The Hopkinsons in Nepal

Settling into the new house

2009-10-12T16:10:00.005+01:00

Hi all - Apologies - I'm getting really bad at keeping you all updated with the happenings here in Kathmandu.

Life continues to be frantic. We've just had a couple of weeks off during the major Hindu festival of Dashain. Lots of nervous goats were hanging around before the holidays and now they have all been slaughtered and eaten by everyone... Meanwhile we went of trekking.

Wow. We went to Langtang which is a few hours drive from Kathmandu. It is largely Tibetan and Tamang people groups there so the Dashian goat slaughtering was missed. Thankfully. We had an amazing trek, we travelled with our new found friends the Kemptons from Sheffield duck and it was brilliant fun. Kids got on like a house on fire and the grown ups managed to get some free time. Fantastic. Lulu walked the whole way right to 4100m altitude. Toby was the hero and Tanka out guide reckoned he is the strongest 8 year old he's been trekking with. Always at the front and the first to get to the days destination. Good work fella. Ollie was fantastic but came down with altitude sickness at 3500m so I had to escort him down the mountain while he was throwing up and suffering from bad headaches. Poor guy. Amazing though that the sickness disappeared as soon as we got down below 2000m. George and everyone battled on to the top where they got to see a glacier lake, lots of mountains and a yak cheese factory.

Photos are on facebook - and hopefully showing as a slideshow at the side...

We've moved into a new house (or apartment) it is very snazzy with lots of extra space. Snazzy in a Nepali sense before we get carried away with ourselves... we've run out of water about a dozen times since we moved in so I'm constantly downstairs in the landlord's sitting room asking him to pump water into the rooftop tanks. We are also being patient with the workmen constantly traipsing (that's probably a Norn Iron word which some of you will not understand) through the house as they work on connecting hot water, solar panels, cementing stuff etc. It's getting a bit tideous. I asked for a phone line to be put in the other day and was given a roll of 20 meters of cable and asked to take as much as I wanted!!! Where was BT when I needed them! Tomorrow we're getting a garden! Up until now it has been a derelict parking space but tomorrow we're getting turf. Should be great.

The place is brilliant but we're sorting out a lot of teething problems as it is all new to the landlord and it's the first time we've lived with our Nepali landlords underneath. Thankfully it means great security though and we were happy to return to Kathmandu having NOT been burgled. Things to be thankful for!

Other family news... Ollie and Lulu need to go to the dentist...

Curries has opened down the road...

Tescos have opened a superstore just round the corner...

Work is going well - we had a great 'learning review' before the holidays where 120 field staff got together to discuss UMN strategy stuff and help us think through some of the issues relating to the strategic planning. Very helpful.

George is in good form. She's joined the Kathmandu chorale and is rehearsing for a Christmas carol concert. I'll be doing the sound so watch this space for a snippet after the gig.

Kids are great - just back to school today so tired out but excited to catch up with friends. Now we have a garden I'd imagine there will be more friends round after school and lots of running around. Great stuff.

OK - sorry for getting slack with the posts I'll try to keep them coming. Cheers.

Much too long

2009-09-09T15:43:00.004+01:00

Hi guys - sorry it's been way too long since my last blog post.

It's been busy... I'll try to keep this all short and maybe I can then update more often. Good in theory but not sure how it will work.

Anyway news here is that we have found a new 'house'. It is peculiar but it looks to be in a quieter place, will be more secure and has better outdoor space so we're looking forward to moving in. On the downside, it is wacko inside with the Kitchen on the 3rd floor at the back of the house and the stairs aren't really connected to the main living space so you feel like you're going into another flat when you go from one floor to the next. Ah well. We'll see what happens

Other news, George has dyed her hair pink / red. Good ol' Nepali hair dye has meant that a few towels have been wrecked as every time she gets her hair wet (which is a lot at the minute because the monsoon rain is still here) pink / red splodges end up on clothes and everywhere. It looks good though and she's enjoying the new look.

The kids are doing great. Toby was in a swimming gala today and has done really well in the last few weeks. Ollie has taken up gymnastics - he can actually point his toes and has an incredible body for it - not like his dad! Lulu has started ballet and is killing us with her floaty arms and constant tutu changing ability!

Loadshed is continuing to rock the nation. We're now a 6 piece as the previous guitarist has returned and they've decided to keep me too! Yippee. We are rocking and preparing for a gig at the end of October. Can't wait.

Work is frantic at the minute - we're right into the thick of the strategic planning process. Lots of meetings / discussions and we're preparing for a big 'conference' type event in the coming weeks. It's busy but great.

Health and Safety? Well we might have gone mad in the UK but take a look at this building site nd see how many you can spot.

Yes, it's women with the baskets on their backs, yes the men are lifting the cement to the top of the building, yes its bamboo scaffolding... comments welcome as to how many H&S issues there are.

I'll post more later. Take it easy.

Cheers

Ding ding... round 2!

2009-08-03T15:57:00.002+01:00

Hi guys,

Apologies that it has been like ages since I last blogged, I've just been having too much fun and besides I felt guilty sitting outside the Jumpin' Jack Cafe for their free wi-fi!

Yep well our trip to Bangor was a lovely surprise and sadly it just flew in. Thanks so much for all those who we saw - you are all amazing and we miss you loads. We had such a great time catching up with everyone and despite the business of trying to unpack a 5 bedroom house and prepare to leave again we had a blast. Thanks.

You all might have heard the saga of our planned return. The plan was for us all to fly to Manchester and then George was to stay in England to see my brother and his lot and her Aunt etc while I was to fly on to Kathmandu but things didn't quite work out that way. While I was packing them into the hire car I put my back pack down and when I went to get it a few minutes later it had gone... along with my passport... and my 3 day old Apple Mac Book pro... and my 3 day old itouch... and my other laptop. What a mare!!! That sinking feeling... stomach dropping... gut wrenching... blood rushing panic... I couldn't even leave my big luggage with someone for a few minutes while I ran around looking for help so I ended up having quite a work out running from one terminal to another trying to figure out what and happened etc. I stuck it out for 4 hours and then cancelled my flight to Nepal and took 4 trains to my brothers house (with 50kg of luggage!)

Ah well. It turned out well in the end. We had a nice bonus week in the UK while I got my passport replaced. I have gone and replaced the apple mac book pro too - it is soooo fantastic. Back lit keyboard and just lovely looking... mmm.

Photos of our trip are showing at the side... you can double click it and it goes full screen. Best boys day out was to HMS Belfast in London. Brilliant.

Anyway, now the bell has gone and we're back for round 2. Getting back to KTM has actually been better than I thought it might. It all feels more familiar than before and coming back to our house is nice (despite the fact that there was a 2nd attempted burglary while we were away!)

George and the kids are in the final week of holidays so they're having nice days out and then swimming in the afternoon.

I'm back at work which has been good... it's taken me a little while to get back in the swing of things and I've had to go through emails etc to recover some of my lost files but I'm getting there.

Anyway, things are good. Kids are great and George is in good form. Take it easy and I'll hopefully update this more regularly again.

Cheers

Homeward Bound...

2009-06-28T22:31:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-12T11:32:00.004+01:00

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!

2009-05-28T14:41:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-25T03:52:00.003+01:00

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

2009-05-22T11:25:00.003+01:00

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

2009-05-08T12:49:00.001+01:00

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!

2009-05-08T10:59:00.002+01:00

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

Amazing Grace...

2009-04-29T17:19:00.001+01:00

Click to Play

An extract from the evening service at KICC... ...the worst bit is we thought we rocked!

Can't believe it's nearly May...

2009-04-29T16:08:00.004+01:00

Wow - anyone else feel like that? This year has just been a blur...

Right well latest news from here is that things continue to give us a hard time. A week after the burglary George got hit by a motorbike as she was crossing the road on her bike... Thankfully she got away with a few cuts and bruises and is now well on the way for recovery... she's got a big bruise on her bum though - I thought I'd put a photos of it on the blog but that idea got vetoed pretty quick!

Then just last week we got news that our house in Bangor has some underground leaky pipes... we haven't figured out the extent of the damage yet but it's not great news.

Hopefully that'll be the end of the bad news for a while though - they say it comes in 3s...

Apart from all that things are good. Last week our new Executive Director (my boss!) joined UMN for an exciting round of budgets and scary financial planning as we face a big deficit next year... all fun and games. I had a meeting with DFID about their country plan for Nepal and it's too exciting to bore you all with...

Church is going really well, I had to lead the service last Sunday and I've been messing around with Adobe Audition Software so check out how bad this is... (I'll try and upload a little of the sound file recorded when I led the service last month - it is embarasing!)

Kids are having a blast at school - they were almost famous this week as we had Mark Welsh over from PCI to do some filming for a Sunday School DVD. Our kids were meant to introduce it, but when we filmed them they were all grumpy and tired so I think the voice over will be lost and we'll have to settle with silent footage of the kids eating Dhal Baht... It was a nightmare, we were trying to get them to look happy and stuff except they'd spent the whole afternoon beating each other up and crying... not quite the image the camera crew were looking for! Ah well.

I'm missing my bike.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T11:41:00.003+01:00

Happy Easter all you blog followers! (mum / dad!)

Well hope you have a lovely Easter. We've returned home after 2 blissful nights at a 5 star hotel just outside Kathmandu. Waow. These places actually exist!

It's the little things, like running water, flushing the loo, carpet, electricity, quiet, no dogs, green spaces and then there are the big things like a swimming pool and a fantastic golf course, great food. Wow it was lovely. My brother and his wife treated us. It was fantastic.

Actually it was very hard to leave as we know we're coming back to grouchy dogs barking all night and it means its getting towards the end of brothers trip. But it has been a blast and their time in Chitwan seems to have goen down with the kids. Everyone has had a blast - even if the accomodation on the Jomsom trek pushed boundaries for comfort etc!

Hope you are all well.

We had an Easter egg hunt round the house... all good and chocolate galour.

Burgled...

