Happy Christmas

Christmas time in Nepal is not quite like the UK, as you can probably imagine. For starters we’ve only really become aware that Christmas is upon us in the last 7 days. Not like the UK where cards where appearing in some shops before we left back in September.

In the last 7 days we’ve had the Kathmandu Chorale, a choral group made up of mostly ex-pats, give their annual Christmas Concert, the British Embassy Christmas Carol Service and KISC’s Christmas Carol Service. They are already forming part of our Christmas tradition here (indeed for more information on them just look at last December’s blog).

This year there is also the threat of a nationwide, general strike by the Maoist party. They are in the third phase of the protests about the actions of the President back in May. The strike they are planning will initially be for just 3 days, but if their demands aren’t met they are saying it will continue indefinitely. This means that there is the possibility of everything being closed for quite some time if the strike is as serious as some believe it might be. So yesterday we went out and stocked up, including everything we need for Christmas dinner.

Changing tact completely Copenhagen has dominated the news everywhere this last week or so. You may have seen on the news that the Nepali government held a Cabinet meeting at Everest Base Camp a few weeks back, with the aim of raising awareness of Climate Change; flying everyone up there in helicopters for a short meeting. They’ve also taken about 400 delegates to Copenhagen. The words footprint and Carbon spring to mind.

Of course it is the poorer countries, like Nepal, that are likely to be most affected by changes to the climate. We saw evidence of this last year when trekking in the Himalayas we saw a Glacier that had retreated quite some way, compared to photos of just 50 years ago. However, we know it is also many of the poorer countries that are the worst polluters as they strive to catch up with the west in terms of development. But change is happening so fast in places like Kathmandu policies and procedures aren’t put in place to moderate the development and protect the environment. We see that daily with streets thronging with traffic pumping out thick black fumes and the outskirts of the city littered with hundreds of brick factories making the bricks to keep up with the city’s unregulated growth and adding plenty of their own fumes to the atmosphere.

Anyway, Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dan, Becky & Samuel

General News

We’ve been meaning to update our blog for a little while now, but keep struggling to think of a good topic. So this time the update will just contain some general news.

This week Samuel has started on grown up food. Well if you can call carrot mashed up and mixed with breast milk, grown up food. He seems to be taking to it okay so far, although he’s not had too many delicacies so far. However we’re aiming for smoked salmon and caviar soon. He’ll need to learn to get a bit more in his mouth before we actually try that on him. The faces he pulls when he tries new flavours are quite something, but he gobbles it down fairly quickly.

They’ve gone away over the last couple of days, but over the previous few weeks we’ve had some truly spectacular views of the mountains. October/November is usually one of the best times of the year to get good views of them and this season has given us some of the best views we’ve ever had. I think we’ve especially enjoyed them recently as we now have a flat where we can actually see them from inside and also immediate access to the roof which gives us a great panorama.

We are now half way through the second term of the school year at KISC and everything seems to be going well for Dan as he works away there. However the Secondary Principal goes back to Australia for 6 months in 2 weeks, which will mean a lot more work for him. Becky has settled in well to life as a full time Mum and has already joined a number of mums and tots style groups. Some good friends, who also had their first baby in the summer, have just returned to Kathmandu. The wife of the couple and Becky have been out together this week which caused even more interest than normal.

Tihar

Last week saw the Hindu festival of Tihar, better known as Diwali outside of Nepal. This is the festival of lights, so it kind of feels like Christmas with everyone putting up lots of lights inside and outside their houses. They also set of lots of fireworks and bangers, which tend to be very loud, but thankfully never disturbed Samuel.

The festival lasts for about 5 days and includes one day of worshipping the dogs, so they put garlands and tikka’s on the dogs. There is another day where they worship the god of wealth and as part of this they paint a path with red clay from the money box out onto the street. They then decorate the street end of the path and often light the path with tea lights. This festival is surely the best for burgulars.

It is a much happier festival than Dhosai which was at the beginning of October and Nepali’s seem to really enjoy the celebrations. There were numerous parties going on in many of the houses nearby, including one where the (bad) Karaoke went on until 2 in the morning. We were not impressed.

