Scrambled Egg

Ali came back to Nepal on Wednesday so I had planned to return to Kathmandu yesterday, Friday to meet up again. We had both returned to NI for Christmas and Ali stayed on to spend some more time with the Mummies and Sarah M. So we were looking forward to meeting up again...hence I didn't want to miss my plane from Badrapur in south east Nepal. It is the lowest airport in Nepal at 300 feet above sea level, not a lot seeing it is over 1000kms to the sea.
In Nepal we are coming into the politically active season when there are weekly general strikes from one group or another. The Brahmin Chhetri caste groups had called a strike on Thursday for 3 days. Sometimes they do last for 3 days, sometimes, the calls for a strike are not heeded at all. Anyway, on Thursday, the strike seemed to be followed sort of half heartedly, so I was a bit unsure if I could travel the 55km to the airport the following day, hence elected to leave after dark on Thursday evening.
Arrived at the Hotel Khrishna International in Badrapur beside the Airport. Basic rooms, full of damp and not a few bugs, all the usuals that one gets used to out here....I had booked a room and ordered Chicken Fried Rice for my arrival about 9pm and it was very nice after an uneventful journey...apart from seeing the odd night bird flying across us in the car lights. There are no Tigers in this part of Nepal, but there are wild Elephants.
Well up for breakfast and I ordered my favourite Scrambled Egg, Toast and Coffee. The Waiter went off to the kitchen and returned only to say that the cook did not know how to cook Scrambled Egg! So I offered to go and teach him, the Waiter went and asked and confirmed the deal. So off I went to the kitchen, pretty dull affair, but there were two nice baskets of prepared veg on the table. The trainees gathered around, the Cook, Waiter, the Cook's Helper, the Receptionist and another older guy who seemed to represent the owner!
Two eggs, milk, salt, pepper, a saucepan and a fork were requested and delivered to the table, and within the time it would take to say 'Jack Robinson' (as we used to say in Portadown), the Scrambled Eggs were on the gas burner, beaten, cooked and served on two under cooked pieces of toast. 'Is that all there is to it' they asked - 'Nothing else?' they inquired, 'no that's it', I said. And they were all amazed at how easy it was. I passed the Scrambled Egg to the Waiter and asked him to take it to the customer...he gave a wry smile and I dodged ahead of him to my Table to receive the Scrambled Egg...'oh ho - kuti ramro banayeko' I said (oh what a nice egg...the wry smile from the Waiter grew into a giggle, and I enjoyed my Egg.
After booking into the Airport for my Yeti Airways flight, I was joined in the waiting room by 3 other expats who were working with the Bhutanese Refugees. They said 60,000 had been re-settled to other countries with about 50,000 left to go. Conditions in the Camps were not good, so re-location to third countries would hopefully give them a good lift. However, it was recognised in the conversation that some might get lost along the way. I recalled that it was funny one time sitting waiting for my flight to Kathmandu, when a call for a flight came through for New York! Five flights a day to Kathmandu and occasional other international destinations - via Kathmandu and various other ports along the way....
on walking out the the plane, one walks passed the VIP rooms, and I noticed Colonel Sushil from the local Army camp. What a nice man. We chatted for a bit, he was there to greet some VIP. We had done business together as he send 51 of his troops with a Captain up to our site to the Barracks we made for them in order to guard the Explosive Bunker. So it was nice to see a few familiar faces along the way.
Happily Ali was waiting in Kathmandu at the Airport, the other really familiar face I was eager to see...maybe we will have Scrambled Egg for breakfast!

Is it a Train? a Plane? ...

I had just left the office at 6:40ish and Ali had come to meet me. Just as we met, the ground started to ripple and an almighty roar surrounded us. We had never experienced this reaction when we met before...!

The earthquake centred in Sikkim Nepal border just north east of us registered 6.9 on Ricther, so a chunky earth vibration radiated out. Quaickly, friends around us were on their mobiles to see what was happening elsewhere. Yes, Kathmandu felt it, Chitwan felt it and within minutes we all knew the epicentre and size of the almighty roar. It was rather amazing. We had been in other earthquakes, maybe it was because we were close to this one, but the almighty roar was impressive. We were standing there about 20m away from a hillside which we knew was unstable as the monsoon had already scarred a few landslips on it. So we were just waiting for this hillside coming down and engulfing us. It was dark, we were out in the open, surely nothing could fall on us? Happily nothing did, nor did the hillside engulf us. It must have lasted at least 45 seconds, but we were rooted to the spot with the earth ripples giving our legs a decent massage. Scary.

