Helping set up the barriers and sections which will divide male/female/old & incapacitated
Early morning on elections day (6am). The barriers and red/blue boxes for the votes are in place
The main election assistant writes in the details of the voting sheets to be handed out during the day
Pre-speech dance by village youths
View over a Maoist banner towards male villagers during the political program
Ram (Surendra) Karki, the Maoist candidate for the Eastern part of Taplejung (there are two seats in Taplejung district, roughly East (1) and West (2). Karki lost to Surya Man Gurung (Nepali Congress) by 312 seats. CPN-UML won in the Western area.
View of the school and the Maoist political program underway
Yeast cakes for making millet beer; marchaa (Nepali); khesung (Limbu)
Selling tobacco; surti (Nepali); pharsung (Limbu)
Handles for hoeing; kodaalo (Nepali); kang (Limbu)
Morning view over part of Taplejung bazaar
Stone, tin and wood rickety constructions in the bazaar
Images in the office of the Maoist district headquarters
A meeting of all the Subbas (29 Limbu "chiefs", in charge of tax collection and resolution of land-based disputes in the past) along the Kabeli river valley from Yamphudim to Tharpu. Meeting to discuss the collection of money paid by yak and sheep herders in Yamphudim for using Subba-controlled land high up above the villages along the river valley. The meeting took place in the main office of the new Limbu Museum.
Local pre-election political meeting to determine who will walk in what parts of the village to promote this particular party...
A local school-teacher explains why posters have been put up across the village at different sights in 4 different languages. This was a pre-election meeting for a particular political party, but specific questions were raised about the posters. The difference between First-Past-The-Post and proportional representation systems was also explained.
Spent a morning collecting "yangben" (Limbu), "Jhyau" (Nepali), a mossy epiphyte that grows high up on rotting branches.
(added info below due to comment)
[Extract from fieldnotes]
The hanging epiphyte has to be sorted out. Moss and other plants have to be removed. And bits of bark and such. Enough for one family to eat a meal of takes about 1.5 hrs to sort out. And there is still a large amount left. We must have picked a total of over 1 kg, which uncompressed filled up a large rice sack to 3/4.
The weed is then boiled with ash. About a few tablespoons of ash from the fire. The liquid is brought to a boil for about 20 minutes, until the plant has gone black (from red/grey/brown), and the water has turned dark red.
It then is washed, though apparently either we didn't boil it long enough or S didn't wash it properly, because after washing it well, through and through, the stuff is fried with butter (that surge got from T-Sir in exchange for work), chillies and chives (which they just call garlic here). Salt is added a little later and the stuff is stir fried for 10 minutes or so total, and covered for a moment. We eat it adding a little more salt, with fairly sour jaaD (chaaneko)[millet beer].
It is not too pleasant to eat, though buddharaj claims that in bazaar areas people pay 35 rupees for a plate of the stuff, and 30 for meat. It is extremely, well...fairly bitter. They all agree that it was not prepared properly.
Visited several cardamom merchants in Birtamod. One of the richest cardamom buyers in the village up in Taplejung regularly comes all the way down to Birtamod to negotiate prices and conditions for sale. Birtamod is one of the largest centres for collection, and distribution of cardamom in Nepal.
Scooping up cardamom pods for packaging.
Removing the "tails" on each cardamom pod and winnowing off the dust. These women earn 3 rupees per kilo of hand cut cardamom pods...
Storage of cardamom sacks
Bringing cardamom sacks (each weighing some 40 kg) to the merchants
The transport bike goes vertical
(26th Feb 2008)
Stuck in Birtamod due to the strike called by Federal Limbuwan State Council (FLSC) activists. This strike has been going on for some 2 weeks, and before that 1 continuous month. A two day pause was called for as rice and other basic goods were not getting to many of the villagers in Panchthar and Taplejung districts.
Photos below are of the headquarters of the FLSC offices.
