My search for a new guitar

When I made the decision to take this position in Nepal, I had contemplated bringing my guitar. I thought it would be a nice “comfort” of home that I could use for entertainment and to pass the time should I need to. After thinking things through a bit more, it became obvious that it was too much of a “luxury” to bring along considering how much luggage we were allowed and all of the other things that I would “need” rather than just “want”. So, when it came time to pack, Jenn and I made the hard decision that my guitar would remain behind. Jenn reasoned that it would likely cost more to ship than to buy a new one in Nepal.

Not long after we settled into our apartment, I started my search for a new guitar. This was in part precipitated by the fact that we live next to a drug rehabilitation center. How does having a drug rehabilitation center across the street from you make one want a guitar? Well, as it turns out the guys at the drug rehab center apparently have a lot of time on their hands and to pass the time they pull out their guitars and sing. These songs range from Hindi pop songs to The Eagles. Fittingly, there is one song that they sing that our neighbour swears contains the words Feliz Navidad in it, but I’m not sure… Their concerts occur every day (and into the night) and we have heard songs from Nirvana, The Cranberries, Neil Young, Guns n’ Roses, the list goes on.

So, as you can see I have been listening to them play their guitars for weeks and it makes me want to play (in part to drown out some of the terrible songs they play…). So it was a couple weeks back when I started my search to purchase a guitar. We were not sure where to go, so we started out in Thamel where all of the tourists go to shop. I ran across a couple shops that sell instruments and they had a variety of guitars.

As many of you know, some of the big name brands of guitars include Gibson, Epiphone, Alvarez and a number of lesser known brands like Horner, Ibanez etc. As I looked upon the racks of guitars it became apparent that the guitars they sold were cheap knock offs of brand name guitars. One shop I walked into, the shopkeeper happily told me that he sold “real Gibson” guitars. I said to him, “Gibson?” and he responded yes “real Givson”. As I looked up at the wall with the guitars displayed, on the neck of the guitar sure enough it said “Givson”. It seems the guitar manufacturers were smart enough to realize that they would run into trademark law problems using the real names, so they adjust them slightly. Thus, Gibson became Givson, Epiphone became Epephone, and Alvarez became Alvariz.

As for price, guitars in Canada start around $200 for a very beginner model. Others can be had for less, but they tend not to be playable and do not stay in tune. The shops in Thamel were asking for about 8000 rupees, which amounts to approximately $133 Cad. I figured I could talk them down to $100, but I thought I would leave it for another day as I wanted to a do a bit of price shopping. So, on Sunday I went out with Jenn to the area in Kathmandu called New Road,where the streets are jammed with little shops selling everything from computers to sewing machines to freshly butchered meat. I was told by a co-worker that there were a couple of music shops in the area. We wandered around for a bit and asked a few locals for directions. At last we finally found the music shops. We walked in and found the Epephone and Alvariz guitars and I was told there were better guitars upstairs. Upstairs we found the “real” guitars where they sold Takamine guitars with a starting price tag of 35000 rupees or $583 Cad… Ouch! Realizing that I cannot afford a “real” guitar, I settled upon a nice Hovner (rip off Horner) that sounded pretty good and seems to stay in tune. The nice surprise was that getting out of the tourist area paid off as I ended up spending only 2500 rupees or $42 Cad for it.

So, now I can compete with the drug rehab guys across the street or perhaps just go over and jam with them. I will have to brush up on my Guns n’ Roses though….

On matters of pollution and environmental quality…

One thing that I would like to accomplish in my blogs is to paint a picture of life in Kathmandu from a balanced perspective. We all know that wherever you live in this world, you must take the good with the bad. I don’t want to point out only the good things and neglect the problems that I see.

Jenn and I have been here for getting close to two months now and it has become very evident that environmental quality is an enormous issue. I am guilty of having a romantic notion of Nepal and the beautiful pristine Himalayas in the north and the jungles in the south where you can find an abundance of wildlife (rhinos, elephants, tigers etc.). Having spent some time now in Kathmandu (which has a population of over 1 million people), it has become obvious that the environment is a real issue here. It is very true that there are remote areas where pollution may not seem a big issue, but Kathmandu is a totally different story.

Waste management is one of the most evident issues in Kathmandu. While I have seen garbage trucks picking up garbage in woefully inadequate trucks (the size of a small pick-up truck), the vast majority of garbage in the city is burned. It is a very common thing to see bags of garbage or just loose garbage laying at the side of the road. The smell can be pretty bad too… Jenn and I have often seen people just throw their garbage into the street. It offends our sensibilities, but that being said, what is the alternative? The city evidently does not landfill their garbage, it is often just burnt… When Jenn and I package up our garbage it does get taken away, but where it goes from there we don’t really know? Most likely it is burnt somewhere, so are we really any better?

