Good morning. Good night? I have no clue. I have been travelling for the past two days, from one airport to another, across numerous time zones. The bright sky outside tells me that it is mid afternoon, but in reality I should be well asleep. My legs, from countless hours of idleness feel swollen and weak from disuse. My head aches from constant change or atmospheric pressure and air quality. Airline food has not been helping my apatite either. Physically, I am wasted.
But despite the circumstantial negative attributes to travelling, I – like many others who frequent such voyages across the globe – am filled with excitement at the prospect of enlarging my scope of worldview and experiencing new cultures. Nepal, the land of natural beauty yet so scarred by history. I must confess. I knew little to none about Nepal except that it was a landlocked nation to the west of China, hosting the renowned Mount Everest. The wonderful images of the grandeur of nature, the great mountains and its verdant plateaus, terrain specific animals and the indigenous locals living in harmony filled my mind at the thought of Nepal. Yet perhaps I was too naïve.
From the little pre-practicum research I have been doing, I found out how continual neglect of the rural regions by the central government and mismanagement of the agricultural systems have eroded away the pristine ecosystem of Nepal. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, the origins of certain environmental problems such as climate change lie beyond the scope of the Nepalese government; however, the air pollution of the cities, and the erosion of soil, deforestation and water pollution in the rural areas could have been managed domestically. These environmental issues accrue to exacerbate the increasing poverty in rural areas due to lower agricultural returns, putting the local farmers at a heavier disadvantage from the liberalizing markets than ever before.
But these ideas and concerns originate from readings. As often it is in the case of academics, I feel a disconnect between myself and the ideas I formulate through readings. And this is exactly why I am here, suffering through hours of painstaking travelling. I really feel that in this Nepal Peace Building Practicum, I will get a hands-on experience that students thirst for in the cubicle of the college library. But often, people crave what they do not have, only to realize they like what they had better once achieved. I have yet to figure out if I like the filtered version of learning through reading better than raw face-to-face material. Only one way to find out.
