Shades

I had been in Nepal just over a week when I met Sanju. I was in the southern province of Chitwan, in the village Sauraha. Having joined Quest Volunteer at the height of summer, the heat that had been fierce in the mountains around Kathmandu had become near intolerable in the lowlands. Even the natives were complaining that the monsoon rains were late. The streets were empty most of the day; Sauraha revolved around tourism, and in the off-peak season, the village became something of a tropical ghost town. It was still possible to find signs of life though.
Taking a break from the orphanage where I spent the day working, I met Sanju outside a kiosk. He introduced himself as a guide for one of the various travel companies in the neighbourhood where his job was to provide tours of Chitwan National Park. I asked Sanju if he had a lot of time on his hands at the moment. He said yes, but that recently he had been offered to escort a couple through the park to its southern edge, bordering India. Most excursions through the park were day trips. To hike from one end to the other would take at least two days, necessitating camping overnight. Tours in the park are strictly regulated and to stay for so long would risk the fragile ecosystem. Sanju refused to go ahead with their plan. Allegedly, this angered the couple and they flitted between cajoling and threatening him in order to change his mind.
Throughout my trip in Nepal I met many new people, and made several good friends, but rarely did I ever see the expression I saw on Sanju’s face as he told me this story. It was a mix of anger; that the couple could not see why he refused to take them across the park, and of frustration; that he was obliged, so as not to lose his job, to listen patiently to them. For a brief moment I saw behind the benign front of politeness that had coloured my stay in Nepal; saw how my actions might have been interpreted, and I swore to tread more softly in the future.