SPAM

No this is not junk mail, it is my favourite new acronym. You may have read that talks between the government and Maoists ended succesfully last week with the announcement that, amongst other positive steps towards democracy, an interim government was going to be formed which would include Maoists representatives. Now the current government is made up of a coalition of 7 parties referred to as the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) so when joined by the Maoists they obviously become SPAM!

Apart from that little gem, not much to add. Sheila has had a fluey bug for the last couple of days but is battling through this to produce training materials and plans for an ECD workshop next week. She has been heartened by a UNESCO report last week which highlighted the importance of ECD in the global Education For All programme - it's not just playing with toddlers! New volunteers arrived last week so we are no longer the newbies. After a period of progressively reducing rural placements due to security situation it is good that most of the new batch will be heading out of Kathmandu once they have finished their in-country training. The volunteers living and working in rural areas help remind us what a spoilt life we have in Kathmandu.

Finally I've been told to add this great picture of Ben to show that it wasn't just sadhus he made friends with when he was here.


Other news from last week - I collected my new (used) ladies bike (thanks Rohini and Migyoung) last weekend. Will try to remember to take a photo to post next week.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. England v Argentina - what can I say?!