Frustrations mounting...

OK, so this blog is officially going to be my venue for a good vent...the last thing one wants to come across is a complain-ey traveler to the fourth world. I mean, I expected everything to be a hassle...maybe I'm a bit hangry right now (i.e. hunger + anger), or maybe I haven't visited enough Buddhist temples. But I'm kind of fuming...

So I've spent the last 2 days trying to get 2 simple tasks done: paying Air India for my flight change, and faxing 5 pages to a program which just had an ophthalmology spot open up for 2010. Sounds pretty simple, yes? Even in the fourth world, such a thing should not take 2 days, no sir...

For someone who is used to accomplishing these in about 3 minutes in the states, here is how its been going.

Starting yesterday, I left work early because none of the computers in the entire hospital are working due to who knows what...I cannot work on the paper, and nobody seems to care that I'm just sitting around. I decide to get other stuff done...I spend several hours on the phone getting re-routed to various Air India offices around the world trying to pay for my flight change. After these 2 hours I am finally told I must pay in person, in Kathmandu. The phone service people where I made the call charge me 4 times the rate, because I'm white...whatever, its been happening the entire time. My host family drives me to the air india office...they do not have power and I must come back tomorrow. Meanwhile, I spend one hour walking to an internet cafe with power, and work on my materials for the ophthy vacancy...pwoer goes out, lose everything. Comes right back a minute later and I work for another 2 hours and get it done, saved on flash drive and print the stuff for faxing.

Now today...host family drives me to Air India office. Over the phone they told me it would cost $125 to change the ticket...I get there and now its $225. I ask, I beg, I PLEAD why are you nearly doubling the price for no apparent reason? You are a major airline, you should not be doing this...even USAir, the airline that charges for WATER would not blindly do this. She cannot give me a good reason, pretends her english is bad. But I want that ticket. So I agree...but they only accept cash. ATM is 10 minute walk down a sketchy road...I go but ATM is not working. Find another one 20 minutes down the road, also not working. Finally find a functional one, get my cash and go pay Air India. Task #1 is done - total of about 6 hours.

Next, I need to fax 5 pages to the US...host family son is nice enough to drive me around town until we find someplace with working electricity. We find one in 15 minutes...go in and I tell the lady this fax is very time-sensitive, very important...this residency program is going to get hundreds of applications and I need mine to be there quick. A fax machine from 1985 slowly gobbles up each page. She says I owe her 200 rupees...seems steep, but I give it to her. I notice there is no transmission report. I ask, "can I have a transmission report, these pages are very important and I need confirmation", with which she replies, "yes, ok." She opens the fax thing and pulls out a piece of paper saying, "ALERT! Transmission error - send again".

I show it to her and she says, "no, its OK, they all say that." I argue, getting frustrated...my buddha companion, bless his passive heart, is not getting involved, noticing the escalation. I tell her, "this is very important, and I already paid you for a fax which didn't go through - either re-send it or give my money back." And she says it'll be another 200 rupees to resend...I'm contemplating things, looking around when I notice a sign saying that faxing one page to the US costs 2 rupees - this should have cost me 10 rupees total...my whiteness bought me a 2,000% inflation rate. I inquire about the sign and she mutters some nonsense...

I demand my money back and she will not budge...I call her a liar and a cheat and point my finger finrmly at her as I say it, hoping the universal language of a good finger-point and a deep and angry sounding voice would resonate...but I don't think she understood. I tried to storm out of the front door but I'm constantly forgetting the pull and push of doors going in and out is reversed in this country - and I smack my face into the dirty plexiglass in front of many perplexed brown people. Now I just finished walking for an hour, clutching my un-transmitted fax papers, and found an internet cafe to blog this...

My next step is to find a functional fax machine and negotiage a price before sending. Today was just a bad day...who knows, maybe I can work on my paper, or not be cheated by some merchant when the sun rises tomorrow. But the noise, dirt, stress and inconviniences we take for granted are all getting to me at this moment, and Kathmandu has got me rather peaved at the moment...I miss the mountains and waterfalls of middle earth, even though the trek was grueling. In the end, the best part of all this is to realize how lucky and priviledged we are, because 97% of the world does not get to enjoy the things we and other developed nations have. Namaste indeed!

It has been 17 days since I've been in Nepal and haven't had the runs.