Everything You Need Can be Found in MT!
An enforced down day, and much needed.Even with my intermittently absent voice, I call the Visa office, then the bank, but am getting nowhere fast due to dropped connections, and people not calling me back. I am beginning to see why things take longer in India. The shoddy infrastructure permeates the functioning of its society (regular power outages, water stopping at odd hours of the night, lots of people looking important but not doing anything). "In India people never say 'I don't know' ", says Kelsang, "they just make something up if they can't answer your question, because they'll probably never see you again."Of course. Now it makes sense why I couldn't find a pay phone at an international airport. All the people I asked just didn't know, and couldn't say that, so they either told me it didn't exist, or sent me on a wild goose chase.
***
Tagging along with the girls and Kunsang on their grocery run around MT, and the economic part of MT across the overpass, I see that everything you need can be found here. In addition to produce and other goods stands, there are internet cafes, restaurants, guest houses, three Western Unions (good to know since I couldn't find any in the vicinity online), two Nokia shops, chemists (pharmacists), doctors, post service, a recreation area resembling a pub, even a little mall!
Of course, on top of that, this is a Tibetan community, so there is a temple, and monastery, and Tibetan bookshop, where all the Dalai Lama's books, amongst others, can be found in English and Tibetan. Monks in robes roam the narrow alleyways, and can be found in all sectors of MT. The Dalai Lama's photos can be seen in windows, storefronts, and some shops have continual broadcast of his speeches on a television in the back of the store.
There is poverty everywhere mixed in the jumble of things. I have been followed and tugged at by mothers holding babies, homeless people sleep (or are passed out) openly in the middle of the street and have to be stepped over. It seems homeless here is the same everywhere. Substance abuse, mainly alcohol, plays a large part, such that the vending of it is prohibited in this community.
In the evening, Kunsang leads me to one of several wireless access points, and I try to find my way back home through the labyrinth of impossibly narrow alleyways (some are effectively just slits in between buildings just wide enough to allow one person at a time to pass). Naturally I get completely lost, and Kunsang just laughs and says he's excited to see where I'm going to take us. I circle us around for about 15 minutes, becoming more and more turned around, until we emerge at the backside of the camp. Feels like MT's back yard! Cars, rickety tents, and the usual gang of stray dogs are there. I give up. For today! I'll figure it out soon enough.