As a family we are starting to feel very settled in our flat and are starting to make it feel more homely for us. Just yesterday we moved all the furniture (inherited from the previous tenants) in our living room around to get a layout that is just ours.

Two weeks in

We've now been back in Kathmandu for 2 weeks and felt it was probably about time we updated our blog. Time has flown, but also it's starting to feel like we were never away from Kathmandu. It has been great seeing friends, catching up on news and just spending time with people we've not seen for 5 months. The welcome and help we have recieved has been great, both at the airport (see photo), with settling into our flat and even having meals provided for the first week. It has reminded us about the great community atmosphere here which is one of the things we've loved about living as ex-pats.

Samuel has seemed to cope fine with everything that has been thrown at him so far. It's a lot hotter than in the UK, despite the Indian Summer you're having, but he's been fine with that. But it's also all the things we got used to before, but are very different to the UK, he's taken in his stride. Things like the traffic, the attention recieved from the locals and the dogs barking as we walk along the streets. The Nepali's are enjoying him too, they are quite used to Bideshi's (foreigners) walking the streets, but to see a Bideshi with a baby causes much pointing, staring and quite a bit of poking and silly voices. Much like the time he spent with his Grandfathers!

Time to Return

Well time is rapidly running out on our stay here in the UK. Our suitcases are partially packed and will probably face being repacked several times before we leave on Monday. Many goodbyes have been said, but some, most notably those to Samuel’s grandparents remain.

We have had a great time here in the UK but we are also looking forward to returning to Nepal. Of course the main event of our time here has been the arrival of Samuel. He has coped remarkably well with our attempts at parenting and is thriving in all ways a child can at 3 months. Of course I am slightly biased but we think he’s great. He was just telling us yesterday how keen he is to get to Nepal and meet everyone there.

This Sunday we had a Service of Dedication for Samuel which was a great event. Many of our family and friends were able to join with us for this special event, including four of Samuel’s five Great-Grandparents. We really enjoyed the service and it was a great chance for us to refocus on what we are doing and why we are doing it, both as parents and as we return to Nepal.

So now all that is left is packing, more packing, goodbyes, a wedding on Saturday and then some more packing. It’s going to be busy.

The foreseeable future

It has been a while since we've updated our blog, and our time since then has been devoted to looking after a certain young man. It's been amazing to see how he has grown and developed over the last 2 months. It's been an exciting and challenging time for us dealing with him and all his demands.

Samuel hasn't been our only focus of the last 2 months. Dan's sister Hannah was over from Australia for 2 weeks at the beginning of July and it was great to spend some quality time with her. We've also had a number of family events over the summer, meeting up with various family members and showing off Samuel.

In the middle of July we were able to get away for a weeks holiday with Becky's parents. We stayed in a little cottage in Ringwood, just outside the New Forest and we had a wonderful week. We spent our days wondering around the forest and along the coast. It reminded us what a beautiful country it is we live in and it was great for Samuel to be able to spend plenty of time with one set of grandparents, who also provided some helpful respite for the parents.

And then the week after the holiday we attended interview for BMS. As many of you reading this will know we've been considering for some time about committing to Nepal for a longer period than just the initial 2 years we went for. Well the interview was for the position of long term workers with BMS. We were accepted and this means that once our initial 2 years is up (at the end of this year) we will transfer from BMS's mid-term program to their long term program.

What does this mean in practice? Well it now means we are committed to Nepal for the foreseeable future. The official minimum is 4 years, which takes us to 2014. Beyond that we do not know what the future holds for us, but we figure that's far enough away to not worry about it too much now. For now it's just a case of getting ready to return to Nepal, which we are due to do on September 14th.

Samuel Timothy

As you may well know this week we celebrated the birth of our first son. He was born on Wednesday 3rd June 2009 at 10.11pm and weighed 8lbs exactly.

The labour was long, Becky was having contractions for 4 days and we spent all day Wednesday in hospital. Arriving at about 8am and having a long wait till he finally turned up.

He is now home and Mum, Dad and baby are starting to settle into life as a family. Having our own private midwife certainly helps though. (Becky's mum is a midwife).

We shall be adding more pictures to facebook over the next few days (which you can still see even if you're not on facebook). For now there are a couple here to see.

Dan, Becky and Samuel.