2009-04-06T15:53:00.003+01:00

Hi guys,

well so much for a nice relaxing holiday out of Kathmandu ~ we've been away 1 week and then I got the call this morning that our house had been broken into last night and all our stuff was thrown over the place... Nigthmare.

But before I go into all that - what about the Grand Slam!!!! What a result! I had to stay up til 1.30am to catch it all (on 5 live over the internet) but it was well worth it... apart from the fact that I almost had to go to the cardiac hospital when the Welsh scored in the last 5 minutes!!!!! Good ol Ireland.

Anyway, my brother arrived in KTM last Saturday. He is here for 3 weeks so we had planned an action packed whistle stop tour of all the main sites... Monday we headed off to Pokhara to take in the sights and consider a short trek. After 30 minutes with our guide we ditched the easy trek in favour of a mountain adventure - the Jomsom trek. Epic. Check out the photos...

He has brought me my new camera which is fantastic, so watch out for some close up mug shots of folk here - they are bonkers!

What sounded like a 4 day walk in the park, turned out to be a grueling challenge as we constantly had to rethink our plans and support our walking efforts with local transport! I know, what sort of softies we are, after the first 4 hour walk we were still well away from our destination so we had to jump a local bus the rest of the way. Then, we arrived at Tatopani - literally hot water, to enjoy the sumptious hot springs. Well sort off (in a Nepali sort of way) there were indeed hot springs and it was hot water but it wasn't the sort of place you'd like to bring your mum too... let's put it that way.

Our accomodation was also a bit rustic complete with live animals in the rooms, leaky roofs and a thunder storm. Ah well. Next day after a trekker's breakfast we headed off up towards Kalopani - 'black water' where we had a great guest house and a nice relax the next morning as we'd already decided to pack in the walking and go straight for the bus. only problem was that all vehicles were full of Nepali pilgrims on their way to a festival at the top of the mountains... so we went in drips and drabs (that means 1s and 2s for any non-native english speakers reading this!) and eventually made it to our next destination. Marpha. What a spot. A beautiful Tibetan village complete with white painted houses and a Bhuddist monastry. Fantastic. Next day we had a gentle stroll to Jomsom.

All in all it was great, if not a bit challenging for my big brother (who didn't really like roughing it in the guest houses!)

Then tomorrow we're all meant to head off to Chitwan for some jungle action. But instead we got the call... I'm now in Kathmandu and George is taking everyone to the jungle tomorrow as planned. When I got back I found that our house is in a mess and loads of our stuff has been taken. Just the good stuff. My bike, our laptop, jewelery and 4 months worth of rent which we meant to pay before we left... Nightmare. Tomorrow I'm spending sorting out the house and getting it secured with extra bolts etc.

Anyway, hope you are all well - I'll update as soon as possible.

Cheers

Sleepovers

2009-03-21T17:01:00.004Z

Hi guys - wow - good feedback, and some of you even filled in the survey thingy on the side of the blog. Good work you techie savvy gurus!!

Today we all headed off to Bhaktapur again... we've got a friend staying with us (Sarah Eves from Holdywood) and we tohught it would be good to take her over to the 'city of devotees' to see what's what. By the time we organised transport we figured we could use a minibus and ended up taking 8 kids and 8 adults - Hopkinson Tours - could be the next best challenge... Anyway it was great, anytime we go there is always something new to see. Today it was to witness everyone washing in the communal dhobighat (big square pond with a gold tap) as surprise, surprise there is no water everywhere and people are struggling to get water at home. Even some proud Nepali familes are having to put up with washing in public just coz there aint enough to go round. Thankfully we've got a good mains supply and a well in case it gets bad, but so far so good.

This past week we've seen a spree of kid friendly sleep overs. Last weekend we all decamped to a friends house while they went out to a Ghurka Ball (army types) and we were wooed into accepting to help by the thought of 24 hour electricity and hot water!!! And chocolate. And some wine. Anyway the kids had a blast - Lulu slept in with twin girls and the boys slept with their mate Asher from school. This week Lulu has had a permanent sleep over in her mum and dad's room coz Sarah is here and it looks like she's going to be out of her room for a bout a month as my brother is coming out next week - wwooohooo!

Last weekend was also George's birthday. Thanks to everyone for cards and pressies and emails etc - it was really good. George and I farmed the kids out for more sleepovers and then we headed off out of Kathmandu for a night at a posh hotel, with like wooden floors in the bedroom and good electricity and good food and everything! It was bliss. We hardly spoke to each other though as we both got stuck into The Week magazine and then headed off for a slap up meal... man it was good! I've also managed to get a printing press shippedd out here for George can continue with her lino cutting etc so we'll hopefully see some Nepali inspired works being developed...

Anyway, I hope you are all good. I'm missing the rugby, the time difference, electricity shortages and not having a TV all contribute to make it dead difficult to figure out how Ireland are doing - but like this is their year... Tonight is the night. Grand slam - must be in the bag.

Take it easy,

It's been a long time...

2009-03-05T14:25:00.005Z

Hi guys,

Where have you been I hear you say? yeah I know I've been offline on the blog front for far too long. Apologies.

I've been too busy, the electricity has been too bad etc etc.

Truth is we've been great, I had a second field trip shortly after the post from Rupandehi - which didn't even get 1 comment (what is that about guys?)!!! My second trip was to Sunsari and it was great.

I'm asking lots of questions of UMN leadership to better understand what we are doing and why we are doing somethings and not others etc. All part of the job and really fascinating. By now I must be a big pain in the butt!

We've had all the UMN field staff in Kathmandu for a learning review, where we all sit down and talk about UMN's partners, and the activities that we're planning for them for the following year.

This past week has been spent looking at budgets and plans for next year and sizing up the hole in UMN finances as a result of the credit crunch. Unfortunately we are going to be hit hard as our main donors are very dependant on individual donors and are showing signs of severe budget cuts...

Family is doing well. Lulu is 4!
Thanks Isabel for the cat. We've called him Marmite. We had her party last week and it was great, lots of little girls dressed in princess outfits and doing really girly things.

Toby is as we speak off on a school camping trip overnight! He couldn't wait to get to school today and must have been dressed by about 6.30am.

Ollie has just got his second certificate for 50 house points and is dead excited to be going up on stage tomorrow to collect it.

George is in great form. She is doing well with her Nepali language study and is really enjoying her work with the Emmanuel craft project in Kathmandu.

A couple of weekends ago it was half term so we went for a short trek through the forests outside Kathmandu and it was lovely. The weather is like a UK summer at the minute, really clear and it hasn't rained since October. Lovely. But not so good when you get electricity from hydro-power. As a result the loadschedding (power cuts) have gone up to 19 hours a day!!!

Nightmare.

One last thing, last weekend we headed off to Momo Mania!!! Wow. Do you remember I was telling you about these dumpling type things here called momos? Well normally they come in chicken, buff (water buffalo coz you can't eat cow here), or veg... well momo mania was mad coz there were 22 different types of momos for grabs and it was eat as much as you like... Toby was a big fan and was most upset when hiw name wasn't called out for the momo eating competition (some guy ate 16 in a minute!) Anyway it rocked.

Ok I'll try to be better at the updates... does anyone want to make suggestions as to what you'd like to see on here?

Impressions from the Field

2009-01-30T13:35:00.003Z

As I write this, it’s 8.10am Wednesday morning and I’m travelling as a paying passenger in a Tata 4x4 enroute from Rupandehi to Kathmandu.

I’m one of 8 passengers, plus the driver in a jeep, I’m lucky enough to have a seat on the front bench, not beside the driver but what we would think of as the back seat. Unfortunately I’m in the middle so I’ve no window to look of. I’m about 40 minutes into what will be a bumpy 8 hour drive up from the flat planes of the Terrai area in Nepal to the middle hills of Kathmandu. The road is fairly clear – no roadblocks or Bundhas (strikes) today which is great and the traffic consists of colourful Indian lorries, rickshaws, bikes, tractors and the occasional ox-drawn cart and absurdly overloaded cycle-trailor.

We’re driving along the foothills of the Himalyas so the land is flat, the fields are dusty and filled with what looks like maize, cabbages and corn at various stages. It’s foggy – hence my travel by road… I was meant to fly yesterday but at the last minute the airport was closed and I had to make other arrangements for getting back. This time of year the weather on the Terrai is unpredictable, but it seems I’ve been extra unlucky as I had to get the bus both ways. On Friday I spent the day in Kathmandu airport waiting for my 9.20am flight, but at 3.00pm they told us it was cancelled and we quickly made arrangements for a bus!

Anyway, I was listening to some worship songs (on my ipod touch!) before I listened to a podcast from Rob Bell and Happy Day came on and unexpectedly I was propelled out of the bus and right back into West Church on the evening of our commissioning service and I thought I should write. Thanks for the emails, the parcels, the gifts and the prayers – they are truly appreciated. I suppose I should also say thanks to George for bringing back my ultra-tiny netbook on which I’m able to type in a bumpy Neplai bus!

But enough of that, so what have we been up to?

Basically the last few weeks have been brilliant as I’ve started work proper, moved into my office and started getting my head around what I’ve got to do. About five years ago I sat in our kitchen after dinner with George and told her that I was looking for a job with accountability, where I could make an impact, which I could believe in, which brought change and improved peoples lives and here I am five years down the line and God has put me in exactly that position. It is incredible.

UMN’s approach to development is first class, it’s not the typical project approach, rather they have commited to achieving long-term sustainable development, by building up the skills of Nepali organisations at community level. In theory this sounds straight forward, if you want Nepal to develop, get Nepalis to do it. However the practical challenges are huge. Building the skills of communities who have had less than 60 years experience of modernity is not easy. Cultural beliefs and traditions need to be taken into account if change is to be meaningful and adopted. Travel to and from the target communities is hoorendous with large parts of the country being inaccessible for large parts of the year. Not to mention the difficulty in telling UMN’s donor community that we’ve stopped doing projects and therefore can no longer demonstrate our contribution by counting hospital, beds, patients or scholarships. Instead we’re asking them to believe in a time consuming, largely invisible approach which builds the skills of Nepalis to do the actual development work. But five years into UMN’s new direction, it is clear that it is working. What were terribly small local NGOs a few years ago have been taught how to think for themselves, how to be accountable in financial and community matters, how to be transparent, how to manage projects and how to work with and for the poorest people in their communities.

