OK, Just One More...

I'll begin this post like a NPR story ;)

I'm sitting here in Kathmandu at one of the coffee places that I've become a frequent guest of, sipping my latte, munching on an omelet, and thinking about the election.  It's hard not to think about it, even in Nepal. My email and message inboxes, and of course my Facebook news feed, are stuffed with comments about the election and about the protests that have followed. I had a hard time sleeping 2 nights ago because my phones kept buzzing and I couldn't figure out how to turn them off. Apparently you all forgot that when it's the middle of the day where you are it's the middle of the night here, and some of us were trying to sleep... ;)

Most of my friends voted for Clinton so most of these messages are filled with despair, anger, rage, and angst. To their credit, my friends who voted for Trump were not boastful or triumphant. A few of them pointed out that they understood because that's how they felt 8 years ago when Obama was elected.

Here in Nepal the election is still the prime topic of conversation.  My colleagues still cannot believe that Trump won, and now they can't believe that there are protests and riots in the streets of America about it.

I can but don't want to believe that there are protests and riots in the streets. It seems like half the country is so mad that they voted for Trump and now the other half is mad because they did. Trump has become a talisman for everything that people believe is wrong with America, either by the promise that he will fix it or by the threat that he will make it worse. I don't know how anyone could govern in those circumstances.

I've been telling my younger colleagues, both here and in the US, that things could be worse, and that this is not the first time there has been so much anger about the presidential election (1968 for example). They only know what they've experienced in their lifetimes so I've tried to give them some assurance from the experience that my grey hairs suggest that I have. I have to say though that it's getting more difficult for me to do this with any degree of conviction when there are people with grey hairs who are more worried than the kids are. I don't want to mention that to my colleagues.

I still have hope that the country I will be coming back to next month will still be the great country that I left, faults and all. I haven't changed my travel plans or put my house in Oakland up for sale (assuming of course that the house is still in one piece when I get back...). As one of my friends told me yesterday, our future is going to be one day at a time. 

Kids on their way to school this morning

Now back to work...