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