Temples and Trouble in Paradise

Friday March 4, 2011

8:53AM

For the last 48 hours, I have totally fallen off the horse in terms of keeping the blog/journal updated. Yesterday, instead of writing, I decided to try to upload photos into the blog. One hour, 14 error messages and multiple internet connections lost later, 3 photos made it into picassa. Not exactly the volume of material I was hoping to use to give some visual appeal to the blog. I have this mental picture of small Nepalese squirrels or maybe even BND’s (Basic Nepali Dogs), jogging along in a little hamster wheel which is connected to a generator that powers the internet. Every now and then they must get tired and hence the internet goes down. The power really isn’t much better and there doesn’t seem to be any connection between the power and internet services. I just know that if the power is on when I wake up at 1AM to the cooing of 100 pigeons outside my window, the computer, phone and camera better all get plugged in quick, and I might as well fire off some emails while I can.

On the day of my last entry there was a festival to honor the Hindu goddess Shiva. Being naive tourists, we, of course, decided to visit the monkey temples on the edge of town. The walk lasted about an hour and was capped with several hundred steps leading to the temple on top of a large hill. The last few were bordering on vertical, yet there was no shortage of frail appearing pilgrims at the top. Needless to say that on a religious holiday, a place of worship might be slightly crowded, and, as is the custom here in Nepal, where there are people there are always a slew of trinket salesman hocking their wares.

The temple, known to its pilgrims as Swoyambhunath or sublime trees, is a combined place of worship for those of both Buddhist and Hindu faiths, and Nepal is one of the few places in the world where these two religions intermingle in worship. In the middle part there were monks chanting amidst a drum circle and on an opposite side shrines of multi-armed gods and goddesses were plastered with flowers and fruit. In the center of it all was a large spire on top of a bulbous base with large blue eyes painted on the sides - the eyes of Buddha. 

The chants were quite fascinating and if one sat there long enough you almost felt yourself falling into a sort of trance. Obviously, I had no idea what they were saying but there was a definite flowing rhythm that escalated as the chant progressed. Rhythm was kept with a large bass drum. When the rhythm reached its height a high pitched bell was rung and then two 6 foot long horns droned a long cord. The cycle then started off slowly again.

Most people here seemed to be like us, however, just taking in the sites and happy to be above the noise and smog of the city below. After walking around for an hour or so we found a back portion of the temple site where there were scattered statues and then, finally, a road - the way all those people who looked like they could barely walk had made the journey up the hill.

Returning to the city proved to be an interesting process as we missed a turn and ended up in the heart of the festival. The streets were crowded to the point that it was difficult to make headway, especially when you’re not sure of the proper direction. A few hours of wandering and one policeman’s vague directions lead us back to the Marshyangdi.

The next morning I planned to go for another run and what better idea than to head back to the temple. Running up the stairs proved to be slightly more difficult than my ascension the day before. The crowds, however, were much easier to negotiate. I made a point to return the same way I went out so as not to repeat the previous afternoon’s misadventure.

The remainder of the day proved to be somewhat frustrating, the details of which I will spare any reader here. Essentially, things like research project proposals aren’t really top priority, even though there is an entire office whose sole purpose is to review such documents. When I arrived for my “meeting” two women dug my file out of a cabinet and proceeded to look through it for what appeared to be the first time. They then wanted to collect the $100 USD application fee in Nepali Rupees at a higher exchange rate than anywhere in town. Too bad I had brought USD as per the instructions, and too bad the bank closes at 3PM. After looking through my file it was decided that several parts would have to be translated into Nepali. I could go on but I have already vented about this interaction several times and reliving it is becoming rather painful. The bottom line is that in order to not lose 6 months of work which is the main reason I am here, I need to find a Nepali translator, reliable internet connection, and computer with a Nepali alphabet and bring them all together sometime in the next 3 days. No sweat right? With any luck, I’ll get all that done and between the hours of 10 and 3, as that is the standard work day here.

Last night we met up with another group of physicians working with the International Porter Protection Group, an organization of similar aims as the HRA. One of their group has been here on several previous occasions and knows the area well. She lead us to modest but clean establishment down a back alley that serves fine local fare at very reasonable prices. My dinner consisted of a healthy portion of dhal-bat (rice and lentils), a plate full of mo-mo’s(veggie or meat filled dumplings) and a pot of lemon tea, all for the incredibly reasonable price of 200 Rupees ($2.50). Most of the group went home but a few of us decided to have a night cap at a more touristy bar, raising my dinner total to around $5. 

Another restless night due to some generator alarm going off all night preceded more bad news on the research front this morning. At this point, whatever... I think we’re all ready to head out of Kathmandu. I just need to tie up a few loose ends before we leave civilization behind.