This past week I’ve been on a field trip to one of UMNs’ cluster to get a picture of our work and understand the benefits and challenges of our approach. It has been an excellent experience and has been a testimony to the UMN leadership over the past few years.

Gamin Umdil Women’s Co-operative, is a tiny local women’s savings and credit co-operative operating along the Indian border. It provides savings-driven loans to members for micro enterprise within their community. Small groups of members work with each other to ensure loans are spent appropriately and repaid in a timely manner. When UMN started working with them, three years ago, many of the members were illiterate and would typically be living in the house, doing very hard labour without any chance of an alternative. Yet with UMN’s help the leadership committee were taught to think about the root causes of poverty within their community and develop an action plan that addresses each of the barriers to development. Three years later, these ladies confidently presented a powerpoint presentation to the Local Government District Development Official outlining their achievements over the last 6 months, their budgets and plans for the next 6 months. One lady shared how she bought a cow with a loan of 30,000 rupees but decided that it wasn’t going to give her enough income, so she took out a second loan of 63,000 rupees and started a small fashion shop which now generates 4,000 rupees a day. Materially this is a fantastic example of local enterprise and individual determination to help themselves if only they are given a chance.

A second group introduced me to 5 new HIV/AIDS peer educators that they had just recruited to raise community awareness of HIV/AIDS and to help remove the stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDS (that includes the infected person, their families and friends impacted by their illness). These young people were an inspiration. Normally in Nepal the youth are a disgruntled lot, educated but with no employment opportunities and there is very high political pressure to get involved in riots and social destruction. Yet here were 5 young people who were enthusiastic about social development in their communities, desperate for change and working voluntarily to restore relationships and bring hope to those living with HIV/AIDS. UMN’s support again focused on building the management capability of the group’s leadership so that they were clear in what they wanted to achieve, their target community, and where and how to source local funding opportunities.

UMN’s approach is micro-level institutional development, building the skills, behaviours, processes and networks that will bring about local sustainable change. It is about advocacy, empowerment and training so that Nepali NGOs can be more effective in who and how they intervene. But it is difficult. It takes time, resources and is largely invisible to target communities (i.e. the guy in the street). On top of that it is very hard to sell to a donor community that want metrics and quick impact. Even at the best of times never mind the deepening financial crisis. That is going to be one of the major challenges I face over the coming years. Not only developing UMN’s strategy so that it brings long-term development yet balances the need for immediate support and tangible input, but then selling that approach to donors and asking for a high level of commitment and belief in the long-term return on their investment. But thankfully, it’s not just me. God has put us here, He knows the whys and the hows of what lies ahead so my job is to trust Him and do my best to seek His guidance and listen, watch, learn and do.

Right now we’re still driving west. The road is washed out in parts with large bumpy deposits of red earth forcing us to a snail’s pace. We’re starting to climb and the fields have been replaced by the fringes of jungle. When I think of work I know it’s going to be a long road ahead but right now we’re here for the duration…

Happy New Year

2009-01-19T16:00:00.003Z

Hi guys - I know, I know almost a month since I've updated the blog. Forgive me.

I hope you guys have all had a lovely Christmas and New Year - I'm sure it seems like ages ago now but I couldn't start the first update of the year without saying a big Happy New Year to you all... I hope it's a good one for you.

Well as usual lots to report. Christmas and New Year were great - we had a lovely time - loads of Christmasy things and loads of chill out time.

New Year we had a pirate party, first off for the kids (about 20 land lubbers and scally wags) and then in the evening we had a pirate themed murder mystery which turned out great craic.

Just after new year we took off to the Terrai for a spot of jungle action. We stayed in a great lodge and pulled our best tourist moves for a few days - checking out elephant safaris in the jungle, elephant washing in the river and lots of other elephant type things. Brilliant fun. Check out the video of Toby washing the elephant - Dph! After days of trying to get it uploaded I've decided you'll have to wait until our electricity supply improves... v frustrating! Hopefully photos will suffice.

What a laugh - don't try it at home - Toby nearly got trodden on and Ollie wasn't convinced at all.

After Chitwan we headed up to the hills to visit Tansen Hospital - the place where it all started for UMN over 50 years ago. It was lovely, a vibrant little town in the foothills of the Himalayas. In 1954, some missionaries entered Nepal on an ornothology expedition when the borders opened and while they were there they got the opportunity to do some medical work for a local dignatory and the rest as they say is history... UMN opened a hostpital and have been working in Nepal ever since.

Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there - totally relaxing, no pollution and nothing to do but get up, read, play with the kids and go for a walk. Great.

We got back to Kathmandu without too much trouble, only to find that elelctricity load shedding has gone up to 16 hours a day. What? Well we now have only 8 hours of electricity a day, 4 hours of which are in the middle of the night...

What does that mean? Well here are some examples:

1) All the lights are on low energy bulbs

2) Our stove-top kettle is constantly on stand-by for a quick cuppa

3) We are now dead happy when we get electricity in the morning as we can have toast for breakfast.

4) The fridge has a 'Do not disturb sign' so we don't open it when the electricity is off.

5) The electric blankets George brought back from Ireland? Well they only work 2 nights a week and the rest of the time it's wooly socks and 5 layers of thermals!

Some wider implications very evident around Kathmandu include:

1) Factories and shops closing because there is no power.

2) Noticably fewer vehicles on the roads as most of the electric 'tempos' or auto rickshaws are out of action as there isn't enough energy to recharge them.

3) The Kathmandu valley water supply has dropped as there isn't enough electricity to run the pumping system.

4) Hospitals are struggling to pprovide emergency care and patients are dying.

Meanwhile, Nepali VIPs are on a robust 24 hour electrical supply ring and remain fairly isolated from the discomfort of sporadic electricity...

But before I start sounding like a grumpy old man, despite all the hardships we're still loving it.

I moved into my office last week and have had a big smile ever since as this is easily the best job I've ever had and exactly what I've been looking for I'd say for the last 5 years. The kids are back at school and are full of it - Lulu is the cutest thing ever right now. George is in good form and has restarted her Nepali language at UMN. All in all, things are good. God rocks.

Anyway, enough of my ranting - hope things are good and remember when it's cold, at least you have central heating to go back to...

Load Shedding

2008-12-19T16:40:00.002Z

Hi guys,

I thought I'd just have to let you all know what's happening here in terms of our electricity over Christmas.

In Nepal and especially the Kathmandu valley Nepal Electricity Authority cannot produce enough electricity to meet the demmand, therefore they have introduced load shedding to reduce demmand and ration electricity until the next rains.

So what's it all about? Well basically they turn the plug off for so many hours a day and everyone just has to put up with it. Last week we were on 45 hours a week without power and then yesterday this went up to 63 hours a week and forecast for upto 14 hours a day. Totally Crazy.

What does 10 hours a day without electricity look like? The following is an exert from the lastest load shedding schedule and shows the times we're without power...

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

06:30-12:30

Morning/Day

17:00-21:00

Evening

08:30-14:30

Morning/Day

17:30-21:30

Evening

10:30-16:30

Morning/Day

21:30-01:30

Night

20:00-23:00

Night

00:30-06:30

Morning

16.00-20.00

Evening

02:30-08:30

Morning

16:15-20:15

Evening

04:30-10:30

Morning

16:30-20:30

Evening

We basically are eating our evening meal with the kids by low level 11W bulbs using our inverter and 2 big car batteries... the majority of folk will be using candles. Same is true for bath and bedtime - so bedtime stories are in the light of a single light bulb or hurricane light. Then as if that wasn't enough we're also unplugged for breakfast. So no toast, no cold milk (unless we leave it outside!), no fairy lights on our make do Christmas Tree. Thankfully we brought our gas top kettle so we can have a cup of tea but it is not much fun.

Then to top it all off I learned yesterday that the financial model the NEA are using to price hydro electricity projects in the country underplay the amount of money required to produce a KW of electricty and then undersut the selling price so it is actually more lucrative to sell direct to India... therefore we are unlikely to see a reduction in the number of hours without power for years.... and then I think of the Cochraines who were sent by PCI to the Algarve... what's wrong with this picture?

Christmas Mayhem

2008-12-13T09:52:00.008Z

Hi guys,

Sorry I'm getting a bit sluggish in updating this - truth is it's hectic and there's loads going on here in the run up to Christmas... as I'm sure it is with you guys...

Anyway, big news this time is:

1) I've started work - whooo hooo yiiipppeee hoot hoot!

Bev (the current strategy and policy director) is leaving at the end of the month (boo hiss) so I'm getting some time with her to hand over and get to grips with the stuff I've got to do. Bev's a big Obama fan so we arranged for him to come to her final Leadership Team meeting!!!

Well - it's brilliant - the work couldn't be better and there is loads of really interesting stuff going on. I can't wait to get stuck in.

2) The kids were at a great birthday party and had a mouth wateringly great game trying to eat doughnuts on strings without using their hands... what a laugh. Toby, being a perfectionist was v frustrated and was almost shouting at me to lower it a bit as his mouth dribbled and he couldn't quite get his teeth into the moist, sugared doughnut! Lulu and Ollie couldn't quite figure out what was wrong as they kept lunging at their prize only to find that it swayed out of the way and they got mouthfuls of air!

3) The kids have all had there Christmas plays!!! Wow - little heros. Ollie and Lulu were in the same play. Lulu was a red elf and sat through the whole play with a great outfit on and big red rosy cheeks... I'm not sure what she was meant to be doing but she spent most of the show looking cute and waving to George and I!

