Dolakha. Our last trip from Kathmandu before returning to the States. The district is just east of Kathmandu, up in the mountains – or “hills” as they are refered to here. After many hours bumping along through the windy, and sometimes unpaved, roads of Nepal, we reached the town of Charikot and were immediatly rewarded with a breath-taking view of the Himalayas from the Panorama Hotel where we would be spending the night.

Early the next morning, we set off on a hike through the gorgeous scenery to a near-by town to visit a temple. The town was a medievel village that sprang up along the road which used to serve as a major trade route between China and India. Although previously it was nearly deserted, today it is a bustling town once more, and even a bit more developed than other mountain villages we have seen in our travels.

This last experience of the physical beauty Nepal has to offer was a great way to remember and appreciate all that we have seen; but we must not forget that Nepal is still a country struggling to rebuild after war and, like the bumpy, windy roads we travelled on, there is still a tough journey ahead.

As our journey draws to a close, I have been doing some reflection on the fieldwork, research, and interviews we have conducted of the past 2 1/2 weeks. Some pressing questions come to mind regarding language, truth, and translation.

Language was a major barrier for us; as none of us spoke Nepali, we relied heavily on a translator when meeting with an organization who’s members did not speak English. One has to wonder if the information we were receiving was entirely acurate. One example is from today’s meeting with WOREC and activie human rights defenders in Dolakha; we were without an official traslator and were assisted so graciously by the owner of our hotel with the communication aspect of this meeting. Without the use of a traslator, sentences and questions were often simplified by both parties in order to more esily convey a message. But did this over-simplification cause us to receive inaccurate information, or to not get the “full story” or message?

I noticed also that there were very few examples given outright to us during meetings with many of the organizations. Typically, we only were told specific stories when we directly asked for an example. Again, was this due to a cultural norm, or to the language and translation barrier?

It was evident as well that Nepali’s were somewhat private and reserved; it took some degree of prying on our part by asking questions in order to finally obtain an answer. Many people seemed a bit hesitant to answer opinion questions or personal questions, such as “What made you want to get into this type of work?”, etc.

I also wonder if, because we were a group of foreigners – outsiders – if any information was being either held back or exaggereated; there are always these obstacles when conducting research from an etic perspective. However, even with these difficulties, I believe we were still able to gather data essential to bettering our understanding of Nepal as well as our study if the challenges to peacebuilding.

Fatima Foundation, which is named after the iconic woman in Islam who advocated for the rights of women, is located on a narrow street in a bustling Muslim neighborhood of Nepalgunj, Nepal. This meeting was highly anticipated for me not only because of my focus on gender issues in Nepal, but also because of my personal interest in Muslim culture.

Muslims are already considered an excluded group in Nepal, which can only speak to the extra-poor treatment of Muslim women in the country. The Foundation was established in 2005, but not without challenges; many Muslim men did not agree with this organization, saying that it would destroy the Muslim community and culture. However, after several Islamic scholars gave their approval of Fatima foundation, its popularity began to increase and it became more widely accepted.

The work done by Fatima Foundation is truly inspiring, especially in light of the discriminations that certain castes, genders, and religions face in Nepal today. The foundation provides a number of different services and trainings to Muslim women and men, as well as to other members of excluded groups such as Medhesi women.  For example, the citizenship program helps to build and strengthen the Muslim community and to improve the situation of gender discrimination; capacity-building trainings are run in partnership with different inter-governmental organizations; free education is available for poor children and incentives are provided for students (especially girls) to finish school.

Some of the main issues for Muslim women include poverty, illiteracy, and domestic violence; all of these challenges are addressed by Fatima Foundation from education programs for men both and women about the problem of domestic violence to skills-training to help women to improve their economic standing.

We were told a very inspiring story of a disabled girl who came to Fatima seeking help; she wanted to learn how to sew to take care of her sick mother. Once other girls from her community found out that she was learning this great skill, they too came to learn sewing and the girl eventually became a trainer/teacher for new girls.

Fatima Foundation was a truly inspirational experience for me; partly because of the vast number of cases and issues they take on, but also because of their passion for what they do.

There are several Kumaris, or living goddesses, in Nepal, who are young girls worshiped by Hindus as the reincarnation of a female deity. In Kathmandu, the Kumari lives in Durbar Square in a palace in the center of the city. Believers come to the temple daily to catch a glimpse of her as she comes to a window of the temple between 4 and 4:30 each afternoon.

