Back in Kathmandu again

We’re back in Kathmandu and on Wednesday I was at the church midweek meeting – lots of greetings and confirming that, yes, we were all back and well and had a good time. 

As always there were songs to start, but then when it came for the message the leader said; “its good to have Martin back with us, and as we’ve been praying for him each week I’d like him to tell us some of the blessings from his trip.”

After all these years I should have anticipated being put on the spot, but hadn’t.  Thankfully my limited Nepali language doesn’t seem to have gone away during a month in England.

Work and school haven’t gone away either.  Katrina had all kinds of things waiting for her at the hospital; “its so good to have you back, now can you have a look at…..”.  I’ve got some big reports to write in a hurry as July is the end of our planning and reporting year at UMN.

There’s also a busy few months ahead with lots of evaluations, and just to make sure we won’t be short of work one of my staff is leaving to live in Canada.

And then there’s the weather; the wettest monsoon for many years.  Our landlady says there’s too much rain and crops are being damaged.  It is very wet, and the feeling of dampness is not helped by having to cycle around town between work, school and shops. 

The last few days it’s been almost 30 Centigrade with 90% relative humidity – at night in our bedroom!  Not conducive to sleeping soundly.

Today there was a final confirmation that we’re back to reality.  A strike closed our side of the city and I had to walk to work or risk having my bike tyres deflated – I saw it happening to others. 

The photo above shows the main road I usually avoid because the traffic backs up.

Martin