Christmas Cards from Nepal

Every year I receive two or three cards from people overseas. The first one was from Nima Dorjee Tamang, one of my former students from when I taught in Nepal. He keeps in touch every year and I have often visited him on my subsequent trips there. His father was a Sherpa, working with various groups of tourists. His work provided a comfortable lifestyle for the family and allowed Nima to attend school. Nima is now running the family Tour Company.

I am planning to time my next trip there to coincide with the opening of the former King's Palace in Kathmandu as a Museum. The King was dethroned in June and has packed up and gone to one of his private residences. Nepal's dramatic election in April has so far come to very little. This confounds the pessimists there and abroad who expected the Maoists to seize control and sweep radical policies into place. It has also bitterly disappointed Nepalis who expected a change of government to bring quick improvements to their lives. Thus far the Maoists have joined in and lead a coalition government that spends all of its energies bickering within and among the parties as leaders maneuver for their own gain, both political and financial. The old Nepali expression, "Different faces, same pockets," remains spot-on.