I have had the most amazing lesson on Nepali culture over the past few days, best described through the very real experience and metaphor of traffic in Kathmandu, a huge metropolitan area with almost 27 million people. The scene I will describe will sound surreal...I hope to try to capture a video to give you a taste of the experience I have had.
The roads are mostly dirt, sometimes nicely packed and other times with ruts, stones and mud, 2-5 lanes of track (not traffic lanes, remember they are not paved), with cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians all in the mix (few sidewalks or shoulders on the roads). Amazingly enough, the traffic, even though it is bumper to bumper and there are no clear lanes, never stops...there are no road signs, traffic lights, stop signs...only people communicating with one another. In six years, Tae Hun has seen very few accidents. There are no traffic laws, only understandings. You can park where you find a spot or stop to talk with a friend and people will drive around you, assuming that was where you needed to park or who you needed to see.
How do they do it? They have unspoken agreements, including using the horn (never in anger or to move people along, but to tell where you are and your intentions...number of honks matter), hand signals, head signals and respect vehicles that are different size. It is all by cooperation and communication...respecting and sharing the space. The traffic never stops...even as a passenger, you feel like you are in a video game, but you don't fall off the side or run into a wall. It was both exhausting (at times I had to just close my eyes to rest) and exhilarating to me.
Tae Hun went on to explain how the same spirit exists in the culture...even though, overall the city is quite poor (you see people cooking dinner on open fires in the street. most people do not have electricity and the city shuts down by 8 PM), there are no beggars or homeless, very little crime (homes and people are rarely robbed), instead people care for each other and make sure they have what then need.
The beauty of this discovery for me was that it was exactly what I was trying to share with the teachers about education...to move away from the individualism, judgment and control to cooperation, sharing, that would bring about a community of learning, deeper thinking and engagement. I was able to lay aside the western theorists and use the Nepali culture as a metaphor...I could see the teachers' faces light up and bodies relax...and even hear them do this work themselves in creating lesson plans that follow Nepali traffic patterns (posing and solving problems) rather than following the modern objectives/outcomes methods that divide and reduce thinking. We learned from each other.
Tae Hun, my host, graduate student, Director of Covenant Academy and friend of kindred spirit, standing in front of Hessed Cafe (Hebrew word that represents God's love, kindness, grace...) owned by his brother. Tae Hun's entire immediate family have followed him to Nepal, including his brother, wife, nephew and his parents, who together operate this very successful donut shop and cafe.
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| Teachers thinking... |
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| Professor sharing... |
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| Professor learning... |
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| View of 'hills' just outside school gate...'real' mountains (Himalayas) have been behind clouds in the opposite direction. |
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| Very happy professor... |
