Poverty

Yesterday morning I sat on the front porch with my coffee and watched a man plowing his field just on the other side of the street. Using age old technology of 2 oxen and a rudimentary plow he worked on his small plots of land carved into the side of the hill. The hills are steep and all throughout the country-side tiny plots of farmland have been carved into the side of the mountains creating a stair step sort of pattern. Fields are rarely more than 8 or 10 feet wide (many only 4 or 5) and then there is a drop off before the next plot. The poverty here is striking as I think I've mentioned. However, western culture is sneaking in as the presence of professional wrestling attests. Also, despite being a culture that doesn't know anything about baseball the evil empire (the NY Yankees) has infiltrated and Upendra along with many others has a hat that bears their logo.

Despite being so far removed here western culture has still managed to rub its affluence in the face of extreme poverty. Cable TV is relatively common and yet neither hot water nor clean water is easily accessible. It seems to be a bit backwards to me. Additionally, there is no means to create more wealth here that I can see. The rural areas are certainly not capable of becoming industrialized anytime soon and the natural resources are already stretched with poor farmland and the people lacking the capital to buy even simple tools that could increase the agricultural productivity. There are some good strides being made by the Britain-Nepal Medical Trust and the Public Health Office. They have community training programs where women are trained in some basic things to teach to others in their community since there is not adequate access to medical care. However, these organizations are wrought with corruption as Dr. Rajesh has been frustrated lately. The Public Health Officer has been trying to get allowances for trips into the district that he didn't really take.

While in Nepal I've slowly been reading through a book I received for Christmas from Michelle who reads entirely too many books. The book is called "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger" by Ronald J. Sider. This is definitely an appropriate time for me to be reading it as I am surrounded by poverty and have the time to wrap my mind around the concepts. The statistics he refers to are staggering and there are some practical suggestions that can be embraced by all who really want to help stimulate change. Just because it has "Christian" in the title doesn't mean it's not worth reading for the rest of you. His theology is for the most part limited to 2 chapters and I think everyone should read it. I'd be happy to buy it for anyone that will actually read it. Anyway, it is a challenging book to say the least and compliments my experience here well. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow both at home and here.

 

Yesterday afternoon Upendra took me on a walk to a cave. The walk was basically straight down the side of the mountain for an hour to a small waterfall and cave. My knees were killing me on the way down. While my knees felt better on the way back up I thought I was going to die so we'll see how I fair on this trek. However, I've never hiked anything as steep as the walk we took yesterday so I seriously doubt my trek will be quite as intense. It was so steep I slipped a few times even though I had solid footing. Watching children hop around and run down the side of the mountain made me feel pretty bad though. I guess growing up here necessitates agility (maybe there is some natural selection going on). Anyway, we may go back to the cave again today just for the exercise. It's about 1pm on Tuesday afternoon at the moment. I'll be heading back to Kathmandu on Thursday.