Ollie was a king polar bear - with two little cubs and stole the show with his solo - age 5! Talk about hairs on the back of my neck and big surges of parental pride! Toby was in a second play with P1 and P2 kids. He was Jack Frost and delivered a great 3 verse poem... I think he liked the idea of getting a good part but on the day he was wetting himself. He did brillantly though and the whole thing was great - fantastic outfits - maintly becuase it's pretty easy to find someone to do all the tailoring here!

4) George has been making Christmas cakes, and mince pies, and fudge, and ... actually while she was in Ireland the girls came round and made four Christmas cakes in our kitchen, yep there's Hillary with our laundry boal, mixing the cake mix on our floor. Nigella Express - not! Everything has turned out great and George has been inspired to modify a few recipees and see what we can make here for the fextive season. She's made her own mincemeat for the Christmas pies!!! And I've had one and am still standing!!!

Best news is that strawberries are on the Christmas menu, a lot of stuff isn't (no parsnips, or smokes salmon, no prawns, no melon, no stilton) but fresh in season strawberries are so we're looking for inspiration about what we can do with them!

5) Loadshedding - i.e. power cuts - are up to 45 hours a week! 7 hours a day when we don't have power - another reason why it's getting more difficult to keep the blog up to date. So far it's been ok but 4 week nights out of 5 we're either got to eat or bath the children by candle light or headtorch! Fun some of the time - mostly just a bit of a pain... Ah well - sure it's only electricity.

Anyway have a great Christmas time - I'll hopefully post something before hand... cheers

Traybakes

2008-12-02T14:36:00.004Z

mmm mmm mmm

Yes George is back from Ireland and she brought loads of goodies with her! I thought I'd list a few of the best bits from her luggage to give you an idea of what we're missing out here...

1) 5 kilos of traybakes!!! give it up for Ulster scran... you guys rock! Gillian thanks so much for the rocky road things and the white chocolate marshmallow things and yer man from the coffee shop provided some ace caramel squares, malteaser sqaures, lemon tops (my absolute favourite!) and 15s... wow.

2) A new laptop - totally tiny, and only 1.5 kilos. OK I'm a techie gadget boy, but this thing is brilliant and I've spent all week getting it set up and ready for the road when I strate heading off to remote parts of Nepal. It has a 9 hour battery!!! Totally fantastic.

3) An electric blanket - now this is sheer luxury - when we have electricity this thing is awesome... dual controlled and it turns itself off! I can't imagine what I did before we had it, no more icy cold beds for us.

4) Gobstoppers and strawbery laces from Curious Candy in Bangor - the kids nearly freaked out and it has taken them 3 days to finish off one of their gobstoppers! They were in sugar heaven. Lulu had gobstopper juice all over her and couldn't fit it in her mouth for the whole of the first day eating it!

5) Hot water bottles - yep do you get the feeling that it's cold out here? We've got three great hotties for the kids so they're snug as bugs now when they're off to bed. We've had a complete change of wardrobe here as it changed from sort of late september autumn to deep winter in 2 weeks!

6) Percy Pigs - Good ol' Marks & Spencers - percy and friends rock expect we all end up fighting over the cola ones... they are just too cool for skool.

7) Earl grey tea - darling! Of course there is tea out here but it's not Twinnings darling!

8) Angel Delight - well the kids have got to keep their E number ration up, they were basically getting withdrawal symptoms and a monkey on the back of 3 cheeky monkeys is not fun for anyone!!! Good ol' Angel Delight - tastes great out here.

There was loads of stuff - George went to Ireland with about 15 kilos and came back with 55!

Anyway there is loads of other news as you can imagine but I'll get to it over the next couple of weeks. Hope you are all cool.

Cheers...

Nell

2008-11-20T14:28:00.002Z

Hi guys,

Some / most of you will know by now that George's mum Nell died last Thursday at the hospice in Belfast.

5 weeks ago Nell had a sore leg. She was due to go to Newtownards for a simple day procedure for a hernia however when the doctor opened her up for the operation he spotted a large cancer and referred her straight to the Ulster Hospital. When we got back from trekking she was still in hospital and undergoing tests to determine the extent of the cancer.

A week later we were told that she had advanced lymphoma and complications were preventing the medical staff from starting chemotherapy or surgery. We were told to wait as they were monitoring her for a week... a week later, after receiving a number of texts telling us that she was out of bed and looking ok, I called the Doctor again and was told that on the morning of my call Nell had lost a lot of blood through internal bleeding and that if anyone was planning to return to Ireland we should go asap as it was 'a terminal event'.

Needless to say we made quick preparations for George to travel back to Ireland and we thank God that by 11.30pm on Friday 1st Nov, George had an e-ticket for the 9.00am flight out of Kathmandu. Unheard of efficiency!

As it turned out, Nell's bleeding wasn't terminal but it gave us time to prepare for her death and we were grateful that George got home in time to be with her in the final weeks.

The following week, Nell was advised of her treatment options, severe chemotherapy followed by surgery of the bowel and a 40% chance of recovery. Nell decided not to go through with this and after 2 days of negotiations with the medical team, she decided not to accept any further treatment. On Thursday 6th a central line replenishing key fluids was removed, blood supplied to replenish that lost from internal bleeding was stopped and Nell spent most of the time drifting in and out of sleep. On Tuesday 11th she was discharged from the Ulster and admitted to the hospice and early on Thursday morning she died. George was with her in the final moments.

A memorial service was held on Tuesday and now George is packing up and planning to return to Kathmandu.

She has had the hardest time at home, dealing with cross culture shock, her mum dying, her family reuniting under heavy stress, and discussions about her mother's belongings - all with her family 000's of miles away.

We marked Nell's memorial service here with the kids - a pink borganvillia, a photo, a story and some sweets. All our parcels from Nell have stopped and the last letter we had complained of a sore leg... very sad, very sudden and a great loss.

Work - or something like it!

2008-10-27T13:28:00.004Z

Hi guys,

Well last week has been a blast... I was pulled out of language for a few days for some serious work. Totally great. Only problem is that I'm gagging to get on with it but am having to go back to the language books :(

Ah well, last Monday we were discussing all operational stuff about how the current UMN teams were working and trying to figure out whether the current organisational structure was working. All good stuff. Nothing was quite resolved but it certainly started some good dialogue.

Wednesday night we were all taken out by the Moderator of the Church of Scotland (Right Rev David Lunan) Very nice, we were treated to a 6 course Nepali feast at Dewaris (or something like that), and it was delicious. Our menus arrived with our names on them and then once replete we were packed off with little individual terracotta tiles. V nice.

Thursday and Friday I was introduced to the joys of the UMN leadership team. All sorts of strategic and corporate issues were tabled and discussed with about 16 leadership folk. Brilliant. Thursday was Jennie (our Executive Director's birthday) so we all headed off to a nice restaurant for lunch, then back for more walking the talk!

Friday we finished off leadership team discussions and then got ready for a weekend away at Riverside Springs Resort. All for a team building sort of thing.

Well my first impression of full on work is, bring it on... it's hard work this missionary stuff but mighty rewarding!!! Nah only joking. This week was a blast and I can't wait to get stuck in for real but in the meantime I'll get on with past tense verb conjugations until Christmas!

This week we also heard out that George's mum isn't well so we would appreciate your prayers for that.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well.

Cheers,

Grenville

PS In case this sounds like we're living the high live and not flogging ourselves or wearing enough sack cloth... Riverside Springs was nice except that I managed to kill a rat trying to enter our little cottage and we had to leave our dinner half eaten as we were being eaten alive by mozzies... but they had bacon and we almost managed a fry up in the morning!

The Hills are Alive

2008-10-19T17:13:00.003+01:00

Hi guys,

What a difference a day makes, or several days in the midst of the Himalayas!!! Wow. Blue skies, v little rain and stupendous views of some of the highest mountains in the world! Amazing.

After a short time of recovery in between treks we met up with our language teacher, a guide and some Sherpa porters and struck out on our second jaunt up the mountains... this time hoping for a little more luxury, like a good night's sleep in a bed that didn't have leaches in it! And thankfully we were not disappointed.

We travelled with a new UMN family from Australia (the Young's) who have 2 boys around the same ages as our lot which was great. The first day was a gentle 3 hours walk following a river up the valley and then we headed up... straight up... 800 metres up stairs, rugged paths, past landslides and through villages and fields of rice. Fantastic. After less time than we had planned we arrived at our destination in Ghandruk. We checked into a pleasant family friendly lodge and settled in for a full day's rest in the village. It was beautiful. The clouds lifted and we were greeted with the sight of Fishtail mountain and Annapurna south, some 7200 odd metres above sea level. That night it was a full moon so we watched the mountains shine in the eerie blue night time sky. Totally awe inspiring.

Anyway, next day we toured the village and then calamity. As we were finishing off a drink at another look out spot, the boys ran into each other and Ollie split his head open. Just above the eye, which as you can imagine started bleeding terribly... Thankfully a group of German tourists had just arrived and they were well supplied with first aid kits and plasters etc so Ollie got cleaned up and plastered without any serious harm being done. He has got a ripper black eye though! His cut has healed really well although he'll have a small scar in his eyebrow. Toby survied without a scratch!

So calamities aside, the trek was great, we had a gentle walk downhill and then another night at the bottom of the valley by the river, then a short walk out to the road where we were picked up and brought back to Pokhora. In time honoured tradition we headed out for a slap up meal of steak and chips all round and then we headed back to KTM on Friday.

So now, it's Sunday night, everyone's in bed and we're getting ready for the school run tomorrow and the start of the second term at school. It was lovely to get back tot he house and we're feeling really settled into the oddities of life out here: Electricity is a luxury to be enjoyed when you have it, shops just don't have the stuff you want and things are never how you imagine they will be... but apart from that, life is good.

Here are some more photos from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/hopkinson.grenville/2008LOPTrek?authkey=ZzX9CYCIPKg#

Enjoy.

PS here do you like to see photos in the blog posts or be redirected to the online albums? Let me know in any comments etc. Cheers

Wash Out!

