In Kathmandu, my world is quickly reshaped.
My personal space allotment has been sliced in half, proven by the woman who partially sits on my lap as 17 of us are packed into an 8-person vehicle this morning.
Busy streets of Kathmandu
Conversely, my patience has doubled (but this may still not be enough), whether for elusive internet connections or impossible phone calls. Wireless, where it exists, is low strength, Mac incompatible (how is that possible?!?!), has a new password that no one seems to know, or works—if you call dropping out every 30-40 minutes “working”. They do. Internet is working, sister.
Profit-hungry telecoms have sold more SIM cards than their bandwidth can handle, so mobile phone systems regularly return the phrase, “We’re sorry, the network is currently busy. Please try your call again later.” I do. Twelve times.
Wireless and mobiles feel anachronistically modern in an otherwise outmoded reality. Airport immigration officials still use ledgers and carbon paper instead of computers. At a business, I watch $3500 cash (which stacks up significantly thicker in Nepali rupees) get wrapped in newspaper and carried out the door–more convenient than a check. All public transit stops by 8pm because people rise at dawn and eat dinner at home. I now rise at dawn, too.
When I pick up my passport photos, I discover they’ve digitally lightened my skin–full service photo store. In a country where skin-whitening cream is the top-selling cosmetic for women AND men, everyone would surely like to be a bit lighter in their photos. I glow like a ghost.
Edging past afternoon exhaustion on Day 1, I rapidly settle in to Kathmandu life. The streets are a comfortable chaos, harrowing enough that vehicle bumpers are painted colorfully with “Slow Drive Long Life,” familiar enough that I float easily between cows, cars, and cyclists. I cut through alleys, turn corners on instinct, glide over crumbling up-ended sidewalks, and weave my way through a centuries-old maze. By day’s end, it all feels completely normal and easy. Another world, another me.