Happy Dasain!

Yesterday was the beginning of Dasain, the most significant holiday of the Nepali year. Faruq set me up with an appointment to visit South Asia Partnership Nepal yesterday morning. I was surprised when we got there and thirty people were all sitting cross-legged on the floor waiting for .. something .. to begin. I couldn't tell what.

Then someone came around with a big plate of bright scarlet paste and yellow flower petals. Everyone (including me) dipped their finger in the paste and then touched their forehead with their fingers, creating a round red circle between the eyes. The flower petals were sprinkled on our heads. The round circle, I have been told, is a tika. Need to find out more about that.

Then plates were passed out and servants starting dishing out food .. a type of dish made from legumes, fried ginger (yum!), water buffalo (tasty but very chewy), bamboo soup and a whole bunch of other things. It was really great.

The festival of Dasain is a festival to honour the goddess Durga. Durga is the partner/consort/wife of Shiva, the Creator/Destroyer. During Dasain, all the monsters and evil spirits are chased away by Durga. Keeping all the lineages of the gods and goddesses here is difficult. Especially since there are more than three million of them!

Dasain continues for another nine days. I will be leaving tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon to go back to Delhi and then up to Srinigar for five days. I am really happy with how the trip is going. Most of the time I am feeling very comfortable. Every now and again I do a doubletake and ask "WHERE am I???!!" but then I just get back to my writing. Staying focussed on the work at hand is a good way through this.

And by the way, I am finally starting my first book.

PS -- for those of you who are asking for my pictures, I'm afraid it will have to wait. Uploading is proving to be a pain, so I will just keep taking them and add them to the blog likely when I get home.

Visit to the Old City

Ah Kathmandu .. I like this place. Had a great day yesterday meeting with some of Faruq's friends who work in journalism training here in Nepal. There are many things we can learn from these people.

And I also talked to another friend of his about people who have to leave Nepal to find work abroad, and some of the challenges that they face. I learned a whole lot about how families work over here, and the roles of men and the roles of women. Which are very well defined.

One of the things that is awkward for me is how to answer the question "are you married". And then I say "my marriage is ended", then they ask "do you have children" and they look at me expectantly as if to say "why not?" Then they develop this look as if to say "you poor thing". Makes me realize that the "childless by choice" concept is pretty unique to the Western world. Reminds me of a story another former Canadian friend told me about .. he was travelling in Central America and the question of his not having children came up (this was an exchange between two men). When my former friend replied no, he was asked "are you an egotist?". He was, and is, but that's another story.

Had my first experience buying lunch for myself yesterday and it was quite an adventure. Faruq was off to a meeting so I hung out in an area called Patan City (which is so close to Kathmandu that it's almost part of Kathmandu. A lot of organizations in the development sector live there). It's a very, very old city with all kinds of temples and palaces and street vendors who are selling their wares.

I went into a nice little cafe called "The Third World Cafe" and had a lovely bowl of carrot soup while listening to the temple bells (which I recorded). I got up to pay and handed them 500 Indian Rupees, which I was told is acceptable currency in Nepal. Not at this place. So the cafe owner, who spoke very little English, took me, who speaks no Nepali, door to door until we found a money changer that would change the money. A lesson learned ... don't always believe what you're told.

This afternoon I am catching up on emails. Faruq's computer is on Ottawa time and the time reads 4:56 am. So you're not even up yet. The time is easy to figure from here. Just add 14 hours -- change 4:56 am to 4:56 pm and subtract 2 hours and voila, it's 2:57 here.

I'll try to upload some pictures.

Morning in Kathmandu

The View from my Window

The Small But Vital Reporter* has landed!

What a trip. So much to say that it's all I can say ... trippy in many senses of the word. left Thursday from Vancouver, landed in Delhi at 2:30 in the morning, was met by the brother of my friend Nazir who took me to their place to sleep. Got to bed at 4 am and didn't wake up again until 12:30 pm. Despite being in a very busy household where there was a lot going on around me. Their hospitality has been outstanding .. after I got up, I suggested that it might be time to find a hotel, to which they replied "no friend of Nazir's is going to be staying in a hotel. You must stay here". It's a two bedroom flat so it's not like there's a lot of room. Nonetheless, they gave me the king sized bed all to myself.