2008-10-11T10:17:00.003+01:00

Hi guys,

Well I'm writing this poolside in Pokhora!!! Yep there is wireless internet in the fancy hotel (the one we're not staying in!) and while the kids enjoy cooling off in the outdoor pool - I thought I'd put out a quick update on the first of our treks...

On September 23rd the Kathmandu Post proudly announced that the monsoon was over - and then the very next day the city was awash with flood waters that made the Belfast Westlink look lame! The newspaper held their ground declaring that the monsoon was still over and the floods were the first of the winter rain!

2 weeks and 5 nights in a tent later we have sadly concluded that the rains are still here! Last Sunday we headed off on our Royal Trek - into the hills just south of Pokhora and with stunning views of the whole Annapurna range. So called because this is the route Prince Charles was taken on during his visit to Nepal some years ago

Our first day started well as we hit the road, Lulu in a doko (wicker basket thing) being carried by a porter and the boys keeping up with the help of a gaggle of 9 kids! (we were travelling with 2 other missionary families which worked out really well. After about 4/5 hours walking we got to our destination... a disused rice paddy about 5 mins from the nearest village. Our dinning tent was put up and we sat down to enjoy some sweet black tea and popcorn. Just as we were finishing off it started to rain and our tea time ended with Paul (one of the other dad's) saying that out tents were in fact in a khet (a rice paddy) and that khets were made to keep water from draining out of them as rice needs a lot of water... at this point lightning struck and thunder roared and when we had to put up uimbrellas inside the tent we decided to head off to our own family tents... I have never seen a storm like it, the lightning came thick and fast and the thunder was directly over hear - we were totally exposed and everyone was scared... 1 hour later we were ankle deep in our tent as the water had come in over the ground sheets and our sleeping bags were floating about on foam mattresses. I managed to rescue 2/3 of our kit but we figured the night in the tent was a no go... in the midst of the storm we made a break for the village and ended the night in a v basic Nepali guest house... If we had seen it at 4.00pm we would never have stayed in it, but as it was it seemed like a God send - so we bedded down, like drowned rats but pleased to be out of the rain...

So things didn't exactly get off to a good start. Next morning we were greeted with some great views of the mountains so we cheered up a bit.

Another day's walk brought us to a lovely camping spot at the back of a Nepali families home. We had sent 3 tents back to Kathmandu so half of our group had to camp and the others had to stay in lodges or whatever was available... Anyway the send night, George got the short straw and stayed in the house, she slept on a straw mat on a table, while Ollie was on the floor and Lulu was on a small bed. With 4 doors into the room it wasn't exactly private. The night was spent listening to rats up above and then a 4.30am the porters started preparing breakfast right outside so everyone had very little sleep. I don't think Prince Charles got this sort of service!

With our expectations set somewhat lower we enjoyed the rest of the trek - the village we stayed in on the 3rd night was excellent and we woke to some fantastic mountain views...

Anyway our take home message from the 1st camping trek was that getting back to Pokhora is one of the best bits!!! Naw that's a bit harsh. All in all we had a blast but it was up and down with highs and lows...

Anyway a selection of our photos is online here: http://picasaweb.google.com/hopkinson.grenville/2008RoyalTrek?authkey=Ph44FDsL1Fo#

Tomorrow we head off on a more organised tea house trek up to a lovely village - the only drawback is that we've got to speak Nepali the whole way!!!

Celebrate!

2008-10-03T14:52:00.004+01:00

Forgive me father for I have sinned - it has been 2 weeks since my last confession!!!

Yes - sorry about the slack posting over the last couple of weeks - no excuse really except that we've been dead busy and we actually have a social life!!! At last!!!

Well since I last wrote something all sorts have happened.

The Sunday before last I went on a superb bike ride with some new found friends. Martin, Mike and Catriona... we headed out of Kathmandu and into the hills and I actually noticed that over the past 2 months I've gotten a little fitter... We went up a killer hill which totally defeated me on my first ride out and I actually managed to get to the top without falling off, having to walk or blowing a gasket and sweating like a pig!!! So progress is being made!

As if that wasn't good enough, Martin (the keenest and strongest of the lot) took us up the hill of death where all but 1 of us had to walk our bikes to the top... but it was worth it with 30 full minutes of downhill!!! Where would you find that in Ireland? Anyway, attached are a few snaps of the trip courtesy of Mike:

It is soo good to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and discover some of the villages and stuff - and then the sun comes out and it's even better...

Anyway, last Wednesday was my birthday - yep I'm now as old as George!!! I suppose it's normal but as a new 36 year old I struggled with the idea of getting kitchen appliances for my birthday - it's not really very adrenalin is it??? We had decided that my birthday presented as good an opporunity as any to fork out for a juice and blender so we can make the most of the cheap and delicious fruit here and at the same time hopefully convince Ollie that fruit is good... Thankfully our tests so far have proved successful - who needs innocent smoothies anyway? However Ollie is yet to be convinced!!!

George out did herself by organising a total surprise birthday meal - and the kids even kept it a secret!!! We were all heading out to the Roadhouse for pizzas and the kids kept saying that we were going to have a nice quiet family meal and then when we got there it was anything but quiet! 16 kids, 10 or so parents, about 10 pizzas, cake and lots of shouting and cheering!!! Good effort - totally the worng night to go to the Roadhouse if you were not in our group. You know what I mean? I felt awful but we had a great time and George did brilliantly!

Last weekend we had all the parent and kids from Toby's class round to the house as George is the class rep for Year 2. It turned out that about a uarter of the class turned up but there were some really ineresting parents there so it was good fun and a good chance to see outside the usual missionary circle.

Then finally the last few days have been spent witnessing the cultural spectacle which is the UMN family celebration. What started out as a conference for the expat workers here has evolved into a fully Nepali programme of games, presentations, sketches, dances and songs reminisent of a Scripture Union camp talent contest! What a laugh!!! All UMN employees and their familes came to Kathmandu for 3 days (actually a lot of them are based here but travel to remote parts of Nepal for their work) to learn more about UMNm it's work and vision and create a family firm type of atmosphere. There were scores of meetings and presentations, bible studies and worship focused on sharing The Word and current activites of UMN. But what a luagh. Imagine the last night show from an SU houseparty and you are pretty much their. Nepalis love audience participation and the simpler the format the more fun everyone will have. They played musical chaires for 2 hours! 3 man tug of war nearly brought the house down! Darts - where everyone threw at dart and those lucky enough to hit the board got a sweet had everyone lining up in an effort to prove they could do it! Anyway it was a blast. They even had a CSSM style programme for the kids which was brilliant.

It was all going swimmingly and then at lunch, George was stuggling with 5 plates of rice and curried veg (while I was doing our team proud in the corporate tug of war competition) when she scooped up some rice only to find that the biggest fattest grain was actually a maggot!!! Still wriggling!!! and like any good missionary she picked it out and left it to wriggle it's way off somewhere else!!! Urrrgghhh... after that it was a little difficult to eat our rice as we had to keep double taking single grains to see if they were in fact edible!!!

Anyway, it's all good.

Tomorrow we're off for 2 weeks to Pokhora for some trekking. It should be brilliant. We're off on the Royal Trek (so named as this is where Prince Charles was taken on his trip to Nepal) and then on a language trek to Ghandrung where we will have to speak solid Nepali for 4 days - arrghhh!!!

OK take it easy,

Grenville

Stuffed

2008-09-18T16:09:00.004+01:00

Hi guys,

Well it's now officially 2 months since we've been in Kathmandu and there are certainly some signs that things are settling down...

1) The kids know not to wash their teeth with tap water

2) The nights that we do have electricity seem like a bonus rather than it being annoying when we don't have it

3) Dahl Baht (rice and dahl) seems like a good option on a menu

4) Taking our shoes off to go into someone's house seems normal

5) Cylcing out into rushing traffic and dodging buses/taxis/motorbikes etc is commonplace

6) There's no rush - things can always be done tomorrow

7) Seatbelts?

8) The kids actually ask for water at meal times

9) 7.00am is a lie in - prayer bells and dogs at 5.30am is less of an issue

10) Chocolate spread is a treat

However there are some things that we will just have to miss - chocolate... decent coffee... real croisants... walking down to ballyholme beach...

Ah well - dry yer eyes!

Things this week continue to be good and we feel really blessed for the house we've got and the friends we've met here.

Some folk have asked for photos of school etc so here are a few shots of us cycling to school - the roads are pretty quiet in the mornings but the pick up and cycle home is jaw dropping! Good job everyone goes a bit slower and are more aware of what is happening on the road.

This week we got caught out... we've got lovely Christian neighbours next door and we've been meaning to invite them over for coffee or something and then this week it caught up with us... On Monday George bought a momo cooker... (a what?) ok its like a big steamer that cooks the local delicacy called momo - dumpling like things stuffed with chicken, veg or something --- as per the photo.
Anyway we thought we'd try it out but double up tea time in case the kids didn't like them so we had a slap up feast of pasta followed by momos (about 20 of them as they come in packs of 10 and we wanted to try 2 flavours) and then topped off with carrot cake and ice cream... We were stuffed and just getting the kids up for bath time and bed etc when we got a knock on the door and an invite over to the neighbours for a spot of birthday cake. Sounded great - very kind and we couldn't possibly say no. So unwittingly we headed over next door, took our shoes off, tried to remember not to point our feet at folk in the room, sat down on the only chairs in the room, smiled and tried our best Nepali. (I had just learnt to say China is to the north of Nepal!!!) Very useful in these situations - NOT. Anyway we oohhed and aahhed at the cake appropriately, prayed, sang this is the day in Nepali and English and then tucked into the cake. Then as we were trying to figure out how to say thanks and make a sharp exit we caugtht sight of the platter of food that had been prepared...

In came a full on feast - not just Dhal Baht, but rice, dhal, meat, chicken doing something, potatoes doing something else (aloo), spinach salad, vegetable curry, popadoms and chipatis!!!

