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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