wow

The maoists have lifted the blockade and declared a three-month ceasefire. It seems like the last uncertain/dangerous factor in Nepal is about to come around. What a difference a few days can make.

Here's some pictures from the crowds out in Kathmandu on Wednesday:

Parliament Returns

Ok so, what was supposed to be the Biggest Protest Day has become Victory Day. Caught a parade through Thamel this morning. Everyone is so happy, there's cheering, clapping. A lot of stress has been lifted: the curfew is over. The strike is over. There's no more 'uh, will I be back in Canada in a week??' uncertainty. And hopefully things will get back to normal as soon as possible.

Still going to Thailand on friday...

CIDA's out

On Sunday I got a phone call informing me that the Canadian International Development Agency has decided to 'withdraw all non essential Canadian staff and all dependants from Nepal'. Since my funding as Canada Corps comes from them, that meant I had to be out in a week.

However, I had the option of changing my status within VSO to a regular volunteer , which would change my funding to VSO International. I don't think it was really a tough choice: all of us volunteers now have the option of being able to leave at any time (with hardship pay). I just had my option voiced in a different way. So while the rest of the Canadians pack up, I'm staying here. Sorry mom!

CIDA leaving definitely drove things home for me, though. All of the other vols are very agressively in denial about the possibility we may be sent packing, but I think that reality has been brought a little closer for me.

It's so difficult doing anything without knowing what's going to happen to you even in a week. But you have to make some sort of plan. So, in the belief that things will blow over soon, we're ramping up our Thailand trip and it looks like I'll be leaving before the end of the week.

Here's some pictures I took from my deck on Saturday. I tried to get the helicopter but it was too small:

nobody's buyin it

so the King's declaration last night, in which he said the government would revert to the way it was before his Feb 1st takeover last year, seems to be too little, too late.

Not long after his speech there was an improvised 'solidarity blackout'. My Nepali friends asked me to turn out my lights, and then we went up onto the rooftop and they shouted at any buildings nearby with lights on. It was pretty amazing, after about fifteen minutes you could see the blackout spread across the Baghamati River into New Bandeshwor and after a while most of the city (definitely not all) was dark.

From the rooftop you could see a group of men gathered down at a nearby chouk. They lit a bonfire (using tyres) and then went off, torches lit, chanting slogans.

The King's offer, where he returns some power to the people but still retains some power and remains ruling sovereign, doesn't meet the demands made by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA). I guess it depends on what the people think, whether they'll still be going out and protesting in the numbers they have been.

The strike is still on, the protests continue. Today the King imposed another curfew, noon to 8pm, at the very last second. Barely made it back in time. As I write this, there's a military helicopter (probably RNA) flying over the city.

my pad

I've decided my pad in Pattan is a much more interesting place to be locked down in than at the Pacific Guest House.

My neighbours downstairs are great. One of them works for the Electrical Works: he was arrested (and released the next day) during the first week of protests. His wife was just showing me a scrape she got from running in the protests today.

Four times today large groups of people, say 50+, have marched right past my flat, shouting slogans, whistling, fists in the air. I should have taken some photos... but I think it's safe to say there'll be a next time. I can hear some croud chanting even as I write this.

the Big Day

Well tomorrow is supposed to be a day of massive rallies in Kathmandu. The plan is everyone is going to congregate on the Ring Road (which is the boundary of the no protest zone)and then work their way towards... uh, the centre of town? Probably Ratna Park if I had to guess.

All the VSO Staff are going tomorrow (have I mentioned some have spent the night in jail already?) as well as pretty much everyone else I've talked to. We VSO vols are going to be keeping our heads low.

I just read on Nepalnews.com that the government has already declared an 18 hour curfew, starting 2am this morning. That's, uh, more or less a 24 hour lockdown.

I was talking to another vol today and she nailed the thing that's been bugging me: one of the most frustrating things about all of this isn't the boredom, it's the uncertainty. I'm playing out scenarios where I'm back home by next week, trying to figure out what to do next when, the truth is, I don't know if I'm going to be there at all! Nobody knows what's going to happen.

I took this picture from my deck just a few hours ago (that's the Himalayan Hotel in the foreground). And if this is the closest I get to Himalayas I'm going to be really, really... sad, I guess.

So it looks like VSO is going to stick this out for now. I guess they've been through two revolutions in Nepal, what's another?

We've been asked to prepare for another possible month of strike. VSO has also recommended that those of us that can afford it, go take a vacation. Oddly enough, Claire, Richie and I already have plans on hitting the beaches of Thailand in May. It's nice to know that we can go with VSO's blessing. That and we get an extra two weeks on our allowed vacation time (which is already ridiculously long).

Anyway, here's some pictures from lively Kathmandu. I took these on Saturday, which is the most deserted I've seen the city. It's eerie, actually. One of these is the city bus park, and the other is Baghamati Bridge, which connects Pattan and Kathmandu. These are both usually frantically busy, in that way that only an Asian bus park and the only bridge connecting two cities can be busy, but not these days.

this will all blow over...

right?? I'm beginning to have my doubts.

Nepal is now into the 12th day of a general strike. How long can a strike last? Prices for fruits and veggies have hit the roof. That is if you can find a place that's still open to sell them. There's only two petrol (aka gas) stations still working, one of them run by the Royal Nepali Army.