George and I looked at each other and both decided we couldn't refuse it so we put on brave faces and chomped our way through the lot trying to make as many appreciative noises as possible... I couldn't sleep because my tummy was soooo full!

Ah well.

Hope you're all in good form and it's great hearing from you.

Kung Foo Panda

2008-09-11T15:30:00.006+01:00

Hi guys - well it's that time again... remember I was telling you about Lulu doing Yoga, well now Toby is doing Karate! Yep, every Friday afternoon he dons his white suit and starts whacking imaginary targets kung foo style!

At school he's got 3 or 4 black belts training him and he comes home all hot and bothered after a good kung foo work out! Well why not?

Lulu and Ollie are still enjoying themselves although Ollie still reckons that Bangor is better than here :( Hopefully that will change.

George is in great form and even has head room to start sewing pom poms onto our cushions in the living room - obviously a good sign that things are begining to settle down here.

We've got ourselves a new 'bahini' or little sister, to help us at home and she is excellent (thanks Ali and Mark Gill and Roger Cooke). Saburna is great. She speaks excellent English and has even been cooking us the best Ulster fare like Irish Stew and Quiche!!!! What a relief! It's made such a difference for us.

Typically our week is as follows:

Monday to Thursday we each have language class for 3 hours a day, then in the afternoon we'll pick up the kids and either go swimming (it is still warm enough for outdoor swimming so we're getting as much in as we can to get our value from a hotel membership!) or head off to the zoo or something. There's still some house stuff to get sorted so we'd do that aswell. Then on Friday George and I have time off to do some exploring and Kathmandu cultural stuff - so last week we went clothes shopping....

Now this isn't the cop out you might think it is!!! We got a bus to the other side of town and then headed to a fabric shop where we found all sorts of cloth and finally picked out some linen stuff which then had to be soaked before going to the tailor for fittting... it's a bit of a lottery when it comes down to it... our best option so far is to bring something we like so that the tailor can copy it. Otherwise we end up with Punjabi trousers and kaftan tops... not exactly the rage!

Other news is that we actually have a bed! Yes 7 weeks of sleeping on the floor is over and we have an IKEA replica bed made from real wood and surprisingly well made. We're dead pleased - now if only we can get our rock hard mattresses to give a little we'll be comfortable!

Right that'll do for now I hope your all cool and keep the comments and emails coming. Thanks for the post and a really big thanks for the 4 parcels - they are the envy of the office!

Sorry for the spam mail by the way (about shopping or something) I got hit with it and it has deleted all my contacts so I can't even warn everyone to ignore the spam. Sorry.

Oh yeah - check out this for subliminal marketing:

Now is it my imagination or are those two scoops of Ice cream a bit phallic! And if that isn't enough to convince you maybe the strap line will... not sure if you can see it in the photo but it's 'a dream with cream!' Enjoy

Toby is 7!

2008-09-01T16:03:00.008+01:00

Hi guys,

Well - Google analytics told me that 50+ folk read my last post the day it went up and then about another 20 folk have read it since then - so I'm well excited and encouraged to keep up my rantings / updates!

Since the last installment we've been up to all sorts...

The kids are getting well into the swing of their new school - I'm sure everyone at home will be just getting into the school routine again - getting kids up, washed, breakfasted, lunches made and out in time for school is a nightmare eh? We have to leave the house by 8.00am for the suicidal walk to school and arrive by 8.15am and then classes at 8.30am.

After her initial shock and realisation that school was more like a life sentence than a coffee morning, Lulu has settled in well and is, get this, earning house points for Anapurna house, for doing things like colouring in and saying 'Good morning Miss Susan!'. The latest news is that Lulu is doing Yoga. Yep we reckon the teacher is taking the mickey, getting 20 under 4s to lie down, sit in the Lotus position and shrug their shoulders to relax but it must be a good giggle. Lulu showed us her routine and we nearly wet ourselves!

Ollie is loving the British School as there is loads of space and a mini farm on site with Ducks, Rabbits, Cows and Fish and Toby is doing really well. We had to go to a family assembly last Friday because Toby was performing an episode of Katy Morag and reciting some poems. All great fun.

George and I are deep into language training and I could dazzle you with some wild Nepali but my keyboard can't handle the script so you'll have to take my word for it! (Well it's as good an excuse at any at this stage!)

Friday just past Toby was 7. We can't believe it, but then it happens I suppose. He did brilliantly - all his pressies were wrapped in the Kathmandu Post (newspaper) but he didn't mind and we had a party on Saturday. 12 kids running round the house. I'd lined up a load of CSSM-style games but the boys were less than enthralled. As soon as they saw the table football machine upstairs it was a no go on the games front. Even the roll the dice, dress up and chomp the chocolate game failed to deliver. Actually I noticed that the only kids interested at this stage were the missionary ones (obivously chronically deprived of chocolate) whereas the more fortunate kids are used to getting chocies out here!

All good fun though and the video should give you an idea of how it all went...

Things to point out:

1) Yep Toby's pressies were wrapped in newspaper!
2) George and I are still waiting on our bed being made!
3) The hippo at the zoo was trying to eat us through his cage
4) George's cake wouldn't come out of the loaf tin - but despite appearances it tasted great
5) The birthday tea sausages are made of chicken here... boo hiss :(

Right take it easy and I'll post something in a few days.

Back to Front

2008-08-21T15:40:00.005+01:00

Hi guys,

Well I've been thoroughly encouraged by the number of folk actually bothering to read the blog - good on you all - give yerselves a pat on the back and a big round of applause...

I've come to the conclusion that some things in Kathmandu are just plain back to front... the top ten things which we've noticed are different from home are listed on the side, but there are some plain nonsense stuff like this:

I saw this the other day on my way back from work and was wondering what on earth she was trying to tell us? Are we to clear off and not bother her about what she is feeding her kids? Is she telling us that it takes 2 minutes? Or is it that there are 2 special ingredients in the noodles? I'm all out of suggestions but I thought it was definitely an advert that wouldn't go down well at home!

Anyway this week has been spent trying to figure out what the Nepali alphabet is all about:

There are 36 consonants, 10 vowels and 10 symbols for shortening the vowels and if that wasn't bad enough there are rules for writing joint letters, making nasal sounds that are just wrong for English speakers! It's taken 2 weeks but both George and I have now learnt the alphabet and are now able to start on lessons proper!!! only 19 more weeks left!!! Long slog?

George and the kids got bikes on Tuesday so since then the boys have been cycling to school - which is not for the faint hearted!

The routine for this weeks is that we drop the kids off for school at 8.15, then get down to the office just after 8.30am and then we're in language until 12.00 and then it's either lunch in the UMN garden or back up to pick up kids and organise some sort of play activity for the afternoon. Pretty normal really - except that it's Kathmandu and things just aren't really UK style normal.

This is the queue for petrol: Believe it or not this is one of the smaller queues I counted 196 bikes the other day waiting for petrol and there are newspaper articles about taxi drivers waiting 24 hours to get 10 litres of fuel... what a nightmare.

It definitely puts you off buying a car or bike... anyway did I tell you I bought a great mountain bike last week? Oh man.. can't believe it, it's the best bike I've owned: What a beauty! I took it out last Sundat morning and it is fantastic. Nepal and the Kathmandu valley boasts some of the world's best mountain biking so hopefully I'll be able to get to sample some of it!!! The uphills are a killer though! The highlight of the Sunday cycle was cycling over a small suspension bridge something akin to Carrick-a-Rede except twice as long! Good job I didn't look down.

Anyway - that's all for now - I hope you are all in good form, post a comment or fire me a mail if you want to get in touch.

Take it easy...

Double Dose!

2008-08-16T16:02:00.004+01:00

Wow - 2 posts in one day! Well one was sort of left over from last time and this is just aquick update...

Well the big news this week is that the kids have started school - I know the poor soles only got 6 weeks of their summer break but we have the term dates for the new school and they're not going to miss out.

Saturday we took them for a haircut... Not quite Toni and Guy but beggars can't be choosers!

Toby went first and then a reluctant Ollie jumped onto the hot seat... the guy was using a cut throat razor so we had to bribe the boys to sit still as we didn't want them missing an ear or something! Anyway thankfully we ended up with two sharp looking haircuts, no mishaps all for the grand total of 75p - not bad. (Maybe our £9000 allowance will stretch for the year!)

Sunday we stocked up at our local Tescos...

OK it's not really a Tescos but it's local and we can leave a list with the Didi (Older Sister) and a little boy on a bike will deliver it... they've sort of got everything you need (so long as you only need basic things like rice, oil, four etc!)

Monday was the big day and the were all up at the crack of dawn -possibly due to excitement or probably because all the dogs in Kathmandu seem to have a fight right outside our window at 5.00am every morning... Anyway, by the time we surfaced at 7.00am Toby was dressed with his back pack on so we figured he was keen to get going...! At 8.00 we left the house and walked to school...

They loved it! First off we had a bit of a scare as we lined them up for their classes and the teachers had no idea who they were and we thought they had not in the end been registered at the school!!! It turned out that they had been slotted into the wrong classes so we had to spend the morning getting that sorted... but we got there in the end. Toby's class is excellent 16 boys, 10 girls from all over the place, Ollie's class is a bit of amix with 3 British girls and a 'global' mix of boys and Lulu's nursery group seems lovely. Day 2 Lulu walked in as if she owned the place and by Day 3 I noticed that the Headmistress greeted us with a 'Hello boys and oh Hello Lulu' so she's already made an impression!

Anyway, they managed the week and we're having a relaxing weekend as they are all wrecked with the new schedule. But we're doing well. The house is feeling a bit more like home and we've made some new friends which is great.

Right hope you're keeping up - let me know if there is anything specific you'd like us to cover and I'll see what I can do... Take care. Grenville and the gang

Toby's House Tour (again!)

2008-08-09T06:41:00.003+01:00

OK - I'll try again as I know a few of you would like to see where we're living...

