Tag Archives: bandhas

Peace Corps volunteer safety and security

By Scott Wallick | Published: Feb 24, 2004

The last thing that I wrote about safety and security got my Web site shut down by the Peace Corps Washington, DC, office. Perhaps it’s just a coincident that my predictions (or rather, intelligence collected) about the security situation in the Rautahaut, Bara, and Parsa districts have come true, much to the frustration of the Peace Corps Kathmandu office. Not that it matters. The fact is that we PCVs are ourselves responsible for our safety. How can someone expect someone else to take care of them?

Posted in Nepal, Peace Corps culture, Service | Also tagged Birganj, Hetauda, Kalaiya, Kamal Thapa, Maoists, RNA, safety and security, Simra, Terai life | Comments closed

Closing ceremonies

By Scott Wallick | Published: Feb 1, 2004

I was in Birtamod just after the Thanksgiving trip to Kolkata. I was having lunch with two guys from the Peace Corps office in Washington, DC. They were security. On guy told me that he had been doing, well, military intelligence in Somalia for a several years before retiring and coming to work for the Peace Corps. He told me that when Peace Corps has had to evacuate its volunteers from a country, it’s usually because of families calling the office. Or a senator.

Posted in Close of service, Teacher training | Also tagged ANNISU, Biratnagar, Birtamod, Dharan, Godavari, Kathmandu, Newari, PST, teachers, utpas | Comments closed

Blogging in the Peace Corps

By Scott Wallick | Published: Jan 19, 2004

It was the end of December, and I was coming back to Birganj from Rajbiraj. I had celebrated Christmas for a second time in Rajbiraj and was thinking that this would be the last time I would be there, the last time I would make the trip I had made perhaps ten times before. Last year’s Christmas was, well, difficult.

Posted in Peace Corps culture | Also tagged Birganj, blogging, New Year's, Parsa, Patalayia, Peace Corps, Peace Corps/Samoa, Rajbiraj, safety and security, Simra, Terai life, thulo manches | Comments closed

Still learning

By Scott Wallick | Published: Dec 8, 2003

Things should be simpler. If people can travel to another hemisphere, learn a somewhat obscure second language, eat with their hands, and grow comfortable with the sounds of bombs and gunfire, then surely organizing and executing a basic teacher training with motivated teachers in a scenic location shouldn’t be a problem.

Posted in Peace Corps culture, Teacher training | Also tagged bombs, comedy of errors, complacency, Dharan, Maoists, safety and security, Terai life | Comments closed

Diary of a strike

By Scott Wallick | Published: Sep 20, 2003

After the end of the ceasefire between the Maoists and the government, the Maoists called for a three-day bandha across Nepal. All shops, offices, and schools are to close and all transportation is to halt during a bandha. Bandhas in Birganj are typically not observed, and most shops remain open; however, most transportation pauses since traveling requires passing through areas more closely watched by the Maoists. But the bandha have a more human cost. Let us look closer.

Posted in Birganj, Service | Also tagged agenda, boredom, diary, Himanchal Cabin, Maoists, NGO, Ranighat | Comments closed