Nepal I

I was a little worried in India that I was enjoying it so much and that it was all so exotic that from then on things would start to stale a little, that the a lot of my travels subsequent would be not so interesting. However I've started volunteer work so currently I'm not travelling. I have a regular lunch place. I swim in the same pool same time every day. I own a bike. I live in Nepal.

I stay in an orphanage where I help out in the mornings and evenings. As this work is outside work hours, during the 9-5 shift I work in the Nepal Society of the Disabled, Nepal (sic) in the morning and then help in The Mountain Fund volunteer agency in the afternoon.

I started in the NSD,N ( you gotta love it) on the back of just another ill communication. When I told the TMF agency that I worked with learning disabilities at home they insisted the NSD,N were the same, but in fact they are strictly a physical disability organisation which is an entirely different thing. Also its not a "coal-face" organisation, it's an advocacy organisation trying to make a difference at a policy level which means I don't work with disabled people directly ( except for employees of the organisation). What's embarassing is the prestige that seems to be attached to my presence there. The diminutive director is wheelchair bound and his penchant for white clothing and a white head wrap give him quite a Gandhian air. Everyday he comes to me to try and talk to me, to see that I understand what they are doing and he always waits for me to say something but there's never anything I can convey in the pidgin-ness of our conversations.

Part of the problem of my advice being sought is I have so little to offer in the face of such a steep (and unfamiliar) hill to climb. Disabled people are the bottom of a very high and unhappy pile here. The general population is poor and by the hierarchy of needs of society not a whole lot of people give a shit about the disabled, between dealing with poverty, corruption, an autocratic king, and weekly demonstrations and strikes. Add to that the traditional belief that disabilities are a result of previous life's indiscretions and you have a very unsympathetic atmosphere. The coordinator who I work closest with is there on a contract basis, is not disabled and refers to all the others as "them". I'm not sure if she means the company or the disabled but either way it reflects something of a detachment from the cause. Every couple of days the director of the NSD,N has to argue his way past the motorcyclists who park in the driveway of his building, they are uncowed by his appearance and shout down his soft-spoken entreaties. His own employees (most of them also disabled) forget to hold the door for him. Its staggering.

Then this weekend I was invited to a seminar in the second city, Pokhara ( being an executive kinda guy I flew while the bus would have cost 4 euro). This was attended by journalists, politicans and the UN. I liased with the UN representative over coffee, she talked about monitoring the upcoming election and the stability of the current regime, I talked about how icky it was that the people wiped their bum with their hand. I also talked for a long time to the vice president of the NSD,N who holds degrees in law and in social science and is studying for a masters in rural development and who's attention to my opinions made me feel like some sort of charlatan. The next day I was introduced to the head of another local disability organisation who showed me around the area. After much discussion he frankly and directly asked me how his organisation could proceed, like one might ask a consultant. Bewildered as to what they could possibly do that they weren't already, I offered some empty comments before I struck on a notion that if he petitioned the local disabled population and approached politicians and offered them the petitioned votes in the upcoming election in return for pledges (with journalists present) that that might work. He seemed to genuinely like the idea. Useless notion maybe but it made me feel like Erin Brockovich.

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Before I started the volunteer work I spent a few days getting settled. I went out drinking on my own one night ( first time ever). There was a band and they were good, they played classics by Dire Straits, Santana, Pink Floyd, The Beatles. Then into this gallery of greats like a shit in a paddling pool came a song by James Blunt. I'd like to say I got up and bottled the lead singer as a lesson to all the long haired, trendy locals that singing "You're Beautiful" is just not cool. But as I was sat on my own drinking a pink cocktail any protest I made would have come across a little ironic. I later went to a club on my own (not first time ever). I sat at the bar and resented the youths on the dancefloor for their enthusiasm. This made me feel old and I went home.

To make up for this I went drinking another night not on my own. It was with a guy called Graham and his assortment of friends in the local music scene. He was a (very good) trumpet player. He used to play with the Fine Young Cannibals and had also played with UB40. At the end of the night he said, "The world needs more people like you, D." This from a world famous celebrity musician, who am I to disagree?