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A little late in posting this. Put it down to Nepali time, will you? I’ve realized one of the downfalls of keeping a blog current is resisting the urge to finish artwork in order to stick it up with a post, as you’ll never actually get around to it. In a lot of ways, it’s like going to any sort of meeting here: you sit down, you have your contact’s immediate attention, you bat the usual “namaste, casto chhaa…tikay chhaa (how are you, fine thanks)” pleasantries back and forth, you get to the reason you’re there…and just when it’s all going swimmingly, RANDOM PERSON #1 enters the room. Not the same random person (that would be weird – though has happened to a couple of friends of mine and is just as stalkery as it sounds). But suddenly, RP #1, a propos of nothing, jumps right into the conversation. Often this will mean the person you came to interview/have the meeting with taking their time to talk RP#1 through what you’re discussing with them. Now you might as well not even be in the room. Only frantic hand-waving a la those guys on aircraft carrier runways, or faked coughing fits have any chance of re-grabbing your interviewees attention. You might get pockets of interest back from them, including bemused looks at you, sort of half squinting, as they struggle to remember why this large white person is now sat in front of them while they’re having a perfectly nice conversation with RP #1. And so it goes. Anyway, at the risk of rambling, that’s just what my posting process has been like this past week. “Sumiya lag chhaa” as they also say – “It takes time”.
Long story short, I’m going to post more often to the site things that aren’t quite as polished so we’re a little more up to date. What percentage of blog posts, I wonder, are bloggers promising to post more often. This month in particular has been filled with visa issues (finally sorted today, only after getting a press pass, and now, finally, a press visa), bike issues (just re-fixed after only being with me a week) and starting/finishing a new consultant job. Comics, naturally, are in the works. The book’s coming along nicely, though there’s nothing like watercolouring by candlelight to do your mince pies in. Oh and lest I overlook the reason for the hilarious title post, the first of many nationwide strikes, otherwise known as “bandh” (pronounced “bund”). In which I was merrily warned that if I took my new motorbike out I’d get pushed off it and it’d be promptly torched. Happened to a friend of a friend last year. The actual day (this past tues) was remarkably low-key, featuring children playing cricket in the street, shops everywhere closed, and assorted mobs in the middle of empty intersections waving their hammer and sickles about. Turns out the only thing the Maoists are reliably good at is stopping anyone else from doing anything.
UPDATE: turns out the RP rule (see above if you’ve skipped to the end, shame on you) doesn’t apply in reverse: I waited a good 10 mins while mr important bureaucrat man talked with his pal and ate his tiffin (love the ol’ school terms that fell out of usage 50 years ago everywhere else) at the dept of Immigration. All I got was a dismissive hand wave.
Cricket in the abandoned streets
The Maoist Mob takes to the streets
That’s right. You heard me. Through the vapours of my steaming hot shower after the comforting click click click bruuuum of the automatic gas powered shower. I’ll admit, at first I was dubious: the blue plastic hose that hangs across the bathroom wall and goes through the open window at the back, the “switches” on the unit that are more for decoration than anything else, and the weird digital read-out on the front that has 3 lighted up backwards and skips from there to 9 as the flames take hold. From arctic iceberg to boiling lava in just a few clicks. Leaving the soaped up showeree a 1-2 second window to get some water out before risking 3rd degree burns. Still, I’ll take it over an electric shower, or any electrical appliances, any day.
HA Literally as I typed that last sentence my emotionally sensitive inverter pip pip pipped its disapproval followed by the sound I’ve come to hate: the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee that means no more juice for the rest of the day. Or headlight and candles, if it’s past 5:30pm. It’s Saturday morning for crying out loud! Lesser mortals might check the loadshedding schedule, or even figure out which group of the city they’re in to strategize an electricity-efficient plan. Not me. If I’ve learned one thing out here it’s that you can’t predict anything. Even if it’s written down. Especially if it’s written down, in fact. It’s the land of shrugs and head shakes (side to side meaning positive – there’s nowt negative out here – not superficially so, at least – the classic south asian “side nod” TM), not timetables and schedules. Call it a buddhist, non-grasping approach to energy consumption.
Yes, yes, the kettle does boil a million times faster than a stove top, yes, it is nicer to have light that you can point where you want it, BUT if it comes out of a socket, you just can’t trust it. It’s like the flakey friend you always invite over, who’s amazing company when they’re with you, but who always makes their excuses early or sometimes doesn’t bother showing up at all. I say give me the moderately interesting rounded orange top you can rely on every time. Yes, you, my chipped, rusting gas cylinder buddy. With a flick of your yellow switch we know where we stand.