So I have been staying there, enjoying the wonderful food (and learning to eat with my hands .. they offered me a fork but I decided to do it the way the rest of the family does it). Supper is on a cloth on the floor and we sit around the cloth cross-legged. It has also been an enlightening cultural experience because I got to observe the first day of Ramadan with them. They didn't expect me to get up for 5:30 prayers, and they offered me food throughout the day despite the household Ramadan practice which is no food until sundown. Wonderful and gracious hosts, and I am so grateful to Nazir and his family for their outstanding hospitality (they also own a travel agency so have been helping me organize plane tickets and itineraries and such.

They also insisted (and rightly so) that I needed to visit the Taj Mahal. I got a
picture of myself sitting on the bench made famous by Princess Diana (huge lineup for bench space .. I don't think anybody thought much about sitting on it before she did).

We went to Agra (where the Taj is) by car and I am SO SO SO glad I was not the one doing the driving. From what people have told me about India, I think the traffic patterns are an appropriate metaphor for Indian life. Picture this ... cars, bicycles, camels, horses, people pushing carts of vegetables and anything else with wheels you can imagine. And cows. Lots and lots and lots of cows. Even though the roadway looks like our four lane highways, with a centre line and divider in the middle. But people don't drive in the lines. They're all over the road. And they don't use turn signals. Ever. They use their horns. All the time. Loudly. And every now and again, somebody would turn around and drive the other way. Like, we're talking large trucks coming straight at you fast. Whoa.

And now, here I am in Kathmandu visiting my friend Faruq who I've known for about ten years from Ottawa. I arrived by Cosmic Air. Cosmic, huh? Faruq is a development worker here in Nepal. This morning I woke up pretty early to the sound of cows ... I asked Faruq about this because I didn't think Kathmandu had the cattle population that Delhi has, but he tells me that Kathmandu is Hindu as well. So yes, there are cows.

The things I am learning range from the sublime to the truly heartbreaking. This
morning Faruq and I went to a little tea shop which he goes to often. Faruq lives in palatial quarters behind fancy iron gates (he isn't the kind of guy who looks for places like this, but he just happened to luck into a good deal). The streets are paved, the gardens are beautiful ... you walk outside the gates and it's another place entirely. little shops, some made of corrugated tin with no front walls or doors. People trying to make a living the best they can and not succeeding very well. Mud on the streets, muddy mangy dogs. But the people are really beautiful. One of the things that amazes me is that, even in the poorest areas, the women are beautifully, colourfully dressed in stunning saris and two piece suits and scarves (can't remember what they're called). And the smiles ...

This morning Faruq introduced me to one of the shopkeepers he has developed a close
relationship with. She is a young woman with a six year old daughter and another baby on the way. She opens her little open-air restaurant at 6 am and doesn't close until 9 pm. She works very hard and a lot of money goes to send her daughter to school.

We sat and talked to her while she served us tea (Faruq speaks Nepali, as well as Hindi, Urdu, French and English .. he's very handy to have around). One of her friends came over with her beautiful little 5 year old daughter and she asked Faruq "If I can get a passport, will your friend take her to live with her in Canada?" I thought she was kidding, but she repeated it three times, asking her daughter "do you want to go to Canada with your big sister?" So much said in that one question ... it is not a fabrication to say that many people are desperate for a better life for their children. If that means giving them up, some parents will do that. (I felt like adopting her little girl in a minute ...)

Friends who have been to this part of the world have told me that the poverty would be very difficult to look at. Another story -- When we went to the Taj on Sunday, one little girl followed me for half an hour trying to sell me a set of pens. It was hard to deal with because she was really obnoxious about it. When I got in the car she waited outside the window and stared at me as we drove off. It was tough. I was tired, I was hot and I needed to remind myself "she's only ten". The problem is, she's not likely working for herself. And paying them only keeps the cycle of slavery happening. She's also likely to get beat up by other children or adults if she is more successful than they are.

