In Kathmandu

Flights took a bit longer due to a delay in our connection at Abu Dhabi but 24 hours after leaving chilly damp Felpham we arrived, with 13 other volunteers, in warm dusty Kathmandu yesterday and are now ensconced in the Pacific Guest House.

The Pacific Guest House, Lainchar, Kathmandu

Unfortunately I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane (when you come and visit us, try to get a left hand window seat) for a decent view of the Himalayas. The glimpse I got of them as we turned to land was not clear enough to get a picture; be patient and I will eventually post one of Everest. Although it was National Democracy Day, which perhaps would have been reason for more demonstrations, there was no obvious sign of the local difficulties at the airport or on the roads in to the city.

Nice room and a pleasant surprise to find an en-suite bathroom although the pleasure of this was slightly spoilt when we found there was no hot water (apparently there is in some of the rooms, some of the time, so look out for news in future postings). We ventured into Thamel, the tourist area, yesterday evening – crossing the road is interesting and noisy – and Sheila was happy to see the number of ethnic textile/clothing shops. We now need to find shops where she can buy these at local as opposed to tourist prices! The temperature dropped from about 20'C during the day to 10' overnight, not as cold as we had expected or it had been a week or to back. Hopefully the thermal long johns I packed may not be needed until December (check out the Kathmandu weather link to the right).

Today has been a free day to allow us to unpack and explore a bit which we did. Deeper into Thamel and then Lazimpat which is the start of the diplomatic and posh hotel area. Found a supermarket that, although not quite in the same league as Tescos, had tinned fish and Aussie wine, that's one major concern dealt with. I also managed to buy a local SIM card for my mobile which once activated in 24 hrs (that's South Asia time though) should mean we can get texts. We start our In-Country Training tomorrow with a visit to the VSO office followed by further briefings (security, health etc) on Wednesday and Thursday before we start language training (scary!) on Friday.

Enough for today, I have to go to our local internet shop and attempt to post this via a very slow dial-up connection. I am typing this on my laptop and hope to be able to take a copy up to the shop and transfer it once I am logged in. If you are reading this I have been successful, if not I am talking to myself (Ed: I think it worked!). Before we left a couple of people asked whether they can reply to these posts. Yes you can, if you are registered with www.blogger.com you can post a comment (it can be seen by everyone so keep it clean) or alternatively send an e-mail to the same addresses we had in the UK.

Tomorrow is the day......

... Ben (our son) is 25! Happy birthday Ben

The first 25 years

Oh and this is our last night at home before leave for Nepal. Our flight is at 1100 and after a couple of hours in transit at Abu Dhabi we arrive in Kathmandu at 0800 on Sunday. Are we ready? Well almost, just got to pack up our laptops and hand baggage and tidy the house and........ Still when the taxi arrives at 0630 tomorrow what isn't done won't get done.

We've said goodbye to lots of friends over the last couple of weeks, thanks for your good wishes. For those we've missed, sorry and goodbye. I was going to do a misty eyed piece about things we'd miss but it's getting late and BT have jumped the gun and cut off my broadband so I am getting in practice for Nepal by using a slow old dial up connection.

I'll do my best to do a post early next week with our first impressions of Kathmandu and, if I can work out how to upload them at an internet cafe, some photos.

Goodbye UK, namaste Nepal.

Happy birthday Ben

"Clashes erupt on Nepal's streets" - BBC News 21-1-06

You may have seen from news reports (see BBC News or, more interesting for us, a VSO volunteer's blog) in the last couple of days that Kathmandu has been a bit lively with demonstrations, curfews and a close down of the phone system. The situation is unlikely to quieten down until at least after municipal elections which are due to be held on 8 February. Despite the increased disruption the VSO local office does not consider volunteers are at risk and more generally advises that foreigners are safe. They closely monitor security and, at this stage, do not see any need to postpone our departure date of 18 February so no let up for us in our packing. We will continue to read the Himalayan Times online every day and I will post again if anything changes.

Unconnected with the political situation, my job with Recovering Nepal has fallen through. Apparently the VSO team in Nepal have got another one lined up and will send me details when their e-mail system is working again.

On a lighter note, I sold my boat yesterday - might be a while before I get to sail again which is my excuse for posting a 2004 picture of my last (and probably last ever) sail in an 18ft skiff.

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

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