All I need now is for Al Gore to rise out of the cistern on that extendable crane he used in An Inconvenient Truth. Preferably when the electricity’s back on, as otherwise the water doesn’t get pumped in. Did I mention that?
I’m now a few months into my Nepal project (for more, click the links below), which has seen me moving around the country interviewing survivors of human trafficking. The highly flattering picture above is with an interviewee who was tricked into selling his kidney, only to then be short-changed and left with permanent health defects. I’m posting pages from my graphic novel in progress on the Nepal Extras page, though you’ll have to pay a princely $5 for access – all proceeds go towards the Daal Bhaat (rice and lentils in Nepali) fund/living expenses while I’m out here until May.
Last week I was in Mahendranagar, way out on the far western border of India and Nepal. The above sketches were done “live” by the Maiti Nepal outpost, where Maiti staff watch for suspicious looking folks who they think might be attempting to traffick girls across the open border. Just as I arrived, one of these very cases happened right in front of me – the young boy and the girl had two very different stories and it reeked of foul play. For more sketches from my recent trip, or a glimpse at my graphic novel in process on human trafficking in Nepal, click on the button in the right hand sidebar (it’s $5 for access, payable via Paypal).
Another interview from the far western region of Nepal where I’ve been this week, working with Nepal Youth Foundation to speak with ex-Kamlari girls who were once forced to work as domestic servants. Leela (pictured above) actually sold herself to pay for get school fees. Hit ‘previous’ for more info on the Kamlaris and to read other sketch interviews from this week. Comics from the open border at Mahendrenagar coming tonight.
Click on the Nepal project panel in the right sidebar for how to support this project via PayPal, or watch the intro video via the Kickstarter link on the left.
Continuing my experiment of posting from the field, this was sketched directly in ink while interviewing Sharada this morning. For background on the Tharu community, hit “previous” below and read yesterday’s post. I’m finding time and time again that drawing live creates a curiosity and connection with the subject that I just don’t get when I take their photo. It just feels more respectful, and somehow allows the shyer girls I talk to to come out of their shell as I draw them. Especially as they see me with pens in my mouth, a watercolour set on my lap and ink all over my fingers. Off to Mahendrenagar on the far west border with India first thing tomorrow to see just how porous it really is.
Continuing my experiment of posting from the field, this was sketched directly in ink while interviewing Sharada this morning. For background on the Tharu community, hit “previous” below and read yesterday’s post. I’m finding time and time again that drawing live creates a curiosity and connection with the subject that I just don’t get when I take their photo. It just feels more respectful, and somehow allows the shyer girls I talk to to come out of their shell as I draw them. Especially as they see me with pens in my mouth, a watercolour set on my lap and ink all over my fingers. Off to Mahendrenagar on the far west border with India first thing tomorrow to see just how porous it really is.
I’m writing this from Lamahi in Dang district, western Nepal, where the Tharu people have just celebrated Maghe Sankranti, their New Year. I’m on the road with the Nepal Youth Foundation covering their work to eradicate the practice of bonded slavery of girls in the Tharu community, known locally as Kamlaris. Together with NYF President Som Paneru (and his wife and extremely sweet 3yr old daughter) and Program Coordinator Man Bahadur I’m traveling from village to village doing interviews and checking on the status of entrepreneurial schemes they’ve set up to give former Kamlaris an economic route out of slavery and towards autonomy. The sketch is from Kalika VDC, Bardia district.
I’m writing this from Lamahi in Dang district, western Nepal, where the Tharu people have just celebrated Maghe Sankranti, their New Year. I’m on the road with the Nepal Youth Foundation covering their work to eradicate the practice of bonded slavery of girls in the Tharu community, known locally as Kamlaris. Together with NYF President Som Paneru (and his wife and extremely sweet 3yr old daughter) and Program Coordinator Man Bahadur I’m traveling from village to village doing interviews and checking on the status of entrepreneurial schemes they’ve set up to give former Kamlaris an economic route out of slavery and towards autonomy. The sketch is from Kalika VDC, Bardia district.
I’m writing this from Lamahi in Dang district, western Nepal, where the Tharu people have just celebrated Maghe Sankranti, their New Year. I’m on the road with the Nepal Youth Foundation covering their work to eradicate the practice of bonded slavery of girls in the Tharu community, known locally as Kamlaris. Together with NYF President Som Paneru (and his wife and extremely sweet 3yr old daughter) and Program Coordinator Man Bahadur I’m traveling from village to village doing interviews and checking on the status of entrepreneurial schemes they’ve set up to give former Kamlaris an economic route out of slavery and towards autonomy. The sketch is from Kalika VDC, Bardia district.
