2014: The Year of Transportation?

Street in Dhaka

Highway Beautification Project in RI

It’s funny how much transportation has been a common theme in my life this year. First was the organized and detail oriented limited access roadway project in Rhode Island, then the crazy experience of Dhaka traffic and now a more tame, but equally enthralling, Nepal public transportation.

Ring Road, by my home stay 

My family’s home is about a 45 minute walk from the program center, where classes are held. Another student lives across the way, and we have begun our attempts at mastering the local bus. We felt like complete fools/foreigners the first day, as we darted across Ring road and stood there trying to wave down the golden bus that our host parents had told us about. It took several tries, but a few laughs later, we finally found a golden bus that pulled over, seemed to agree that their path was near the right area, and off we went. Success!

In Nepal, I've noticed that public transportation generally have two employees per vehicle - a driver and a doorman/fee collector. The fee collected tends to be younger male and seems to be responsible for maximizing profit - both by yelling the destination of the vehicle out the open door or window and by  encouraging people to take up less room so more passengers can board. Early in the morning, its generally a pretty easy commute, without too many fellow riders. But on the way home, especially from 4 to 6pm, the busses tend to be packed! I wish I could get an adequate photo to capture the experience, but I'm not sure it can translate into a picture. 

An Easy Bus Ride 

The other night I was invited to a small evening gathering on the other side of town. It was so lovely to be thought of/invited and just really nice to have a more “American” night out. It made me miss summer get-together’s at home on the back patio/pool. I couldn’t stay all that long, because I did not want to keep my Nepali family up. My hosts helped arrange a taxi with a reputable driver and off we went. I had great fun practicing my Nepali, which is slowly improving. We were almost home when the driver took what he thought was a short cut and suddenly the road became more broken stairs then paved road. His car stalled in the process, and so I had to jump out and help give the car a few shoves, while he guided the car. The car took a few dings, I hopped back in and off we went again!