The burning of garbage, in turn, creates another very visible problem and that is air quality. At times the air will be thick with the smell of burning garbage which includes burning plastic. I can only imagine the amount of dioxins and furans which are released into the air as a by-product of burning plastic wastes. This bad air quality has played havoc with Jenn’s lungs and may be a reason why she has been suffering with symptoms of sinusitis.

I have already talked about water quality in a previous blog, but it is worth mentioning the rivers that flow through Kathmandu. These are among the most polluted waterbodies that I have seen, with floating garbage, raw sewage and sometimes even the remains of people who have been mostly cremated along the ghats at Pashupatinath temple. Because the Bagmati River flows into the Ganges River (the most sacred river to Hindu people) many practicing Hindus will have their relatives cremated and scattered into the river. Part of the problem is that wood is expensive and the bodies may not burn completely…

Party, Party, Party! Well, okay just two...

This past weekend Jenn and I were invited to two parties. The first was a party organized by our neighbour and fellow volunteer Kelli. She has been visiting and helping out an orphanage down the street and put together a party for the kids on the rooftop patio of our building. Jenn helped out by creating a piñata for the party. After a number of hours of labor, Jenn managed to make a beautiful pig piñata as illustrated in the photo. The kids had great fun being blindfolded and taking turns clubbing the pig! Unfortunately our broom suffered a major casualty as we were using our broom as “beating” stick for the piñata. The first few kids managed to hit everything but the piñata, including a metal pole. The broom handle at the end of the game was irreparably bent in 3 or 4 places. I guess we need to get a new broom! The pig on the other hand was definitely more durable than the broom. Jenn had created an industrial strength piñata… they ended up having to tear the pig apart by hand to get at the candy!

The second party was a birthday party held by our neighbours downstairs. They are a Nepali family… Prasand, Prasana and their two children. It was Sanskriti’s sixth birthday and Jenn and I went out and bought her a Barbie doll… well, not a “real” Barbie, but she looks like a Barbie. We arrived at the party at 2pm, which was wayyy too early! We ended up sitting there for a couple of hours before the other guests started arriving. At least we got to know them a little better, and I practiced my very limited Nepali, which amounts to asking people what their name is and how they are doing… We ended up leaving around 4:30 with the promise that we would come back later. 5:30 rolled around and we got a knock on the door for us to come back as Sanskriti was going to cut her cake and open her presents. She seemed to really like the doll! We stayed for another couple of hours and played with the kids. Overall it was fun but exhausting. It is kind of tough with the language barrier, but with kids there always seems to be a way of overcoming language barriers through play….

Food and Hygiene in Kathmandu

Things in Nepal have changed drastically over the past 10 years… Even 5 years has made a huge difference. There is very little that you cannot get if you live in Kathmandu. In fact, you would be hard pressed to mention anything that you can’t get as far as food is concerned. Some things that we have not yet found… maple syrup (although you can get the inferior Aunt Jemima kind of syrup), beef oxo cubes (but you can find chicken, vegetable and Mexican flavored ones), sour things like sour candies and salt and vinegar potato chips. I am sure there are other obscure things that are not available, but nothing so far that we truly miss…

So far, food is the one thing that you can spend quite a bit of money on. Sure, you can definitely do what the natives do and eat very cheaply. To eat pretty much the same way that we eat back in Canada it does costs significantly more… much more than what we pay for rent. The one good thing is that produce can be had for very cheap, so if you are ok with being a vegetarian, you costs should go down significantly.

An axiom for travelers abroad when in developing countries like Nepal or India is never eat anything raw! I have always adhered to this rule religiously as I am not interested in getting sick. While it is true that caution must be taken when eating in a restaurant, it is different when you prepare the food yourself. Raw vegetables can be eating without any real concern so long as you prepare it properly. This entails soaking your vegetables in iodine treated water. It doesn’t take much, just a few drops in the water and soak for 20 minutes… voila your vegetables are ready to eat!

I must say, I have been eating like a king since arriving here and in particular since we moved into our apartment. Jenn is an amazing cook and the fresh produce that we can get here is pretty much like eating out of a garden. Jenn has cooked an amazing stew, her famous spaghetti sauce, stirfrys galore and even nachos with fresh guacamole yum!!

On Matters Concerning Electricity and Water

Funny enough as it turns out, the two are inherently linked. Electricity in Nepal is a spotty thing as there are scheduled outages of electricity based upon which district you live in. In Kathmandu, depending upon the time of year once can expect the electricity to be out between 30 and 40 hours a week. We recently heard that this increases during the winter. We are currently looking at 45 hours a week of what they call “load shedding”. Why does it increase in the winter? Well, there are two reasons why this might happen, one is demand and the other is supply. During the colder months there is a greater demand for electricity for heat. Also, during the winter months there is less water abundance as we are in the middle of dry season. As a result there is less hydroelectric power available due to low water levels. It’s a bit of a double whammy actually… While all of this sounds very inconvenient, it is not that bad, as often the outages will occur late at night or early in the morning, so you may not be affected at all some days. It can be a bit difficult at the office however. In fact, I am writing this blog at the office (my bad…) during load shedding. It makes you appreciate having a laptop that much more! Thanks Climate Change Central for letting me keep it!!