Oh, and another thing that's hard to get used to .. I was also warned about this by
friends. The Indian style of Commerce is something else. They say how much they want, you say "no, I only want to pay this much". They say "no, I can't sell it to you for that, how about this much" and you say, "no, I don't think so". They say no. You start walking away. Slowly as if to say "I'm walking. See, I really am" and just before you get out of earshot they say Okay.

Now, given the poverty of this country, I have a whole bunch of white liberal guilt
about haggling with them. But it's expected. My shopping trips have to be short
because I get too damn tired. Also, if someone says "do you want to pet my monkey?" the answer is no. I did and found out that it cost me a hundred rupees "Please ma'am, I am poor man ... 200 rupees, please ma'am you have money, I must feed family" Which is true. I have lots of money by their standards ... though I am not at all sure what to do about that in this context. Just giving them money doesn't help in the long run. I have the same difficulty with panhandlers at home. Think I'll do a story on solutions to the panhandling/begging issue. That much I can do and maybe in some small way it will make a bit of a difference.

So many stories. Lots of pictures too. Must update my blog, and I'll see if Faruq's computer will let me offload my camera. So those are some of the highlights so far and the trip is just beginning.

Write to me! Home seems like another planet and every voice from back home increases my comfort zone (it's been exciting but also uncomfortable being out of my element.

Over and out for now, thanks for reading and being there for me.

Love Victoria
* for those of you who don't know the "Small but Vital Reporter" reference -- the title comes from the long-running (now over) CBC Radio comedy show called "Double Exposure", in which there was a character called "Victoria Penner, Small But Vital Reporter". To this day, there are people who think it was me playing me. In reality, it was Linda Cullen, a Vancouver comedienne. I liked the character -- earnest, streetwise and stopped at nothing to get her story. I sometimes (often!) need her energy and drive!

The Taj

Queen Victoria on Princess Diana's bench


My hosts insisted (and rightly so) that I must not leave India before going to the Taj Mahal. Seeing that my trip is getting booked up, they hired a car and took me out to see it today. Pictures to be posted when I get to my friend Faruq's place.

It was a four hour drive to Agra, where the Taj is located. I got to see some of the countryside and the various people who live here. The roads are something else to behold ... they don't look any different than North American roads, white line in the middle, paved and all that. The difference is that roads in Canada and the US are not shared with camels and cows. And people drive in one lane instead of the middle. Here, they drive in one lane when it is convenient, and in the middle of the road when it's not. Occasionally you will even see a car or a truck, or a horse, turn around and drive straight towards you. Because they missed their turn, I guess. I am glad I am not driving anywhere here. It's bedlam.

The Taj Mahal is incredible. To think that it was built in the 1600's without any equipment except animal and people power. It is truly amazing. Got lots of good pictures.

I'm feeling a little tired .. I saw an awful lot today and it was rather noisy. Drivers don't use signal lights, they use car horns. I got great sounds of traffic so I will have to do something which focusses on traffic. No great stretch there ... transportation is a big issue everywhere in the world these days.

Tomorrow I am hooking up with a couple of people I need to interview in Delhi, and then I am on an 8:00 flight to Kathmandu. I will be there until next Monday, then back to Delhi.

Thanks to everybody who is leaving comments. Your emails help make me feel closer to home. I do get a little bit homesick at times.

Shanti, shanti ...

On Indian highways, You Share the road with everything ..


My new friend Manzoor introduced me to this concept this morning. "Shanti, shanti" means "slowly, slowly". He can sense my North American energy .. and he gave me some good advice. He says that nothing in India is organized. Which is what I have heard from many people already. The only way to do it is to go slowly and just let it happen (For those of you who think this is not possible for me to do, stop laughing!).

I arrived last night at the Delhi Airport and Mansur (a brother of a friend of mine from Vancouver) was there to meet me. I was very tired but also so overtired I was actually quite wired.