Faithful Hindus and tourists alike flock to this temple, gather in the open courtyard, and gaze up at the windows waiting for the Kumari, a little girl of no more than 8 or 9 years old, to appear. One of her attendants calls out that she will appear and, when she does, she simply stands at the window, looking back at the crowd of people gathered below. She is dressed up in clothes of red and gold, with the traditional black eye make-up and jewelry. She is at the window for only a minute or two before she disappears back into the dark room.

Durbar Square is bustling with Nepalis and tourist, and vendors of all sorts of things from jewelry to Buddha statues. There are so many beautiful, colorful temples and shrines. A little girl approaches our group wanting to practice her henna skills. She says she is trying to raise money to buy school supplies, but doesn’t ask us directly for money. A few of us hold out our hands, allowing her to draw simple designs with the redish-brown paste. We ask her where she lives and about school, and she replies in almost perfect English that she lives far away and she must walk when she does not have enough money to take the bus. We notice a group of men forming behind her, sensing that she is about to receive money from us as a tip for doing our henna designs. We ask her if she ever is hassled to give her money away. She says sometimes, but that she usually finds a police officer in the sqaure if she is bothered or forced to give her money away. I cannot imagine th danger that this little girl, who tells us she’s 12, faces on a daily basis just trying to bring back a few rupees to her parents. She seems especially savvy though, and I hope that she can stay out of harm’s way and continue with school, which is somewhat of a rarity even today for girls in Nepal.

It was foggy and cool when we arrived at Lumbini at 6am, but despite the early hour there were many visitors. Most were pilgrims, coming to pray at the holy birthplace of Buddha, comprised of Nepali’s, Indians, and Tibetans. There were very few white tourists like ourselves.

The compound was an enormous maze of dirt paths winding through grass fields, and there were many different temples, buildings, shrines, and statues through which to wander. Prayer flags were everywhere, wound around trees and through fences and from building to building. Visitors to the site walked slowly through the grounds chanting Buddhist prayers or listening to tour guides. It was very quiet and peaceful and the spirituality of the place was really felt, even for an outsider to the Buddhist religion.

We entered the big, white temple housing ruins dating back to the 3rd century BC as well as the exact spot, according to Buddhist tradition, where the Buddha was born. Pilgrims brought monetary offerings and layed Buddhist prayer shawls near the sight as they looked one-by-one at the plexi-glass covered stone. Behind this was a pond and a large tree where candles marked a shrine; this was the spot where Buddha’s mother bathed before giving birth to him.

Some people splashed the water on themselves as a form of blessing. All in all, the experience of visiting Lumbini was a very peaceful one, especially seeing the devotion of the many religious visitors, and one that I will never forget.

Trekking in the hills above Pokhara today was easily one of the best experiences scenery-wise so far. Although I was not feeling my best, I was glad that I was able to puch through and make it to the top; the view was absolutely breath-taking.

It was fascinating to walk throught the mountain villages, observe daily life, and speak with some of the villagers about life, occupation, and education. We were crowded in the street by groups of children asking our names and where we were from. Others called down “hello’s” and “namaste’s” from homes higher up on the hill. Nearly all the children asked for chocolate, pens, and money. We were asked by our guides from the 3 Sister’s Trekking Co. to not give out these things; the children are very used to trekkers from all over passing through daily and so they have come to expect that they will get money or gifts from foreigners.

The 3 Sister’s is an amazing organization working for the empowerment of women in Nepal; they acted as our guides for the trek and we also stayed in their guest house in Pokhara, learning a lot about their work. They train young women to be trekking guides, as well as ice and rock climbers. They also offer a midwifery scholarship, which is a much needed skill in Nepal. The goal is to create financially independence and stability

of women.

Once we all got our fill of the view from the top- the snowy Himalayas above and the city of Pokhara below- we began our descent, climbing down seeminly never-ending steep, jagged stone steps. One of out guides pointed out the presence of Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags hanging outside of many homes; not only are they used for prayer, but they are also hung when a family member is far away to bring sucess and well-being.

Today, we were able to see, first-hand, the conditions and hard-ships of living in a rural village in Nepal. In the district of Bara in southern Nepal near the Indian border, we visited a remote village and were able to see how the people live.

