Merry Christmas

As I write this, most of you in the UK will be preparing for your big Christmas lunch (or if you follow our family's tradition, just recovering from a large late breakfast) and those in the southern hemisphere will probably already be asleep after having eaten and drunk too much. We've just finished our Christmas dinner of tandoori chicken (a real rarity for us on our almost veggie diet) and roast potatoes followed by a delicious mini Christmas pud and even some wine. All this leaves me, in proper Christmas style, well and truly stuffed. All I need now is some junk TV to fall asleep in front and it would be a totally traditional Christmas. However as it is distinctly chilly in the flat I think I'll follow normal practice and curl up in bed with a hot water bottle and a book. Back to work tomorrow.

Hope you have/had a great Christmas.

Cheers

Roshan

PINK LETTER DAY!

Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to scrap laws that discriminate against homosexuals – BBC News

Gays, transsexuals ‘normal’ people - Kathmandu Post

SC strikes a blow for gays, lesbians - Himalayan Times

The result of this legal case initiated by Blue Diamond Society is fantastic news and everyone at work is incredibly excited. Although it may take a generation or two to change public attitudes, to have legal backing for equal rights and non-discrimination for LGBTI is a huge step forward and in this judgement Nepal has gone further than many other supposedly liberal countries (thanks to a legacy from the British Raj and a tortuously slow legal system, homosexuality is illegal in India). As front page news, it also raises public awareness which in turn makes it easier for my colleagues to carry out their HIV & AIDS and human rights work. Altogether a good result!

Still a bit of work to do with the media though. One of the papers has a picture of 2 of my transgender (male to female) colleagues with a caption describing them as lesbian.

Never was any good at sending Xmas cards in time so hope you don't mind an electronic one

www.sheilaandroshan.blogspot.com

World AIDS Day 2007

A week late in posting I'm afraid due to problems trying to get the pictures uploaded and into the blog.

A more coordinated World AIDS Day than last year with most of the HIV & AIDS organisations working in Kathmandu getting together for a single rally. This started in the sports stadium at the south end of town - a good place to gather although maybe not appreciated by participants in the Masters (as in veterans) Athletic Championship which was taking place on the track.

The WAD organising committee must have a decent budget this year, enough to hire an elephant to lead the parade.


Our 2 organisations working in the Kathmandu valley each had contingents.






A couple of surreal sights:

I guess he was warming down after his run



It took me a while to work out that the man in the fluffy white suit and cap was probably meant to be Condom Man - he was looking pretty hot by the end of the day. The bearded guy with the story on his night shirt describes himself as "Cleaner of Nepal" (nope, no idea why) and turns up to most big events. Good to see he is HIV aware.

After the obligatory delay for no apparent reason, the parade started and we headed up the road creating a bit of a traffic jam.



We were heading for a park in the centre of town but to maximise exposure the parade took a circuitous route through the market areas - good plan but it did get a little congested.



At one point there was a change of route and the front of the parade doubled back on us. Fine but remember the elephant? It came trotting back down the narrow alley leaving everyone to leap out of the way. My photo of this ended up slightly more close up than was intended.



The elephant leading the way down another alley. That's the driver with his hands up trying to lift the overhead cables up so he doesn't get garotted



Finally got to the park for where the dignitaries were gathered to make speeches. The Prime Minister was meant to be principal guest but, surprise surprise, never arrived.





It was not just dignitaries making speeches, this is my friend Sanjiv addressing the masses. He had short notice that it was going to be him making the speech for Blue Diamond Society and cool as anything he scribbled some notes and gave a confident presentation.



A well attended day with good media coverage. However if I had posted this last Sunday as intended it would have finished with a tirade against donors who on 1 December were bragging about all the HIV & AIDS programmes they are funding despite the fact that a large number of organisations, including us, were still waiting for contracts to be signed for programmes that should have started on 1 November. We finally got the contract signed on Tuesday so you are saved from my mouth frothing rant. Still waiting for the cash of course, that'll take another week or so.

