The morning after we arrived in Kathmandu, we took a taxi to Boudhanath, a Buddhist temple that I mentioned in an earlier post. Getting there, we weaved through lanes of traffic, questioning all of the complaining I have ever done about LA traffic. What should be a two-lane road somehow fit 7 cars across. Our driver slammed on the breaks, stopping just in time to avoid a shower of Orange Fanta’s from the truck in front that surely would have left us in pieces.
Boudhanath
On my first day in Kathmandu, I saw two lepers. We passed the first one in the busy Thamel District, a tourist section of town with beads and handicrafts, where you do your best to try to sidestep shop hawkers and loogie hawkers. After we passed the leper, she followed us for about 20 yards repeating “I have a disease, I have a disease” in her Nepali accent which made her sound like someone from central casting for a horror film. Talk about biblical images, “Unclean, Unclean.” Leprosy is a very curable disease, and the Nepali government offers treatment for it, for free. Either because they are resigned to their lot in life, or because they simply do not know, they don’t seek the treatment. Knowing this makes it more difficult to witness.
Mom and me shopping for necklaces in Durbar Square, Kathmandu
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