Terai of a Realization

Another weekend, another field visit. Heading back west, I flew an hour and a half on a very questionable aircraft, conjuring up the necessity of silent prayer before take-off and landing. Arriving in the heat of the Terai, the plains, I got in the car and began my assignment. My trip took me to the East and West of the districts of Kailali and Kanchenpur, either bordered by rivers or India or both. Overall a whirlwind of a weekend of dust, sand, and the ever illustrious meals of dahl baht.

Driving along the bumpy road and covering my mouth from the clouds of dust pluming from the jeep's wheels, I started thinking, what happens when one becomes blind to the stratification of society?
After about 1 1/2 days of driving, I had neglected to notice even the slightest air of poverty around me. Yet there I was, meeting with flood victims and former bonded labourers, seeing their mud and straw homes, and listening to their stories of not having anything at all. Rather than thinking of their poverty, I found myself thinking of the horror that none of these people could swim, despite the fact that rivers are their lifelines. Sitting in my comfortable neo-colonial-esque jeep, I tried to come to terms with my quandry. Stepping on a boat that was more like a raft and even more like a barely floating child's tree house, I laughed to myself as I was experiencing yet another bizarre Nepali situation, which for everyone else is merely local transportation.

Having returned to Kathmandu on the same ever-so-questionable aircraft and happy to be alive, I've pondered my musings. In short, life is life and people are people. Poverty, riches, and questionable public transportation just fit into the seams. Similarly, smiles are smiles, tears are tears, and although we may all seem very different, everything may not always be as it seems. Rather than clarifying my altered vision and indulgence of wordy prose, I'm going to keep enjoying the fact that I may have walked on Nepal's only beach, the sand left over from a flood on the banks of a river, and someone's home.