Happy New Year! 8 weeks to go.

It looks as if I won't be sittiing around enjoying the scenery whilst Sheila is working - I've been offered a job. It's with Recovering Nepal, a network of current and recovering drug users, and I'll be providing organisational and finance support. The office is in Kathmandu which will probably sway us to live there rather than Bhaktapur (where Sheila's work will be based, about 15km from Kathmandu) but we don't need to make a decision immediately as we will be at a guest house for our first 7 weeks in Nepal whilst we undergo language and local training. We then have 2 weeks living with a village family - scary!

As you probably don't want to hear about our packing and preparing the house for our house-sitters I thought I would give you a brief description of what we can expect when we get there.

Kathmandu (apparently locals abbreviate it to KTM) is the capital of Nepal located in a valley but with the Himalayas close enough to be seen when visibility is good enough.


I like Lonely Planet's description:
Kathmandu is really two cities: a fabled capital of convivial pilgrims and carved rose-brick temples, and a splenetic sprawl smothered in dirt, monkeys, beggars and the pollution of diesel fumes. It simultaneously reeks of history and the wear and tear of increasing modernity.
So it's not quite Shangri-La!

Durbar Square, KTM

Himalayas through the haze

Our VSO rent allowance will hopefully be enough to get us a one bedroom apartment in KTM. It will have electricity and running water although like Delhi there are some disruptions in supply. Sheila will probably need to catch a bus to her work - based on what we have read about traffic there is no question of getting a car - and I might be within cycling distance (for me that's less than 5km). By the sound of it Sheila might not be able to indulge her love of cooking fully - she is currently eating as much seafood as possible because we do not expect to get much, if any, there. We are told to expect a reasonable social life, if a bit quiet as much of KTM is asleep by 9-10pm.

Our departure date is still 18 February so only 8 weeks to go! I'm sure I'll start worrying about the challenge of living and working in Nepal soon but for the moment all I can think about are the projects I have to do before we leave - house maintenance that has waited 15 years, tax returns etc.

I'll post again before we leave if only to say goodbye.

Cheers and happy 2006.
Roshan

Please help VSO continue to train and support volunteers by making a donation at our fundraising page
www.justgiving.com/vsonepal

Going to Nepal with VSO

Barring last minute glitches we are due to start a 27 month Voluntary Service Overseas placement in Nepal on 18 February. Assuming we can get reasonable internet access there, we will try to use this blog to keep our family and friends up to date with our news.

The story so far……….

Having talked about volunteering for years, we finally got round to applying earlier this year. After an interesting (think working as a team to make scrap pads out of newspaper) assessment day Sheila was selected as a volunteer with me tagging along as an “accompanying partner”. The reason for this was that we concluded that Sheila’s skills in children’s education were more useful than mine in venture capital / fund management / bean counting and she was more likely to get a placement than me. After a couple of months and 2 placements that didn’t quite fit, Sheila was offered one as an Education Adviser in Bhaktapur (about 15km east of Kathmandu), Nepal. The job looked a good fit for Sheila and we both thought a city in Nepal was probably the best location we could get – our time in New Delhi would provide some preparation for it and many placements are in rural areas which we are not intrepid enough to cope with. After some due diligence, most usefully e-mails and phone calls with serving volunteers in Nepal, we accepted the placement and that’s pretty much where we are today. I don’t have any placement yet but VSO Nepal have promised to do their best to find me something.

Not sure there will be anything more to add until we get to Nepal but if I get bored over Christmas I might test my skills by adding some photos of Nepal.

Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Cheers
Roshan

Please help VSO continue to train and support volunteers by making a donation at our fundraising page
www.justgiving.com/vsonepal

Cowboys!

This blog was set up and given to us by our children, Josie & Ben, who kindly started it with the most embarassing photo of us they could find + very disrespectful caption. However much it makes me cringe, I guess it would be ungrateful to remove it so it stays. Hopefully we will get some better photos up soon.