Tis the Season

There is a certain excitement in the air these days. The great festival of Dewali is approaching and people are stocking up on ghee lamps and lights to brighten their homes at night, they are buying fruit and walnuts to give in exchange for tikka and blessings given by older sisters, and every once in a while a fire cracker goes off in impatient anticipation for the week of celebration to come.





Yesterday evening I sat by the neighborhood Mandir (hindu temple) where neighbors gathered for the weekly singing and dancing session. They sing songs to different gods with harmonium, tabla, another drum, and chimes. Many people sing along and old women dance and clap with great joy radiating from their faces. The singer, a skinny guy in his 50s probably, has a great voice that effortlessly weaves through complex melodies nuanced with tones foreign but so sweet to my western ear. One song ended with a small chant of oooommmm, oooommmn, ooommm, and then chia (chai tea) was served and people were just really having a great time. Those who tried to leave were forced to stay and drink tea, eat biscuits and shoot the breeze during that auspicious time just following the sunset. I thought of church groups in the States and other communities that get together to sing. I tried to think about how this was different but I cant really say. People in their own neighborhood and culture getting together to make merry.





This morning after the breakfast I went to go play basketball at a court hosted by a library / community center not to far from my house. On the way i passe by the Lama Family fruit stand unusually loaded with goods. As always I was invited to sit offered a banana or papaya. Its hard to say no to such offers, but they come so readily from these great friends that it wasn't too difficult to just sit for a minute and then be on my way. Basketball was alot of fun and I hope to make a habit of it. But school starts again after Tihar, so I will have to figure out the right time to go.



After a few games of 21 with guys ranging from 10 years old to late twenties, i noticed a Community health clinic just there next to the court. In the evening time this court also becomes a bustling bazaar with full layouts of produce on the carpets and people selling right out of their basket outfitted bicycles they ride around yelling what they are carrying- fruit, garlic, ginger, potatoes, maybe milk. The health clinic was closed at the time so i went upstairs where their is a government office that deals with water issues.



There people told the clinic would open in 20 minutes, so I should sit down. I was talking in half Nepali half English with a young Nepali guy who had recently returned from Australia where he is a student of business. He said if the political situation of his country did not improve he would surely take his family there to live. After talking a bit longer I found out that his father had just recently died. His father had diabetes along with high blood pressure and other related health problems. His father had eye problems, kidney problems and leg problems. In the US diabetes is the leading cause of both blindness and limb amputations. Another woman in the office herself had high blood pressure and was worried about a chance of having diabetes. Her husband suffers from the disease. She was very curious about what foods he should be eating because she said their doctor had not said very much about this.

Recently i have been reading a couple different books about diabetes and food. One book called "Syndrome X" claims that the introduction of processed foods in conjunction with a sedentary lifestyle is the cause of insulin resistance. This insulin resistance, caused mostly by overloading the system with simple carbohydrates, then is directly related to a series of symptoms including hypertension (high blood pressure), irregular blood fat levels, obesity, and glucose intolerance all of which induce diabetes and heart disease if not treated by adequate exercise and a diet which the human body is adapted for, namely a diet of unprocessed, unrefined whole foods.

Other books I have read are much more reluctant to even mention the phrases "whole" or "processed" foods. Even books released by The Johns Hopkins medical group or other big names will rather suggest 'counting carbs' regardless of the form of those carbohydrates. In such books diabetes is noted as one of the leading causes heart related illness, but the two issues are still compartmentalized and treated separately. One such book talks alot about the importance of legumes and fiber in the diet and also includes a large recipe section. The recipe for the bean soup is very hard to find and calls for mostly canned or frozen ingredients. Much more prominent in the recipe section of the book are recipes to appease the diabetic sweet tooth. This includes recipes for brownies and cup cakes all of which call for crysco, artificial sweeteners, and processed flours. I cant help but notice how these books might be purposefully trying to depoliticize the issue of health by ignoring the issue of processed foods as harmful.

Meeting diabetics in Nepal is not hard and I think my research has alot of potential to investigate the links between development, change in diet and diabetes. The holiday season is just ending now so I will finally get the chance to meet with professors and doctors to talk about the issues and get some guidance in this research project which weaves together immense fields of medical and social studies.