And that was World AIDS Day 2007 in Kathmandu.
Cheers
Roshan

P.S. Looks pretty nasty weather in the UK this weekend. Although it is pretty chilly at nights here now, most days there is bright sunshine with temperatures up to 20'C for a couple of hours.

Thanks to our guest bloggers

I hope the contributions from Josie, Matt and Heather gave an interesting break from my normal drivel. And have you seen the video in Matt's? All the bells and whistles on this site!

Nothing to report really since the visitors left. Sheila helped her boss at a good training for ECD facilitators last week and is off tomorrow to visit a district to see how it is being put into practice. She thinks it might involve an overnight stay so is worrying where they will stay (I think that really means "will there only be squat toilets") and how cold it will be. I'm still churning out spreadsheets to finalise our UNDP project funding. Relations with UNDP are a lot more friendly than last year but the situation is the same; the programme should have started on 1 November and 4 weeks later we still haven't got a contract - cash will take at least another week or 2 after that. Hopefully my colleagues will manage to scrape up enough cash to run some activities on World AIDS Day this Saturday.

Thinking of unreal world that donors work in, I was amused by the following instructions on a World Bank proposal form:

INSTRUCTIONS
1. All questions are mandatory.
2. If you want to leave any question blank, please write NA.

Will stop now before my laptop dies. We have an unscheduled power cut which apparently will last until 5pm (1.5 hours more).

Cheers

Roshan

Guest blog by Heather: Memories

Most annoying: Continual hooting of traffic for no apparent reason.

Most surprising: Ability of battered tempos to carry so many passengers without breaking down.



Most exhausting: Bartering in Thamel.

Most deserving: Declan's boys, who had been living on the streets.




Most exciting: White water rafting.

Most scenic: Deep blue sky and mountains seen at Nagarkot.



Most generous: Thank you Sheila and Roshan so much for putting me up (and putting up with me) for 6 weeks to enable/empower me to experience a small part of Nepal. Loved it!

Guest blog by Matt: Up a mountain, down a valley and over a dead body...

Ok, so I’m no longer in Nepal. Wish I was rather than being back home freezing to death with the happy prospect of work. And yes, I have been nagged to write a guest blog so here, in brief, is a review of my fortnight away…

Trekking: so there we are with our guide and porter venturing forth into the Himalayas. Whilst their names escape me already (Lima? Larma? Darma?) they were very friendly. In fact, they even offered to carry our bags and narrate our journey! How lovely.

As our Nepali and their English was a little restrictive gestures became the main source of communication (not easy when the conversation moves on to discussing Phd in Psychology and the rights and wrongs of Marxist theory). Alas we did manage to gather that, unfortunately, we were told that the weather was the worst it has been since the beginning of time. Not so lovely.

None the less we were assured that some snow-capped mountains lay beyond the thick grey clouds.


Can't completely complain as the poor weather did abate on our way back down and we were left with some really amazing scenery. The landscape in the lower parts of the valley resembled fish scales. It looked really quite surreal.
And yes, I have now got a taste for more trekking - Tibet perhaps?

Kathmandu and Bhaktapur both fantastic: a maze of temples, medieval-like streets, self-assured cows, rubbish and non-stop noise of horns. I particularly enjoyed watching Josie negotiating such items on the busy streets and even more entertaining when dark and using a headtorch to light the way. Needless to say the pavements were vastly inaccessible but quite an adventure!

When off exploring on my own I visited potty-posh-not (Lonely Planet's phonetics??!!) aka Pashupatinath. An ancient Hindu temple, flanked with shadhus, praying temples, burning bodies, cows and beggars. At one point I found myself straddling a dead body, surrounded by mourning family members. Obviously I hadn’t intended to get so familiar with the locals, it was simply a poorly calculated short cut to avoid the wailing family. Apologies!