Yeah I know - cane furniture??? What else can we do - we can't speak Nepali and non-cane furniture is way expensive...

Table football on the roof - what a move (although I thought Toby's delivery was a bit flat!) Mini world cups here we come.

OK Sorry it took so long to get this on the blog... technical hitch and user issues!

Cheers

Bonkers!

2008-08-07T09:27:00.006+01:00

Hi guys - well have I got some news for you!!! It seems like ages since I updated the blog and loads of stuff has happened... trouble is I don't know how to catch it all...

First off there was customs. OK picture the scene - a developing country, millions of people living in and around the poverty line, a middle class with motor bikes and the occasional car, a mushrooming NGO sector with good / bad things to say about the UN - one criticism is that they are only seen driving massive, new 4x4s around town... well we got to the airport to be greeted by this:

I say the criticisms are unfounded!!! I only counted 42 vehicles and they looked at least 6 months old!

Anyway, customs was great - way busy and lots of folk shouting and touting bits of paper signed in triplicate - we got everything through ok. Here are the barrels!

The official was lovely and when he heard I was with UMN he took it a bit easier - first thing he found when he opened our barrels were Lulu's butterfly wings (from the dressing up box!) After that he just waved us through.

Everything was thrown about everywhere - like so: If you look carefully you'll notice that each of the boxes being thrown around is marked 'fragile handle with care' - yeah right. Anyway on reflection I thought the Nepali customs proceedure was fair, not like our experience in Kenya where we were asked for presents at every opportunity - here they just make it a bit of an ordeal but are transparent and we paid peanuts to get our stuff through.

Then there is the stuff we need to know to live in the house:

1) The gas - everything here runs on gas and there are widespread gas shortages across Kathmandu at the moment so it is almost impossible to get a gas cylinder. We managed to get one the week we moved in but it currently takes 3 weeks to get it refilled so we're looking around for a replacement...

2) The water - ok in Bangor we turn on the tap and get fresh water and we think we're going green if we do our washing on a low temperature etc... here the tap water is a no go, (try getting the kids to work that out when they are brushing their teeth?!) not only that but it turns out that there is a water shortage and the water mains system only pumps water near your house at certain times a day, therefore you need to pump from the main into your holding tank when it is available. Like you've got to catch it when it is being pumped past! Then you've got to pump it to the top of the house to build up pressure for the taps etc. So we've got to monitor how we use our water, for the first week the kids were showering in buckets and then the water was being re-used to flush the loo or for washing the clothes! We've eased off a bit but still have to recycle the water where possible and can't use over 500l per day or we'll run out!

3) Fuel - thankfully we don't have a vehicle but the queues for fuel have to be seen to be believed - I'll put some up sometime

4) Electricity - yep there are regular power cuts which you need to be prepared for...

Anyway, we're surviving and the house is begining to feel like a home - by the way the curtains that we were waiting for during the last post were a disaster - they arrived and were a totally different colour from the swatch that we were given. It turns out the swatch was just very dirty! It's all been sorted so we now have curtains...

Toby will give you a short video tour of the house (if the technology works!) Nope I've tried loads of times but will try again another time.

Right that's it for now - take it easy and it's good to know so many folk are reading the blog.

Good stuff - I'm off to start my language study - trying to get my head round the Nepali script!

Bonkers.

Progress

2008-07-31T07:49:00.005+01:00

Ok we're in... We moved in last Saturday and have made tiny steps of progress each day. Although sometimes it feels like it is 1 step forward and 2 back!

This is our house...

I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture but we are very close to our neighbours, like I mean very close - last night George and I were sitting in our living room and I'm sure I heard the guy next door fart! No joke.

This is our living room...

Yes pistachio and chocolate seems to be standard fare in Nepali interior design, all our walls are lime green, and all the floors and skirting boards are choclote brown. Yummy! All our rooms were bare when we moved in but slowly by slowly we are getting somewhere with furniture. We now have a cane sofa, table and chairs in the living room and will hopefully have some curtains by the end of today!

This is the view from the roof... It's great, we've got 3 balconies - 1 from the living room looking out front, 1 on the second floor with space for an outside table etc and then we have the top floor which looks out over the hills (these are just hills, the mountains are way higher!).

Anyway it's great but living here takes a little getting used to...

Just as an example, we moved last Saturday, had a play date with another UMN family and then returned to our house for our first night and guess what? There was a power cut - all round Kathmandu there is electricity 'load shedding' because they don't have the infrastructure to meet electricity demmand so right now we're on 2.5hour power cuts 3 times a week. (It's rises to 50+ hour cuts per week in the winter!) So we arrived in the dark, spent the next 15 mins looking for our torches, in rucksacks, day bags and barrels, bathed the kids by torch light and then had to peg up some curtains in their rooms to prevent them waking at 5.00 in the morning! Nightmare.

Since then things have gotten a little better - but it takes ages to make progress.

Sunday morning I tried to connect our cooker and tripped all the electrics in the house...

Monday we had our first cup of coffee, but were struggling with the water here - it's a long story

Tuesday we discovered the German bakery round the corner and managed coffee and croisants for brakfast!

Wednesday we got our sofa delivered and managed to get broadband installed - but not in that order, for a while we literally had wi-fi internet but no furniture!

And today we're getting curtains!

Who knows what dizzy heights of progress we will scale tomorrow!

The Eagle has landed!

2008-07-25T18:02:00.002+01:00

Well, I've just read the last post and sooooo much has happened since then.....

Unfortunately the last thing I did before leaving home was to fiddle with my camera memory card (unsuccessfully) so I've been out of photos for the last week. Sorry. I fixed it last night though and managed to get some shots today so next post there'll be some pics. Honest.

Well, I tell you, leaving home was hard.

But our time in the Cotswolds was a God send, we totally chilled and then were able to think about arriving in Nepal without the distraction of saying good bye.

The flight was great. Manchester and then Doha (Qatar) to Kathmandu. The kids loved the plane, I don't think Toby could believe it, unlimited video and computer games, plus food and drink all night!!! Everyone did well and then when we arrived in Doha we literally walked off our flight, through transfers and then straight onto the Kathmandu leg. Total winner, although if we'd known it was going to be so tight George would have freaked! Her train fever had us arriving for check in 45 mins before they opened!!!

Arriving has been great, we have softened the trauma by checking into a lovely hotel (3 Star just in case you think we're taking the micky!) near to our new house.

Our first outing was to check out the new house. It is fab (photos to follow), way bigger than we thought and in a great spot between shops and restaurants (Nepali style though in case your thinking of Richmond or the lisburn Road!) The house is bare. I mean totally bare, anything that wasn't nailed down has been lifted... actually now I come to think of it, even stuff that has been nailed was taken to so we've been left with walls (freshly painted) and doors plus 2 kitchen cupboards and a couple of school carpets in a few rooms.

Anyway the hotel has been great coz we can come and go to the house and slowly get it habitable. Tonight is our last night of luxury before we move in tomorrow... watch this space

No going back!

2008-07-16T15:40:00.004+01:00

Hi guys,

Well the time has come... tomorrow we leave Northern Ireland and embark on our epic edventure to Nepal... mmm... how do we feel?... we're wetting our pants!

This last week has been a blur of packing, stacking and removing stuff from our house and we have finally cleared everywhere and squeezed everything we can possibly get away with into our blue barrels!

After the panic of figuring out what out of our 680kg freight we could possibly do without, we have now shrunk our belongings to about 450kg... over 60 of which is books and about 60 is a big table football table. Ok not the typical item for missionaries to take away, but I reckoned it would make a great Christmas pressie for the kids and (stupidly) we decided that our primary criteria for chossing one had to be weight... that's right we deliberately decided to opt for the heaviest we could find - well the way I figured it was that the light ones take such a beating and the rods come off etc so we'd better play it safe and go for a mega one. Anyway, it is heavy but will be worth it!

The coffee machine is out (well it actually never got in as the barrel opening was too narrow!), the KitchenAid mixer is out, the computer speakers are out, the sewing machine is out, the hair clippers are out, the doll's house is out, the kids bikes and scooters are out... you see? It's been a real sacrifice!

So our barrels are packed... they've been taking up space in our garage but today they were collected and are now enroute to Kathmandu.

See you all in a week!

Our house is bare and we're ready to go. It's been difficult enough trying to leave and we have been so focued on leaving that we haven't had a chance to focus on arriving - if you know what I mean. Sunday I started blubbing in church as it's hard to say goodbye to folk when we don't know exactly how long we'll be away for and it feels like we're going for a long time...

Family good byes have been hard but we know that God has put this in front of us and we've been reminded of the words of Joshua...

'Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.'

How cool is that? That's why God rocks, not only is He the creator of everything but He careas about each of us enough to be bothered about the minutia of our lives, packing up, leaving, saying goodbye to family, He's been there and He wants us to know it's going to be OK.

So there you have it... we're hanging on to His word and holding on tight to His promises.

Meanwhile, UMN have been fantastic in all of this, they have been emailing us about airport arrivals, visas and updates on our house. It's great to know we've got a place where we're going and that people are waiting to greet us when we arrive. Thanks.

OK - we're in England until Monday - I'll probably post something before we go. Hope so.

Ollie

2008-07-09T13:43:00.003+01:00

Hi,

I thought I'd send a special post for Ollie today as he has just had his 5th brithday...

Ollie is our number 2 son - he's great fun, loads of energy and a keen sense of humour. He's a little unsure of going to Nepal. He can't remember our time in Kenya very well so is all a bit unsure of what he's in for.

Check out below for a little snap shot of what Ollie. He's brilliant.

So yesterday Ollie had his birthday and he was loaded with pressies... a rockin guitar & keyboard, Cars cars (if you know what I mean), a bug safari kit - which I'm sure will get lots of use in Nepal, a cool helet that turns your voice into a robot's and a cool make it yourself dino bot kit from the Science museum... all in all a good haul!

He's not sure about Nepal - but got a birthday card from UMN - very nice - and is going to miss Stormont - not the hot bed of NI political activity - more the big adventure play ground with cool slides!

