I am currently doing research on Nepal for two classes, and with every article I read I find that I stop and go back to my research log from Nepal to compare notes and argue aloud with the walls around me about what is being said. This is probably why I don’t study in coffee shops, Samson, or the library.

In the middle of reading and writing about challenges to peacebuilding in Nepal I am struck by the ease with which I can come up with a prescription for some issue that was encountered on the ground. Here you go, Nepal, I have something that will work. I laugh at myself, but the truth is there is a system in which the Nepalese are struggling to build and rebuild that does much the same thing. Here you go, Nepal, this should work, and if it doesn’t… the problem is probably that you were so recently fighting a war.

I would like to leave the millions of readers with a positive note, in the American style of presentation. There were many organizations that were impressive from the Jan Jagaran Youth Club in the Bara district that worked to bring school children of all castes together, the Fatima Foundation in Nepalgunj that works towards making Muslim women financially independent, the Saathi and Maiti organizations that combat human trafficking, and one of our favorites, the Three Sisters Adventure Trekking that provide women with an opportunity to change their world as well as tools to restructure the world that they live in. These are by no means a complete list of organizations that are affecting the peacebuilding process in Nepal in a positive way, but they are for me easily remembered when I get bogged down in the steep challenges that Nepal faces in moving towards sustainable peace.

Namaste.

the Himalayas