Start Your Engines...

I’ve received a complaint against the general lack of information on “how I am actually doing.” Here’s the status update: all system are a go.

Food - delicious

Weather - f*** freezing

Stars - glorious : )

People - surprising and wonderful

(Ps. If you’re only getting emails through RSS feed but are not in the reading mood, check the site for pictures.)

I realize that today marks my one week-aversary of arriving in Nepal. I can hardly believe it. It seems like forever ago that I landed here, that I felt so nauseous and desperate that I almost wished my GI tract would sentence me to a 747 home direct to Logan Airport. At the risk of sounding bipolar, this place already feels like home. The smells and dirt paths, the sun rising over the mountains, even the cold air in the morning that reminds you just how much it sucks to get out of your sleeping bag... it’s comfortable. It’s encouraging. I think I love it here.

The people: there’s Tildai, the flamboyant, fantastic cook who has a quiet attitude and grace to his morning routines. “Shes” Daddy who helped me fake my Nepali homework until the teacher finally showed up. Banu of course who I could try to describe but truly her chuckle alone is beyond description - she gives off a warmth you feel that is wholly Banu (not in that warm, shmoozy way that makes you want to puke... like the fun, crazy aunt everyone waits for at reunions to remind you just to let go and have fun.) I still don’t know all the names of the women who help us in the hostel... there’s Sha-something who wakes us up with breakfast and always knows that “Hannahji” will be in bed while everyone else is wide awake. Ram-something accommodates my baby-Nepali and calls me “pom-pom” after all the loopy hats I wear. Kamal is the adorable 24-year old who silently keeps this entire place running and taught me several Nepali constellations which I promptly forgot.

The students: my roommate Atma - all the Nepali students really - are fantastic. I don’t know when it happened, but the “loopy” is officially out of the bag. Beyond goofy, we now understand everyone’s highs and lows. There are days when you’re “off” and we keep our distance. But mostly it’s just a jumble of crazy, unprompted laughs, holding hands (straight men do it here! it’s AMAZING!) and teaching everyone how to say stupid things in a mix of English swear words and Nepali nasal tones. Sarita is small and quiet, but certainly knows how to laugh at herself in dance class. Ambika is beautiful and at first was aloof, but as Joanne would say, “oh my GOSH” can she be loony. Kavita our “tulu didi” (big sister) is my fellow chocolate addict and hands down an absolute life saver. Truly if I ever had a big sister, I think she would be a lot like Kavita - down to earth, hilarious and a little bit of a weirdo.

Melanie and I take walks every day to work off the 4+ meals, talking about men, politics, Nepal, food, mountains... you name it. She takes cigarette breaks which remind me of the smog outside Butler (sorry Dad, but I think second-hand smoke has become a permanent sense-memory for me.) Joanne has toned down a bit since she arrived, but we take our American moments together listening to reggae and watching Tyler Perry movies. John and I chill through beginners Nepali and slowly he is filling my male void and desperate need for some testosterone. His roommate Goman is pretty indescribable - half of him is all set to be Prime Minister (discussing politics while the rest of us are lying in stitches joking about ferrets or something stupid) and the other acts out the walk of a drunken hobo after a serious overdose of dhaal baat (rice and lentils.)

I’m sorry this is SO LONG (feel free to quit.) I’m trying to kill all the questions and requests in one go... Finally: classes. Nepali is long, but I am making really satisfying progress. John and I can now speak in basic sentences, write out words, read words and phrases (at a crippled snail’s pace) and carry on small convos with the staff. Contemporary Issues was difficult at first - we began with straight-up anthropology (not my drink of choice,) discussing demographics and the interpretation of caste. At the time I felt it all was beneath my oh-so-sophisticated scientific understanding of the world. But so much here has already changed or challenged the way I see things. The recommended readings (partly because I now have the time to truly read them) describe new forms of study in sociology that I never considered a science before. David, an alumni of the program who now studies medical interventionism in Nepal, spoke today about the true determinants of health - social hierarchy and the inequitable distribution of wealth, civil infrastructure etc. versus just focusing on the provision of medical services.

Everyone always asks why my brothers and I don’t want to be doctors like dear old Mom and Dad. It’s true that I don’t want to be a doctor like Mom and Dad - I don’t want that job. It has always seemed like a binary choice - the environment or medicine. The environment, or long hours in a hospital, helping patients one by one while the larger world picks people off like flies. And so I chose. And then today, for the first time, I recognized that the environment is not just lightly applicable, but possibly a huge determinant of public health in a way that specific, medical treatment could never be. I don’t just have a role to play, but an enormous niche to fill within the public health discussion. I could study what I love and at the same time do something to disrupt the injustice that says I get clean water but Indians in Mumbai don’t. Today was the Pandora’s Box moment - probably for my parents as they read this (I never told them I was interested in public health since it never seemed like a possibility) and certainly for me. I can still pinpoint the day I became interested in the environment - Luke Taylor came into High School senior soc. and told us about biodiversity and species extinction. Since then, it’s been trial and error: Environmental activism? No way. Environmental politics? Maybe. Environmental education? Perhaps. Today I felt that same excitement, that same “Big Bang” where suddenly my horizon exploded exponentially into a world of new possibilities, all of which I wanted to follow to the end.

I hope that answers some of your questions.

~Management