Forum (Spotlight Weekly)

'Paths Are Made By Walking'

By ELOISA HAGEN-MELO

When we got off the plane coming from Bangkok in July 1998, a warm, dry air gently touched our tired faces. A bright radiant sun illuminated the surroundings. I firmly took one hand of my child (10 years old), smiled, and began to walk, remembering the words of Antonio Machado:

"Traveller, there is no path,

paths are made by walking."

Kathmandu, the mythic city opened actively and with fullness of life. Here roaming hairdressers, there wandering tailors, simple fruit stands, and women wrapped in red saris, walking the streets as if they were queens. An overwhelming picture indeed!

The time which dissolves in Salvatore Dali's paintings, started to occupy my daily life. The school of my son, the absorbing work of my husband, and I, dispossessed of my job as a teacher, searched to gain a new role. The poetry of Baudelaire always has left me open with questions, and here in Kathmandu I aimed to read his words again. One early morning, when the monsoon was taking its rest, I ventured into the city in search for help at the Alliance Francaise. The students, most Nepalese, young as my students in Switzerland, generously ignored my age, and quickly accepted me as their new classmate. In one of my trips through the city, I crossed paths with a young man, a violin under his arm. I was enchanted, for weeks I was looking for a violin teacher for my son. At that moment I forgot all the chaotic traffic, and ran desperately after the musician, shouting in front of these peaceful people:

"Hello! Hello!" until I reached the violinist, who, scared by my shouts, had † begun walking faster.

"Are you a violinist?" I asked.

With big Nepalese eyes he responded "Chaina English".

Panicking, I quickly looked around, so asking for help, until a young man showed compassion and was willing to act as a translator. I could contact his teacher, a Frenchmen, who had been a member of the Paris Symphony Orchestra, and who now was searching for the tracks of the yeti. My child could continue his lessons, and four months later we enjoyed a small concert of classical music, to celebrate Christmas.

After vacation throughout the Americas, we returned to the Himalayas. I tried now to combine learning French with teaching Spanish. I must admit, the most grateful hours in Nepal I enjoyed at the Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, with my students, a group of young men interested not only in the language and culture of Cervantes, but also in Spanish football and Cuban music. They gave the impression of wanting to know it all.

The path was being made. The daily chores of life appeared easy with the help of my Sherpa friend who came from the Khumbu-mountains to learn French in the Valley. Through all the years we continued to go to the Alliance Francaise together, nearly every day, motivating each other.

Daily life went by like a tranquil river, until the trauma came. The 1st of June in 2001 we awoke to the news of the massacre of the royal family: the King, the Queen and other members dead, and now, two years later, I still do not understand.

Today, almost five years after our arrival another King is on the throne, the young multiparty democracy is trying to consolidate itself, the Maoist have agreed to a cease-fire, and together with members of the government are trying to bring peace to the nation.

Just a few days ago, the world media was talking about the 50th anniversary of the first ascent to the summit of Sagarmatha, the magic mountain that the whole world knows as Everest. Five parliamentary parties have taken to the streets. The new prime minister received the task to reach consensus, to pursue peace talks and eventually hold elections.

And we the Hagens are no longer the same. My son is soon celebrating his 15th birthday, and my husband has accepted an invitation from Count Dracula to join in a dance of vampires. And myself, going through bitter sweet adieus, start again:

"Traveller, there is no path,

paths are made by walking."

(Ms. Eloisa Hagen-Melo is the wife of Mr. Anton Hagen, Counsellor and Resident Coordinator of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The Hagen couple recently left Nepal after completing their tenure here)