Namaste! Greetings from Nepal!

-For most recent personal news go directly to the bottom.
Sorry, no French translation available at the moment.

Namaste! Greetings from Nepal!

I have been in Nepal for 2 weeks now. I am working with UNWFP - UN World Food Program since Oct. 1 and will be here for 1 year.

Basic Description of NEPAL:

Geography and basic description:
Here I am, in Nepalgunj (Nepalganj) in the Southern part (Terai) of Mid-West Nepal. Nepal is composed of 5 regions: Eastern, Central (where Kathmandu is), Western, Mid-Western, and Far Western regions. Each region is then divided into Districts, for a total of 75 country-wide. Nepalgunj is located in Banke district, and the city is less than 6 km from the Indian border, the closest major Indian city is Lucknow.

Nepalgunj is a fairly big city, and after Kathmandu, it has the biggest UN presence. UNICEF, OCHA, OHCHR, UNHCR, UNMIN (UN Mission to Nepal), UNDP and of course, UNWFP where I work, all have an office in this town. Furthermore, there are also many international and local NGOs such as the Red Cross, Plan, Care, Concern, SNV, etc...

The first thing that struck me in Nepalgunj is the heavy traffic... but not vehicle traffic: bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws (small cart attached behind a bike which you can use as taxi), tuk-tuk or tempos (3 wheels motor vehicles), and horse/mule/ox carts. Yep, few cars in sight, the only motor vehicles around are UN trucks who drive defensively in this crowd of human/animal power transportation modes. I would be really scared to bike on the main road because people drive on both side and do not seem to follow any rules except, bigger=priority, hence, UN trucks pushing people aside. As Nepal is a Hindu country, cows are holy and roam free in the streets.

Ill try to take a short video and publish it to show you what I mean.

Political Situation/Safety

Nepal is a very volatile country. The communist rebels (Maoists) fought the government for 10 years until, finally, the King gave up his political powers in April 2006 and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in November 2006. Elections were scheduled for November 2007 but last week, they were indefinitely postponed due to the refusal of the royal government to accept the conditions of the Maoists. In other words: the political situation is highly uncertain and volatile. After 10 years of ongoing violence, and only 1 year of truce, the whole country needs only a small spark to return to violent chaos. The postponement of the elections might well be that spark.

Of course, there are also some tensions between Hindus and Muslims. In the whole country, Muslims are a small majority but in Nepalgunj, they represent almost 50% of the population. Less than a month ago, another district of Nepal succumbed to violence, especially because of religious tensions. Hundreds of houses and cars were burnt, including one of our WFP truck delivering food. The driver escaped unharmed but dozens of people from that city died in the process.

This is a very simplistic assessment of the political situation, for details please email me.

Nepalgunj is country’s the busiest port of entry between India and Nepal, and this city has a lot of potential for renewed tensions and escalation of violence. The Mid-Western region of Nepal is the heartland of the Maoists, and Nepalgunj is the capital of the region.
By UN standards, this is currently a phase 3 (of 5) security assessment. If it turns into a phase 4, I will be evacuated to Delhi (India) but nationals performing the most essential work will remain, at phase 5, the UN cancels all the programs, close the office and evacuate all staff (nationals are evacuated within the country). At the current phase 3, we must respect the curfew between 12 – midnight and 4 am (yes, that means I must be home by 12, everyday), and mandatory radio checks daily.

Radio Checks:

Everyday at 8 pm, there is a radio check. That means that I have to carry this big VHF radio with me at all time and at 8 pm, there is a coded message which I must respond to, to confirm that: My radio is on, it is well functioning, the reception is good, AND, that I am listening and of course, safe. When travelling on official duty, radio checks are conducted every hour, at the very least.

Environment:

Nepal, because of its geography and population pressure on the environment is extremely prone to natural disasters. The most recurrent and serious ones are floods, landslides and earthquakes but any other natural disasters you can think of also take place here, including, hailstorms, bush fires, etc… Between 1998 and 2003 there were 236 natural disasters.

Remember your high school geography classes? How do mountains take shape? Because of frictions between tectonic plates, right? Well, Nepal has 8 of the 10 highest mountains in the whole world so you can imagine that seismic activity is extremely high. There are regular small earthquakes but every 75 years (approximately) there is a major one. The last one was in 1934, 73 years ago. Disaster is on the verge of happening.

