Steve Chisnell Nepal updates on www.chisnell.com and www.romun.org starting Friday. Or, um, just "Follow" me! I will also blog as I am able!
June 7 at 4:22pm via Twitter
Steve Chisnell Boarding for Amsterdam. Should reach Kathmandu by Sunday morning! Fun travel group!
June 12 at 6:31pm
Steve Chisnell Ah, midnight in Delhi and 100 degrees! Gotta love India. Small hang-up with transfers and H1N1 worries. Six hours to solve it, no tro ...
June 13 at 2:32pm
Steve Chisnell Nepal visa secured. I am in Kathmandu! Airport is largely carved wood. Toasty weather: how fast will we acclimate? Foothills on horizon!
June 13 at 11:27pm
Steve Chisnell Jetlagged travelers explored a mountain agricenter and the ancient Patan temple (570 AD). Kathmandu wants to sell me beads and silk!
June 14 at 9:27am
Steve Chisnell All safe; no worries. Maoists shut down the city due to alleged political killing of one of their own. Non-violent protest. More soon.
June 14 at 9:53pm
Steve Chisnell 1st briefing: The banda (shutdown) is planned for 1 day and affects Kath. city trans. only. We are outside zone in Patan. Walking fine.
June 14 at 11:09pm
Steve Chisnell On street. MP and UN convoys only vehicles moving. Checkpoints turn back ambulances. Stores closed; power off. People walking calmly. Quiet.
June 14 at 11:57pm
Steve Chisnell Banda (shutdown) defies my framework to understand. Symbolic discourse--means & end same. Function over form. Who listens? Must go write.
June 15 at 5:44am
Steve Chisnell Late evening in KTM. A few wave and bid us "Namaste" as we walk the dark streets. We talk of teaching under Everest. The banda continues.
June 15 at 11:59am
Steve Chisnell Banda is lifted! We are back into town, Kathmandu U, and the old city!
June 16 at 12:42am
Steve Chisnell Nepal is made of staircases.
June 16 at 8:49am
Steve Chisnell Standing on a dark hill looking north. City sounds distant behind me. A road winds to Tibet 50 miles away. Even in shadows, I see snowcaps.
June 16 at 10:03am
Steve Chisnell The Nepalese wedding which started in our hotel courtyard at 7 last night is still going on, drums ablazing, at 8 this morning!
June 16 at 10:26pm
Steve Chisnell Dinner on a rooftop in the dusty center of Kathmandu. This may be chicken, but it's not too far from the original animal in any case. Hmm.
June 17 at 10:28am
Steve Chisnell Candle lit dinner in a low-ceilinged attic; traditional Newar dance, monkeys fight without, hashish wafts from below.
June 18 at 9:29am
Steve Chisnell The children all wear ties at Little Angels School. They stand together when the teacher enters and recite answers obediently. Hmm!
June 19 at 9:53am
Steve Chisnell Long ride to Pokhara over hills and valleys! Our Peace Corps veteran was honored by his old village after 30 years, life purpose fulfilled.
June 20 at 9:04am
Steve Chisnell Host family in Pokhara! Dr. Khadga C.K. did his PhD in Japan on foreign asst. in bldg democracies. Dusk across Annapurna for rooftop talk...
June 20 at 11:08am
Steve Chisnell First day of school! Excited!
June 20 at 10:43pm
Steve Chisnell Amazing students, all-school welcome! Walked home through Pokhara for 2 hours, last 30 mins. in monsoon rain without umbrella! Power out now
June 21 at 11:16am
Steve Chisnell Teaching 41 10th graders in the sweltering heat. 15'x35' plaster and cement room with kids packed atop one another. Respectful & smiling.
June 22 at 11:29am
Steve Chisnell Night on Lake Fewe. Tommy Tommy and Pink Ape joke are now infecting Nepal. Too much ti write. Maybe a blog soon.
June 23 at 9:27am
Steve Chisnell 2066 in Nepal. Can't find your way home in the dark? "You can stay at my place but you have to step over grandma." Love this place.
June 23 at 11:11am
Steve Chisnell Evening tea & developmental politics with 2 university professors. Pokhara feels distant and we swat mosquitoes in the dark rural shelter.
June 24 at 10:33am
Steve Chisnell No blog entry for now. Students are asking me to stay or for me to take them home. Today they would not let me dismiss them at end of day.
June 24 at 11:14am
Steve Chisnell Another hot day in Pokhara. Sweat is part of wardrobe. Six classes to teach, my host teacher absent second day in a row. No directions! Go!
June 25 at 3:12am
Steve Chisnell At some point we grow accustomed to our own unwashed smells, the absence of toilet paper and electric, the chance of water...At some point.
June 25 at 7:48am
Steve Chisnell Trek to hilltops of Hamsapur tomorrow; will drop out of commun. for a few days: build school, install solar, etc. Here there be tygers...
June 25 at 12:33pm
Steve Chisnell Monsoon rains begin; we're packed on an open Nepali bus with psychedelic flowers; the road winds up. How far can it take us? Signal fades.
June 26 at 1:36am
Steve Chisnell No electric, no water, but 360' view of unspoiled Himalayan foothills, plenty of leeches, an overcrowded stone school, and 4 bars reception!
June 26 at 10:27am
Steve Chisnell 5 hour trek to Leiapani village. Destitution. If it rains again, we must descend through mudslides. But now... Now I know what a mtn is!
June 27 at 9:25am
Steve Chisnell Only two leeches to remove today; I win! We're sitting this evening in total dark after eating fresh-slaughtered goat. Village celebration!
