Nepal is Different Now

Nepal – Still smiling!

Not despite, but because of the earthquake…

I have been living in Nepal for the last three years and I was here during the earthquake. In the first weeks after the disaster, the international press was full of horror pictures of falling temples, injured people, and complete chaos. As important as these pictures were in the beginning to draw the world’s attention to the country, very quickly it became clear that they were actually causing another catastrophe to follow. Scared by the pictures and convinced that the entire country would be in rubbles, many tourists cancelled their trips, which further hurt the economy, which mainly depends on tourism. To counteract the impression that Nepal is not a country to travel to at the moment, quickly a campaign was launched that had the opposite message: Nepal is safe. Despite the earthquake, a trip to Nepal can be a great adventure, as only 14 districts were affected, and the reconstruction of the historic sites is going well. For me, Nepal is not only safe to travel to – there is an entire new dimension to it. Nepal is different now.

 

If you travel to Nepal right now, you will discover the country in a completely new way and have a whole new set of different experiences than you would have had before. You will see old professions like artisans and woodcarvers rising again, and be witness to the reconstruction. You will get to know the culture of Nepal in a completely new way. And this is an adventure in itself! One particular Nepalese trait that used to drive me crazy in my work, was the rate of acceptance of the people. While I was raised to believe that I can achieve everything if I just work hard enough, many Nepalese believe in fate: Things will happen when they are supposed to happen, and there is not much they can change about that. I think I don’t have to elaborate on the fact of why this makes work in development projects particularly difficult. However, right now, I am very jealous of this quality and I have learned to appreciate it in a whole new way. I actually wish I would have learned more of this acceptance in the last three years. While I still struggle with the fact that there was an earthquake and is all this destruction (which was, of course, completely out of my hands), my Nepalese friends just accept it and try to look positively into the future. Everybody has to learn that there are things that can be changed, but also things that can´t, and Nepal and it´s people teach this lesson memorably at the moment! Also, at the moment I feel like now there is a lot of positive energy here. The earthquake was – at least in the village where I work – a bit like an equalizer: everyone lost their houses, which placed everyone in an equal position. People now work together who never would have before, and more things now seem possible, which seemed crazy before. People who did not greet me in the street before, now want to work with my project, and new instances of cooperation between folks are rising. Of course I am aware that personal interests did not disappear overnight, but still there is a chance right now to set the course for a solidary collaboration in the future and to use this positive energy. Sometimes old things have to go, before new things can grow.