Scientist have named Kathmandu as the #1 city in the entire world which is:

-most likely to be hit by a major earthquake
And
-where the damages would be the greatest.

It is estimated that if, or when, an earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale hits Kathmandu, there will be 40 000 dead (in the capital alone), 100 000 injured, 60% of the buildings completely destroyed, 100% of the water pipes affected and 50% of roads and bridges destroyed. In other words, a major tragedy. An earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale has the equivalent force of 178 megatons of TNT explosive charge. The nuclear bomb on Nagasaki had an equivalent force of an earthquake of 4.0 on the Richter scale.

Floods on the other hand, are fairly predictable; they regularly displace thousands of people every year. The raining season lasts from May to August, approximately. But sometimes there are a lot more precipitations than the soil can absorb and crops are destroyed, people displaced, livelihoods wiped out. Every year WFP has a major Emergency Operation to help the hundreds of thousands of people who have just been displaced by the floods.

Social:
Nepal is a country with alarmingly high food insecurity. 40% of the population live below poverty line and consume less than 2 250 calories per day (UN minimum requirement). 50% of children are underweight and stunted, less than 60% of the population is literate and the gender gap is large.

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My Work and Other Personal News:

BIG NEWS! Perhaps you were wondering why I am talking about Nepalgunj when I was supposed to go to Damak to work in the refugee camps. Well, upon arrival in Kathmandu, where I stayed for 1 week for briefing and administrative duties, WFP suggested that I go to Nepalgunj instead of Damak as the need for international staff was greater. In fact, I am the only international in the office, out of 18 employees, of which, only 2 are women (including me!). So, instead of being Programme Officer – food distribution to refugees in Damak (south-east Nepal), I have been promoted to Deputy Head of Sub-Office in Nepalgunj (Mid-western, Nepal). That means that I am the officer in charge when the big boss is not there. There are only 3 sub-offices in Nepal, and the head office which is based in Kathmandu, of course. Basically, I am in charge of managing 18 employees, and the 3 major areas of work which are ran from this particular office, as well as all the many programs under each work areas. Those work areas are: EMOP-Emergency Operations, CP-Country Programmes, and PRRO-Protracted Relief and Recovery Operations. Basically, my job is to represent WFP at meetings and in working with our implementing partners (NGOs, other UN agencies), sign official documents on behalf of the organisation, handle and manage all employees’ concerns and needs, oversee and approve monthly reports and other SITREP, etc… . Exciting part is that I will get to travel to the field at regular intervals to monitor and assess the work situation.

As most of Nepal is not covered by roads, going to the field implies that, by helicopter we go to the nearest landing site and then walk to the village most of which are situated at about 4 000 meters above sea level! This “walk” can last for as little as 3 hours to as many as 4 days! Chances are, we will be sleeping with the goats and eating buckwheat with our hands (Rice is only grown in the south of the country, in the hills and in the mountains, people can only grow some varieties of wheat and/or millet). In those parts of the country, you must wear a winter jacket in June. The mountain areas are the poorest of Nepal. Food commodities can cost as much as 20 times more because there are no roads and thus, everything must be airlifted. Of course, there are plenty of experienced field monitors who cover all those areas by foot, they are in excellent physical shape and speak Nepali, I will be going to the field to ‘observe and learn’ so I don’t think that they will take me to the hardest places, at first…

Otherwise, I am still staying at the hotel, I shall go visit a few houses this week. The hotel where I stay at is run by an old American lady who has been living in Nepal for 30+ years. It is THE hang out place among expatriates in Nepalgunj because she has an all-American food menu, and even by international standards, the food is EXCELLENT!

The only problems is that there are leeches in the bathroom… I heard that Nepal has a leeches 'problem', those things climb in trees and literally ‘jump’ on people walking underneath to suck their blood! I am not joking! It hasn’t happened to me but anyone who went trekking could tell you.

Other insects/animals around include butterflies as big as small birds, very many small, cute and harmless lizards, and frogs in the hotel pool. I've heard of the dozens of different types of venemous snakes around but I haven't seen any yet, and not looking forward to it...

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If there is anything which you want me to cover in my next posting, please send me an email with your questions.

I will post pictures soon and notify you when it is done. The problem is that the internet connection is so slow that I don’t know how it will be possible. I will notify you once the pictures are available.


WFP Nepal Link: http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?country=524