5. Nepal: Children

Once we left Kathmandu, seeing the children and the way the go about their day would qualify as my greatest culture shock. It took me several days on the trail to get used to the notion that I would encounter children with no parents in sight.

On the bus from Kathmandu the driver picked up an eight year old girl. He obviously knew her. With a lot of confidence and ease she spent eight hours with nearly forty strangers. The locals took care of her like people take care of their tennis rackets or running shoes. There was no one sitting by her side entertaining her. However they made sure that she had a place to sit and food to eat.

This casual approach towards kids initially surprised me. As days passed, I found that the kids here are growing up in a very different way. They are not taught phonics and reading before they reach first grade; they are not carted from swimming lessons to drawing lessons to gym classes; they are not taken to the library to pick various books or educational DVDs; no one is pointing out interesting flora and fauna by the side of the road to them.

They look at strangers and approach them fearlessly. They are not told to stay far away from strangers. It was nice to see that people were assumed to be decent, unlike here where a stranger is a sick wierdo unless proven otherwise. That they beg for pens, candy and money is another matter. The rest of the time, the kids are running around playing with other kids. While they are not learning the alphabet and math, they are learning critical social skills. They are figuring their strengths and weaknesses. They are figuring out which fights they should get into and the fights they should stay away from. They are learning how to evaluate people and how to choose friends. They figure out how to make rules when there are none. They learn to invent games and keep themselves busy.

The kids by and large were poorly clothed and very dirty. As we went higher up they got dirtier. There is no shortage of water but basic sanitation is lacking. I don't know about mortality rates and general health conditions. But it is pretty clear that most of these kids are none the worse for all the snot, dirt and bruises they carry on themselves. This is probably where the fittest are still the ones to surive.