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February 11, 2005

American postal workers are illiterate, too

Kuensel, the state newspaper of Bhutan (map), is a particularly enjoyable read because of its frequent articles about daily life in Himalayan mountain villages accessible only by foot. I stumbled across this article about an illiterate mailman recently. Here are highlights:

He makes the trip between the general post office in Thimphu and the community mail office in Lingzhi dungkhag once a month, and some times more.... It takes him eight days of trekking, both ways, over narrow rock-strewn mountain trails – slushy and tricky in summer and slippery and hostile in winter.

One winter, on his way back to Lingzhi, he was caught up in a blizzard. He thought the blizzard would wane in a couple of days and camped in a small roadside cave. But it went on for almost nine days. And he was carrying food to last for only four days. He had to cut down to a meal in two days. “A few more days of the blizzard and I would have died of cold and hunger,” he says.

...

Added to these are the other potential dangers of the wild. He often comes across fresh tiger paw-prints although he has never met one until now. “But bears plenty,” he says with a deadpan nonchalance. “Brown, black, big and small – all kinds.”

...

“Of course the other good thing is I get paid handsomely,” he says and adds, with noticeable pride, that he receives Nu 5,200 [$120] a month. A princely amount compared to the Nu 217 [$5] he got when he reluctantly took the job in January 1976.

... “An illiterate man like me couldn’t have asked for a better life,” the father of five says. Besides the salary his heard of 50 yaks also brings his family a substantial income through chhugo (hardened cheese) and butter.

I like yaks; they're nice enough animals. But their cheese is something else. Yak cheese, called "rock cheese" by westerners, is harder than a Jawbreaker candy with almost no taste, just a hint of dairy. One puts a 2"-long chunk in his mouth, sucks and bites for the next hour, and when his guide isn't looking, removes the rest from his mouth.

(Photo from Kuensel.)

Posted by adrianjo at February 11, 2005 05:26 PM

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