February Day the Last

We start early with a lecture by a Nepali university professor who received his PhD from UC Riverside. He talks about the history and culture of Nepal, spending some time on present day politics. A group of young students (one a highs school boy, the rest girls either in college or earning graduate degrees) came in and we had a chance to talk in very small groups. Our young woman is already teaching in order to fund her advanced degree. She talks extensively about trying to be a modern woman in the Nepali paternalistic culture and says her mom didn't want her to be on Facebook, even though the mom didn't really know what it was. She will be her own person, that one. Late morning, we leave for Patan, about 10 miles from Kathmandu. It is impressively clean and seems prosperous. Begging is less pervasive here although the people we do see begging are often suffering from terrible physical defects. Poor nutrition, poor pre-natal care and poor overall health care, I suspect. We see more temples and an old royal palace before we go on to the Patan Tibetan Refugee Camp established in 1960. It's now a permanent residence for several thousand people , many of whom were born in Nepal but who keep their Tibetan culture intact. They speak Tibetan, Nepali and, often, English. We visit their rug making factory which is small and on three levels. The ground floor is for spinning the wool from yaks and other animals , the second floor is where the rugs are made, - we see three women seated on the floor making one large rug - and the top floor is the sales room. Come on, people! The proceeds help to support a school for Tibetan children. Several of us buy these beautiful rugs, happy because they pack them really small so you can carry them in your luggage. In the afternoon we drive to a Newari village but en route we pass through the noveau riche section of a Kathmandu suburb where rich politicians have built second homes to escape the poor air quality in the valley. We're told that most of their children are studying in either the U.S., Britain or Australia. Joan and I decide that Canada must be too cold. There is a raucous political speaker who's a royalist so he's saying that the pols don't do anything and the king should come back to rule. It's not particularly well-attended. We go to the shop of a premiere woodcarver from Tibet and see his fabulous work. Once back, we have time at the hotel only to organize our luggage and to get ready for dinner at the home of Mr, Mishra and his wife, owner of the Nepali travel company who's arranged this part of our tour. It is probably less than 5 miles from the hotel, but takes us a full hour to navigate the clogged streets. Grumpy, anyone? Joan and I attend out of a sense of duty because we are done in and my stomach does not want nor will it tolerate any spicy food. So we square away our attitudes and get on with it. I am not dressed warmly enough - I went for cute - but we did not have to remove our shoes before entering the house so my feet stay warm at least. Before dinner, a woman entrepreneur gives a talk on the status of women in Nepal. Bottom line - they are controlled by fathers, husbands and sons, but things are slowly improving. We don't get back to the hotel until 10 P.M. but our dear Sujay has arranged everything for our transfer to the airport so no worries.