Back to the field tomorrow. A plane over to Birtamod in Jhapa, as there are no buses running from Kathmandu to the Terai at the moment. I'll stay with one of the families that migrated from Taplejung to the plains. There's a concentration of 35 households around a "chowk" on the main road heading north to Ilam, Phidim and Taplejung, some 10 km north of Birtamod. There's Happenchowk (or "half-pant"chowk because, so the legend goes, it was here that Western half-pants (shorts) were first seen in the area. Someone on their way back to their village having been abroad is said to have bared his knees in style way way back in time), Buddabare, and Aitabare. The road to Aitabare heads east about 5 km at Happenchowk to reach the Timai Bhutanese Refugee Camp, which means there is a continuous rumble of the overly-sized UN jeep with pale peeping faces in the back seats, as well as uncommonly cheap rice and other basic goods (provided by WFP and sold off by refugees). A tiny plot of land here, enough to build a single-roomed box, costs over 1.5 lakh (150,000 rupees=(approx.)=1200 UKP). That is basically equivalent to the cost of organising a work visa to go abroad (more for better paid jobs and non-Gulf countries (or Malaysia).
Many of the Limbu families that have moved here bought a tiny plot of land by saving money over many years of cardamom crop and/or working abroad. Many of the households are run by women whose husbands are abroad at the moment. Generally people say that life is easier here (no carrying 50kg loads for two days uphill), health facilities are more accessible (and better), and children can study in English-medium private school and take computer classes. It does get too hot for most during the summer (there are no mosquitos in Mamangkhe), and many comment that the vegetables and water don't taste as good.
--------------
I will head up to the village when the buses start running up to Tharpu/Medibung by the Kabeli river valley - the end of the road - then up up up, across, up some more - with a bag full of books for children, photographs and mini-tins of "London" tea (all gifts).
Bits of recent news:
Hospitals compelled to use firewood
POST REPORT
Director of Patan Hospital Dr Rajesh Gongol said that the hospital has no option than to use firewood to cook food for patients.
Similarly, students' hostel at the Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj has also started cooking food with firewood.
Likewise, TU Teaching Hospital (TUTH) has instructed its staffers to bring food and snacks from home as the staff canteen has stopped serving the staffers due to lack of cooking gas, said Dr Mahesh Khakurel, executive director of TUTH.
Buddhi Pant, a staffer of Bhaktapur Hospital said that an ambulance of the hospital that runs on gas has halted its service due to the lack of gas. Similarly, the staff bus also stopped operating from Wednesday. However, the hospital is getting its cooking gas.
Posted on: 2008-02-21 22:10:55 (Server Time)
----------------------------------------------------- FLSC activists torch Kantipur vehicle
Kantipur Report
About 15 FLSC activists burnt down the vehicle at 5 this morning in protest of the news published in the Kantipur daily that had led to the arrest of FLSC activists.
The vehicle (Ba 3 Cha 3933) carrying Wednesday’s edition of the Kantipur daily and The Kathmandu Post was bound for Birtamod from Biratnagar.
The driver of the vehicle informed that the activists looted mobile phones belonging to him and distributor.
The activists had been planning the attack since yesterday night and blocked the road, witnesses said.
Posted on: 2008-02-20 08:23:28 (Server Time)
--------------------------------------------- Terai strike enters day 9, curfew continues in several places
Kantipur Report
KATHMANDU, Feb 21 - Normal life across Terai continues to remain crippled the ninth day running on Thursday as the indefinite strike called by the United Democratic Madhesi Front sees no respite. Clashes have ensued in different parts of Terai between the protestors and the police this afternoon.
People in the region are facing acute shortage of daily commodities as the market places have been shut down. Educational institutions have been shut and vehicles remained off the road.
Supply of daily necessities has been largely affected as the vehicular movement on the East-West Highway and road links to India has come to a grinding halt, according to local businessmen..............
The general public took out rallies in Janakpur and Biratnagar urging the agitating Madhesi groups to call off the strike.
The public in Biratnagar chanted slogans of “Call off strikes and protests, Stop ethnic politics, Maintain peace and good-will” and marched around the city area. The rally started by a group of 20-25 youths at 9 am today soon gained numbers as people from every nook joined the two-hour long march around the city.
Meanwhile, there were minor scuffles at Mahabir Chowk in Biratnagar between activists of the UDMF and the police on the ninth day of the strike. Morang district chairman of the Front Jayaram Yadav was injured when an unidentified group attacked a rally of about two dozen activists of the UDMF at Devkota Chowk in Biratnagar.
Posted on: 2008-02-21 03:43:16 (Server Time)
