STDs?

It's quite funny to think about how my ideas of Nepal have changed since I arrived. I remember when I first arrived in Kathmandu I was suprised at the inordinate amount of STD clinics there were. It seemed that on every other door a huge sign was painted on the window proclaiming "STD!" and some other words in Nepali that I couldn't read. Wow, I thought, alot of people in Kathmandu must have STDs... interesting considering what a sexually conservative culture it seems to be. At least people with STDs can get readily treated. This idea did not fit with another of my observations... the streets seemed to be littered with hundreds and hundreds of condom wrappers! If people use so many condoms, how in the world do they have so many STDs, I wondered constantly. Oh, the things I have learned!! Since then I have come to realize that the "STD clinics" are actually advertisements for "Standard Telephone Devices." I also have come to learn that the "condom wrappers" are actually small, individual sized servings of a sort of chewing tobacco, also called 'pan' or 'betel.' Haha, how funny it is to think about this now!