Anyway apart from Ollie's birthday this week has seen us - pack, weigh, unpack and repack our blue barrels, pack our living room, sort our finances while we're away, sort out our tax status, pack our kitchen, sort our utilities and then I'm best man for 'Big Dave' tomorrow so I've been writing my best man speech!!! All a bit hectic, but then what else can you expect?

So keep blogging and let me know if there is stuff you want / don't want to see.

I know it's strap line is exploits of a young family in Nepal and we haven't even got there yet but I thought it would be worthwhile starting before we go...

Take it easy,

Grenville

Family Farewells...

2008-06-28T17:11:00.006+01:00

First off - sorry for the delay in getting the blog updated over the last week - we've been in England saying the first of our family farewells to Grenville's eldest sister Julie and big brother Patrick... sniff sniff.

We've had a blast though - last week started with Grenville taking the kids on a Dadz n kidz camping weekend in Henley. Beautiful spot, great fun, shame about the weather as we spent most of the time either getting rained on, thinking we were going to get rained on, or grateful that the rain was thining! Home from home...

George went off for the day in London - sampling the delights of Borough Market and then a spa day with Helen (our sister-in-law).

The rest of the week has been a blast - Monday we went strawberry picking in blazing sunshine - we even got Ollie to try one!

Tuesday we were off to London to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum... Everyone managed the train and tube travel OK and at the museum Lulu donned the pitt helmet and binoculars to become an intrepid explorer... The dinosaurs were excellent - especially the moving T-Rex. After the museum, we travelled back through Paddington - not just to see the famous bear but to pick up some fresh Krisy Kremes - y'know the gourmet doughnuts? Absolutely fantastic... unlikely to find any of those in Kathmandu :(

Wednesday we hit Coral Reef - magic pool with flumes and river rapids etc... (no photos I'm afraid as I don't have an underwater camera)

Thursday we headed off to the country to say good-bay to Grenville's sister Julie. We fed the horses and then scared sheep while flying kites in their fields! It was lovely to see her but sad to actually have to say good-bye as we are unlikely to see her before we head off.

Friday we headed off to Legoland - wow - the kids were blown away and we had a great time, all the better for going as two families with our cousins etc. The rides were great I think the favourites were the wet ones - especially the Viking barrel ride... great criac.

So it's been a great week - but tomorrow we head back to Bangor and will have to say our second family farewell... the 17th July is coming around very fast.

Commissioned

2008-06-16T10:42:00.003+01:00

Hi guys,

First of a I'd like to say a big thank you to all of you who were able to come to our commissioning service yesterday. Wow.

We had a great time it was like a wedding or something as we got to speak to everyone and we felt truly blessed to have such a strong church family supporting us while we are away. Thanks so much.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with PCI missionary ways - George and I had to have a formal 'commissiong' where we are presented to the church are 'charged' with our mission assignment. Basically it's a big get together celebration of our faith, our church and our work ahead.

In the morning yesterday we had an informal farewell service at West where Toby told eveyone what he was doing and what he would miss about home and I was able to give a short presentation about mission and what we will be doing in Nepal... watch this space for a short video clip of the service...

In the evening we had all the Presbytery officials conducting the service and we really rocked the house... I got a chance to support the praise and we set the scene with 'Oh Happy Day' and 'Power in the Blood' it was brilliant. Charles then gave a lovely sermon on love and Ephesians and we were totally at peace knowing that our church family will hold us in their prayers.

George and I took our vows and then it was coffee and tray bakes all round after.

All in all George and I had a great time - it was such a lovely day - although I was a wreck by the end of it! Crying during the line up on the way out etc - but hey it was all good.

So thanks again to all of you who could make it.

Like a ship or a piece of art we are now on our way... commissioned and officially sent out by the church at home...

Sorrry I don't have any photos or stuff yet - I'll put them up when I get a chance.

In case we're never seen again!

2008-06-07T14:44:00.002+01:00

Ok not be a worry mongerer or anything... but before we go we've got to sort out our will. Ordinarily I suppose this shouldn't cause too much concern, but when you're talking through scenarios such as all of us getting killed, George and I getting killed, the kids getting killed etc... it's not very nice. Especially as it comes days after we had our 'security training' where we were taught how to enter security checkpoints, get out of the car in an ambush situation and what to do when you get hooded by terrorists!

And then on the other hand we're trying to convince our families that we're only going for a few years and we'll be back before they know it.

Anyway... with all that in mind we got these photos taken by our friends Janet and Kenny. Take a look at the mini movie of their shots. These guys are great so if you like their shots take a look at www.grapephotography.com to see more of their work.

So there it is... if we go AWOL in Nepal at least you'll all have something to remember us by! Here's hoping it doesn't come to all that.

Packing

2008-06-05T15:31:00.005+01:00

Hi guys,

Well it's almost 6 weeks until we leave... and the panic is setting in.

Right now, we're up to our eyes in packing our house. We're going to be leaving this one...

for something like this...

Fortunately UMN have found us a whole house - which is a start as we had thought we might have to get by with one or two floors of a house and if you know our kids you'll know that that would have been a bit of a challenge!

We've seen a few photos of our new house... it's not quite as bad as the above photo as it's got a small garden and a nice roof top terrace (quite Parisian - until you look closely!)

Knowing what we're moving into is helpful and has given us the impetus to clear the clutter and get ready for the move. As a result we got lots of these...

So far we're dumped loads of stuff, taken bags of clothes to the charity shops and have got a mountain of stuff for a car boot / ebay sale over the next few weeks. It is amazing how much stuff you gather especially with a young family.

We're hoping for a car boot at the weekend to clear some more and then we can tackle the kids playroom and the kitchen.

Estimated date of departure is 17th July so it's getting closer! We're off to England from the 19th to say good-bye to family and then when we get back we'll be packing for serious!

Packing however is not the end of it - when we get to the other side we are in for some careful negotiations with Nepali customs and excise who are likely to make us pay BIG for anything electrical or modern! So we would consider you prayers in this regard - although I'm sure there'll be more news nearer the time. Right now we'd ask for wisdom to know what to bring and success in getting the essentials into the country safely.

OK take it easy - please feel free to contact me before we go.

What are you doing?

2008-05-23T11:20:00.003+01:00

Well, I thought I'd post a little bit about what we're actually going to do in Nepal...

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world (ranked 142 out of 177 by UNDP) with low household incomes and stark inequalities between urban and rural communities. A strict caste system, a 10-year conflict and strong gender bias has left the majority of Nepali people without access to basic education and health services.

UMN seek to serve the people of Nepal in the 'name and spirit of Christ' focusing on poverty aleviation through integral mission and social action. UMN are emerging from a period of transition where they have moved from implementing development projects to supporting implementation by Nepali partner organisations. UMN believe this is key to ensuring greater equity and sustainability of development activities in Nepal.

So what does UMN's Strategy and Development Policy Director actually do?

As far as I can gather at this stage, I'll be working with UMN’s Leadership team to deliver the current strategic plan, develop a new strategic plan, support development policy dialogue and assist the annual planning process.

UMN work from 7 clusters across the country so much of my time will be spent visiting each area to help build up a picture of the local issues communities are dealing with. As part of UMN's advocacy role, and to inform development policy I will hopefully be involved in national policy debates for Nepal. I'll also be put to task to build strong relationships with institutional donors to support longer term financial stability for the organisation.

George has been offered a number of roles within UMN however her primary focus is to get the kids settled into their new school and life in Kathmandu. After that she will undoubtedly get involved in a project or with UMN.

But before all that starts we've got a period of 5 months 'Language and Orientation' training, so we'll be speaking Nepalese and writing using the Devanāgarī alphabet! (Yeah right!)

I hope this gives a slightly better picture of what I'll be doing but it's early days though so things might work out a little differently... we'll just have to wait and see.

More information about UMN and their work can be found on their website...

Up hill struggle

2008-05-21T12:29:00.002+01:00

Aaarrrgghhhh!

We've only got 8 weeks til we leave Bangor! Having found out a little bit about our future house in Kathmandu we've decided to arrive a little earlier than expected. This will give us time to get basic furniture ~ beds, fridges and cookers etc ~ in time for the kids to head off to school...

We are now officially panicking! We're off to England in 2 weeks to say goodbye to family there and when we return it's a case of packing and storing. Between now and then we've got to lift every single thing in the house and decide whether it's coming to Nepal, being thrown out or stored for 4 years! I think I'd better get to know the guys at Bangor dump!

On the house front - DIY central seems to be OK. The roof is in better shape and the pointing is nearly finished... only the shower, front door and garden to sort out!

The commissioning service (15th June) is shaping up - it'll be an informal affair at the 11.30am service - hopefully with a Nepali themed lunch after. Then the formal commissioning service in the evening - don your white collars and robes!

OK, I'm now off to look for some blue barrels - you've no idea how hard it is to source these guys! Especially when we're asking for them for free!

Preparations

2008-05-15T13:35:00.005+01:00

It's starting to kick off...

I've finished my course, we've been confirmed as candidates in mission and UMN are now progressing our Visa application with the Nepali government. There is no turning back!

We're hoping to leave Bangor in the middle of July and take a couple of weeks in Scotland and England to say good-bye to friends. But before we can do that we have got a lot of preparation to do:

Christmas presents for the kids...
Shoes / clothes (essentials) for 2 years...
Techie things like water filters, battery charges, inverters etc...
Blue barrels - regulation missionary kit - all personal items to be shipped in blue barrels - main difficulty is finding them and then collecting them as they are big and bulky!
DIY - lots of - around the house to make sure it is still standing when we get back...
Clearing and dumping rubbish - it is amazing what you collect...
Packing...

Not to mention the speaking engagements and 'meet the missionary' type stuff.

This week we have been getting our roof fixed and brickwork repointed to make sure the outside of the house is in good shape before we go... next week I've got to fix the shower and paint the front door and kitchen...

Ah well it is all good fun.