Homeward Bound...

Woohoo!!! I'm in the Orynx lounge in Doha airport and it rocks!

It's soo clean... the chairs are soo comfy... there's free snacks.

Oh yes. It's ace.

It's the little things like San Pelligrino, bree & bacon sandwiches, quality coffee, toilets that flush without making me feel guilty, clean showers.

Man going home is going to be good!

Well, what's happened since the last post? Last Friday 'Loadshed' took the Kathmandu Soltee Crowne Plaza by storm. We had a quick practice at the studio, headed off to don the glitter costumes and then took the jeep over to the hotel. We spent a good half hour walking round the place pretending to be real rock stars and then after our meal we rocked out!!! It was brilliant fun. Check out the photos for some top silver pant action. Man I loved it. And my pants didn't rip which was a definite possibility as I'd borrowed them from Lulu's teacher at school. I got a recording of the gig too. Next stop itunes!

Saturday, George and I were treated to a leisurely breakfast coz the kids were on a sleep over. Bliss. Then we headed off to the British Embassey for a leaving do for our friends the Darlings. Very sad :(

This past week has suddenly sped up as I've been away on a retreat for the UMN Leadership - trying to help us think through strategy and George has been trying to get us ready to go home for a few weeks. The kids have had a blast as it was creative arts week last week and then sports stuff this week. Ollie won sportsman of the year which we're all dead chuffed about - especially as he went up a year at Easter!!! Maybe he'll be playing for the Lions next... but I'll not talk about the Lions.

Yesterday we had an early birthday party for Ollie so he could invite his friends from here. It seems to be party season as Toby was off rock climbing at another friends party and Ollie was out today at another!

Anyway, right now we're enroute home for 3 weeks r&r. We can't wait. Bangor here we come!

Shed Loads

Alright folks thought I'd better keep you posted about the highlights of my latest forray into the world of rock stars and Bollywood heros...

Since the last post a lot has happened...

I went to the band practice, I went to the party, I got a whole effects rack just for my guitar... I hadn't a clue how to use it but is pumped out some wick'd distortion... then it broke and I was back to square one... we played the gig, it was wild, the crowd were in a frenzy and we rocked the house!!! We left the crowd cheering for more and thought it would be smart to leave the stage, wait for the whoops and calls for encore to die down and then go back on... bad move... as soon as we left the stage the dj whacked on some brilliant funk music and the crowd quickly forgot who we were!!! I'll remember that next time!

Next morning I felt like I'd made official rock god status... George wasn't too convinced but it's been hard coming to terms with a new calling into the heady world of rock n roll. I'm ready for it though!

After the dizzy heights 2 band members have been off travelling so we've been brought down to earth with some pretty ordinary band practices. Next week is the big one though. The British School end of term ball. We're playing with 2 other bands - and we're not bottom of the play list! The teachers are up first, then the pro band for a short set, then us then the pro band and disco. I can't wait.

I've been on the search for some stage outfits... I was thinking of a shiny silver lammay suit - Bollywood hero style but so far it's been a hard one to find. I went to a few tradditional dress hire places today only to be told that 'your size too big, we no have that size...' It's not looking good.

Anyway, apart from all that stuff. George has amazingly started work!!! She started on Monday in the UMN marketing team and will focus on producing the calandar and Christmas Cards so watch this space. She's a bit nervous but will be great.

The kids are brilliant - Toby is book and sports mad. next week their having a 'creative arts' session in school so he's playing in a band... he might do well on the 12th as he's playing the recorder! Ollie is putting the finishing touches to his paper machier elephant and is excited about bringing it home. Lulu is is party season at the minute as all the parents of summer birthday kids are cramming parties in every spare mintue. It's great.

I've also made the TBS Board of Governers - obviously they saw the potential for major band fundraisers. All good.

Take it easy...

Get ready to Rok!

Hi guys,

Well what's the craic? Things here are great... the weather has changed in the past couple of weeks and we are now on the verge of monsoon. It gets really steamy hot and then there is a bit of a downpour, it's cool for a bit and then gets steamy hot again. Plus some great thunder and ligthening sometimes.

Last week I thought I was back in Norn Iron though as we had 2 days of grey fug. Wet, damp and soupy. Just like home - I must admit we haven't missed it.

We've had a great half term. We headed off to Shiva Puri - a lovely little out of the way sort of resort a couple of hours outside of Kathmandu. We went with some families from school. Great fun. Kids had a blast and the grown ups were enthralled with Scrabble - take 2 (thanks Roger Cook!) Brilliant fun. I won which was great too!!!

Sunday I managed a bit of 4 wheel driving which threw me back to Kenya. We now would like to get a car as it was great travelling independantly... Monday I was back into the office to welcome our new boss at UMN. Mark Galpin. He's great and everyone is looking forward to the changes that will come about.

After that we headed off again for an overnight in Khakini, again just outside Kathmandu, this time with 2 other families and loaded down with enough food to feed an army. We had 10 kids with us!! Weather was straight out of Bangor so we spent most of the time trying to engaged the kids indoors. Great fun though.

