Meetings

Things have been happening so fast, we haven't been able to update as often as we would have liked. So here's the synopsis --

While in KTM, we have been trying to meet with as many people as we can. It started with a man who works for the National Fund for Education. (I don't have my notes from the meeting on me.) He explained the process of registering an NGO. It was incredibly complicated and there seemed to be a lot of "holes" in which money could leak. So we pressed a little, and found a much simpler process that falls more into our goal of working in communication with as many NGOs as possible.

Next, we met with Anil Parajuli of Himalayan Health Care (an Ashoka fellow and health-care provider). It was quite an honor and Suman, David and I chatted with him for 2 hours over tea about the specifics of establishing a health clinic. He pledged his support and, if appropriate, offered to teach us how to lead a medical trek to Phakumba. The most useful knowledge however, came in choosing a location. Though Phakumba is very rural, there may be other areas more central and accessible by more people (including Phakumbans) and we should scout them out. We plan to meet with him again on the tail-end of our trip.

Lastly for the day, we met with a leader of the Maoist party. Before I go on, however, I should emphasize that the Maoists, though prone to extreme practices, in this case, are just like any other political party. They are very established and, at this level, do not bare resemblence to the guerilla practices of '04. We were meeting for him to grant us his blessing and also his business card. Maoists in Taplejung could, potentially, give us some trouble. But, if we flash his card or, if necessary, give him a call -- all will be good. We will certainly elaborate on this meeting (that is, Suman will -- it was conducted totally in Nepali) -- but, in short, he thanked us for doing the work we were doing. We thanked him for meeting with us. We drank tea. He was philosophical. All was well and good.

Today, we met with a leader from the Communist Party. Nepal has 3 main parties, Maoist, Communist and Congress. We plan to meet with the latter (Suman's Aunt -- though not biological, on our return). We met, over tea, with Suman's father and (actual) Uncle -- Suman had to go midway through to take the written test for his driver's liscense leaving only David, Suraj and I. This meeting, for all intents and purposes, was symbolic. We wanted his blessing and support. Anytime we tried to ask a specific question, it was expertly circumvented. We got, however, a very nice summary of Nepal's economic and social make-up and an economcis book written in Devnagari (Nepali script).

Suman and I, later on, went to the Social Welfare Center to get a list of active NGOs in Taplejung. SWC is a lavish building with a large front yard. We arrived at 4:00 to find out most people have left, though it was not supposed to close until 4:30. We plan to go back tomorrow.

Another classic case of irony is seen in the Poverty Alleviation Fund building. It is by far the most modern building, comlete with air conditioning, that we have seen in KTM. But, not to dwell on the bad, such is life.