21st of September, 2011

If Mr. and Mrs. Denmark were to define the word slum they would probably say something like: “It’s a group of poor and criminal people living together in a stinky bunch of shelters made from garbage”. But maybe Mr. and Mrs. Denmark would change their perception and even wanted to redefine the term if they were to live in the slum for one day. My perception was changed.
But back to the beginning of the day. In the morning we had a class with Anjana about slum and adequate houses. The class ended with a debate on the topic “Slum tourism”
Moti gave a short briefing about the slum areas in Kathmandu including the slum where he grew up and still lives.
After lunch some of us went to the city center to buy small gifts to the families we later were going to stay with, besides that we did nothing but waited to take off for the slum.
When we arrived at the slum there were no signs of the man who was going to meet us there so we were put into the community house to wait. We were told that he would show up in 1 ½ hour which meant that we had plenty of time to discover the neighborhood.
1 ½ hour passed and the man didn’t show up. Actually no one showed up so we sat waiting in the community house watching the sun set knowing nothing about what was going to happen later on. Eventually the man and a young English-speaking girl showed up. Now the plan was that we should take a walk around the area with them, eat with the families and then return to stay overnight in the community house.
We went into the slum again and got divided between the families 3 or 2 together or just alone. It was quite obvious that most of the families didn’t know we were coming. I was placed alone with a family consisting of the grandparents, the parents, two sons and plenty of cousins and cousin brothers. The older brother aged 20 was quite good at speaking English so he acted translator when the family kept asking me questions of all different kinds in Nepali. They were very eager to hear about me and Denmark and my purpose of going to Nepal. They were very sweet, and most of the time was spend laughing.
For dinner I was served a plate of dahlbath and I can without lying say that there were rise enough to feed 3 persons on that plate. But I smiled and ate it all. After dinner I was served Nepali wine and asked to play guitar. The neighbor son went to get his guitar. A shining white electric guitar without jack stick amplifier, so there I sat playing something that no one could hear. But they clapped and were very pleased.
Just as I was going to bet I was told that I’d better keep some of my clothes on and zip up my sleeping bag and as soon as the light was turned off I discovered why. The bed I was laying in hosted not only me but a mice family as well. So I lay sweating in my sleeping bag while mice kept running round in the bed and on my sleeping bag. But to my fortune it started raining making the sound of the mice disappear. So there I lay slowly falling to sleep full of rice thinking how well I was treated. Sure my perception of the slum was changed!
/Mads