From here in the flat part of Nepal it's hard for me to see what the international media (ok, the American media) is covering here in Nepal. I'm in Bhairawaha -not Kathmandu - a couple hundred miles from the epicenter. life here goes on as usual. About eight million people were in the earthquake zone, but that leaves twentymillion people who were not, and in this part, known as "the Terai" ( or simply "Terai" because grammatically Nepali language does not use particles) we are going about our business. The nursing school closed for a week and the nursing students went home. I could be using the hospital van to go back and forth from the Guest House operated by the medical school, but I'm taking a pedicab everyday, to soak in the serenity of rural Nepal on my way to the Teaching Hospital.
That doesn't mean I am hermetically sealed from the news.... there seems to be a pile of cow dung in my path.... it's orange ..... step over it and mentally join me here in Nepal......
The News
The big thing right now is that the Kathmandu Post reports that 400,000 people have been bussed out of the city of Kathmandu, in an effort organized by the government, for the purpose of decreasing the sheer number of mouths to feed, bodies to house, and human waste to dispose of. This required every available bus.
For those of you who have not been here, or who may have only been in Kathmandu, the road that connects Kathmandu to the world goes through a mountain valley. It's extremely curvy - a four hour rollercoaster ride. There is a cliff on the inside edge, and a precipice on the outside. We are lucky that it seems to have been undamaged. This road usually brings all the cargo that goes in and out - just about all the food comes into the Valley. Much attention is paid to the airport, but there is no way the airport can handle the amount of cargo that's needed here.
This was a great idea, and to me it echoes a phenomenon that took place during a refugee situation in Rwanda and Uganda a few years back. At that time and place, refugees went tot he border, overwhelmed the refugee camp, and while the media was reporting about the overcrowding, the refugees all packed up and went somewhere else.
I advise any person interested, to bookmark the Kathmandu Post because they are doing a good job or portraying the events. In the print edition there is a daily photo spread to show the destruction.
Direction of efforts
On FaceBook I read a link to an excellent article by an American medical Anthropologist working iin far west Nepal named david Citrine. He's previously written about "voluntourism" but the current article is about ways to do the earthquake recovery better than they way it was done in Haiti five years ago.
Medical efforts
I have been asked whether Nepal needs medical volunteers. My short reply is, don't come here unless you are part of a self-contained team with all your supplies and a well-defined host contact that has invited you. Yes, the hospitals are strained, yes the staff has been working hard. but the main problems seem to be lack of supplies and drugs. There are ample personnel - nurses and doctors - in the country who can be mobilized to help; and paradoxically, there was already considerable unemployment among trained nurses in Kathmandu.
what they need is money. Money to buy the medical supplies in India and get them trucked in. Supplies are cheaper in India. India is a leading cotton-growing country - who would we need to import gauze from USA?
The psychic makeup of Kathmandu and Nepal in general
There will be needs down the road, I'll give time in a future blog.
The news reports that tempers have reached a boiling point, and many of my friends are posting an internet meme that goes "Pray for these men, missing since April 25th" - it shows a rogue's gallery of the political leadership. They are generally perceived as being absent during the crisis. One rule for a foreign NGO worker such as myself is to never comment on the political situation. And to explain the ins and outs of politics here would be Byzantine.
My second book was partly about the ways that "collectivist culture" in Nepal influences daily life. I think I will write a future blog to explain this in more depth. It's clear that Nepal will be "post-earthquake" for the rest of our lives - it's an ongoing historical event.....