Finding Happiness in the Himalayas: Cockroaches, dead Cobra snakes and हप्प्य न्यु एअर

Currently I am sitting on the porch of an apartment I am “house sitting” in the only shaded spot on a 98 degree day. Where am I, you ask? I am in Damak, Nepal. Where is Damak? Even better question. Damak is in the South East corner of Nepal (near to the border of Sikkim, India. Why am I here? Well, my indented purpose of coming here was to study the Bhutanese refugee population that has been living in 3 refugee camps for the past 22 years (since they were “ethnically cleansed” from Bhutan in 1992). However, my intention has not really come to much fruition quite yet. In order to get into the refugee camps you need to have a “camp permit” issued by the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Nepal Government and currently my proposal is somewhere in limbo. Perhaps in the trash can of the Nepal Government…or buried underneath the other hundreds of proposals waiting to be reviewed. Either way, being granted access into the camps does not look promising in the next 2 weeks that I am here. However, instead of getting me down I have been finding other ways of getting the research I need to write a 25-page paper at the end of this semester (PS—yes, its single spaced…!).

Damak is a very small town. There are 3 grocery stores, a great vegetable market, a handful of skilled tailors, shop keepers and 5 organizations that have to do with Bhutanese Refugees. Within my first week here I had visited all of the organization and received a lot of confused looks, questionable responses and a lot of rejection. Because I do not have the permit into the camps I am not only not allowed into the camps I am also not allowed to get some of the information having to do with the refugees. Basically this limits my research down to…well basically nothing. So my mission this week is to be persistent, revisit some of the organizations and bike along the camp road where I hope to have success in striking up a conversation with some of the refugees outside of the camp. Wish me luck!

In order to keep my self sane and occupied this past week here are a few of the things that I have done:

I go to the vegetable market! There is a large veggie market just a few minute bike ride down the road from where I am staying. In Damak a working refrigerator is difficult to come by and with a combination of load shedding (a shortage of power in Nepal) and the incredible amount of heat, I buy my veggies on a daily basis so they do not spoil from day to day. At the market I have begun to frequent this very friendly man, Raj, who has a decent selection ranging from lots of unknown leafy greens, to different types of peas and newly in, beats! However, whenever I want to get broccoli I have to go to the only vendor who sells broccoli, which is this very unhappy, and not pleasant woman who could not be less content with me. But regardless of crabby woman, I enjoy the market because it is always busy and there are lots of colors!

Potato man doing his thing!

Raj's veggie stand

The Vegetable Market

Today I am going to make Vegetable Chili and got all of these veggies for 60 rupees or $.60

Each morning I go for a run. The roads are super dusty and because Damak used to be a trading town between Nepal and India there is a good amount of traffic that comes throughout the day…starting as early as 8:00am. In order to avoid this traffic I have begun to start my run around 6:15 am every morning. I enjoy running around Damak because on the outskirts of the town there are really beautiful tea fields, which makes for a great backdrop. However, just this morning I had a rather unpleasant run. I was on my way out to the tea fields when I saw a black blob on the ground in the distance. As I got closer I noticed that it was a dead cobra snake with its guts splattered everywhere. I forgot to mention that snakes are a really big danger in the South of Nepal. I no longer have to be worried about dogs giving me rabies (I have seen a total of 4 dogs in Damak—one is domesticated and lives in my apartment) I now have to worry about getting bitten from a snake and consequently dying. (Don’t worry, dad only the largest number of people die in Damak due to snakes…I’ll be fine?!) Here there are Cobra (the ones that you see snake charmers charming in the movies) and Crate snakes. Both are very poisonous (so I have been told). I am not going to lie and tell you I am not NOT afraid for my life every time I leave the house…but I am not NOT THAAAT afraid for my life. I just keep my eyes peeled and hope that the snakes are more afraid of me that I am of them…right? I don't have any pictures of the snake (nor do I intend on getting any pictures of snakes here in general) sorry!

My walk to the market

People are so resourceful and use their bikes for just about anything!

This bus stop was in the middle of the road...not the side...the middle

This is 3 grown adults on a motorcycle...the record I have seen is 5 people (2 adults and 3 children)

I have always loved cooking, but with my abundance of free time I have really taken to stove top cooking (as an oven is not a thing I have come by at all in my travels throughout South Asia). I enjoy cooking chilli, lentil and cashew veggie burgers and last night I even made momos! The first day I moved into the apartment I was about to cook some beans when I reached into the cupboard to grab a pot and was greeted by a HUGE cockroach. (I think all cockroaches are the same size, but to me they are HUGE…and extremely intimidating and not attractive). I freaked out for a good 3 seconds, stood in shock and slammed the cupboard door closed. Once out of my shock, I opened it one more time and the little bugger (pun intended) was still there. I walked around the kitchen in circles for 5 seconds then rand downstairs to grab the friendly security guard. I frantically ran up to him and said “do you know how to get rid of a cockroach” he smiled and looked at me…he for sure didn’t know what I was saying. I repeated with hand motions “cockroach!!!!” he smiled and said something in Nepali then got the landlords sons, nephew who does speak English. The three of us went up to my apartment to try and solve the mystery. After they saw what I was talking about the chuckled, said some things in Nepali then proceeded to empty out all the pots and pans and the landlords sons nephew grabbed the scary looking thing by its antenna and threw him off the balcony. Mission accomplished. It is safe to say, yes, I do still think there could very well be plenty more cockroaches living in the cupboards…but I try not to think about it.

Momo prep! I had no rolling pin so I just flattened the dough into patties...kind of like playdough!

My makeshift steamer!

YUMMY!

Super successful

Scrambled egg stir-fry with naan

Other than being extremely hot (I mean like sweating a lot…I take a cool down shower after my run in the morning, a cool down shower at lunch and a shower before bed too) I am doing fine. The apartment I am staying at has a great rooftop that I can do a lot of reading on and one of the organizations, International Organization of Migration (IOM), let me borrow a bike of theirs so I have been doing a lot of exploring of the town area. I hope to find more success in the coming weeks but am also just proud of what I have accomplished thus far. Learning how to readjust both my plans and my attitude and also learning to live on my own have been things I am really working on through my independent research. I still have a few more weeks in Damak and am ready to see where they will take me.

PS it is Nepali New Year today… हप्प्य न्यु एअर!!