My first introduction to Delhi was in the dark. It is very busy at 3 am. We came back to his place, which he shares with family members. I went to bed a few minutes later .. somebody gave up their bed for me, which is so nice. I slept until 1:00 this afternoon then got up and have been visiting with them ever since.

I mentioned needing to find a hotel, to which they responded "why do you need to go to a hotel?" So I am staying here until tomorrow when I go to Kathmandu. At least I think I am going to Kathmandu. Plans don't always work the way they do in North America, I am finding out. Still firming up my itinerary so who knows where I will be tomorrow.

Regardless, I am safe, happy and comfortable and almost overwhelmed by the generous hospitality. We North Americans could learn something from this ...

Free Internet in Hong Kong!

Well, isn't this handy ... I have an hour or so to do something with and I just happened to find a public computer with free internet. Yee haw. Life is always grand with a high speed connection.

It was a lo-o-o-o-ng flight. Left Vancouver at 3:05 pm on Thursday and they tell me it's now Friday night. We crossed the dateline. So it's a new day. Except it never got dark ... I kept looking out of the window and it was still daytime until we touched down in Hong Kong. I finally figured it out .. what we were doing was going in the same direction as the sun. And never caught up with it until we got here.

Guess that means that I will be coming back in the dark .. leaving Colombo at 2:05 am and getting back the same day in Vancouver. So I'll get back the day that I missed.

I've decided just to lose track of time for a while so that my body and mind doesn't get confused. It's going to be confused enough when I land in Delhi. A friend of mine says that what she loves about India is that it turns you on your head. Considering I've already been on my head for most of this short century, maybe this experience will set me right side up again.

The flight was uneventful, which is what you want flights to be. The Hong Kong Airport is just like Pearson Airport with more Chinese food (and probably more authentic). It's not really eastern and not really western either.

Talk about sticker shock .. I just about fell over when I saw that a bottle of water costs $12. Until I realized that there are 7 Hong Kong dollars to one American dollar. I also checked out the personal electronics (of course). $2900 for a canon digital camera. Divide by 7, of course. But even that is pretty pricey. I'm not going to shop here.

I land in Delhi at 2 am. My friend's brother in law has offered to pick me up at the airport. Which is really, really nice of him because I'm going to be really, really tired.

Over and out for now. Keep in touch, everybody.

It's raining .. so time to go

Got the visa, got the plane ticket, the money, and tomorrow's the day... we've had sun all summer in Vancouver. Now it's getting cold and I've heard that it is somewhere around 36 Celcius in New Delhi. So I'm going to have summer all over again.

Wow, I don't know what to say. Everything's arranged that can be arranged from this side. The rest is all a big adventure.

I expect the next time I will get to update my blog will be in Kathmandu on Monday (which would be Sunday for all you in North America since I cross the dateline). But I may be able to post from the airport in Hong Kong. That is, if I'm not spending all my time lusting after all the cheap personal electronics that I've told are a bargain in Hong Kong.

Just about every hotel in India now has Internet access. And bank machines. My bank says I can access money from ATM's in major cities in India using my Canadian bank card. And I will be likely be getting a cell phone when I get there .. airtime and cell phones are quite cheap and very useful for getting around.

So, I leave tomorrow, fly direct to Hong Kong, stay for four hours or so, get on another plane and fly to Delhi. I arrive at, like, 2:05 AM. I was really nervous a bout that .. I have been told that landing at Indira Ghandi international airport in the middle of the night after too little sleep is like entering another dimension. So I am really, really happy that the brother in law of a friend is going to be meeting me at the airport and taking me back to his family's home to spend the night. I tell you, it is so wonderful to have friends (and friends of friends) to help out. It all makes everything go so much smoother.

I have some jitters, of course. And sometimes I even have mild (and not so mild) panic attacks. So this is really good. Builds up my resistance and toughens me up. To put things in perspective, I remind myself that there are many places in the world where I have travelled. Like major American cities, which I think are among some of the most dangerous places in the world.