Obviously there are many more memories; Everest flight, becoming slightly obsessive with prayer wheels at Boudha stupa, Bawarchis veggie and paneer wraps (Mmmm) and so I just want to give a BIG thank you to Sheila and Roshan for allowing me to stay and for arranging so many unforgettable activities. They are both stars. But we knew that anyway!

If not cash, donate some brain power

The FreeRice website I mentioned a couple of posts ago seems popular so I have added a permanent link to it on the right just below the pretty "Going to Nepal" widget (of course you could click that instead and give real cash to VSO so they can keep us in the style we have become accustomed to).

Keep checking for Matt's guest blog. You might have to wait a few more days for Heather's as she is on her way home – the last of our visitors gone leaving us to a cold, lonely winter :-(

Cheers

Roshan

No talk, just pictures

As you've seen from Josie's post, we're back from Pokhara and are enjoying Tihar (Divali) in Kathmandu – the roads may be quiet but the firecrackers (banned by the government but as one of the papers said, not much point making laws if you don't implement them) are very noisy!

A few more photos from Pokhara.

Watch out North Sails, you have competition

A limited view of the boat I took out but you get the idea what it was like

Cows wander freely round Pokhara which, as Josie discovered, you need to watch wear you tread. Interestingly despite there being plenty of vegetation around we saw a couple of cows really tucking into cardboard boxes – a really good recycling solution.

In Kathmandu yesterday we got up early and met one of my colleagues at Durbar Square to watch a Nepali New Year procession. Colourful and noisy!

The intrepid trekkers got home yesterday. The weather wasn't so good for much of the trip but they have got some great photos, I'll let Josie nag them into doing a guest blog.

Another early start tomorrow to go on an Everest flight – hopefully it will be nice and clear first thing.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. You may already have seen this in the news. A website that checks how good your word knowledge is and donates to the World Food Programme for every correct answer (www.FreeRice.com). Be warned it starts easy and gets tougher quite quickly.

P.P.S. Couldn't resist taking a picture of the dashboard of a coach I was on a couple of weeks ago. Nepali roads really get the nodding dogs working.

Guest blog by Josie: We're all going on a November holiday…

OK, as I nag S&R to update this regularly I couldn't really refuse to do my own guest entry!

Now back in KTM following a relaxing few days in the lakeside tourist resort, Pokhara.

Most days spent pottering up and down the main street (avoiding pot holes and cow dung where possible), chattering to fascinated locals who wanted to know how my wheelchair works ("batteries, like car") and tucking into yummy grub (thanks in particular to hospitality of all at Mike's - best brownies by far Mmmmm!). Well I am on my holidays after all!!!

Not a bad spot to stay, Hotel Fewa is right by the water (my usual sunny morning spot to sit with cuppa was just above the man in white shirt on left).

View from the lake (taken by Roshan whilst messing about on a boat!)

However, weather not too kind to us - too overcast for decent spot of the snowcapped mountains. A brief peak of a peak was all I got and even that wasn't as good as this photo mum got…

Alas, should have been like this…
Annapurna mountain range - views from Pokhara seen by Sheila during work visit in Sept

Hopefully cloud cover and mist has shifted enough over last 48hrs or so for Matt and Heather to get a good look. They embarked on a 5 day trek up to first significant spot on Annapurna Circuit, Poon Hill - left at 7am on Tues with guide and porter, walking approx. 10km a day and dossing at teahouses along the way. All being well we expect them to arrive back in KTM c/o bus on Sunday and news of their adventures to follow…

As well as devouring a good book or two whilst sitting beside the lake (Phewa) it was great to watch the local life going on, especially the daily routine of kids coming across the water to and from school. In the mornings they are noticeably more conscious of time but on their homeward punts are far more leisurely and two or three boats full of girls gather mid-lake and seem to float home alongside each other as they focus more on chatter than getting to the other side!

