Kathmandu and a
Visit with USAID in Nepal

South Asia Trip - April 2000 - Karen Gaia Pitts


The larger pictures on this page are from postcards. Click here for a complete set of Kathmandu pictures taken by myself or my fellow travellers.

April 9, 2000

We were greeted at the Kathmandu airport by my friend, Ben, our trekking guide (and Ben's friend), G.S. Rai, and by my Nepalese correspondent and friend in family planning and development, Siddhi Koirala and his son, Rishav. We were at least two hours late, with the flight delayed, and having taken an hour in the immigration line at the airport. We were very thankful that our friends had not given up on us. We took two taxis to our hotel - a thirty minute drive away through Kathmandu.

Kathmandu is a hilly, sprawling city about 4-5 miles wide. Traffic is bad, as usual, with cars, taxis, SUVs, rickshaws, baby taxis, and pedestrians darting every which way. At least the government has banned the import of two-stroke motorcyles, which has helped the pollution considerably. Still, the fumes are bad. There are a few modern buildings, but most are either old or are cheaply built. An earthquake here would be disasterous.

We stayed in the noisy, exciting, colorful Thamel district where most tourists and trekkers stay. We ended up in the Hotel Gaia - an old, run-down building which at least had hot water and private bathrooms. One must run the water for awhile to get past the brown water. Toilet paper is not available, but tourists know to bring their own or else learn the Asian way of cleansing. Thamel is candy for the eyes. Narrow streets lined by dilapidated four story buildings, and small shops selling colorful goods and trinkets everywhere. Street vendors selling tiger balm, kukeris (hunting knives), bracelets, handmade violins, and even hashhish. Every few yards a horn honks and someone calls "Taxi, madame?" - even if it is obvious that you are just crossing the street. Rickshaws abound. Hundreds of touring and travel offices offer treks, kayaking, rafting, canyoning (rock climbing in canyons), wildlife safaris, and expeditions to Tibet and Bhutan. Phone and Internet shops. Brass, copper, jade, bone, and carved wood figurines. Tourist grocery stores and book stores. Carpet stores, woven fabrics stores, and jewelry stores. Big stones of turquoise, lapis lazuli, tiger eye, citron, and amber - some necklaces must weigh up to 5 lbs. A riot of color everywhere. So many little stores and signs and repetitive goods that it is easy to get lost. Women with babies begging, crippled people begging (we learn that many of these have a "manager" who gets a large cut of the take).

After settling in our hotel, G.S. takes us on a tour of the city. We go to the Monkey Temple and Dunbar Square and a temple near the river where we see the dead being cremated. On the steps up to the Monkey Temple, which is on a hill overlooking the city, there are many beggers. I take many wonderful pictures. While there, a monkey jumps at a tourists, who dodges, so the monkey attacks G.S., biting him - leaving marks but not breaking the skin. We wash his arm at the wound site and hope for the best.

At the park overlooking the cremation site, another monkey attacks, but we are wary this time, and stay clear.

Internet has become very accessible in Kathmandu, and we all have email to attend to. Our hotel is next to a bakery with a courtyard restaurant - where we end up taking several of our meals, particularly breakfast.

Night time is very noisy, I discover, at Hotel Gaia. Tourists party in the streets. Some Nepal people seem to conduct their business in loud voices in the streets even at 4:30 am.

April 10, 2000

In the morning we meet with Cathy Thompson of USAID. Ben and Siddhi go with me. We learn of the U.S. assistance there. (see more below). In the afternoon we go sight-seeing and souvenir shopping in Kathmandu. We get our photos taken for our trek permits.

April 11, 2000

We pack our trekking duffle bags and take the bus to Pokhara, the doorway to our trek. On the highway we are happy to see a number of condom billboards - blue signs with a cartoon condom. I don't know what the words say - my guess is something about protection from AIDS.

April 11-27 Click here for Pokhara

April 27, 2000

We arrive back in Kathmandu from Pokhara. Ben, Greg, and I go on a very successful bedspread shopping trip.

