Hello ,
Greetings from Kathmandu,
Last week I was telling you about my arrival in India, and some auspicious news, you can read about it here.
Since then I have spent a few days working on new ranges of jute and cotton bags, visited the children's home that Ancient Wisdom supports (I'll update you another time, but as usual its was delightful to see the kids and see how they are progressing).
Then Mr Chatterjee (our India agent) and I took the short flight up to the city of Kathmandu to check out Nepalis products, and see if we can find some artisans to work with.
It's off season here, the monsoon means that you don't have great views of the mountains so the trekkers are light on the ground. Been looking for incense suppliers, new singing bowls (lots of Tibetans in exile here) and hemp products.
Going very well, the people are delightful and couldn't be more helpful. It's a mad hectic city, little back street alleyways, temples and traders everywhere, prayer flags strung above roads, and every now and then a glimpse of the distant mountains.
The whole city is still been rebuilt after the terrible earthquake in April 2015, nine thousand people died, and the sense of shock still hangs in the air. If you can stand the upset, then just search on Youtube for CCTV footage of the earthquake, OMG, it's harrowing.
We placed an order with a nice gentleman who has a small factory making hemp products. During the getting to know each other phase we took a tour of the factory to check staff conditions (excellent) and he ask about my family, as you do. And after chatting you reciprocate of course. "I have a son, he said but I lost most of my family in the earthquake", he went on to explain that his family home had collapsed completely, he had been trapped crushed under a fallen wall for two days, finally dragged out by a rescue team and taken to hospital with a crushed shoulder. After a few days when they figured he could walk, they sent him out on his own. He said he lived on the streets with nowhere to go, with rats and terrible smells, looking for his family. "Thank God for the Indian army" he said, "They saved my life". The Indian army came in force and started distributing food and clothes. Also taking anyone who wanted to the airport, where free flights were available to take people to India to be with relatives or friends, no need for ID or passports.
In the last three years he had to rebuild his whole life and business from scratch. Chatterjee and I where in tears by the time he had finished, it's hard to imagine the collective nightmares this city has endured.
Of course tourism is the backbone of the economy here, but almost all the heritage sites that the tourists come to see had been destroyed, or badly damaged. It was realised that the heritage needed restoring (in order to rebuild the tourist economy), and countries from around the world have helped fund restoration projects to get the city back on it's feet. The Austrians have restored completely the walled garden, known as the Garden of Dreams, the China government are restoring the old museum in Durbar Square, the Japanese and Koreans different temples. The French are helping with a cable-car project. The whole world is trying to help it seems, which is heart-warming. Where are the Brits? After all Nepal was part of the British colonies.. but I googled it and we don't seem to be doing anything..
At least we can do our bit by trading, watch this space for new products from Nepal.
Next week I will be in Bali, which has just been effected by another earthquake on the neighbouring island of Lombok.
Tomorrow it's back to India.
It's August, and the heatwave continues.. possibly the hottest day on record in parts of southern Europe and other spots.
So we have HOT HOT HOT deals to celebrate.
Take care & stay cool.
David
