Not a bad view!

My role has changed a bit in the last month or so and so instead of working in the District Education Office (DEO) in historic city of Bhaktapur I am now working in the Department Of Education (DoE) for the under secretary for Early Childhood Development (ECD).

This is slightly nearer the flat and I can get a staff bus, which makes the journey quicker - although not so good for people watching!

And the office is much more grand!

The department building is probably only about three years old and no broken windows or furniture. I have a new desk and comfy new chair, can share a computer (with flat screen!) and phone, and I’m making some sort of pinboard with photos (good early years practice etc). It even has a canteen on site and lovely view from the balcony on the roof…


Not a bad view is it!


But, more importantly, I am involved in really interesting work, in a team which I was asked to join, planning for early childhood at national level. Early childhood development was one of the Millennium Goals and is the first goal in Nepal's strategic plan. There are strategy documents from 2004 for provision for early childhood education and care but not all has been implemented as yet. Sometimes I help write concept papers to donors, e.g. the production of a piece of film to help with training or, as I am now, helping to prepare training for the core trainers who will then train other early childhood teachers across the country - so It is useful that when back in the UK in July, I was able to bring back here some materials/books to help with this!

I still do not want to get detached from working with children and staff so will also have opportunities to go to settings/centres to monitor and support, hopefully across the country.

However, this week has been a bit on/off workwise as Wednesday was a public holiday this time in respect for those, many of whom were eminent in the conservation field, killed in the helicopter crash in the far east of Nepal over the weekend and now it is the festival of Dashain (the biggest festival here, a bit like Christmas at home when most people return to their families for the week long celebrations) so we’re making the most of a few days off and going on our hols…sort of!

Many of the volunteers are going trekking over the holiday period but Roshan and I plan to just spend a couple of nights over the weekend at a hotel up on the ridge of hills (near to those in the picture above) in a place called Dhulikhel, about an hour and a half bus ride from here (presuming I can work out where we get the right bus from that is!)

So, bye for now and photos and more news on our return to KTM,

Sheila