Ben and I go to Siddhi's house. We talk about the Tribhuvan University, which seems to operate in fits and starts. Siddhi was an instructor there, but is saddened by the way it is administered. It takes a year for a student's exam to be scored - both G.S. and Osmund have experienced this. A computer which Ben donated to the campus is locked up, unavailable to students. We talk about helping with development and family planning. It is hard for Siddhi to find some way to help. I tell him to keep open and be patient - someday the opportunity may present itself, much like the green umbrella project presented itself to me. Siddhi's sons are bright and have nearly mastered a laptop 486 which Ben has given them. But Siddhi does not have regular email service, and borrows the use of it from friends. Later, after I return to the U.S., Ben emails me and tells me that he, Siddhi, and the student union have met - maybe some progress will be made now in the area of education. Ben had started a global book bank two years ago - an Internet service to get re-cycled educational materials to third world students. Maybe now the student union can make use of it to get the students some books - the university shows no sign of helping.

Greg, Ben, G.S. and I eat at Fire and Ice pizza, which is as close to American pizza that you're going to get. Greg and I stay again at the Gaia hotel.

April 28, 2000

In the afternoon, I fly off to Bangladesh (click here).

April 29, 2000

Greg flies home to Portland.

April 30, 2000

I return to Kathmandu from Bangladesh in the afternoon. Once again I stay at the Gaia hotel, but move to a quieter room. Ben is sick. He and several guests of G.S. ate a mango that must have been not been washed properly. Now several are sick and one is in the hospital.

May 1, 2000

Ben is doing better. We go carpet shopping in the am. I buy several hundred dollars worth of 3x6 (or smaller) wool and silk Tibetan carpets. Somehow, I manage to stuff them all, along with the 10 green umbrellas, my sleeping bag, and my heavy jackets, in my duffle bag.

In the afternoon, Ben, Siddhi, and I visit the Maita Nepal center for trafficked women (see below).

In the evening, Ben and I visit with a Sierra Club national outings leader who has just finished a trip to a more remote area in Nepal. We talk about the plastic bottle problem caused by trekkers. Drinking water is available for purchase along trek routes in plastic bottles. The bottles end up in garbage heaps along the way. Eco-conscious trekkers bring re-usable bottles with them and refill them from village taps, then treat the water with iodine. The problem could probably be solved by asking village inn-keepers to filter the water and provided filtered water to tourists rather than selling water in disposable bottles.

May 2, 2000

In the early afternoon, I fly to Bangkok for my return trip home. I stay overnight in the Federal Hotel (again) and take the long flight to Los Angeles the next morning. Then on to Sacramento.


Rural health outposts such as this one in Ratnanagar provide basic services and serve as a base for outreach services.
Here, a family plannning counseling session at Ratnanagar health post.
USAID in Nepal

USAID (US Agency for International Development) has been in Nepal for 40 years. Lately the budget for Nepal has been low.

Nepal contains the flat, fertile plains of southern Terai, the Hills - the heartland of Nepal, and the Mountains. About 50% live in Terai, 40% in the Hills, and about 8% in the Mountains. The people speak several dozen languages and the religion is a blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, and native folk beliefs. 91% of the population is agricultural. Per-capita income is one of the lowest in the world at $170 a year. Infant mortality, and life expentancy, and school enrollment rates have improved over 40 years, but are still low for Asia, while the population growth rate is among the highest.

Currently USAID's objectives in Nepal are: Strengthening the development of sound economic policies which rely on competitive markets operating with a minimum of government regulations; Enhancing political and social pluralism, free market participation, and individual choice; Increasing the range of choice, availability and use of essential child survival and family planning services; Protecting and improving management of vital natural resources like forests and irrigation water by involving local people in resource management; Expanding access of farmers, rural groups, and agro-enterprises to market opportunities in order to increase their economic options and incomes. A commitment has been made to increase the roles of NGOs and private sector as well as to assist development to the point where Nepal can meet the needs of its people with its own resources, on a sustainable basis. USAID has helped Nepal build a transportation network of trails and suspension bridges (most transportation in the Hills and Mountains is still on foot), industrial and capital development, electrical power, institutional development, education, (in the 1950s, the literacy rate was 2%) malaria control (opening up Terai to large-scale agricultural and industrial development), health and family planning, agriculture (improved seed), protecting natural resources (irrigation development, gully and landslide rehabilitation, livestock management, and water supply improvement), and women's development.

