Nagi Gompa

We are going to miss Natasha when she leaves. Natasha works with HI. I am taking over her job when she leaves on Wednesday; well, officially I will take it over in January but as she is leaving this week I will assume some of the responsibilities while still doing my current job. Tash has been a good friend and toddler carrier since we arrived. She hasn't hesitated to walk with us up and down hills, to the European Bakery, through Thamel during Tihar, and she even did more than her share of vomit cleanup during that holiday.



Today (Sunday) Toby, Noa, Natasha, Bjorn and I walked north from her house to Budanilkantha and beyond, into Shivapuri National Park. Apparently there are leopards there but we didn't see any. We climbed up to Nagi Gompa, a Buddhist monastery and retreat where we had a picnic lunch watching the sun finally fight its way through the clouds. We walked down through the forest and onto a ridge to the east of the city, then down into residential areas and back to the main road. It felt good to move and to breathe fresh air. I felt ready to head back into the office for Monday.

The weather is definitely getting colder here. This morning I poked my nose out from under the covers and felt the different temperature. And the butter just isn't soft in the morning now. Toby and Noa don't seem to notice the cold but today I saw goosebumps on Toby's legs as we were walking. In the midday sun it might still reach 20 C but evenings require fleece. I understand that we will hold meetings outside in the winter because it is warmer than inside, and I can already imagine that: my office doesn't get a lot of sun and my fingers become quite cold when I sit for while at the computer.

I will keep this short as I am never sure how long the internet connection will last. Hope you are all well. Love Chris, Toby and Noa

Welcome to Dadeldhura!

Namaste,
Just a quick note to accompany more photos! Two weeks ago I went on a field visit to a district called Dadeldhura, in the Far West region of Nepal. Prajwal and I flew from Kathmandu to Danghadi and then drove north for 4 hours climbing from the plains of the Terai into the hills on a winding road dotted with landslides. Yes, I threw up when we arrived at our destination of Amargadhi. We were there to monitor and provide technical support to 2 new community disability workers (CDW) and a newly designated but very experienced technical advisor named Indira. It is a beautiful place and as always I felt very lucky to be able to experience a new country by walking into villages and meeting people with disabilities and hearing about their lives. We visited 3 people in their homes, and listened to the CDWs give talks about disability so people are more aware of it and of the potential for including people with disabilties in the community activities.

One constant wherever I have been so far is women carrying huge bales of grass on their backs. Their daily chore is to wander out to any patch of green, carrying their small curved knife and a length of rope, and cutting grass, tying it into a large bundle and hoisting it on to their backs so they can carry it back to the house where it will dry in the sun. I don't know how much they weigh but they are doubled over as they carry the grass bundle. Or the bundle of firewood. Or 30kg sack of rice. Or... I am sure the men work hard too but they sure don't seem to do the daily heavy lifting.

One of the perks of field visits is the opportunity to eat the speciality of the area. We ate guavas fresh off the tree, soya beans from the farmer's field, warm and sweet milk rice for breakfast on our way back to Danghadi; and we bought walnuts, honey, ginger and garlic to take back to Kathmandu.

Last week was a bit lighter as we had 3 days of holiday for Tihar (the Nepali version of Deevali). Noa celebrated by vomiting several times on Tuesday and Toby 3 times on Wednesday. I will remember the holiday for the loads of laundry that I did and patches of spit-up that I cleaned up. We are keeping the local pharmacy in business through our purchases of Oral Rehydration Salts. But we did salvage some of the holiday by walking through Thamel and down to Durbar Square, dodging crackers and gazing at lights on the buildings and decorative mandalas on the ground. We marked the third day of Tihar with an attempt to be local: it is the day when sisters give their brothers tikkas and sweets and in return the brothers give their sisters money. Knowing that Toby doesn't like tikka, we skipped that part, but Noa gave him a soccer ball and a package of chocolate cookies. He gave her a red hula hoop and 10 rupees.

So we still haven't managed to get out for a real trek, but I am optimistic that we may be able to go on our own soon, and judging by this photo I may not have to carry anyone!

Love
CTN