Ruminations...

Ruminations from late lastnite...

I think my colleagues think it’s funny that I think the cows are funny. Not in a disrespectful way though, having spent time on ranch, I like cows… they seem pensive. And here of course, they decide where they can be pensive… anywhere they want! This evening when I was crossing the very busy street to the cyber house – I was in a large crowd of people walking across the street, and nearly tripped over a cow who was just sitting on the sidewalk, right where people needed to cross, chewing his cud. The sidewalks are jammed with shoppers between 5 and 8pm – when hundreds of people all over the city can place a piece of fabric out and sell all sorts of Chinese made goods – the same goods that I see on the sidewalks of any city in Latin America. I think I already wrote about my theory.

I am struck constantly by our similarities... the people seem the , almost familiar, there are a lot of teenagers out – it is at time to meet friends and just walk around – buying some street food, flirting with the opposite sex. Yesterday I bought a set of speaker headphones to try and skype folks for 250 rupees (1$ US = 65 NPR) – similar headphones in the States begin about 19 dollars.

I am so moved by the similarities of peoples. It is refreshing to be in a country where there is little evidence of drug lords, gangs, graffiti and evangelical missionaries disrupting the cultural fabric like they do in Latin America. Here the poverty is all around us, the environment is difficult at best, travel is difficult in Kathmandu, but people are happy, and honest, and kind.

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This morning before work, I went to the stupa at Boudhanath… walked around it a few times a good way to start the day!