Final Project Report

Bridges-PRTD

by Pepper Etters
(Bridges 2001 participant; Summiters 2003 field manager)

Project Identification

While deciding what project to undertake, both to fulfill the internship requirement and the larger scope of the Bridges curriculum, I considered multiple options. Originally, I had planned to do a comparative study of the Socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Solu-Khumbu and the Rolwaling Valley. I then would have used this information to propose a plan for responsible tourism development within Rolwaling. However, the more I looked into this subject, the more I realized how much work had been done in the field. It appeared that if I did want to pursue this, it could probably be done without even visiting the field, or with only a few days of observation at most. Therefore, I decided that I needed a different project, or multiple projects.

I agreed before leaving to, at minimum, design a brochure to showcase the valley to tourists and draw independent trekkers to the valley. I also agreed to present a slide show to the anthropology club at CSU. In addition, I proposed the more ambitious project of creating a coffee table book and promotional materials for the valley such as posters, calendars, postcards, t-shirts, and a CD-ROM. However, I realized that if these were to be completed, it would be after both my internship ended and I graduated. For this reason, a great deal of my energy was spent collecting data for the brochure/guide and taking pictures of the valley and is inhabitants.

However, upon reading Jan Sacherer’s 1977 Ph.D. thesis on the valley, I also decided to collect information to help her update and publish a copy this coming summer. So, in addition to the above project, I undertook numerous interviews with this goal in mind.

Later in the trip, a third variable came in to play. The Program Directors asked me to serve as the Field Manager for a climbing school in the valley that we had decided to start. I agreed and therefore undertook this third project.

Back in Kathmandu, as I was creating a poster and its accompanying brochure/guide, it was decided that a brochure was not the ideal format. Not only was its circulation limited, but so was the information that it contained. Instead, we decided to develop it as an additional aspect of the Bridges web site, giving information about the valley, how to get there and what to see once there. At this time, much of the text is complete, but it still needs to be finished, edited and posted on the site. The poster was put up in the Kathmandu Environmental Education Project and Himalayan Explorers Connection offices in Thamel, Kathmandu. This was decided to be the most popular location which trekkers use to gather information about trips in Nepal.

Therefore, my final project was neither final nor a single project. The Climbing school is a work in progress, which will carry on to next spring and beyond. The web guide is unfinished. And the anthropological data awaits integration into Jan’s Thesis and subsequent publication.

Additionally, we have decided to go ahead with the CD-ROM publication this summer, and I have been investigating the publication of the coffee table book and other promotional materials, all of which will showcase my photographs.

In conclusion, my final project was really made up of several separate and unrelated projects consisting of photography, anthropology, the web guide and the climbing school. To date, none have been completed.

Need

Each project fulfils a special need. The web guide, poster, and other promotional material all serve to educate the tourist population, and in particular independent trekkers, about a unique relatively unknown destination in Nepal that has been recently opened to independent trekkers. The real reason behind generating more trekking traffic to and within the valley is to provide an economic benefit to the local population, subsidize their incomes, decrease outmigration and provide incentives and income for further development of locally defined needs. These needs include reliable and clean drinking water sources, waste disposal systems, electricity, health care and education. It is our hope that by encouraging independent and socially responsible tourism within the valley, greater interest and funds to support these projects can be achieved.

The climbing school is another project with similar goals. Many of the adult males in the Rolwaling valley spend a large amount of their time outside the valley working as guides for trekking and mountaineering expeditions. In fact, the valley has over 30 living Everest summiters with a population of only 200 inhabitants! Additionally, a large number of the young females seek work as porters for such expeditions. By bringing a climbing school into the valley, and utilizing local guides, porters, cooks and so forth, we not only increase the economic value of tourism to the valley, but we will provide a means for them to make such an income without leaving the area and therefore cut down on outmigration. Hopefully the climbing school itself, and the publicity it receives, will also generate interest in the valley for independent groups of trekkers and mountaineers.

The academic book, to be published by Jan Sacherer, will finally provide academic information about the unique Rolwaling valley and its inhabitants. Again, it is our hope that this will increase awareness about the valley. More important however, is the fact that it will document the culture and environment of the valley and the change that has occurs over the past 30 years. It can serve as the basis for continued research on the valley itself, Sherpa culture, or even the effects of tourism on native societies.

