It feels like December and January have passed as a series of dark days peppered with swearing and shouting. I attended a seminar in Amman, Jordan for a week and returned on December 13. For the following 5 weeks I didn't sleep alone for a portion of a single night. (For those of you getting your hopes up, my company was in the form of at least 1 but usually 2 2-year olds.) It made for a very tired me, resulting in a short fuse and a loud voice. I took a week off around Christmas and couldn't wait to return to work. The combination of an exhausted mother, toddlers who are pushing limits and not enough family around the holiday season was not a happy one. I wished we were somewhere else, or really for any break in my suffering.
But a couple of weeks ago I had a field visit to 3 districts in the Mid West with our advocacy team, slept better (alone) and am redetermined to be a good, calm mother.
The weather in Kathmandu is warming up. It seems like the really cold period didn't last nearly as long as it did last year. We are still using the same gas canisters for our 2 heaters that we started in December. Good thing too, because there is a gas shortage right now. People are having trouble getting gas for cooking so we definitely won't be refilling gas for heating.
As the temperature rises, the loadshedding (power cuts) also increase. We are now up to 11 hours per day. Still a lot better than this time last year but we aren't at the peak yet. I have heard differing predictions of how high it will go, with the worst saying 14 hours per day. Having lived through 18 hours last year, anything less is easy. Easy but still inconvenient at times. Toby has to wait for his habitual morning banana milkshake until the power comes on. And I have to plan ahead to take a shower, anticipating how long into the evening the water, warmed very well by the solar panels all day, will stay hot, or calculating when I can turn on the geyser and wait for 30 minutes for it to take effect.
We are also dealing with a cash shortage in the country, with banks limiting the amount that can be withdrawn from an ATM at one time to NRs10,000 (about CDN140). Not a big deal except each time I withdraw it costs CDN5! So I am adjusting our shopping practices to do big shopping once a week at one of the two places that accept my credit card.
The bandhas (strikes) we were dealing with in the fall have eased somewhat, as Maoists and other parties appear to be getting serious about ending the political deadlock that started last May. But we are in the countdown to the deadline to draft the new constitution here. The Comprehensive Peace Accord signed in November 2006 between the Maoist rebels (at the time) and the government set May 2010 as the deadline. Don't ask for my prediction; leaders flip flop on statements and positions and then adopt last ditch efforts that are - in my opinion- highly undemocratic and untransparent, so I can't rely on their past activities to say what they will do next.
We are into our routines here. Toby and Noa have busier social lives than I do: playgroup on Mondays, playground and library on Tuesdays, and from Wednesday to Friday they alternate hosting and visiting friends' houses. They are usually home for lunch followed by a nap and awake again by about 4. Dina is a super cleaner, doing housework in the 2 hours they are sleeping! The twins are an outgoing pair. I have been to library with them and watched them singing along with songs and doing all of the actions, or standing right in front of the story reader listening intently. Toby likes watching DVDs; his current favourites are Cars and KungFu Panda, not to mention any Thomas the Tank Engine or Franklin story. Noa likes the odd movie, often going along with Toby's choice unless she really feels like watching Curious George or Berenstein Bears. She comes to life at office parties when there is music and dancing; she seems to like Bollywood soundtracks and Latin songs.
With my recent patch of bad temperedness, they have started to ask me,'Mama, you happy?' They can tell me when they feel sad or scared or shy. Toby can also now tell me when he 'loves' something like pancakes or milkshakes or Lightning McQueen (Cars). I called him from the field the other day and between little sniffs, he told me he wanted to see me - while Noa nattered on about her new table and chairs that had been delivered that day! What a pair.
We are growing lettuce and basil in the garden and with the official start of spring here, I will go in search of other vegetable seeds to diversify. The building opposite us, which has been under construction since before we arrived, still isn't finished but has started its work as a nursing school. Better than another noisier type of business- the only drawback is that t blocks our sun for most of the winter afternoon.
Well, it's a bit negative but it is an update. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down. Looking forward to a long weekend in February when we hope to get out of town for a series of short walks. And then to March when Grandma and Grandpa will come!!
Love
C T N
