Back to Nepal and Into the Future

 — from Kate Jewell —

[Editor’s Note: Retired flight attendant and Orcas Island resident, Kate Jewell was instrumental in recently reinvigorating the AIRINTERMED program. The original program, started in the 60s, utilized stewardess’s unique ability to travel world-wide to support medical teams and orphan programs in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Nepal for three months.This program was a vital part of DooleyIntermed International until the mid 1980s.

Airline Ambassadors International utilizes flight attendant travel opportunities to create week-long volunteer programs at orphanages around the world. This summer, Kate introduced the two organizations and created the current AIRINTERMED, a two-week volunteer program in Nepal at the EcoFarm in the Saankhu Valley and the Divine Light English School. The on-going program will operate in the fall and spring.]

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“CHA BARSA AGI, MERO KAM GORKHA MAA.” (Thirty six years ago, I worked in Gorkha.) This phrase was usually met with wide-eyed disbelief and the comment: “I wasn’t even born then!”

Such was the sobering reality of my return to Nepal last month. My past trips and experience in this hauntingly beautiful former Kingdom left me with an affinity for the country and her people. After the April 25 earthquake this year, I wanted to help. Knowing the intricacies of the country, I didn’t dive right in, but spent the summer devising a plan.That plan has become AIRINTERMED, based loosely on the DooleyIntermed International flight attendant volunteer program. In 1979, I spent three months working with an immunization team in Gorkha, Nepal (epicenter of the April quake). Today’s program partners with Airline Ambassadors International and sends volunteers for a two week experience at the Eco Farm Home for Orphans in the Saankhu Valley about an hour outside Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu I remember was a pretty little city, filled with trucks, taxis, rickshaws, thousands of bicycles and cows. The problem was knowing who had the right-of-way. Cows had priority, followed by the largest vehicle. It worked.

Today, Kathmandu has become a jumbled maze of buildings, homes, rubble, streets, cars, thousands of motorcycles, and a few goats, stretching out to the forested foothills that climb up to the snow-capped Himalayas ringing the city. Formerly, I could ride my bike 30 minutes to the suburb of Patan or Bhaktapur. Now, those special towns have been swallowed up as part of the greater city. It is terrifying to drive through the Kathmandu now and I have no idea who has the right-of-way.

The children of the Eco-Farm are delightful and working with them pure pleasure. They have formed a “family” and seem happy, secure and well cared for. They live in a gorgeous, lush green valley that reveals moments of the old Nepal blended with the present. Deeply rutted roads have replaced many of the old trekking paths.

Personally, I preferred the paths. Perhaps because I was younger and more agile in 1979, I used to skip through the rice paddies, worrying only about leeches hitchhiking on me. This trip, I navigated a rice field just once….and fell into the paddy! The embarrassment of doing so hurt far more than any physical damage.

Part of the AIRINTERMED program is to work in the local school, the Divine Light English School, where the founder, principal and all the teachers speak that lilting slur of English that is so hard for us to understand. I was stunned by the fact that on the “Health Day,” I had to focus my talk on clean bathrooms, washing hands and NOT littering….the same subjects I was talking about so many years ago. It’s disheartening to view the plastic bags of trash clogging the little stream running through the beautiful valley and see all the candy wrappers strewn across the school yard. I issued the school a challenge to see who could have the cleanest class room and tried to inject a sense of school pride to keep the premises litter-free. We’ll see how successful that was when I return in the spring.

Nepal is currently facing a gas crisis brought about by an Indian blockade at the border. India says it is not their fault. Nepal says it is their fault. The core of the clash is found in the new Nepal constitution, nine years in the making, that was released September 20. Some areas feel they have been marginalized in that constitution. In truth, I do not understand the details. I just know that a three party system trying to run a new democracy is not really working so well. As usual, parties blame each other and India for the gas shortage, and the people suffer.

It is now Dashain in Nepal, their biggest festival of the year. Clearly this year should have been a huge celebration for all those who have survived the horrible spring upheaval. Unfortunately, celebrations are curtailed due to gas and supply shortages that remain critical. China is willing to bring gas in but the road is long and treacherous and I personally have a problem with China’s “helpful” intentions (think Tibet). And India says it will be angry if Nepal accepts gas from China but refuses to lift their blockade. Yes, they have allowed dribbles of petrol to be delivered, but people are still waiting in line for three days to get their tiny allotment!

I worry about all the people still living in tents as the temperature has dropped and winter is approaching. Much of the billions that was given for earthquake relief has not been released to the people who need that money to rebuild their lives.

But the Nepalese people are strong, proud and will overcome! If anyone reading this far is inspired to help and wants to be sure their aid reaches its intended destination, please contact me: drkatejewell@yahoo.com.