bunda

Our house has been without water for 3 days. The city pumps only a little water into our house each day, but not enough for 13 women to live with, even when we all take 5 min showers every other day. We called a water truck—these can come and pump water into the big tank for water under one’s house from its own large tank—but the truck has no fuel. There is almost no petrol to be found in Kathmandu. Buses, taxis, and especially motorcycles line up by the hundreds all around the city, waiting for fuel.

Ke ghardenay?
What to do?

These things are only symptoms of a country in political social turmoil. Nepal gets most of its resources—food, fuel, and many other goods—from India. There are one or two main roads that trucks bring these things in on and currently they are closed. Around here, if people are mad about something they feel the government should change, they hold a bunda (which literally means “closed”) in which they close down the roads by blocking them with buses and cars, until the issue is somehow resolved. Often the government will raise the price of fuel to match the prices in India, but Nepali people often feel the price is too high, so they will close off trading routes until the government lowers the price again. Sometimes bundas will mean there is marching and protesting in the streets as well. There is not a lot of logic put into many of the strikes since often people just get upset for the sake of being upset. However, the people who live in the southern part of Nepal are angry about many things, one of which is not having any representation in Nepali government. They have closed off the trading roads from Indian, causes a shortage of some food and fuel, worse than the normal shortage. The bunda has also cut off buses going to and from the far west of Nepal, leaving some of our trekkers stuck there until they can find a way back.

Elections were supposed to be held last year, but have been rescheduled many times and are currently scheduled for this April. Who knows if anything will go through. However, a big factor of the election is the possibility of the Maoist party taking control of the government. They have a strong presence here and if they can manage to gain control, this would mean communism for Nepal.

It is a very uncertain time in Nepal. No one knows what will happen come April, or whenever the election ends of happening. No one knows if the government will be able to work something out with the people in the south to allow much needed resources to flow into Nepal again. No one knows if the Maoist party will be strong enough to take over. No one knows what would happen to us if they did take over. Nepal needs good leadership—a government that will fight for the people and meet their needs.

Please pray for this time. A few days without water is not the worst that could happen.