The saving grace to all of this “load shedding” business that occurs is that Jenn and I just happened to find a place to live that is located strategically close to the Prime Minister and the President’s residences. As it so happens, rank has its privileges and the Prime Minister and President are exempt from load shedding (at least for the time being). So, by default the lowly volunteers from Canada are exempt as well! So, apart from a few hiccups in power from time to time we have been lucky to have the lights on consistently.

As for water, it can be scarce during the winter months in Nepal. We were told to be careful where we chose to live, as the water taps can run dry at times. We were careful to ask about water supply and it appears that there is no issue where we live as they have water pumps and large supply tanks at our building. Hot water is a different issue altogether though… After talking to our landlords we were satisfied that hot water would be available on demand and the solar thermal heating system would be sufficient for the three families that live in the building. This is good in theory, but not in practice as I spent a week getting cold showers and I mean ice cold showers in the morning. The solar thermal system certainly works, but timing is everything. Of course, sunlight is also a must to ensure a warm shower as well and that isn’t always guaranteed either. So, long story short, Jenn and I invested in a “Geyser”, which is essentially a gas powered on demand water heating system for our shower and since then we have no complaints. Hot water until the cows come home!!! Woo hoo!! So how much does a “geyser” cost? Pretty cheap by North American standards I would say. We paid about $90 Cdn for system itself and another $50 for the gas cylinder deposit (which we will get back when we leave). The gas itself costs $20 Cdn/cylinder. I don’t know yet how long the gas will last, but whatever it costs it’s worth it for consistent hot showers!

So, now that you know all about our showers, you are probably wondering about water quality? Is the water safe to drink?? In short, absolutely not. The water in Kathmandu is definitely not fit to drink without boiling. We get our drinking water in bottles… much like we did in Canada. We get the big 18.9L bottles of purified water (distilled, uv treated and ozonated as well) and we get it delivered right to our door. The bottle deposit actually costs more than what we pay in Canada, go figure, but the water is cheap at about $2 Cdn per bottle.

Finding an apartment in Kathmandu

Jenn and I were told that as a general rule it is relatively easy to find a furnished apartment in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, this is not exactly what we experienced. Upon recommendation we met with a real estate agent named Kumar Lama. We tried to tell him what we were looking for, but there seemed to be a language barrier. We told him we were looking for an apartment on the second floor or higher (to avoid insect infestations and potential flooding problems in the monsoon season), fully furnished, and within a price range of 12000 – 18000 Rupees per month ($200 - $300 CAD). The first place he showed us was over $400 per month (at least it was fully furnished!), the second and third place he showed us were both unfurnished and one was even on the ground floor!

I know I sound like a big whiner, so I am going to cut this short. After looking at a dozen places we found a place that we liked for the location, the price and the fact that it was very recently built. We settled on a partially furnished apartment, which entailed an agreement to supply a refrigerator, a two burner gas stove (with a gas cylinder included), a bed and a kitchen table with four chairs. We also negotiated to include curtains so we could have some privacy, and some kitchen utensils and pots and pans! As we were quickly learning, everything must be negotiated, price always being the last thing…

Arrival In Nepal!

It is hard to believe that it has been over a month, six weeks actually since Jenn and I made the big leap and moved to Nepal for a year. I will give you the quick synopsis of our journey so far….

We arrived in Kathmandu on October 22 on a beautiful warm day. Both Jenn and I have been here before, so we more or less knew what to expect. We arrived in the morning after about 32 hours in transit and we were dead tired. Our CECI counterparts were there to meet us and they took us to the hotel to check in and freshen up. We went for lunch and then went for a meeting at the Canadian Consulate. Very nice! Nothing like fighting sleep as we listened to the consul try to explain to us his role in Nepal, which consisted mostly of telling us what he doesn’t do. After many head bobs we went back to the hotel to crash.

Over the next week or so, we had training and orientation. This consisted of introducing us to the CECI organization in Nepal, meeting all of the staff, learning about all of the current operating programs, cultural training including Nepal’s social and political history. We were also given a tour of the city to orient us, and taken to health facilities for a medical orientation.
Our training was interrupted by a 3 day national holiday called Tihar (or Diwali/Dipawali). This is the biggest holiday in the Nepalese calendar and could almost be described as the Nepali/Indian version of Christmas. Lots of lights, fireworks, firecrackers and lots encouragement to shop. This is the time for local businesses to offer sales and it is effectively an indication of how business and sales will go for the coming year, so it’s important to sell lots! It is also a time for family and most Nepali people will travel back home to spend the holidays with family and friends. While it was nice to experience, Tihar did get in the way of Jenn and my ability to look for a place to live, as our real estate agents that we were relying upon for assistance disappeared for 3 or 4 days!