June 27 at 10:49am
Steve Chisnell Roused from bed by villagers who walked for miles after their field work to serenade us with songs of blessing and fortune. Mountain dances!
June 27 at 1:01pm
Steve Chisnell Trek home to Pokhara long and wet, but free of injury--one considerably unsturdy bridge! Tiger cage this morning was still empty, though...!
June 28 at 3:45am
Steve Chisnell Long reflection mtg today after trek. Inspired to help, powerlessness vs. system, noble people. I started a student cncl in hills, I think!
June 28 at 11:31am
Steve Chisnell Ashar Annual Rice Festival in Pokhara! Americans feted with a procession of flowers while the traditional band played for us; much dancing (me, too!)! Then a bout of football with the Nepali men in the rice paddies--the Americans represented! All caked in mud, but I will appear on Nepali News tonight and we will be on a tourist brochure soon! Insane!
June 29 at 6:22am
Steve Chisnell Spent the evening tutoring 2 nieces of my host famly in English & math. Their excitement for learning is like nothing I've seen. Important.
June 29 at 12:06pm
Steve Chisnell Merina gave me a chili pepper and I ate it, and it made me choke. Now I am careful about what she cooks!
June 30 at 9:13am
Steve Chisnell Last update showed my host family's niece how Twitter and Facebook worked! She cooked dinner last night! She now wears a Ravens t-shirt!
June 30 at 12:46pm
Steve Chisnell Late nght cycle ride through rain to a night club in the back streets of Pokhara, an experience not in any brochure, & not what you think!
June 30 at 12:55pm
Steve Chisnell Said good-bye to most of my students today: letters, gifts, photos, hugs--& the main farewell is still tomorrow! I will truly miss them all
July 1 at 9:14am
Steve Chisnell http://www.thikthak.com/g/thumbnails.php?album=76&page=8
July 2 at 8:06am ·
Steve Chisnell Wow. Student ltrs, gifts, dances; farewells to host teacher; tears; to home to find 30 indig. women on porch to play music while I danced!
July 2 at 1:20pm
Steve Chisnell Interact: 2 clubs to build & partner with in Nepal! Power went out & storms rolled in as we danced with local women:"See you in next life."
July 3 at 12:16pm
nepal 3
Steve Chisnell teaching at Step By Step School
July 4 at 8:09am
Steve Chisnell Good-bye to Khagda, Bindhu, Shree, Merina and Muna, my wonderful host family in Pokhara, Nepal.
July 4 at 8:46am
Steve Chisnell Devis Falls, Tibetan rugs, and an evening dinner and music on Fewa Lake with my Nepali friends. Not a bad way to spend the 4th of July!
July 4 at 12:32pm
Steve Chisnell
In this photo:Steve Chisnell
July 5 at 5:51am
Steve Chisnell Bday on a paddleboat on Lake Fewa with great discussion on humanitaranism, tchng and commitments; & "You're the One That I Want" serenade!
July 5 at 10:46am
Steve Chisnell On the long road back to Kathmandu for a week of politics, lesson planning, synthesis!
July 5 at 11:18pm
Steve Chisnell "We have to be close to the temple. Those were Buddhist monkeys and they don't respect women. How do we scare them off? Tasers."
July 7 at 7:40am
Steve Chisnell She stands calmly soaking in the monsoon rain, guarding the lit butter candles with her small umbrella.
July 7 at 8:32am
Steve Chisnell Never let Steve loose in a Nepali bookstore. 3750 rupees in my first visit!
July 7 at 9:52am
Steve Chisnell Our message to US Embassy: re-align US development priorites; send expertise for educ. policy; renew Peace Corps & USAiD literacy plank.
July 8 at 11:12am
Steve Chisnell Met with retired general tonight. Tomorrow morning is a mtg with Prime Minister of Nepal. Like, whoa.
July 8 at 12:08pm
Steve Chisnell Our msg to Prime Minister of Nepal who received us for tea this morning in his home: We love Nepal, we'll teach Nepal, we'll commit to Nepal
July 9 at 3:01am
Steve Chisnell Maybe it was a mistake to eat a pizza in Nepal.... Or maybe it was the PEANUT BUTTER SHAKE!!! Tomorrow is our Everest trip, no kidding!
July 9 at 11:32am
Steve Chisnell Everest & Holy Mountain--pretty spectacular. We were literally at the highest point on the planet! But we didn't get off the plane to stay.
July 10 at 1:36am
Steve Chisnell The dark & narrow warrens of central Kathmandu are no place for a mini-van. We just lifted a thuk-thuk (cab) out of the road to reach food!
July 10 at 9:50am
Steve Chisnell Final dinner in a family home in KTM. If no bandh & if the electricity holds & if the airline does not strike, we depart for Delhi tomorrow.
July 11 at 12:47pm
Steve Chisnell And now, at last, sadly, begins our 34 hour trip home. Namaste, Nepal!
July 12 at 1:32am
Steve Chisnell In Delhi. Over 95 degrees outside, but we're in a first class lounge for the long layover with free food & drink & AC. It's okay, I guess.
July 12 at 8:36am
Steve Chisnell In Amsterdam, we've encountered strange phenomena: things called drinking fountains, toilets, and Cinnabon. Must try these miracles....
July 13 at 12:53am
Steve Chisnell Home again, home again. Jiggedy-jig! So much to catch up on. Re-culturation began w/ a lunch of Patty Melt and Cherry Coke with much ice!
July 13 at 1:55pm