"GARMI LAAGYO RA DHERI PAANI PURIYO"
(It's hot and it rains a lot)

Guess the monsoon came early this year – at least we hope it’s the monsoon!! Plenty of rain and plenty of mosquitos. And when it's not raining, it's stiflingly hot – and no aircon :(

We're keeping well though. Trying to balance work with having some fun - although work seems to be winning.

Thank goodness for the gym at the Radisson Hotel, which we are both using several times a week – normally early morning as Nepal publicly wakes up at around five o'clock (or earlier).

Work is a challenge for both of us.

- Laura, working part time IT at the Dalit Welfare Organization, continues to do battle with knackered, filthy and overloaded computers; silk purse, pigs ear!
- Simon, supposedly working on management and organisation development, spends most of his time writing funding proposals (to keep the organisation viable) and trying to cajole the management into actually writing project reports on time – a seemingly new concept to DWO!

We're certainly not losing sight of our goals – but quickly realising that we may achieve in two years what we'd hoped we'd achieve well within the first. Reality!

Holiday seems a lifetime away – although equally it doesn't seem already more than four months since we arrived. We'll likely take a few weeks off in October/November after the monsoon ends, spend some time with Laura's parents if they can make it here and then go walk in the mountains.

Meantime, we've started getting out from Kathmandu city once in a while. A week ago we took a bus (literally for just 10 or 15 minutes) out of KTM and entered a different world – even a different century. Out went the noise, the traffic, the pollution, the never ending construction and in came beautiful countryside, full of paddy terraces, wonderful people walking their goats and cows and giggling when meeting a couple of strange looking people, mud huts with tin roofs amazing views. Just rural life - and just 15 minutes from the capital. Beautiful. And needed.

So this weekend another adventure – weather permitting. And more work on the garden – for which the landlord has now severed all responsibility. Managed to get some plants in – although have yet to find anywhere which sells water cans. So good that it rains!

And got to get back into the habit of speaking Nepali. We're ok at shopping, getting taxis, getting around but we need to practise longer conversations – particularly at work (where actually the younger staff are being really encouraging).

Anyway enough for now. Hope all is well with you and your families and friends.

We'll "blog" more in the coming month.

Simon