Case in point. See the picture of me at the top of this post? I took it in the train station in Seattle. The same train station where I arrived last week, expecting to find my friend to meet me. She wasn't there, it was 10:30 pm and they were locking the station. I tried to call her, she wasn't home (despite my having left a message with her the night before and, I thought, confirming my visit), so I was left standing on a very dark curb in a city where you don't want to be standing on a curb in the middle of the night. So, though I felt a bit panicky (a lot, actually), I hopped a cab and went to sit in a hotel lobby while I made repeated phone calls to my friend. Who eventually picked up the phone and we all lived happily ever after.

Having never been there, I can't say that Delhi is going to be a harder place to negotiate than other places I've been, but the U.S. is no picnic and I've been all over the continent successfully. So I think I am up for this.

All for now, gotta fold the laundry, pack my backpack and do other things to occupy my time. More later.

Puppies!

Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you. When I was visiting Jackie and Laurie at Thistledown farm last week, they were anxiously awaiting the arrival of somewhere between 8 and 10 brand new little collie puppies. Well, it happened on September 2nd .. Happy Labour Day to mama dog Dusty. Eleven puppies in all were born, and sadly, two of them didn't make it.

But the rest of them are doing just fine and will be ready to go to good homes in about six to eight weeks. Wish I could have one but Ursalla is still the top dog in my life!

The Haven

View from The Haven


We ended up going to Gabriola and staying at a place called "The Haven Institute". It is another retreat centre .. one of the things I wanted to do this summer was a visit a few of these places to see how they worked. I am quite serious about wanting to set up some kind of arts retreat centre in Bear River so I wanted to see a couple of different models.

Hollyhock and The Haven both spring from the same roots .. The Cold Mountain Institute which was the predecessor of Hollyhock on Cortes during the '70's. CM morphed into Hollyhock, and a couple of the other people involved created The Haven.

The two places have different orientations .. Hollyhock is more spiritual/artistic and perhaps less grounded than the Haven, which was started by a psychiatrist and a medical doctor with a psycho-social rather than a psycho-spiritual orientation. An example of the differences .. at Hollyhock when we were there, the seminar in session was empowerment through singing, and another one on Yoga. At the Haven, the visitors were a group of people who were trying to work their way through depression.

Both valuable and have their place, and were wonderful spaces to visit. I am surprised that there are very few places like this in Nova Scotia. My vision would be to come up with a blend of the two .. more arts stuff than the Haven but maybe more grounded than Hollyhock. Hard to explain in a few paragraphs what I mean by that .. still working it out myself.

Overall, the past ten days have been wonderful for sitting on the grass looking up at trees, feeling my toes in the warm sand, reading, and just being. I'm getting really good at this R&R stuff ...

It was another great time, and now I am back in Vancouver. I have a few days of work to do and then I head down to Seattle. My trip to India is not far off .. I have to get grounded again and start to work on my To Do list. Today is my final travel-related shot (for Japanese Encephalitis so I don't end up with a swollen brain and drooling in a nursing home for the rest of my life. It's costing our project $300 for this shot alone, but since my brain is my most cherished possesion, I think it's worth it.)

Gotta go unpack. Laundry would be a good idea too since I have been living in the same clothes for ten days. Good practice for India, also it was a good time to find out how much weight on my back was too much. I need to find another backpack and carry less stuff ...


Looking Up ...

Farewell to Summer

We're leaving Denman Island today and going to either Bowen or Gabriola Island. Yesterday was the Blackberry Faire on Denman. Pictures to come. Just like the '70's all over again.


Since I've come here, my intuitions about the relationship between Denman and Hornby Island have turned out to be right ... Hornby is the more privileged of the Island, economically speaking. Denman is sometimes referred to as the doormat to Hornby. People have to drive across Denman to get to Hornby, a phenomena that is referred to as the "Hornby 500".

My travelling pal says it's kind of the like the relationship between Hamilton and Toronto. Poor little downtrodden Denman.

