What I have come up with so far is
that in one or two months time we would visit:
Hospitals where poor people go and
talk to the staff
A pharmacy where poor people go and
talk to the pharmacist …
Schools where poor kids go and talk
to students and staff
Colleges and universities and talk
to students and staff
Small cottage shops where garments
and such are made and talk the workers
An ayurvedic hospital
Typical student rooms - as you see in the picture
Typical workers’ rooms
A Sanskrit school
A madrasa and mosque
Lots of temples
Monasteries
A couple of orphanages
A bank
A shop where they make computers
The telephone company
Parliament
A supermarket
A 5-star hotel
Craft shops
Workers’ eating places
Headquarters of political
organizations
A newspaper and talk to journalists
The library of the journalists’
assoc.
A rich kids’ college
New shopping centers
Whatever NGOs the people want
The United Nations mission
The Zoo
Pashupati and watch a cremation and
talk to the guys that take care of it
We will ride busses around just to
see the place
Everyone would get a mobile phone
and wireless interconnection in their room
Go to the cinema
Go to live theater
Go to music and poetry recitals
Buy books in English in the best
bookstores in Asia
Go to an astrologer
Watch animal sacrifices
Take street kids to lunch
Watch Nepali TV
Sit on a lot of patios and read and
write
You don't have to arrive and leave when everybody else does. It's up to you. I'll meet you and send you off. Otherwise, we'll go together. Right now, I live in Iowa City.
You don't have to arrive and leave when everybody else does. It's up to you. I'll meet you and send you off. Otherwise, we'll go together. Right now, I live in Iowa City.
An
acquaintance of mine today expressed bewilderment about just why I travel to
the places I do, such uncomfortably poor places. I don't do it that I might help where I can,
because I can do pathetically little, if anything at all. I don't do it because I see any beauty in the
culture; such folksy things don't interest me.
I don't do it for the scenery; I seldom leave the congested city. I think rather it is because of something
Kafka wrote about. The indestructible
mind in man. I stand in awe of that.
In time, I
have learned in life that man is much more intelligent than I had thought. Much more.
But he is also much closer to collapse than I had fearfully dreamed. Emotional, physical, financial, cultural
destruction. Everything that moves about
him is so close to coming undone. And
then it does, and he simply goes on. I
travel to watch and feel the mighty whirlwind that forces man to stand
hard. That hardness is impressive. He endures.
And I gather strength for myself.
I have seen terrible things written across the human face and I have
watched him just go on. He finds a way
through. He is much more capable than I
had thought possible. A greater
Intelligence is in him than the schools know of. I stand in awe of that. We can see it everywhere man is if we but let
ourselves see such a terrible thing.
Perhaps in America
we have not let ourselves see what others see plainly, and that's why I travel.
The young man you see here is my friend who helps me do the heavy lifting and maneuver through the crowds. He's in a masters degree program in education at Tribhuvan University.
The young man you see here is my friend who helps me do the heavy lifting and maneuver through the crowds. He's in a masters degree program in education at Tribhuvan University.