While each individual project has its own need, they all work together in achieving the greater goal of aiding the local community to reach their own self defined goals through tourism development. In this sense, they are not individual projects at all, but only exist in the context of this larger group oriented goal and project. They coexist with projects defined and carried out by other members such as the creation of a first aid stockpile, hygiene and first aid instruction, hydropower installation, lodge and campsite development, and a tourism information kiosk.

Contribution

As each of these projects falls directly in like with the goals, mission and purpose of the Bridges organization, everything I have done and will do in this regard can be seen as a contribution to the organization itself. This experience has resulted in my becoming employed by the organization, so as I continue my work with them and continue to follow up on these projects, I will continue to aid Bridges in pursuing their goals.

Problems

The biggest problem that I have encountered is the fact that I am currently trying to manage these separate projects. Time also comes into play as a major problem. I have not completed any of the projects yet, but have made several steps in doing so. While it is my priority and responsibility to my advisors at CSU to finish the Web Guide and Slide Show as soon as possible, it is my responsibility and Bridges priority to get the Summiters web site and information organized. Therefore I have conflict of interests between these to projects and I am only now beginning to get them resolved. An additional problem that I encountered is the difficulty in obtaining reliable, accurate data in a timely manner. I discovered interviews to be a difficult though interesting means to obtain information. I also learned of the many inherent problems (and benefits) in this type of research.

Training and Supervision

I did not receive nor give any specific training during my time in Nepal. However, the discussions that we had while on trek in Solu-Khumbu, prior to my stay in Rolwaling, did serve to prepare me and inform me about tourism and how it works and relates to the Himalayas, Nepal and the Sherpas.

Supervision was very loose and we were free to do whatever, whenever, however, we wished (within reason), as long as it was within the scope of Bridge’s defined goals. However, the directors made themselves available at all times for advice, help and guidance. The extent of our involvement and quality of our work was left almost entirely up to us. The directors realized that we paid to get there and had our own motivations for doing so. They saw it best to allow us to accomplish our own goals and do whatever they could to help us do so. On the other hand, Bridges does have its agenda to follow, and some students did get an occasional nudge in the right direction.

Knowledge Gained

The knowledge I gained from this experience far surpasses any amount of words I can put down in a five-page paper. I learned more about working with others, working with other cultures, and working with myself than any amount of traditional schooling could have ever taught me. In the time I spent in Nepal, and the subsequent time spent in India, Thailand and Cambodia, I learned more about myself, life and the direction I would like to go, than I ever have before. On a more worldly level, I was able to apply research techniques and ideas which I had only previously talked about in class, see first hand the potentials and shortcomings of tourism, and finally have the feeling that what I was doing had some purpose other than getting a grade and leading to graduation. I resolved conflicts within my own mind, most important being the conflict between cultural preservation and development or culture change. I realized that culture change and development are natural forces and that preservation is out of place if it inhibits these natural processes. However, I still maintain that a certain degree of preservation is necessary and beneficial, whether it concerns the environment, culture, or something else. On a lighter note, I learned that no matter how long I expect something to take, it will always take longer! I was given the opportunity to learn many of the lessons of life that school cant teach, nor prepare you for, in as an intensive setting as I could possibly imagine.

Conclusions

My project is ongoing, what started as a paid internship/research experience is now quickly becoming a paying job. And I am not doing anything differently; in fact, I am still working on the same projects! By creating the web guide, promotional materials, climbing school, and anthropological academic publication, I hope to positively effect the people and places that I grew to love. I was nervous and skeptical going into the program. I had not yet decided if tourism was a positive force for development, or even if development itself was positive. I fought with my own selfish desires to keep the valley hidden, unknown and untouched, while I knew in my heart that the people themselves wanted change. I also began to realize that if change did not happen, the Sherpas would move to Kathmandu or elsewhere and loose their way of life forever. I soon discovered that the only means to cultural preservation was through development. Development would allow the locals to enjoy modern comforts that they see others taking advantage of, while continuing the lifestyle that they have led for hundreds of years. I saw the least damaging and most responsible means of achieving this development to be tourism. These projects were designed to attract trekkers and thus increase tourism in order to subsidize the development that will eventually lead to enhancing the lives of the local population while maintaining their cultural traditions to the largest extent possible. The gratitude I have for being given this opportunity far surpasses any words that reach my tongue. It was the first step of a path I hope to follow for a long, long time.