Nepal Revisited – Day 24

This morning we headed to Sister’s to pick up some cash & to organise additional funds from the bank. While Heather got her hair straightened Richard & I along with Nirmal headed off to organise the purchase of at least 50 more quilts.

Once they were purchased we headed back to the house to offload them, as we are awaiting word from one of our partners of a suitable location to send them, along with the others that we are storing for the time being. They are aware of a community in need who has had minimal assistance to date and they would come in very handy as the colder weather approaches.

Today I was also able to get in contact with Basanta from Runchet to follow-up on where things are at with the CGI sheeting that they are waiting on. The supplier has advised that they should have the complete order in stock some time this week and that the villagers will be able to pick it up next week and distribute it as soon as the stocks arrive. I also advised him to do a measure up of how much CGI they would need to fix up the school as when we visited I noticed that the tarpaulins they had been using were showing signs of deterioration and were fraying along the edges. Hopefully we have some funds that we can direct their way to assist with this.

In the afternoon we headed to the New Road market and spent about an hour there so that I could get some gifts for family as I head home on Thursday evening next week. It would have been very easy to spend at least the whole afternoon there if not the entire day as we only got to see a fraction of the stalls and shops that are on offer.

Over dinner we caught up on the local news, especially information on what is happening with the current fuel shortage. This article from the Himalayan Times entitled “Int’l community, India urged to address humanitarian crisis in Nepal” sheds some light on the extent of the issues facing the humanitarian aid response and the effects that the unofficial blockade is having on essential services and the economy of Nepal.

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Nepal Revisited – Day 23

This morning we were made aware that not only was Sanga’s mum in India not too well, but his wife Manun was not well either. She had been admitted to hospital with heart issues. So the interviews that were planned for today would be carried out by Richard, Heather & I, as Sanga awaited word on how Manun was doing at the hospital and how his mum was.

We therefore had a brief catch-up meeting with Sanga, offering our prayers of support and for a speedy recovery for both his wife and mum. Also requesting strength and encouragement for Sanga and the girls as they wait for positive news.

Two candidates had been chosen from the applicants that had applied for the role – which is in effect an administrative assistant / translator for the project team going forward. However, only one showed up which may make the process easier; she was very well presented and keen to get involved with this kind of role, as it would help her long term, as she wants to get more involved in practical social work in the future.

After the interviews Richard went and spent some time with Sanga, to offer support and encouragement. Seeing as they both come from Mizoram in India they could talk over what is going on etc. more easily.

Meanwhile, Heather and I got on with some planning for the remainder of the week, reports and admin. While we were doing this we had an interesting conversation around the job that was on offer and how it is so easy, for young women in particular, to get tricked into trafficking due to the allure of the need to acquire money. Particularly in poor countries such as Nepal where things at the moment are not exactly stable.

In the evening we had some down time for a change and watched movies.

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Nepal Revisited – Day 22

This morning Heather, Richard & I headed to Child Nepal to confirm some details about our upcoming trip for a monitoring and evaluation visit of a couple of Temporary Learning Centres (TLC’s) that have been built in the Sindhupalchok District. While we are there next week we are going to officially hand over the TLC’s to the school and present the students with a school bag and some stationary items.

We needed to get the longitude and latitude coordinates of the schools as accurate as possible, so that we can organise the helicopter landing zones and book the flight to include time on the ground at each school.

Once we had got the information we required we headed to the MAF booking office to book and confirm the flight details. This means another early morning visit to the airport next Monday (them’s the breaks).

We had intended to meet up with VIN at a shelter cluster meeting in Jawalakhel, but unfortunately the dates had got mixed up on the calendar and the meeting wasn’t on. Just as well as we were running about 1/2hr late as it was…

Instead we headed to Shabri for lunch and had a sizzling walnut chocolate brownie. Yesterday they didn’t have any, but the waitress advised me that she would make sure that they had them available for today. And they did, absolutely divine!

After lunch we needed to get some stationary supplies, mainly paper for the printer, so we headed to the local markets. This is obviously the place to go as the amount of people was almost stifling. Even with all the fuel issues going on shops were full to over flowing and cheap in comparison to other places we had been to in the past.

