A Visit to Another World

19 years ago I made my first trip to Nepal. The meeting with the friendly Nepalese people, the nature and culture had a great impact on me and more visits were to follow during the 90's. 16 years later I returned to a world very different from my own and yet very familiar.

In the southern lowlands of Nepal, Chitwan National Park is bordering India and here lies the small village of Sauraha where I have spent most of my time in the beautiful country. On my first trip here in 1994 I met with a young, enthusiastic and knowledgeable jungle guide, who spoke good English. His name was Harka Kumal and we spent a few days in the rainforest together, looking for tigers and rhinos. Born inside the park Harka knew every path through the elephant grass and muddy swamps making it a very exiting jungle walk for me.

Since that first meeting 19 years ago I have been able to stay in regular contact with Harka, his wife and three kids. I soon realized that they led a hard life under difficult conditions.  Back in Sweden I pondered over what I could do to create a sustainable life for the Kumal family without making them dependent of me. One year later we jointly succeeded to buy a small piece of land on safe distance from the river to avoid flooding during the monsoon. A small hut and a water pump was included in the buy. The new land strip formed the foundation for their future. Now they could grow vegetables and spices on their own garden plot. The year after, we built a new and strong house in traditional Tharu style from elephant grass and mud. Steel plates were used for the roof instead of grass, to keep the house dry during the rainy season.

Now 16 years have passed since my last visit to Sauraha and many things have happened. Very bad years followed in Nepal during the Maoist insurgency. Ordinary people were kept in terror and the all-important tourist industry plunged. Those days are long gone and life has returned to normal in Nepal. Sauraha has now electricity, mobile phones and Internet. I returned to the village with great exitement and a bit of tension in the end of October 2013. Would I recognize the village any longer? How would it feel to meet the Kumal family after so many years? Surely, the village has changed and developed. Many more hotels, shops and trekking agencies have popped up along the dusty street. Oxcarts and elephants are accompanied by noisy cars and motorbikes. But only a few minutes' walk away, you still find yourself in the middle of the paddy fields and traditional Tharu houses. Life goes quietly on as it always has. Goats, chicken and ducks in the street. Only a few satellite dishes on the roofs reveal the modern age.

The first meeting with the Kumal family was emotional and filled with great happiness. Harka, his wife Jyanti, their two daughters Samsana and Kalpana and their son Suresh gave me a hearty welcome to their home. 16 years suddenly felt a short time. We soon catched up where we once ended - our own wrinkles the only way to tell the difference. I had only met the kids while they were still very small. Now they are fully grown. They are doing well in school and are now in 10th and 11th grade. 

Suresh is an enthusiastic and talented football player, scoring well in the local team. Zlatan is of course the great idol! You can easily imagine that the Swedish Football Federation t-shirt I brought got very popular. In addition to football, a great interest for computers dominates and Suresh keeps our Facebook conversation going.

The family lives on the income from Harka's work as a well-reputed jungle guide and Jyanti cooking and selling lunch to the kids in the near-by village school. Growing vegetables in the garden is still important to keep the household going. I am enormously happy to see that my dear Nepalese friends are doing well. The project we once started together 19 years ago - to create a sustainable life and make the kids go to school - has succeeded!

After spending five memorable days together it was finally time to say good-bye. We jointly planted a mango tree in the garden, while the neighboring kids curiously watched us. It will grow big and give delicious fruits in three years. I hope to come back and taste it!

I want to say thank you Harka, Jyanti, Samsana, Kalpana and Suresh for a memorable time and your enormous hospitality! I am proud to be part of your family.

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