The government has enacted new legislature forbidding any gatherings in Kathmandu, because they didn't have any legitimate reason for acting against peaceful protests like sit-ins and such (not that this was really stopping them). Well now they can intervene with the law on their side. yay for them!

a state of emergency can't be that far away. the army is firing on protestors. police superintendants have been caught ordering their men to beat up protestors so badly that they can't come back. one superintentant has been implicated in gouging out a protestor's eye. some students have started carrying sticks and bars to gatherings, in response to police batons. if you follow that reasoning through then nepal isn't far away from a civil war.

Meanwhile, I'm working on databases from home.
VSO security meeting on wednesday.

Two days ago, after the daytime curfew, I busted a move down to Pattan to a) make sure my place was still standing and b) grab my passport (because who knows what's going to happen?).

It was just a strange feeling to hit the roads again after so many days of being cooped up at the PGH. Even though the curfew was over, the bandha (strike) called by the seven parties was still on so there were no busses, no tuktuks. It was, in fact, mostly bikes. A lot of them: powered by people of all ages, all castes. It was just so strange to go out after hearing about everything that's happened in the last few days and, really, see that the city was still standing.

Did I see anything? A little. There were large charred spots on many roads where tyres had burned down. The Bhagamati Bridge was littered with broken glass and on the Pattan side there were huge holes taken out of the pavement. More than usual, at least. Apparently what happens (I was informed knowledgebly by someone who had been around during the riots in Ireland) is that people dig up the roads in order to a) blockade them and also b) to provide rocks for throwing.

Up around Pattan Dhoka there was more broken glass and plenty of charred spots, but the eeriest thing was just the absence of busses. The Dhoka is a major bus point and the entire area was deserted, just people.

Anyway, for those of us locked down in the guesthouse, it's been boring to say the least. I would have loved to have gone out just to see what was going on (maybe even snap a few pics)- there's been a couple of torchlight processions and they would have been something to see. Especially since they were, literally, torchlight.

But if I get hurt, VSO has to answer for it. And if anything serious happens to me it means I may be responsible for cutting short fifty-odd people's placements here. So I stayed cooped up in the guesthouse, slowly going stir crazy and producing photos like this one:

did i say that?

it seems like what's happening around the country this time around is a little different from the last time we were all locked in our houses. for one thing, it's the first time people have defied the daytime curfew in massive numbers. people are in the streets in cities all throughout Nepal. three people have died from the protests.

it's so surreal from the Pacific Guesthouse. all we see all day long is nothing. nothing at all. then the news comes on at six and then we find out what is going on across the city and the country. police and protesters are clashing, newpapers and television show bloody, violent images of police beating students, women, journalists. the security forces aren't being treated that well either: there's pictures of protestors protecting fallen police as crowds rain bricks and stones on them.

today will be the fourth day the government has imposed a daytime curfew. yesterday the clashes were even worse than the day before. there is talk the king will impose a state of emergency soon. meanwhile, i'm wondering why i didn't think to grab my passport before i came up here during the strike. the truth is, i guess i've become so accustomed to the unrest it never occurred to me that this could be the time it would boil over.

That's my dhoka!

had the unexpected shock of seeing shots of riots around Pattan Dhoka on BBC World News. That's about two minutes away from my place.

One of the shots was of them knocking over a vegetable stall, which I'm fairly certain is the same one I bought pineapple from about ten days ago. Then they set something on fire, it looked like a truck or something. According to VSO's latest security brief they also set a post office on fire.

Fortunately I'm staying at the Pacific Guest House, on the other side of town. This is day two of the four day nationwide strike.

Six months!

Six months in and things are good. This coming week it's the usual protests, possible curfews and cutting of the phone line business. Perhaps something will happen this time but it seems like people just work themselves into a froth, take a few months to recover, then do it again.

Anyway, work is good. Of the three NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) I started out with, you've got the good, the bad, and the tiny.

NFDN has been the most disasterous: in the last few months two of NFDN's donors approached VSO with complaints of 'lack of transparency' over NFDN's accounting. Somebody's skimming somewhere. Their OD process (something I barely understand, but it's basically management goals and strategies) hasn't gone anywhere in three years. Hazel, who started out with them at the same time I did, is now working up at VSO and NFDN's partnership has been suspended.

NAPD is just small: three staff and two computers. There's not a heck of a lot that I can do in terms of training. And now it looks like Ganesh, a bright guy who's recieved most of (all) the training I've given at NAPD, might be moving on to work with UNDP. Bully for him, but what the heck am I supposed to do when he leaves?

I requested not to extend with NAPD, something VSO staff agreed with, but somehow NAPD is the NGO that signed my year-long visa. The visa process is a painful, painful process of which I have nothing to do with (but the poor fellow who does them, Gopal, is always getting flack from vols). Since the gov't has started paying attention to who's working where in the last couple of months, I can't just leave NAPD.

Why did NAPD get my visa? That's a mystery. They're not even a full partner with VSO. The man that got them to sign it, Pralad, has since left VSO so I can't ask him either. So I'm stuck with NAPD for another six months.

DHRC, though, is going great. Databases, websites, training, everything a IT geek could ask for. Plenty of projects coming up as well. And they just moved from their three room, bottom floor office into an entire house- with oodles of water! That means, what with my water problems at home (still hauling buckets of non-potable water up from the well), I can have showers there!

It sure beats the freezing rooms and cobweb wiring system at the old offices. My favorite part of the picture on the left here is the cord hanging down near the top, with the light switch on it. That's for the flourescent light. Just a wire hanging in the middle of the room with a switch at the end.

That's Maheshwar in the picture. A bit of a shit disturber. A few months back he got his wrist slapped for some anti-NFDN antics of his. Oh yeah, I could go on about the bad politics between NFDN and DHRC, but I'll save that for another post.