Well after a lot of chat about each others experiences, families were fine, the tunnels were safe, no structural damage in our work - many had not been in an earthquake before, we returned home to find some of the tiles from our false ceiling had fallen on the floor. So a quick bit of maintenance, and things were back to normal with a few telling cracks in the tiles and a hole were one had crumbled too much for recovery. Same story in a number of other houses and in the office, 5 tiles fell on my desk - just a few minutes after I had left it.

What about that almighty roar? a train, a plane? yes sounded just like that only much bigger like it was going to come crashing through the hillside and gouge out a track in front of us coming to a terrific stop with things flying everywhere, as they do in the movies. But no, the roar died off and was only followed with a bit of an aftershock whimper, still big enough for a mini massage. But I think that's enough of that for a while...

The haaT Bazaar

Now, before we go any fyrther, you must realise that you cannot buy any hats in the HaaT Bazaar. No, it is the colloquial name for the weekly market that appears in local villages on a circuit, once a week. There is a local village called Fridays Field simply because the HaaT Bazaar meets there every Friday.
Well, as it happens I went for a wee spin up the track this morning on my mountain bike and at 8:30 in the morning, the Haat Bazaar was setting up. Traders had arrived carrying their wares on their backs in large baskets. It is amazing the amount of stuff they can carry when you see it all laid out in the little shacks made for purpose.
The local village of Gunmune has grown from maybe one house to about 20 local houses, then our compound housing 200 - so a ready market for the traders, then their is the attraction for the surrounding villages too. The local village committee encouraged the traders to come by making about 30 bamboo huts for the traders. So they come prepared with their plastic, in case it rains, and their wares, in case customers turn up, which they invariably do.
So, what can you buy in this once a week extravaganza? Shirts, saris, shorts, pants, cloth, cosmetic, sewing stuff, then their is the food, local snacks - samosa, pakoda, purey, chaat, amongst others and of course there are the raw ingredients...vegies such as potatoes, onions, cucumber, beans, chillies, egg plant and a few local root plants. Finally, a buffalo and a pig also made their way to the market, driven by the local butchers who slaughtered them there and then in the middle of the HaaT Bazaar. You can buy a choice piece, but usually one buys a kilo of everything, and that what  you get, freshly sliced and diced there in front of you by large kukri knife. Unfortunately, the buff is as tough as leather. Nepalis would dry it over a smoked fire to chew on later...or stick it in a curry to have with the traditionaldaily meal of dhal bhat, rice and lentils.
On up the road, the beautiful morning continued and after the rain, the air had cleared so that every tree was focussed down to the leaves. God's creation really is amzing.
Well, off to church now, having been usually asked to share, lets see hat the Spirit says today. He's very friendly, you should get to know him.

The Half Way Monsoon

Have just come up to Kathmandu again for my monthly meeting with my Client. Ali was here as she saw Danny, our son, off after his 2 week visit here. That was great to see him and hear of his time in Melby over the last 6 months. Ali saw him off, as I said, then 2 days later slipped on exiting a shop, fell and got herself a hairline fracture in her left elbow. Ouch. Anyway, it is good to be together again, we will return to Ilam on Tuesday.

It was certainly hot down in Ilam, usually 32-38 C, not much less here in Kathmandu mind you, but it is a different sort of heat due to the humidity. It is a dryer heat down in Ilam at 350m above sea level, up here in Kathmandu at 1300m, it is much more of a wet humidity. The clothes do not dry so readily with the air already quite saturated, ad the mildew collects on your clothes in storage, even gets into the lens of your camera.

Went to see the last  Harry Potter in 3D on wed night when I came in. It was rather good, and they got their happy ending. Quite a few modern shopping malls have opened recently in Kathmandu - all the usuals, shopping, restaurants, cinema...and yet out in the street, you can buy almost the same stuff at a quarter the price. The difference being that on the street they do not bother telling you the merchandise is fake branded - that is expected, while in the shops, they will tell you with 100% certainty that the merchandise is pukka branded - shouldn't have to ask! aye, right, pull the other one says he...well, at least the movie was genuine.

So we are at the Half Way Monsoon, no, not a nice pub round abouts here, just half way through this wet season - but a bit like when you get to the half way house it is a good rest, many think it would be nice to get to the end of the monsoon more quickly....There are lots of lurgies floating about, just recovered my self from 3 days at the altitude of 102 Celsius. Up there, there is not much one can do with no energy - just one of those nasty viruses that is going around and everyone has a go at it. So we will try to get some respite in the eating houses of Jawalakhel and head back to Ilam for the second half....speaking of which, I heard the Football season was about to start again in UK....will have to tune in ESPN for live footie on Saturday evenings, it can only help shorten the Monsoon.

We are well into our project in Ilam now with our two 'mini-villages ' built for our workers. We have 330 on site at the moment, mostly locals. The tunnel is started from both ends and is in 60m in total, we have a few more holes opened up, but with the monsoon, they will be full of water.

