I am in a weird place to say the least. I am privileged from a western point of view because I have somehow managed to end up in a situation that a lot of people would love to be in; traveling the world with the safety net of a sabbatical, no attachments and plenty of rupees in my pocket to ensure that I have enough resources for the time being at least. Of course, I am also incredibly privileged from a Nepali point of view. Not only is life here not a struggle for me (although a lot of them havn't seen the bucket loads of sweat it takes to climb a pass here) but I am en-route to several other countries that they have only ever seen on a map. A young unemployed farmer asked me how many countries I had been to ... I reckoned about 15 (not sure) and his eyes lit up with wonder. I asked him the same question and he said he had visited five districts. 'Oh' I said very embarrassed!
It is very easy for somebody from a relatively high income country to travel, not so for somebody from a low-income country it seems. Should somebody want to obtain a foreign visa then they typically need to have enough money in the bank to show that they can survive in that country for a time unassisted. It is just not possible for these people to save that much money, thus, they are stuck in the 'land of no opportunity'. I am simply stuck in the middle it seems.