First up, just to say I’m really enjoying my time in Kathmandu, you know when you feel like you’re in the right place, well it’s certainly getting that way.

The House – is now complete.

We have a new housemate, a primary teacher from Australia who has taken the last room.  The significant part of this news is that we’ve been able to extend the cooking rota such that each person only has to cook one day in 4.  I’m planning a Shepherd’s Pie with buffalo mince for Wednesday; beef is a sensitive subject in these parts.

Continued Induction and Preparation

This week has involved loads more induction including the security talk:

What to do in the event of an Earthquake – get under a table
What to do if you find a bomb – run!
What to do if there’s a fire – line up
What to do if there’s civil unrest – go home.

Language has continued to go well, I’ve signed up to receive 2 hours of lessons a week until I leave.  We had a practical which involved going to the local fruit and veg shop and haggling for some produce in Nepali.  It didn’t really count as a ‘real life’ situation since the language teacher always takes new students to the same shop, the shop keeper speaks perfect English and he purposely charged me more in order to give a subsequent discount.

School – it’s good!

Two of the teachers in ‘the House’ were students at KISC ten years or so ago and I’m not surprised they’ve come back.  The school and the people that work there are really inspiring and hold to excellent values. The school also achieves amazing results; it is in the top 5% of British Schools academically and last year students achieved scores that were some of the best in the continent.  The teacher training centre is impacting many schools and teachers across Nepal, this is resulting in a really positive knock-on affect in the local Nepali communities.

I’ve been given one or two projects to crack on with and I wonder if six months will be enough time!  The number of staff is significantly less than in a British school and there’s far less red tape to wade through.  The result is that you can have more of an impact on the school, but it’s been stressed that significant impact and involvement are expected; you don’t come to KISC just to hide in the background.

Last Weekend – Busy!

This weekend just past was fulfilling hectic.  It began with Nepali Church – below are snippets of two songs that were sung, see if you can recognise them.

Song1.mp3        Song2.mp3

After this a group of us went for a hike out of the city, across a bridge over fetid water and up the hills that surround the Kathmandu valley.  It was fantastic just to see some green again and taste some less polluted air.  The views from the summit were excellent and on the way back a motorcyclist stopped to ask “what is the destination of life” before offering 4 of us a lift back on his bike.  In Nepal, people don’t have people carriers in the way we might imagine, a motorbike will easily provide adequate transportation for an entire family.

Saturday was capped with a Chinese meal.  Food and drinks included, it still cost less than a McDonalds back home!

Sunday – began with a trip to a different International Church.  I immediately felt very at home , it may have had something to do with the 80’s Graham Kendrick songs, and I promptly signed up for Sunday School.  Following this a group of us went from Church to lunch after which I joined my housemates at the zoo, which unashamedly costs 5 times as much for a foreigner than a Nepali.

I’ve now seen the tigers and the monkeys that are just over the wall from the House, it’s nice to put a face to noises.

Following a language lesson at the school, Sunday Evening brought a roof-top birthday party for one of the teachers at school.  It was pretty awesome to enjoy a barbeque as the sunset below the hills surrounding the city.

Finally some BIG NEWS, we have a Table Tennis table on the roof of the outbuilding in our garden!  All we need are a few bricks to make an authentic Nepali net and we have the perfect way to relax after work.

I hope life is treating you well.

God Bless
Simon

PS – To any Dancys out there, I’ve been asked to play in the Primary Assembly Band, so let’s pray that I can play the songs!