Wish we were here to take the last ferry from Hornby today. The Hornby residents have a traditional "Farewell to the Tourists" ceremony when the last ferry happens. They all go down to the ferry dock and wave goodbye to the tourists and yell "Thanks for coming, thanks for going". The ferry captain takes part in it to and there is much ceremony and blowing of horns.

But we will be gone to yet another island. I'm starting to feel like I'm turning a corner too. Already compiling my "To Do" list .. everything from getting final shots, to getting shoes, reminding Dave he has to send my my E-ticket for India, organizing the money supply, getting my visa for India ... I'm just easing my way back to work, just like everybody else is doing right now.

Oh ya, I almost forgot .. Happy Labour Day. Workers of the World Unite!

Not for Sale

What an odd little island this is. Still on Denman Island. Funny how each of the islands has its own personality. Went over to Hornby Island yesterday which was much different from Denman, which is much different from Cortes, Gabriola etc. I have now been on six of the Gulf Islands and the contrast between them is striking.

Denman and Cortes are really hardscrabble little places where you can tell how much people are struggling. Hornby and Gabriola are more gentrified. We won't even talk about Saltspring, which is positively suburban.

All of the islands are getting rapidly bought up by people who have much more money than the people who have lived here for twenty or thirty years. The islands have been a haven for back-to-the-landers, draft dodgers, artists and anybody else who wanted to escape. And they're not all taking kindly to the influx of city folk who are waving large bankrolls in front of the islanders. It's a big temptation when you're offered half a million dollars for a place that you might have spent $50,000 on. Even for the people who don't sell, it's changing the community.

Here on Denman, some of the local folks are doing their own form of "Hell No, We Won't Go". Mixed in with "For Sale" signs throughout the island are "NOT for sale" signs. The real estate company advertised has names like "Bananarchy Realty - Pimping the Planet One Acre at a Time". It's very funny. I'm going to go out today and get some pictures of some of the more unique ones (though they're ALL unique).

I can see what they're trying to protect. It's real tempting to stay here and never go back. This morning I went out into the yard and there were two does and four fawns grazing about ten feet away from me.

Yesterday we went to Hornby Island, which is a little more gentrified than Denman. It has a GREAT nude beach with clean, fine sand. Almost ended up walking 8 miles from the ferry terminal because of it, though.

We lost track of time and didn't catch the ferry until 7:15. By the time we got back to Denman it was starting to get dark and there wasn't much traffic to hitch a ride with. Fortunately we met a nice man who was out for a night time walk and we explained we were out on a VERY long walk. So, in typical island fashion, he offered us a ride.

The islands are really good for that kind of thing. Sure hope they can preserve that spirit in spite of encroaching development.

Oh, and did I mention there is a cougar and a bear and cubs on the island? Sure glad we got that ride ... "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"

Killaloe with a View

My travellin' buddy and I arrived at Denman Island last night. Accommodations are slim pickings on the Islands this weekend since it is the long weekend.

We found ourselves a little guesthouse called The Denman Island Guesthouse. It's somethin' else. The Killaloe reference in my title is to a little place in the Ottawa Valley where time has stood still, and the Denman Island Guest House is also in that category.

How to describe it .. I will post a picture when I get back to Vancouver so you can see for yourself. In the meantime, here goes. It's a 1912 farmhouse that hasn't really been updated since that time. It's kind of like the house of an eccentric old uncle where everything in it has landed there over a period of time with no thought to planning and design. Or maybe it's like the summer cottage where all the outdated furniture from the main house has gone to die.

I expect a power struggle with my companion tonight over who gets the better bed. Last night he suggested he might need the bigger bed, I said I wasn't giving up that easy and we flipped for it. Tails I win. I did. Then again, because I snore (shh, don't tell anybody), he may just decide to go for one of the dorm rooms.

The house also has a brand new hot tub, which is becoming a theme throughout this blog isn't it? And a glorious view of the mountains of Vancouver Island. I think I'm going to have fun here for a couple of days. And it's only $20 a night, so the price is right too.

It also has a cafe with good coffee and yummy sounding food. And internet access, so I'm having my coffee, blogging away and enjoying the morning.