day! Crazy hey. Such power outages (or load shedding) have just begun so we are now without power for about 2 hours a night between 6pm and 8pm. During this time you simply head to the street, someone makes a little camp fire, and joke about. Beautiful moments. The local corner store owner brought us out some Nepali style digestive tea which contained lemon, sugar and some black salt. Sounded interesting but man alive it was horrible! The initial taste was like rotten egg before the salty lemoness kicked in. Needless to say we couldn't finish it! This morning however after our walk around the temple, the store owner invited us in for some more tea. He made a special point of telling us it was a milk tea (as I think he wanted to improve the response he got from us last night!) so we couldn't decline an went inside his kitchen to have tea. Well, what an improvement. It was delicious. A masala styled sweet tea. As we were sipping the tea, one of Prabin's friends arrived with an Enfield 350cc Bullet motorcycle. This is the exact motorbike I want to get so ofcourse we went outside to inspect. It was BEAUTIFUL. Sooooo cool. A bit of banter followed before he asked if I wanted to ride it. Ofcourse! So I took it for a spin around the block. It purred! Im def getting one - but perhaps the 500cc model ;-)

Anyhow, that's our home!

m@

First Impressions

It's been two weeks now since we touched down in KTM (as the expats say), and it sure has been an interesting time. From the moment we stepped off the Silkair plane I've been letting go of any pre conceived ideas I had of this place and it's people! Somewhat naively I had romantic visions of cobblestoned alley ways, fruit and vegetable vendors lining the streets, mountainous views, and even the odd cafe sprawling across the city square. Now that's not to say that all those things aren't there, but I forgot the add the rubbish, dust, motorbikes and screaming fast mini buses, and pollution. I'm not talking Mexico City pollution or backstreets of Saigon stench, but proper pollution that hangs in the air causing car headlights to beam through the dust at night and mask any view of the Himalayas. That is until the rain comes. The morning after the water droplets catch the dust and pollution as they fall is spectacular. The skies become blue, the snowy tops of the Himalayas can be seen protruding above the Kathmandu Valley rim, and the colours of the buildings come out revealing a time before mass migrations saturated this city. But needless to say, what I have just described is what you see on the surface of Kathmandu.

The gap between rich and poor here is incredible. From Ex-pat parties with money'd up Nepali's, to women begging and people sleeping on the streets, it's all here. Then there is also the cows blocking intersections whilst they pick away at a discarded rubbish bag, goats that hang around Hindu temples, and monkeys that flock to the nearby Swayambhu temple at dusk, belaying themselves over the roads via phone lines - the mothers with babies clenched to them duck and weave through the oncoming Honda Hero motorbikes. You see all this as you walk down the street to buy bread for the morning or some vegetables for dinner - I don't dare touch the street vendor meat just yet!

I'm progressively learning more about the political history of Nepal and it's struggle for stable government - whether that be a democratic republic or a monarchy. The past 20 years has seen not just the popular Maoist group fight the so-called Peoples War but many other political parties have formed in the hope of one day establishing a Democratic state. Battles between the Maoist Army and the National Army ensued; millions of people were displaced, land was stolen, officials were found guilty of murder, the Nation was torn. What you see in Kathmandu today is entirely different to how it was even 5 years ago due to the migrations caused by the civil war. A local living in the area Carole and I are currently staying said that if he goes abroad for a year, he finds it hard to recognise some neighbourhoods due to the amount of construction when he returns. Ofcourse construction is not necessarily a bad thing, but in a city with no stable leadership, poor access to water as it is, the world's most at risk city for earthquakes, it seems more issues are sprouting before the previous issues can be solved. Then there is the economic development of Nepal. With court cases ongoing to try and return land to the rightful owners which the Maoist's acquired with force,the agriculture industry is in disarray. Nepal actually imports  food from India, China, Bangladesh, even though it has the potential to produce a considerable surplus of similar imported products. It's amazing what a stable Government can achieve! I actually wonder how we have done it so well in Australia.

Well that was quite the rant! I'll put up some more info soon about the day to day living we're experiencing. Work, parties, the AYAD community etc. So stay tuned!

m@