The Mother of All Blog Posts

Okay so. Since my last lengthy blog post I've faded out of my ignorant bliss of Nepal and hit a point of getting really, really angry. The thing is you arrive in a new country and it is like culture shock blinds you. All you can see is the difference and it leaves you in awe. You are so happy to finally be experiencing the culture shock you've always dreamed of that you immediately decide how much you love it wherever you are. Then you adjust. You take a few micro busses and motor bike rides. You pay a guy on a street corner to fix your helmet strap. You want to vomit eating dhal bhat so you just eat plain white rice. You get ripped off by taxi drivers. You try the coke and realize it tastes different, but still good. You try a lychee for the first time and fall in love. You see beautiful children whose beauty is so under appreciated. You do your laundry in a bucket of dirty water. You get sick from swallowing one single bad ice cube. You try yak cheese in momos and you try local made rice wine called raksi. You get taken to Kirtipur when you clearly said Kantipur. You plant rice in a rice paddy, and you answer "hello" back to all the school children who are always so eager to practice their english with the white people they see on the streets. You get blisters and break your shoes. You get bruises and huge spider bites. I've made amazing friends and had some wonderful laughs. And with all of this amazing different shocking wonderful stuff going on, at first you are really blinded to what is really happening around you.

And then- and then you start to see it all. The slavery that is smack in front of your face every single day. The pollution. The lack of equality in ethnicity and gender. The general treatment and expectations of women. Did I mention the slavery? And when you see it, you get really, really, realllllly angry. Like long rants to multiple people and some tears kind of angry. And you start to question whether any of the work of all of the organizations out there that we see and hand money to every single day in the western world will ever have any effect on a culture that has no problem saying in 2014 "women need to work in the kitchen all day," nearly literally.

So I said it before that everyone here is so happy, and yes this is true, it is. Really Nepalis are very happy people. However, as I came out of my culture shock fog last week I realized that there is a very thin line between happiness and complacency. Happiness is great, wonderful even, and it is a very strong characteristic to have in a culture, accepting that life isn't about brand names or material goods at all is phenomenal. Recognizing that having enough to eat means being lucky, is a grateful culture. But there are people who are in dire situations who do nothing about it and no one in the wealthy situations is trying to help. Yes of course this is true everywhere in the world but please hear me out. There is no, "make your own luck" attitude, there is no "if you work hard enough you can achieve anything you set your mind to" though process. There is slavery. "Okay. So what. Nothing we can do about it. That is just our culture. You have to look at our history and where we are coming from as a society." That is the mood I'm getting at least. So when I see a painted wall that says "Stand up for women's rights" or talk to the people at Maiti Nepal of course I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled there is awareness. I'm thrilled that people voice that there are issues. But- culturally I don't know these people to be "go getters", so is anyone turning awareness into action? And okay say they are, I know the pace of this country, and for the rate of slavery that exists here, someone needs to pick up that pace, and I really question whether or not it can be a group of Nepalis.

A Nepali I know here has told me about a time that, under professional circumstances, he was talking with prostitutes working at a brothel in India. He tells me they would sit and play cards together and then be called for a customer and they would just get up and go, they told him something along the lines of "its the job". His interpretation of this as a Nepali is that some people can be happy in these odd jobs that we don't respect, some people choose this. He deducts that it is her decision to work in a brothel simply because she can be happy enough to play cards in her free time. I deduct this as slavery. Slavery in its most pure form. That woman has been coerced, and threatened to be there, most likely with physical violence. Her ability to play cards plays nothing to her choice to be there or her happiness but rather her internal will to survive. That woman is fighting for her life and she has, after most likely years of abuse and unimaginable circumstances, learned how to best get through each day as she has accepted there are no other choices for her.

The slavery and the lack of respect for women is particularly hard for me to see so first hand.

*cue ending rant*

Amongst my frustrations I've realized that anger is no way to solve anything. I think anger can act as a motivator for me, but nothing more. And in that decision I've worked over the past few days to look again at the beauty of this place, and in trying to understand what brings this place together and what makes it all work, maybe it will help me solve all of the issues.

So on Saturday, the one day off here, I took the day off. Hannah, who was my sort of roommate was leaving soon so we decided to live it up and go to a three hour class on the basics of Buddhism taught by Dolpo Tulku Rinpoche at a yoga studio in Thamel. His speaking was translated and pretty vague, for someone who has studied a bit about Buddhism in the past. However, there was time for questions and his answers were at times decently profound. Everything he spoke about seemed like it should be common sense, but we all know that it isn't quite reality and we should strive for it to be. Anywho some of his answers were also quite funny such as when someone asked the difference between Tibetan Buddhism and mainstream Buddhism and he said that monks in places like Thailand and Burma get to wear thinner robes, and he is likes their robes, he wishes they had them here in Nepal. No joke. We ended class by meditating with him and it felt like a true honor to meditate in the same room as someone as well practiced in the art of meditation as him. We were all so glad we'd went by the end, even if just for the experience and to say we had gone.

We then did some shopping in Thamel which is always fun, and I discovered singing bowls and I'm so obsessed. My friend Hannah went to an awesome place in Bhaktapur that uses singing bowls as a method for therapy which she told us about and it sounds like the coolest thing ever. So, I'm hoping that I'll be able to go to the same place she'd gone to possibly buy myself one before I head home.

This morning, Hannah, Tessa, and I all headed out before breakfast to go to a yoga class at the same studio in Thamel we had been at the day before. The class was amazing, quick paced but manageable. This was the first time I've been able to do yoga and get through a class, since I injured my knee last November. I couldn't help but want to call my physical therapist the whole time I was in class. It felt so amazing to be back. We focused on our core chakra with stomach issues and releasing our anger from this part of our body. It was amazing. And the meditation at the end, was seriously the best meditation of my entire life. It was wonderfully instructed and extremely well worth it.

The rest of the day was spent out shooting with Ram. I won't go for the typical photographer's joke here but- I was fortunate enough to photograph many important political figures of Nepal today including the vice president and president of Nepal himself. It actually was pretty awesome.

So- Nepal has living goddesses, it is a pretty interesting concept. You'll have to do some research because I don't know much about them myself however, today I photographed the Kumari of Patan I believe who sat a total of maybe five feet from where I was crammed in the press pit. It was pretty interesting. Not to demean their goddess but, she is just a little kid, and it was quite hysterical for me to watch her fidget and nearly whine out of boredom and discomfort during this ceremony/festival thing. I have photos of the whole thing but I didn't much understand the significance of a man holding up a small black vest. Everyone cheered as if he were holding Prince George up into the air though, so hey, I went with it. After the chariot of something similiar to a Rain God, which leaves the Bungamati Temple for six months out of the year, is returned and the people celebrate by burning massive clumps of straw. It is extremely smokey so much so that you can't breathe and your eyes burn. It is very interesting. It was fun though for a "festival" to finally actually mean something.

I came home to Hannah shortly after leaving to head back to Canada. I'm going to miss her so much!

And now I'm exhausted soooo, on to another day of adventures tomorrow! Something about a vote something or other is happening tomorrow so we will see how that goes!

Namaste!