Monday, March 21, 2016

This morning was spent at the Kathmandu Contemporary Art Center as I was being interviewed by Abhaya Joshi from OnlineKhabar and Smriti Basnet from the Nepali Times. Abhaya had some very good questions and I am looking forward to reading his interpretation of our project. Amriti has come to the lecture earlier in the week and was asking some more questions as she laid the groundwork for her article in the fall. In November, we will be returning to present the project in Siddhartha Gallery and participate in some outreach activities. Any free time Jason and I had between interviews was spent scheduling additional interviews and research for the last few days. I was also able to create a quick drawing in the museum courtyard.

Yesterday was the worst day of The Kathmandu Cough that was caused by the pollution but today was much better. I drank a lot of hot water, lemon juice and honey. It’s a remedy that seems to be on every menu in the area. My wife, Janeil, makes a similar version with a shot of rum which nicely complements the concoction.

The afternoon was spent on documenting two interviews for the documentary and book. The first was Dr. Deep Narayan Shah who is a water quality specialist on the Bagmati River. He is a professor at Kathmandu University and is one of the directors of the Bagmati River Expedition 2015. The Expedition recently completed a comprehensive report on the Bagmati which is the scientific core of our project. The second interview was with Dr. Ram Devi Tachamo Shah. Her specialty is the climate change effects on the Himalayas and their effects on the Bagmati and the Kathmandu Valley. She is also a professor at KU and worked on the Expedition.

Both professionals gave up teaching positions in Europe to return to Nepal  to create positive change in their homeland. They made a difficult decision that has created professional and personal fulfillment while endangering the quality of their own health and that of their child.

After the interviews, we all went out to dinner to further discuss the best ways to disseminate the Expedition’s data through our project so that we could reach the underserved populations who live along the river.