On the way to school…

Now back in Kathmandu it is clearly festival time as bright and glittery decorations and garland for sale decorate shop fronts and firecrackers going off regularly in streets. Four days of celebrations has started, worshipping crows yesterday and dogs today - lucky old Whisky the mutt from upstairs got tikka'd this morning (could this have been something to do with him sitting so quietly beside me - S&R never seen him so well behaved!)

So happy Tihar (festival of lights aka Diwali) and er, Ben please note that Sunday it is time for brothers and sisters to show their love and respect for one another. We may have to do it from afar but I'm quite happy with an IOU: "sisters offer small gifts of fruit and sweets to their brothers while the brothers give their sisters money in return". So dear baby bro I look forward to my return, as I am sure you do too!

More news from dad and the trekking twosome in the near future I expect (and will insist upon!), in the meantime Namaste from me, Josie x

Visitors

Josie and Matt arrived safe and sound this afternoon. Lots of goodies!

Condom Day here tomorrow so if they are up in time I'll take them down to meet my BDS friends.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. Re the earthquake, I got a mail from someone called Roshan in California where they had a 5.9 earthquake the same day as we did. He found my blog when googling "Roshan" and "earthquake" – spooky eh?

We had an earthquake!

THT Online Kathmandu, October 29 - Kathmandu was rocked by a tremor measuring 5 on the richter scale this afternoon at about 3.35 pm. The tremor lasted just a few seconds rattling walls and windows and forced people to come out of their homes and offices. According to Department of Seismology the tremor measuring 5 on the richter scale had its epicentre in Sharamthali VDC of Nuwakot district.

It was literally just for seconds and I didn't even have time to dive under the table as instructed in our earthquake training. No sign of any buildings being damaged and the flowerpots resting on the balcony of the house opposite are still there. I guess from the news item above that there have been no injuries or damage.

And whilst I'm online, and before I get inundated with e-mails giving advice :-), I can reassure you that I do not have a detached top rib, I have costocondritis, an inflammation of the costal cartilage. Unfortunately to find this out I had to break my record of not having visited the doctor since arriving in Nepal, bummer I thought I might make it all the way.

Cheers
Roshan

Petrol and politics

Well they've finally done it, fuel prices have been increased. From an economics point of view it was inevitable, shame the politicians haven't learnt the democratic way of doing things with the result that there have been a couple of demonstrations, maybe more to come. The decision appears to have been reached in private between the normal huddle of politicians with no proper cabinet discussion to bring all the parties together on this issue let alone the opportunity of a debate in parliament (its members may not have been democratically elected but at least an open debate would give the impression of transparency). There are quotes in the press that the decision was made because some politicians own petrol pumps – it seems easy to convince the public that all decisions are made for corrupt reasons. I think the more likely explanation is that India just refused to supply more oil until they got paid. This would not go down well with those in Nepal who are paranoid that India pulls the strings of the Prime Minister but at least it is better than leaving the general public thinking it is all about corruption. Apart from groups who wish to make political capital about this decision, the general public reaction seems to be that the price rises (in addition to petrol and diesel, kerosene and gas which are used for cooking have gone up by 20%) are acceptable provided it means supplies are now available; they have been paying these prices on the blackmarket anyway in the last few months. So the real test will be whether the notoriously inefficient (other descriptions are sometimes used but I could not possibly comment) Nepal Oil Corporation can get supplies moving again so people don't have to queue and/or pay blackmarket prices.

On the wider political front, it is deja vue all over again. The Maoists were persuaded to postpone the special sitting of parliament they had demanded until after the Dashain festival so we now have this tomorrow. It seems unlikely that their resolutions to declare a republic and change the voting system will be agreed and it remains to be seen what action they will take if they aren't. With conditions in the mountainous areas making elections impractical during the winter months I am now starting to doubt that elections will be held before we leave in May next year – failure to hold elections and Constituent Assemblies have been a major part of Nepal's 50 year journey towards democracy so the current situation is not new.