After about an hour wandering the streets to see what else was available we headed back to the office to do some more paperwork, filing and reporting.

Tomorrow we start interviews for a local administrative assistant / translator to assist the project team as they go forward.

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Nepal Revisited – Day 21

This morning Richard, Heather & I headed into Jawalakhel so that we could introduce Richard to a couple of our partners; Mountain Child & Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). After this Richard & I headed to the Humanitarian Staging Area which is located near the airport for a Logistics Cluster Meeting.

The two key items on the agenda were the fuel shortage and road closures and its affect on agencies. The fuel shortage is really staring to hinder the humanitarian aid effort, as organisations find it increasingly difficult to obtain petrol and diesel for their vehicles; especially for monitoring and evaluation, and distributions of much needed materials. (Refer to this article posted yesterday ’26 Oct’ in the Kathmandu Post.)

Also their are increasing concerns around the flow on effect to essential services such as hospitals, water treatment plants, sewerage plants etc. Many of the small businesses and cafes, restaurants and bars seem to be closed at the moment, some of which is due to the festival season. But the fuel shortage which includes LPG is obviously having a roll on effect as well. Many small stall owners and shops are running out of essential products and are closing for the time being as well.

While we were at the meeting Heather went and did some groceries and after the logistics meeting we headed across the road to the MAF booking office to confirm if they could fly to Sindhupalchok as we are intending to go and do a monitoring visit next week to check on some Temporary Learning Centres.

In the afternoon we spent some time catching up on paperwork and planning for the remainder of this week and into next week.

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Nepal Revisited – Day 20

Today was a reasonably quite day as far as excursions goes, as we spent the majority of the day in the office catching up on  the past few days and ensuring that everyone was up to date with where things are at.

We updated some of the financial reports, scanning in the receipts so that they are on file for when we do the final report and I started going through the emails, so that I could reduce the size of our online storage, as we only have a limited amount due to the server settings.

I also started going through the files on the computer’s hard-drive, as we have a lot of information that is not needed on file going forward. Much of this information is reports and information that is readily available online through cluster groups etc.

Today also gave Richard another opportunity to field a range of questions to Heather & I so that he has a clear understanding of where things are at – he made plenty of notes… As I’ve mentioned before many of the projects will continue in to the new year therefore he will need to know what’s what and who’s who.

After dinner I headed to bed for an early night but ended up watching a movie, so I didn’t get to bed ’til normal time.

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Nepal Revisited – Day 19

They say that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry“, well that was definitely the case for today. The team had set out it’s tasks to do last night and organised transport so that we could get out and about to get some stuff done first thing this morning. Most of the tasks were for MJ to accomplish on her last day with us as she flies home this evening 😦

By 9:00am those plans had come a cropper as the manufacturing shop we wanted to go and get some quilts from was not open and wouldn’t be until later on in the week. One of the partners we are working with had closed their office for the day.

After a bit of rescheduling and organising, some other things got accomplished though – we had some quilts stored at the local C.O’s place, so the small truck that had been booked went to their place and took it back to our house for storage; we need to distribute them as soon as possible, so we can make room for the ones we were supposed to get.

A staff member from the office made himself available as we were wanting to drop some medical supplies into them.

Meanwhile Heather went to Sisters for some pampering.

I went for a walk around Sanepa and a couple of times had to make way for a police van fully laden with officers as they were checking the streets for a visiting dignitary from China who had a meeting locally. The small convoy followed shortly afterwards – No doubt they were here to talk over how China could assist Nepal with the fuel shortage.

In the afternoon MJ, Heather & I headed out to Thamel so that MJ could get a few gifts for people back home, in the process we all came away with gifts.

In the evening we said our farewells to MJ and wished her “bon voyage“, she will be surely missed. We will have some momo’s for you tomorrow though 🙂

Now the IES team is down to just Heather & I. Heather has been granted an extension to help Richard (the assistant Project Officer) come to terms with the remaining projects, as many of them will continue into next year. Also she will assist him to fully understand the permanent projects that are in the approval process, many of which are a continuation of the works that have already been done in different villages and districts all over Nepal.

Later on in the evening we settled down to watch the 2nd rugby semi-final featuring Argentina and Australia.

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