Well-Being For All

Terry's Travel Log (Blog) ll - Kathmandu

I arrived cramped but well in India. The hour and a half on the ground in Zurich provided a welcomed stretch. My economy hotel was along cab ride west of the airport. The spartan room provided a few hours stretched out in a horizontal position. Comfort is a relative term. The taxi company tried to charge me twice. What a bunch of clowns!

Now I am on the Indian Jet Airways flight to Kathmandu. Wow! Now this is how to run an airline! Air Canada could certainly use a few lessons. Clean cabin and the cleanest washrooms I have ever had on a plane. Efficient. Friendly. A cloth napkin, metal cutlery and a hot meal on a 90 minute flight because it is lunch time! What a novel idea! And there is knee and leg room. Whoever manages this airline has actually flown on it and it shows. No wonder they are turning a profit. I rank them 5 stars with Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Jet Airways, everyone. Actual "Class" at an economy price. (Editor's Note: Nice Plug Terry. We should ask them to sponsor your next trip. LOL)

On to Kathmandu. If you ever fly here, try to get a window seat on the left side of the plane if you are coming from the west and on the right side if you come from the east. The Himalya Mountains are MAGNIFICENT! The wall of mountains are snow covered. They are bright and white standing thousands of feet above the clouds.

World Accord has been funding projects in Nepal since around 1989 or 1990 (if I remember correctly). The first projects were made possible because one donor made a major gift of 10% of his inheritance from his father's estate and that large block of funding allowed World Accord to access a $3 match to every dollar from the Canadian Government. Later projects were funded with regular donations and a long series of grants from the Community of Christ World Hunger Fund. The Canadian Government and CIDA canceled the matching grant program in 1995. A CIDA evaluation in 1997 recommended World Accord increase our funding support to the Nepal and Sri Lankan programs and to even cancel other long term programs in countries like Honduras and Guatemala to give us the extra money. If that evaluator had visited the Central American projects, he would have found what the evaluator there found in 2001. She liked our Partners and the Program, especially Mujeres en Accion , so she recommended we cancel all our Asian programs to provide more money for Central America. World Accord did not accept either recommendation because we knew the other programs and partner agencies were also doing excellent and effective work.

I am excited to see the apparent changes in Nepal, if any. The King voluntarily surrendered power to an elected government in 1990. A civil war spread across the country in 2000. The King was encouraging peace talks to end the conflict when he and his entire Royal Family was assassinated in 2000. His brother was crowned King and he was part of a military crack-down that escalated the violence. Now the rebels have set their arms aside and are seeking to enter the political process. These are exciting days. The SAP-Nepal organizations that are supported by World Accord have played a significant role in the Peace building process.

Now I get to go and hear from the people what the work of SAP-Nepal and World Accord has meant to them - how it has impacted their lives.

We are beginning to descend toward a solid wall of clouds. I can see Mount Everest far above us now. Amazing!! The range of mountains is off to the right of the plane now. We are almost to the clouds. There is one peak sticking just through the clouds just a kilometer or two away off to our right. I get nervous at moments like this. The clouds hide everything from view. Last time I was here just 7 years ago, Kathmandu airport had no radar.

We are on the ground now. After we broke through the clouds, we were over the Kathmandu valley. It is beautiful. And I saw a radar screen revolving off to the right of the airport as we landed. Nice to know!

I must close for now. Until tomorrow.

Terry

posted by World Accord Staff @ 10:08 AM