When I was first looking at the Volunteer Nepal website, before I had even decided to come to Nepal, I saw one of the Volunteer Opportunities was for the old people's home, and I thought 'Nope, that's not for me.' Cleaning up after old people doesn't sound very appealing. It's not like teaching where you can supposedly change the whole life of someone- their lives have mostly already happened. And there's the added subconcious fear of oh my God, this is what it's like to get old. This might happen to me one day. But I actually found it to be some of the most rewarding work I've done in Nepal. The home is an old Hindu temple that's been converted into housing for old people who aren't capable of taking care of themselves and have nowhere else to go. In Western countries there's an idea that when you're old, you're still mostly responsible for supporting yourself. It's called saving for retirement. In Nepal, most people don't have that luxury. They instead function by the system that sons, especially the first born son, is responsible for feeding and clothing and housing his parents as they age. When a Nepali person grows old and doesn't have a son or is abandoned by their sons, they have no backup plan and end up at the ashram. There are well over 100 people living there, but I worked only in the section specifically for disabled people with maybe 30.
The change I might have been making in caring for these people was much more tangible than anywhere else I'd been in Nepal so far- The floors and beds and dishes were getting cleaned better and more often, more laundry could be done, and their lives could be made generally more comfortable and sanitary. One day I fed an old woman her breakfast, spoonful by spoonful, because she has a joint-muscular disease that renders her hands practically useless. The most fascinating part about that was the fact that this particular disability was one of the more commonly treated disabilities at the HRDC Hospital in Banepa where I had volunteered earlier. It was so crazy to see where the children being treated in Banepa would end up if HRDC didn't exist.
I didn't volunteer many days there on account of a having a common cold back to back with three days of a Maoist strike during which it was impossible to get to the Ashram, but it made a distinct impression. The people were so fixed in their ways and would show the same gestures and make the same noises everyday. Many were religious, like the man who was writing in the notebook in the picture above-I asked him what he was writing and he said "Ram" meaning "God" in Nepali, over and over and over again. He had almost filled the pages of this notebook, front and back, and wrote with such slow and deliberate gestures. I just sat and watched him for maybe half an hour after the work was done.
I spent Christmas at the Papa's House orphanages, and I was amazed to have such a wonderful Christmas in a country whose Christian population is probably 1%. Luckily Nepali people, having so many people of both the Buddhist and Hindu faiths, have adopted the custom of celebrating all the festivals of pretty much every religion, including Christmas for which they had a holiday from school. Their weekends are only one day, Saturday, but they more than make up for it in the amount of school they miss for 'festivals'. And Papa's House celebrated Christmas in style. The highlight of the presents was a new puppy, named Lucky, as a companion for the dog they got on Christmas last year (Snowball). All of the 140 children also got a new blanket, a yellow and black track suit that says PAPA'S HOUSE on the back, and various other clothes and toys and candies. The children were so happy and excited. They also did a secret santa gift exchange among themselves, where each child gave another child a small present and card which was very adorable.
The best part of Christmas Day, I think, was the talent show which involved lots of Hindi/Nepali style dances and songs, some gymnastics/breakdancing, an attempt at the Macarena, and a very touching skit on a Kamlari girl being rescued (when parents sell their child as a household slave because they have no money, which is how many girls came to be at Papa's House) It wasn't at all like Christmas at home, but it was still a wonderful day.
While in Kathmandu I also got to witness a Maoist strike. For three days the entire city shut down. The shops were all shuttered, there were no cars or buses or taxis or tuk tuks on any of the roads, if people tried to ride bicycles they were stopped by the maoists at checkpoints and made to dismount. The schools were all closed as well-the entire country was dead. I've heard all sorts of rumors as to why they were striking, and I think the closest answer is they dismissed the general when they were still part of the government and left it over a dispute about their power to do that. The president has reappointed that general so the maoists are enforcing strikes until the government will listen to them and put someone who will let their insurgents be a part of the army in the position of general. I'm not even sure if that's right though. Of course it doesn't really work and actually is worse for the farmers and street vendors and the lower class that the maoists supposedly fight for than it is for the rich people or the people in power. On the third day I went with Sam, another volunteer to find where the head of the maoist party in Nepal, Prachanda was supposedly speaking. We ended up following a march, pictured, down the road for several miles but missed the formal speech. I wish I understood what they were chanting and the banners they were waving, but I'm not quite that good at Nepali yet.
Nepal, as a country, usually conducts its day to day business quite normally and I often forget I'm in a country that just had its first free elections two years ago and still doesn't have a formal constitution. It's exciting but also frustrating because a lot of groups, like the Maoists, seem to only be working for power for themselves and the government as a whole is still hugely corrupt. Even with all the foreign aid in Nepal, the workers at the main government-funded orphanage haven't been paid in nine months. The very few garbage collectors in the city are on strike because they aren't being paid either. Bribes are accepted in every governmental department and it seems as if nothing is getting done. It's easy to see why the Maoists and others are frustrated, but I think the Maoist strategy isn't really the way to fix the problem at all. It's all very confusing and makes me so thankful for the system of government in America. I'll complain about the inefficiency of congress a lot less now that I've lived in Nepal.
After those two crazy weeks I went back to Guarishankar Orphanage, my first placement, for three weeks to do some painting. It was beyond amazing, again, but I'll save that for the next post.
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