I've put up a few little things on the side of the blog - new photos of shiva puri, and a list of things I might see in the butchers.... we have one on the way to work which I pass everyday so I'll continue to put up the things I see... it is not for the faint hearted.

Hope you are all well.

Cheers,

PS Get ready to rok because tomorrow night 'Load Shed' has a gig, a first for me as the electric guitarist. It's great I fell like I'm 16, all I need now is a mullet and a leather jacket!

Bomb Blast

On Saturday morning there was a bomob blast at the Catholic Church close to where we live and virtually across the road from KICC - the church that we go to. 2 people died and about 15 people were injured. No-one is sure who did it or why.

See this link for more details:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gxHoFrLiSzB2EtM0TJLcpsQQRn5A


Please can you remember to pray for the people effected by the blast and our continued security?

George and I were not effected thankfully - we were 1 km away from the blast but didn't hear it. We were meeting friends on our way out of Kathmandu valley for a bit. However our church service was moved on Sunday and it is worrying to have something like this happen so close to where we live.

Thanks for the texts / emails etc asking about us.

Be prepared

Hi guys,

Well this week has seen a return of the rain after like 6 months or something.

The heat lifts for about an hour afterwards and the best thing is the load shedding (power cuts) are down to 8 hours a day!!! Yippee :) Looks like the movie nights with the projector are back on. Except we havent got a computer which plays DVD's yet!!! Boo Hiss :(

Yersterday I was just heading off to work when I noticed the neighbours out with machettees, kookhuris (Gurkha knives) and butchers cleavers, hacking away at a tree in the middle of a premonsoon downpour. What? Why in the middle of the rain. I had just about convinced myself that they had lost their minds when I realised that the rain had brought the tree down and it was blocking their gate. So I did the manly thing. I put my shorts on, rolled up my short sleeves, borrowed the nearest sharpng thing and joined in the hacking. 20 minutes later we had the major bits of tree in our garden with the only casualty being our telephone line. Thankfully another tree had prevented the first one from bringing the street's electricity lines down!

So, the moral of the story? Be prepared, if only I had gone to the boy scouts instead of BB!

Right, what else has happened? Well we've had Helen Johnston from PCI out here - so we've seen a bit of her and caught up with all the stuff from home. Anybody effected by the Presbyterian Mutual? I hope not. To think George and I nearly ploughed our savings into before we left... phew. Bad news all round though.

It is wedding season, last week I went to Prayas's wedding on Monday evening - thanks for that - lovely to be there and then on Sunday George and I went to another wedding. It was very fancy. Lulu came and was completely in awe of the bride. Thanks Mahendra.

I've started playing in a band. My goodness, it brings back memories of Dorothy Fields, even bands before Dorothy Fields coz the play list is still the same, with a little more aged attitude. It's brilliant fun though and I even get the chance to rock out with an electric guitar... yeah baby! I've got my first gig next Friday so I'll let you know how it goes.

This weekend is pure fun. Sorry. Tonight I'm off to a beach party at the British Gurkha camp - btw - what is Joanna Lumely doing? Tomorrow I'm off into the hills outside the valley as it's half term here, then Monday I'm in to welcome the new ED at UMN and then back off out of the valley for an overnight of fun in a luxury bungalow that UK taxpayers provide as a welfare service to British Gurkhas... Fantastic. Much appreciated!

Take it easy, hope you're all having fun.

Christian Society Development Campaign - Rukum, Nepal

Click to Play

This is a short video clip of the women's group: Christian Society Development Campaign, operating in Rukum, Nepal. With the help of the United Missions to Nepal, this group have been able to come together and explore opportunities for Development in their area. They are conflict affected widows who want to make a difference in their community, and it is our priviledge to be able to support them.

Phew!

Well this week's been manic... we've had the UMN Board and General Assembly.. and on top of that the Prime Minister resigned over an arguement about the sacking of the army chief by the President.

Well for the board we've had 10 / 12 or so people fly in and our job is to brief them on the work of UMN over the past 6 months and make sure they are happy with the way things are going. Fascinating stuff. It started off a little bit stuffy but by the end of the 2 days I think things were going well. Monday afternoon we were sitting ready for business when we heard that the PM had resigned and we were rushed off home and told to hold tight in case there was a security backlash... nothing happened. A few years ago there would have been uproar but this time people were uncertain but carried on as normal and left the politicians to sort out the mess... People's war??? not quite so sure.

Wednesday was the start of UMN's General Assembly. What's that? Well we had about 40 overseas visitors here in Kathmandu, mostely from organisations that either donate to UMN or send people to UMN, so they are fairly up to speed with what's going on. Over the course of 2 days we then laid on a programme to show them what's going on, politically (a bit difficult when the landscape changes so quickly!) socially and with our programmes and partners. It has been a great few days and we've had a good opportunity to meet our supporters and understand what they want to see from UMN.

I ran a session on strategic planning and managed to keep everyone awake (during the post-lunch graveyard shift) which probably just goes to show the level of commitment of our supporters rather than the quality of the presentation. (it was great though!)

Right I'm also going to post a new video about UMN - it's about 4 minutes and gives an example of what our partners are doing in Rukum.

Enjoy