Well it feels like monsoon's arrived

Although the weather boffins assured us last week that monsoon would not arrive until 6 June, it feels like it's here. The temperature in Kathmandu after a couple of steaming days in the mid-30's (apologies to my friends in the south who consider anything less than 40' is cool) has dropped a few degrees and we had some pretty heavy rain last night and today. I'm happier with the cooler weather and the rain doesn't really affect me, I have a short walk to work and only a few puddles to dodge. Poor Sheila on the other hand has a mud bath to contend with at the bus stop she normally goes to plus a bit of a walk at the other end. As you've seen from her earlier posts, she does actually enjoy the bus and tuk-tuk rides – most days.

Work for me is currently extremely varied as I'm supporting several colleagues doing completely different things. Today was another example of doing something I could not possibly have envisaged doing 15 months ago. I was sitting on the floor in a room with 12 gay and transgender colleagues, some of whom are HIV+, trying to explain the objectives of the Care & Support (for people living with HIV & AIDS) project that they work for, and how these are going to be achieved and monitored. I did frequently make the point that I really didn't know what I was talking about, I just tried to explain in plain speak (English I'm afraid - my friend, the Project Director, then translated into Nepali) the jargon the development world does love to use. A particular challenge today was trying to describe what positive living counselling meant – my colleagues wanted to know what they had to teach people. I desperately tried to remember what my mother and friends had told me about counselling not being giving people solutions but helping them find their own (is that right?) and ended up giving some waffle about a counsellor not being a teacher but a friend who can listen. Of course my instinct is to fall into the trap of becoming an overnight expert by looking up some website which tells you in 12 easy steps how to become a qualified counsellor. The trap is that my colleagues are very happy to believe that because I am a bideshi (foreigner), I must be an expert on everything. Those that know me well (as a congenital smart-ass) will be surprised to hear that I resist this badge. I feel that part of our job here is to explode the myth that foreigners have all the answers and saying "I don't know" helps achieve this. So ke garne (what to do)? My guess is that our field staff are natural counsellors, they just don’t know that's what they are doing. I'll have to work out how they are going to discover this for themselves.

Another early night missed with both of us doing e-mails. Still it meant I stayed up long enough to find out that Team New Zealand are 4-0 up in the Louis Vitton Cup. C'mon Kiwis, 1 more win and then you've got your chance for revenge on Alinghi.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. Went to Chorbar, a nice village just south of the city, on Saturday. Sheila has promised to do a blog with photos about it.