Well, I’ve certainly had a very fully past couple of days. Starting off from last time, the following morning we packed up the entire site to leave, as apparently things left behind usually aren’t there the next time. While that was going on, Piero and I worked on taking pictures of all of the models, which was fairly time consuming. For the main one, the big model, we took it down onto one of the other terraced levels and set it there to take pictures in a more ‘natural’ environment. I tried to get pictures from every angle but I’m sure there’s a couple of angles I didn’t think to get. We also went and took some more pictures of the other models, setting them upon the ledge to get good backgrounds. Unfortunately, halfway through the photo session my camera died (oh no!), but luckily Sushma’s camera also uses the same memory card so I borrowed her camera and stuck my card in it. I must say, my camera takes some pretty good pictures.
The Jyamirkot model
After that there was still a lot to pack up, so I helped do that and also started moving things to the other house to get ready to go. Eventually we got everything to the truck- a quite small pick-up truck. There was a car there and luckily another one at the bottom of the hill. I was so relieved to get into the car, especially after riding in the truck on the way down and listening to the wheel bed make some terrifying noises. The rest of the ride back into the city was fairly uneventful, except for when the tire blew out and we had to stop for a few minutes to change it.
Soon after arriving home I left again to meet with Kashish and discuss my internship, and also how the workshop went. I had already come to the conclusion that Gurukul wasn’t working out, but I didn’t know what to do from there. I knew that I wanted to do something media-related, but I was so frustrated and tired that I couldn’t think clearly to develop a new plan. Eventually we came up with the idea to do some sort of newspaper analysis starting in April 2007.
After that he took me to Martin Chautari, one of the organizations he thought I could work at, to discuss my idea and see if it was a) feasible and b) useful to them. I ended up meeting with Seira Tamang and the head of their research department, who thought that the idea was good but to further develop some research and methodology and send it to them for review, before they said yes or no to having me as an intern. I was actually comforted by this, as it seemed like my current internship just accepted me without actually thinking about it beforehand.
After that, I grabbed a cab to Thamel, as I had a lot of work to do on my computer and I still feel weird about using the internet in Prashant’s room. I was also waiting for an e-mail from Ashmina, to get the workshop notes so I can write the report for Fulbright. I also had a lot of pictures and videos to transfer to my computer. I still have to go through them all, despite my camera dying I still recorded a lot.
As it was getting dark, I grabbed a cab back home and arrived a little bit before dinner. I also got a little bit of a ‘lecture’ from Kaki, as I had come in and then left but didn’t say anything to anyone. That was a little awkward.
Yesterday I had what ended up being my last day at Gurukul. It was good I had things set up with Martin Chautari, because I was ready to walk out anyway. I got there at 10am, before Jeebesh arrived, which seems pretty usual. I sat around and read the newspaper for awhile, but as I was done and everyone around was cleaning and I felt really lazy and unproductive, I went into the building to see if the office was open and maybe Jeebesh had snuck in past me. He hadn’t, and the office was closed, so I just went to sit at the desk by the door to work. This was 11:30am.
I worked on researching the grant, and found everything I needed to help them apply. During that time, someone had walked by and said that Jeebesh wouldn’t be in as he wasn’t in Kathmandu today. WTF. In a good internship this wouldn’t matter as I would be working independently by now, but that definitely wasn’t the case there. As they didn’t have much for me, and the stuff they had was half-formed, I needed someone there to get work from. Eventually I started researching other grant possibilities for them, and dicking around on the internet for awhile.
My computer ended up dying, but luckily I still had a book with me and started reading that. After the first time that I was told Jeebesh was out of town, the artistic director kept telling me, please wait, Jeebesh will be in soon. I ended up finishing my book, and as there was literally nothing else for me to do, I packed up to leave. This was around 3pm. I got upstairs, and looked around one last time for Jeebesh. The artistic director hurried over and said, don’t leave, Jeebesh is coming now! Luckily, he was right as Jebeesh pulled up right then.
After the briefest of apologies (“I’m sorry. Let’s go.”), we headed into the office to start working. I showed him all of the information I had pulled up, and he sent me an e-mail with a document with what he said was info for the grant, or to help me with the grant. Luckily in that time I had gotten a confirmation from Martin Chautari about my internship there, so I wasn’t as mad as possible over the fact that they didn’t really have anything useful to help with the grant application.
Soon after the night’s performance was about to start, so Jeebesh said that I could stay there and keep working, and he would be back (after reminding him that I’ve already seen a performance when he tried to get me to go). I tried not to laugh or cry. At this point I told him about my other internship, and that I would not be coming back to Gurukul. I think it was worse than breaking up with a really clingy boyfriend. He just refused to accept it, and asked when I would be back. I tried saying I wouldn’t and then explained how I couldn’t do anything for Gurukul, and they couldn’t do anything for me. He offered to take me to a street performance outside the city, but I tried to explain that one wouldn’t be enough. He still didn’t get it, and basically said that we could all calm down and talk tomorrow. He left, and then I started packing up (even though I wasn’t looking forward to a walk in the rain home). I went outside and found Jeebesh, and said goodbye and that I wouldn’t be back. Hopefully he’ll get it.
I walked home, which gave me enough time to get ready for going to Martin’s for dinner last night, as his host family had invited us all over. Kashish had Ashok’s car and driver, so he came to pick Keesler and I up to take us over. Especially since I’ve been gone for almost a whole week, it was great to relax and see everyone. Everyone was asking about my field trip. I told Dee I found a new boyfriend and I thought she was going to freak out until I told her the ‘boyfriend’ was a baby. So that was pretty funny.
Martin’s host parents are great, his dad is hilarious. They were a host family for one of last year’s students, so I’m sure they’re used to us by now. Dinner was great, and I had a fantastic time catching up with everyone. Martin’s host dad offered his driver to get us all home, which helped save on a) money for a taxi and b) actually dealing with the taxi. Because I was in the closer group I went second, which also meant I had Kaka calling to find out where I was. I eventually got home, a little later than planned, but it was still a good night.
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