Back here in Kathmandu, which where we are at the mo, Subarna has delivered her wee baby, no name yet, all are well. I changed my first nappy tonight - first time in about 18 years. Mum and babe come back to our flat tomorrow, so life changes again....

Monsoon has started, but even last month in Ilam, we had 422mm of rainfall, monsoon seems to come early over in the east - guess it is good for all the tea growing. We have two big plantations close to us, all very pretty. The Mai river has certainly increased its water flow, starting to eat away at the river banks. We dumped some earth in front of our housing compound as a sacrificial bund, should the river decide to come up that far some night.

Back to UK for a while...

Well, we have been back in UK for about 5 days, especially for the CMS Ireland event last night in Co Down...it went off quite well, there was a good turn out for being held 'out in the country'...CMSI hold this annual event called 'Impact' to reflect on what impacts our lives, this year focussed on Mission Partners who have served with CMSI over the last decade and more. While all the Mission Partners were not able to attend, alot of familiar names appeared for thanksgiving and prayer.

So what is going on in Nepal? I have been going out and in to our new site in Ilam from Kathmandu, so I have got to know the road quite well.Usually see something new everytime...last time it was a Large Coucal, a large crow like bird with navy body feathers and dark tan wing feathers. Talking of birds, I have seen quite a few others: the white breasted Kingfisher and Indian Roller are prolific in our area, then there is also: Mallards, Black Kite, Kestrel, Red Wattled Plover, Crested Serpent Eagle, Spotted Dove, Barred Owlet, White Capped River Chat, Barn Swallows, Lesser Pied Kingfisher, Woodpecker, Pied Stonechat, Magpie Robin, Little Egret, Yellow Wagtail, Hornbill and a few other noises in the jungle I have yet to identify. Mai Khola (river) is a nice valley. Quite young in its age and quite flat with wide sweeps in its flow pattern, working its way down to the plains to eventually join the famous Ganges.

Our work has started well with mobilisation of all the infrastructure we will need to construct the job. We are building two small villages to accommodate the workers, so we have to build everything from scratch: water supply, roads, sanitation, housing, workshops, stores, fencing, offices and other support facilities. As wse approach the end of mobilisation, we start the permamnent work and thus, 3 weeks ago we started to excavate the tunnel portals, planning to stabilise them and get the tunnels started before the monsoon. It is always a race to beat the monsoon in some way, this year it is the tunnels, next year it will be the river work of building the dam. The words of King Canute, 'time and tide wait for no man' can be applied in Nepal and changed to, 'monsoon and floods wait for no man'.

We have had a number of interesting events in Gunmune, the name of our village, one of them a football competition involving 8 local teams. Our local team, who I was able to sponsor, got to the final, but were beaten 5-4 on penalties after 1-1 at extra time. Quite a few turned up for the games, played daily over a 10 day period, with about 3000 there for the final. The games were inaugurated by the Speaker of the Nepali Parliament, Subas Nemwang, so while he was on site, we were able to explain the project to him.

We have one road into Gunmune which we just finished building recently, so it was interesting to see buses arriving for the first time, loads of motorcycles. Someone with entrepreneurial spirit had cordoned off an area for parking, charging 20 rupees a session!

Another recent event was an ordination in one of the local churches. Three days of prayer, study, worship and fellowship brought many believers together for the occasion. Some of the church founders visited to lead the event. Of course the kitchen was busy preparing food for all, dalbhat twice a day with snacks and tea...

During the third week in March I was with the MA program facilitating another cohort in their studies. Another interesting week seeing the students stimulated and being stretched in their learning.

I return to Nepal this coming week, so more updates after that...

it is warming up...

...currently in a chilly Kathmandu, but it is warming up!
we went to Sundar Dhoka this morning and it was packed with over 200 there. We had a great start to the morning with the baptism of a young girl, so she went for the dip in the bath tub as everyone gathered around praying for her as she confirmed her faith through the sacrament.

During the service was rather special too as one of our old freinds sang a solo - a 'villagy' folksy melody with great lyrics about Jesus as Lord. Apart from a great song of worship it reminded, probably all of the congregation, of working in the fields, singing away as you do...with that warm feeling of contentment and peace.

Pastor gave a great sermon on aith and we saw faith enacted after the service in the fellowship shared between everyone over a wee drop of tea in the warm sunshine. We met a few new people and one in particular, a Dad who had brought his 3 children in for hospital treatment for their  weak bones, came from Pyuthan, and of course knew about the Hydro Project we had worked on 20 years ago, so we had lots to talk about...his two boys had similar problems, and one of then who was perhaps a bit autistic. So we chatted and played for a bit and enjoyed the company.

This coming week starts Mark's time with Himal Hydro in his new job as Project Manager on Mai Hydro Project...the adventure continues