We arrived in the village in the late afternoon, our jeeps barely able to drive through the narrow dirt roads lined with huts and crowded with children, chickens, goats. There were a few bicycles and the occasional motorbike, but it was clear that not many cars passed through, especially not ones filled with foreigners. Our cars pulled up to two story, decrepid school building in a large field in the middle of one of the villages; there was a large group of men crowding around to see what our purpose was there. One of the men greated us with little orage flowers, an although the children had gone home for the day, they had anticipated our arrival by writing “welcom” in Nepal by the entrance of the school. We were given a tour of the school where we learned that hundreds of children were in attendence. The building was in poor shape, and the classrooms were dirty and filled with broken benches; we were told that in some of the larger classroom, over 200 students attenden class each day. I cannot imagine trying to learn, or teach, in that kind of environment. The pre-school was nothing more than a tree-sided structure with a dirt floor; we learned that the homeless often slept under the crude shelter, and were allowed to do so as long as they cleaned up and were gone in the morning by the time the children came.

Next, we walked through one of the near by villages, accompanied by what seemed to be a village elder. He showed us his home, a small, mud hut, and showed us what his wife was cooking for dinner- some rice and a small amount of vegetables for 5 people. It was getting dark, and fired glowed outside every hut as women prepared meager meals of mainly rice; small children warmed their bare fingers and toes on slow-burning ashes. We spoke to one woman, who looked much older that she likely was, thanks to a life of work, poverty and hardships. She worked on a plot of farm land, and was paid not in cash, but in bags of rice; If she took two bags home, she would have to repay the landlord with four- she was, essentially, trapped in a system of bonded labor. She worked 10-12 hours a day to feed 8 mouths.

It was an unbelievable experience to see this state of living, especially at night, when the cold, the lack of electricity, and the lack of basic needs was most prevelent.

Throughout the course of out research, we have gotten many answers regarding the major challenges to the peacebuilding process in Nepal; a common thread that I have notices nearly every organization, commission and committee mention has been the lack of implementation of policies. There seems to be a glaring disconnect between the policies and laws being drafted at the governmental level and the actual implementation of these policies on the ground. This creates the sense that nothing is actually changing and couses a great deal of frustration among the Nepali people and organizations alike.
Another issue is the lack of rule of law in Nepal. Since the constitution is still in the process of being drafted, there is nothing with which to enforce the necessary laws and structures. This also sets a precedence that people can continue with criminal activity without consequence, as well as causes a sense of insecurity throughout the country.
The third consistent challenge we have heard is that avery aspect of the peace process is highly politicized, which hinders peacebuilding and development. It is clear that until these obstacles are resolved the peacebuilding process may be at a stand-still.

Arriving in Kathmandu at night, our first views of the city were limited. The city was asleep – a few honking cars, motorbikes and even less people (although the chaos of the airport was an exception: people asking for “American money”, airport security blowing whistles to hurry people along, etc.)
Our first real sense of Kathmandu came the next morning when we ventured out after breakfast for out first meetings of the trip. The busy morning bustle was a huge contrast from the relative calm of the previous night; the roads were a giant moving mass of cars, buses, motorbikes, bicycles, and a variety of brave pedestrians. People warmed themselves by small fires outside of shaggy-looking buildings while stray dogs sniffed around in rubbish piles on street cornes.
There was also a heavy presence of uniformed and armed police forces who congregated on street corners and in empty lots, or who drove by in trucks.
The streets were also congested with lines of motorbikes and vehicles that wound for blocks in front of petrol stations. Apparently, there is a petrol shortage and although prices are high, people still need to fuel up to get around.
Our first meeting of the day was with Peace Brigades International (PBI), a global organization who uses the method of “protective acompanyment” as a way to ensure the safety of local human rights defenders and activists whose lives would otherwise be in danger.
Next, we met Advocacy Forum who is working towards sustainable rule of law and the reduction of impunity, as well as the general advocacy for human rights. When asked what was the biggest challenge to peacebuilding in their opinion, they stated that it was the fact that everything in Nepal was so heavily politicized.
Our third meeting was with the Lawyers’ Forum for Human Rights; they are playing a role in the peace process and advocate transitional justice as a means to peacebuilding and stated that a sustainable government is essential to this process.
The final meeting, and probably my favorite, was with Alliance for Peace, an organization who works with Nepali youth in 10 districts to promote dialogue and to train young people to be peacebuilders rather than resort to violence. I really enjoyed talking with the members of Alliance for Peace because they had some great ideas as well as effective methods for carrying them out. After all, the youth are the future, and if a whole generation can learn to work for peace and use non-violence as a avenue for change, then a country like Nepal can have a better chance of rebuilding.