Sheila and Heather have been doing some sightseeing over the holiday period but I've mainly stayed at home nursing aches and pains in my neck, back, chest, arms…. I think these are a reaction to what appears to be a detached top rib, I can't remember doing anything to cause this but it is sticking out a bit and is slightly tender. I suppose I ought to break my duck and go to the doctors about it but thinking how useless the medical profession was when I broke a rib 15 years ago, I'm not sure what they can do. I'll give it a couple more days and see if it magically pops back into place. Any of you out there with experience or advice on this?

Should be back to normal tomorrow, I was in the office Thursday and Friday but not many colleagues were. Then with Josie and Matt who arrive on Friday we are off to Pokhara next Sunday. Fingers crossed for nice weather so Josie can get some sunshine and see the mountains. Its been beautiful during the days here for the last week or so although it is getting noticeably chillier at night.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. I did stay awake to watch the Rugby Final – credit to England for playing way better than looked possible a month ago, shame no tries though.

Out and about over Dasain

Holiday from offices for the Dasain festival has given us time to get out of city and into the Kathmandu valley. Heather is here with us although had a slightly scary introduction to Nepal arriving early through from custom hall to the sea of hopeful porters and taxi drivers and no sign of us.

Travelling out of city on full buses on outgoing journeys

An everyday dashboard garden or specially for Dasain?

Still quite empty but we hadn't left the bus park and plenty more came on.

Some so full inside and on top they wouldn’t even take more locals and led Heather and I to have a 10 km walk returning home, but mostly down hill and great views.

Sunrise at Dhulikel

View from Budhanilkantha

Walk home from Pharping

Dancers in Patan entertain locals and tourists

Love
Sheila

More ECD

Nepal has targets for provision for large expansion of centres and pre primary classes to meet the Education For All goals, but wide expansion of enrolment does not ensure quality. In the last couple of months, much of the work in our department with the ECD network is beginning to build a picture of provision across the country.

For me a trip to Pokhara gave me 5 days to look at school and community based centres and to talk with another volunteer about provision in villages that she had reached by bus and then a steep all day walk.

Whilst in Pokhara I stayed at a guest house, whose owner works towards improving early ECD in the locality. With the help of sponsorship and donations, www.butterflyfoundation.org

has established and fully covers costs of one centre, and also supports several others in the locality.


A week later I went to Kavre , east of Kathmandu. After a 2 hour drive, which included the 4 by 4 being stuck (this is not my usual method of travel but we were with a prospective donor) and having to reverse some way out of the mud and back down the hill (we walked ), we saw 2 school based centres then a walk across a field and up a narrow muddy track before we reached another centre. This was in a small community in an old Newari building close to a tiny temple. The children were not used to so many visitors and at first sat and watched us.This centre had been set up with small advance from the district education office and some training from an NGO. It is now run and financed by the local community, families who can pay something between them make up 600rps adding to the government 1,000 so that the 2 staff share 1,600rps (£12) a month between them.

Here, for my first time in Nepal, I was able to see some planning for individual childrens learning and the material is shared with parents and families! This is a centre that we would like to use as an example of good practice both for the community involvement and the quality provision for children's learning but it is not easy to access. But maybe we'll consider video.

