a travelling researcher's musings

Blue butterflies on poop.

Here in Pokhara I am back staying at a guesthouse making friends with random people: an interesting nurse from Australia, an American couple who live in the UK, and a solo brit traveler excited about the $3 rum he bought that day. “The best deal in Pokhara!” he said. Yes if you want a bad time and a bad hangover I imagined.

Guesthouse living quickly took on a different rhythm than the last ten days living at Anamika’s.  For starters, her in-laws are devout Hindus and would wake up as early as 4:45am to start their daily rituals before heading to the temple for the morning.  I especially enjoyed the next morning happening, which was always morning tea with Anamika on the terrace.  It is a really pleasant way to wake up and start your day by feeling connected to the people you’re living with.

Since I met her only five weeks ago, I feel it was easy to get to know Anamika and her family, and I think its because she made it easy. Family here is very integral to everyday living in a totally different way from back home.  I think it has something to do with the cultural expectation of sons getting married and living n his parents home with his new family meaning everyone is always very close by,

Men making the paddy stacks.

 but it is also so much more than that too. 

The puja and other spiritual goings-on became really apparent to me whereas before Nepalese religion and spirituality was something I mostly read about or observed in passing.  There are so many layers to it, and as Saroj explained, “even if you spend a really long time in Nepal, what goes on with our religion is still confusing!” 

This morning I went for an 8km hike in the fresh air though, and that was something I was really missing in Kathmandu.  In fact, I am still coughing up my last few taxi rides as I write and I didn’t have that problem here in Pokhara.  I was welcomed here with a friendly “glad you’re back Ashley!” which felt nice.  And today I’ll reconnect with Ezina to plan out next week in Palpa.  I am sure we’ll hang out a bit here too, starting with a visit to her school this afternoon.

Gliders play while farmers harvest.

I feel like I am hurtling down the last stretch of primary data collection, which is a good feeling but also a bit scary.  Did I collect enough information?  Did I ask the right questions? Did I do it right?

Luckily my advisor back home has been very supportive of my project even with all its unknowns and ambiguities.  I am interested to start unpacking some of the nuggets all the interviews and observation notes hold.  Is women’s empowerment really an issue for the vegetable farmers or is there an elephant in the room that needs the light shone on him?

I have my hunches but much like how I approached the other parts of the project, I am keeping an open heart and a creative mind so that the data can tell an interesting story of its own.

Whatchya doin' today?