One-half of the USAID funds in Nepal go towards family planning, child survival, AIDS, and infection control. Some funds go to Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs (JHUCCP) radio programs - serialized dramas (soap operas). Later, Siddhi verifies that he has heard these programs on the radio. We learn that the under-five mortality rate in Nepal has dropped from 196 per thousand in 1983, to 73 - projected for the year 2003. The trend in fertility (TFR) has dropped from 6.3 children in 1976 to 4.25 in 2000. Now, over 50% of Nepal's people live within a half-day walk of a clinic or health post. But 90% of childbirths still occur at home. The life expectancy rate has risen to 51 years from the the average of only 28 years in the 1950s. In 1976, less than 3% of married couples practiced family planning, compared with 18% in 1990, and 36% today. Condom use is up to 40%, and 70% report having used them. USAID has placed a special emphasis on improving maternal-child health as a prerequisite for reducing population growth, since a high infant mortality rate contributes to the desire for large families.

USAID is supporting research for diarrheal disease control, and the training of physicians and even local fieldworkers in oral rehydration therapy and acute respitory infection case detection. 6,000 female health volunteers have been trained to give antibiotics. A vitamin A campaign has helped reduce one of the world's highest vitamin A deficiency levels - 90% of Nepal's children have received the vitamin. Birth-spacing may prove to be the most effective child survival intervention of all, a means of improving maternal- child health as well as reducing population growth. Currently 20% of births occur within 24 months of a sibling's. USAID has sponsored the "services by and for women" theme of health and family planning program for the '90s. USAID also supports the Contraceptive Retail Sales Company, a non-profit social marketing program which complements government family plannning efforts by marketing contraceptives through private retail outlets.

Women do up to 70% of the labor on family farms. Female literacy is only 18% compared to 52% for males. Farm girls are kept working on the farm rather than being allowed to go to school. USAID has reserved training slots for women only on various programs, and has developed a network of Women Development Officers who organize women's advocacy groups for literacy and health education, agricultural credit, and training in income-generating skills.

Cathy's office specializes in tracking "girl traffic" - girls are offered jobs in India that, in fact, turn out to be prostitition. 50% of the AIDS cases come from India.

A Visit to Maiti Nepal
A Social Organization Fighting Crime against Children and Women

At the suggestion of Cathy Thompson, we visit Maiti Nepal, located in a house in Kathmandu which Siddhi has located. The director, a woman, is not well today, and so our visit is short. We give her the vitamins that I had brought from the U.S. I also have brought condoms, but this is not the appropriate place to give them.

The selling of girls and women to brothels through false promises of good jobs or marriages by pimps for the purpose of commercial sex work is a serious problem in Nepal. Commonly the women and girls are lured to India and must be rescued from that country. Young children are also victims - used sometimes for sex work, but also as donors for organ transplants. Maiti Nepal runs a rehabilitation center/shelter for young girls and women and provides vocational training and small business loans for women, encouraging them to be self-sustainable. Maiti Nepal provides women with information about personal health care and disease prevention. Public Information Campaigns, monitoring and sharing information, and exposing the perpetuators publically are part of Maiti's strategy. Many of the Maiti Nepal volunteers have been victims of the Indian brothels themselves. Maiti Nepal also runs shelters to protect girls from the streets, a school for orphans, and an AIDS hospice.

Nepal's Population Dynamics

The following is information gathered from The Lonely Planet's tour book on Nepal:

Nepal's population of over 21 million is growing at 2.3% a year. The average density is 142 per square kilometer. Now that malaraia has been eradicated in the southern Terai plains area, hill people have moved there, and now about 50% of the population lives in Terai. The rest are spread throughout the country in small hill villages. Kathmandu valley is attracting many village people, and has grown to 1.8 million. Trekking is not a wilderness experience because people live throughout Nepal in small villages - even in the high mountains there are small settlements and pastures. The trails are well-travelled with people carrying food, goods, and even building materials in baskets or in burdens hanging from tump-lines around their foreheads. There are over 60 ethnic groups and 49 mother tongues in Nepal. Many hill people use the name of their ethnic group, caste, or clan as a surname. For example, our guide's name is G.S. Rai - he is of the Rai people. Rai people speak 15 different languages. G.S.'s friend's name is Osmund Rai. But G.S. and Osmund do not share the same mother tongue. Nepal is a nation of traders, and so their national language, Nepali, is well-known to most of them.


News Headlines from Kathmandu Post, April 11 and April 25