Love to all
Sheila

Busy day, still not over

Ooer, that wasn't meant to happen, just got back from watching England beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarters. My England supporting friends (not sure I have any others when it comes to this match) will gloat at the fact that I was expecting and supporting Australia to win and I won't even try giving any excuses. England's scrummaging meant they controlled and even if the backs showed no sign of scoring a try, good 'ol Jonny kicked them to victory. It has spurred me to stay up and watch All Blacks v France (k.o. 0045 our time) in the hope of seeing some classy back play and some tries.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with the title of this post. It has been a busy day, with me leaving the house at 5:45 am to get to the Kathmandu Marathon. No, don't be stupid of course I wasn't running even in the 5km event. VSO had encouraged all the organisations we work with to enter runners and mine had entered 7 runners in the 10km and 5km events. A large number of volunteers were also running including a couple in the full marathon. Cycled down to start area to meet my colleagues at 6am which is when the full marathon was meant to start and then stood around for 75 mins before it finally did. The other events followed shortly afterwards and I cycled the 5km course to support my BDS friends. After last week's miserable quite chilly and very wet Saturday, today was gloriously sunny and hot – great provided you weren't running or cycling. Hung around the stadium to take photos as various volunteer friends completed 10km and half marathon before setting off on the bike again to find our by now lone representative in the full marathon (the other one who started the full took the wrong turn so ended up on the half instead). We did find him after another 5km bike ride on a, by then, busy and very hot road with a nasty long uphill bit. Then back to the stadium to clap him in and take more pictures. By that time it was nearly midday, so straight off to the VSO annual picnic (I think the Country Director who had run the half marathon was starting to regret having this on the same day). The good news was that this was only a short bike ride from the stadium. A fun, despite being non-alcoholic, picnic before cycling back home in Saturday afternoon shopping rush hour traffic. There was then just time to grab a shower and check e-mail before trotting off the British Embassy club to watch rugby and enjoy sausage, egg and chips. I know you serious cyclist's knock off 20 miles before breakfast but for me this is the most cycling I've done in a day (total probably 20km) since we've been here and remember I have an old clunker of a bike. I did think when cycling home that 18 months ago I thought I was risking life and limb on roads here where everyone weaves in and out – now as I do the same myself I think how dangerous the British roads are going to be if I don't revert to Bicycle Proficiency Test standards as soon as I get back. How easy it is to get used to different norms.

Before giving political news and views, some photos of the marathon:

The Blue Diamond Society team before….

…and some of us after

I think he was pleased to see the tape

Right, politics. The elections to the Constituent Assembly due on 22 November have been postponed as the parties can't agree to various Maoist pre-conditions. These elections are a key plank of the Peace Agreement signed almost a year ago so it is not good news. It is not clear what happens now; a special sitting of Parliament (don't be misled, it is not a democratically elected body) on 11 Oct may make things clearer but is more likely to be used by all sides to deflect the blame for causing this situation. We had a security briefing by an expert yesterday and he is not optimistic that the politics can be settled in a transparent democratic way but they might be by murky deals between the parties done in private. Certainly Nepal's politicians have more experience of the latter. However having raised Nepali's hopes of a New Nepal this may not be an acceptable solution for the various minority groups (new ones popping up all the time) round the country. This is unlikely to have any security implications in Kathmandu but in other areas, as I have said before, there is little control by the security forces so the local groups and their criminal friends get away with violence which begets more violence. As long as the Maoists still keep their soldiers in the UN monitored camps, the Peace Agreement still has life but is fairly meaningless if other groups are the ones closing down parts of the country with their protests. If the Maoist soldiers start drifting out camps because they haven't been paid there is the risk that they will join other groups to fight because that’s what they know how to do. Maybe things will become clearer this week and maybe, with festival season almost here, everything will just bumble along for a couple of months with no resolution. We are happy that Kathmandu remains safe but it seems inevitable that we will see more disruption making work, at least for Sheila, very difficult. Add to that the petrol crisis which could deepen if the Indian government, which is not impressed by this turn of events, becomes less inclined to continue supplying fuel that they don't get paid for and you have a mess. However Nepal is adept at getting out of messes or at least lurching from one to another, so one has to remain hopeful.

An hour to kick off and I'm struggling to stay awake so I'll upload this and have a little nap that might turn into a long one.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. The idea of VSO Nepal's participation in the marathon was to raise funds for the organisations we work for so if you fancy giving, go to www.smallenergy.com