First impressions
I can hardly believe it myself, but I am already
back in Kathmandu since 4 weeks! Many things have happened and I can hardly
decide where to start ;)
I am staying in the VSO Volunteering house in Jawalakhel, which is a really nice area in Kathmandu.
 |
| VSO Volunteering House |
 |
| My favourite 'GERMAN Bakery' |
 |
| Roof Terrace |
I love the house,
especially the roof terrace with a view onto the lake in the zoo, the hills
around Kathmandu and when the weather is really clear I was already so
fortunate to the see the stunning Ganesh Himal! It is just a 30min walk to the
VSO office and I actually do enjoy walking every morning.
First I thought I might not remember much
about Kathmandu from my previous stay 3.5 years ago, but spending more time
here, many memories are coming back and it is getting much easier to find my
way around.
There is a great community spirit amongst
the VSO volunteers and I am really enjoying it. The VSO staff is so kind and I
am really looking forward to start working in my special project.
 |
| VSO Volunteers - just girls on this picture ;) |
When I first arrived I did spend my first
Sunday walking into town and to get a coffee in Thamel. It takes a good hour to
walk there, but with lovely sunshine it feels good :) I have never ever seen
Thamel, which is the main tourist area in Kathmandu, so empty. I had known,
that there would be less tourists, but there were hardly any at all. Not only
the earthquake in 2015 keeps people away, but also the fuel shortages and the
political situations at the moment. Many small Nepali businesses are suffering
from this situation enormously!
Power Cuts
Load shedding is horrendous once again. We
have no electricity for up to 15 hours per day, 7 days a week. This is
challenging, but what can I say. Nepali people have to deal with this situation
since many years and just got used to it. After 4 weeks I actually got used to
it as well and your whole day and life evolves around the electricity schedule,
which is called Load Shedding.
Cooking Gas shortage
On top of the heavy load shedding we also
have to cope with the man-made Indian/Nepali Boarder blockage and therefore the
prices for Gas bottles are skyrocketing.
People are talking about that the price is 10 times more than before the
blockade and therefore not affordable! The Gas bottle in the VSO house is empty
and we cannot replace it. We got an electric cooking plate which is great,
however I usually only manage to cook 1-2x per week, as the power cuts are
always happening during dinner time. The small Nepali place around the corner
is happy to see his returning customers so, where I have food many times during
the week.
VSO Annual Conference
I was not even one week in Nepal and I was
already on my way to the Annual VSO Conference outside of Kathmandu to meet all
the volunteers and staff of VSO Nepal. We had 3 lovely days together and it was
great to get to know the whole team.
 |
| VSO Team Nepal |
We had two brilliant entertaining nights of games and dancing. Some volunteers gave us some insights
about their placements and we watched two really emotional movies. One about the earthquake, the relief efforts in Kathmandu and some personal stories of people which had been buried under gravel for days, but did survive! Such moving scenes! The 2nd movie was about a girl in the district of Mugu, in the Mid-West of Nepal and her desire to play soccer! I could really relate to this movie, as she had to fight and put her foot down to be able to participate in tournaments and to leave her home for a few days to take part in them, walking for days to the neighboring district called Humla.
On my way to work
We do live just right next to the zoo here
in Kathmandu. Therefore it was a wonderful surprise last Friday when I saw the
only elephant in the zoo when he was brought out for his morning feeding time
around the block, which happened to be my way to work :) It was wonderful to
see the elephant on the streets of Kathmandu. However, I also felt a little bit
sad as I heard it is the only elephant in the whole zoo. I am sure he or she
does feel a little lonely.
 |
| The elephant on Kathmandu's Roads |
My VSO Role - 'National Disaster Coordination Advisor'
I came to VSO Nepal with the
expectation to live in Sindulpachowk, in one of the most affected districts of
the April 2015 earthquake and to live in a tent. That was in my job description
before I had left. After 2 weeks it was clear, that VSO got some special
funding from DFID to set up a National Disaster Recovery Coordination
Secretariat comprising of two volunteers and 3 Nepali staff. One volunteer was I
:) First I was a bit disappointed that my placement had changed, but after I
had read through the proposal of the new Secretariat I got really excited. We
would be looking after the 14 most effected district of the earthquake and work
together with the District Lead Support Agencies to collect data, understand
the needs of the district offices and the local communities to find synergies,
to share data and to learn from the challenges other districts are facing as
well as from things which do work well. We had our first meeting with the
District Lead agencies and we got very positive responses. Next week, we will
decide with the input from the Lead Agencies on which districts of the 14 we
should focus on. Exciting times ahead! It will involve a lot of travelling for
me during the week to the different districts but I am really looking forward
to it.
My favourite place in Kathmandu – the Stupa in Boudha
 |
| Boudha Stupa 2012 |
 |
| Boudha Stupa 2016 - Renovation has started |
After two weeks on a Sunday I decided to
make my way to my favourite place in Kathmandu. The massive Stupa in Boudha is
so beautiful and there is so much energy around this place that I really love
spending time there. I had heard that some parts of the Stupa were destroyed
after the earthquake, however most people told me it is not severe. So I walked
to Rathnapark from my house and took a Minibus from there out to Boudha. It is
North-East of Kathmandu, just outside of the Ring Road. I found the tiny
alleyway again, the sneaky back entrance for locals, so you don’t need to pay
the tourist entrance fee. No bad Karma as I am actually not a tourist, but a
working volunteer ;)
 |
| The whole top part is missing |
After a few steps through the tiny winding lanes I reached
the wider circle of the Stupa. OMG, here it was the once impressive beautiful
Stupa very much destroyed on the top and all the small little stupa’s
surrounding the main Stupa were destroyed.
It touched my heart and for the first time since I returned to Nepal I felt it deeply that there was a massive earthquake. You can see pictures, you can listen to people describing it and you can read about it. But seeing your favourity place in such a stage did hurt and I felt so sad for all the Nepali & Tibatan people who come to this stupa every day to do their rounds of praying and mediation. They will be reminded every single day about this massive earthquake who had such force to destroy parts of this enormous Stupa.
 |
| Walking around the stupa |
After the first impression sank in and
settled a little, I decided to do a few rounds.
Walking around the Stupa was still very special. It was so peaceful, you could chant while walking and it was such lovely energy around and within me.
I decided to look for my favourite
coffee place, however it was gone. I decided to try some side streets and some
backyards and here you go. Café Flavor’s had moved and is now located in a green
backyard, behind the Stupa. I had a little rest before I decided to go for a
few more rounds.
 |
| Local people sitting around the stupa |
 |
| Dhamma Sisters :) |
Reunion with an Irish friend – Dhamma Sisters
When I first came to Nepal in 2012 I met
Caroline through Susan, a dear Australian friend which I met while trekking through the Himalaya's. Susan had met Caroline during her Vipassana Meditation and introduced me to her as I lived in Ireland :) We became friends, we had lovely
chats over a cup of tea or coffee and shared similar interests such as teaching
English and practicing meditation. Caroline stayed all these years in Kathmandu
with her second half Kenta, got married and she just came back from India two
weeks after I had arrived here in Kathmandu. We met for a cup of
coffee and we went for an hour of Vipassana Meditation :) So beautiful! I am so
grateful that Caroline is still here in Kathmandu.
Reception party to mark Heetasha & Koshesha’s Gufa ceremony in
Newari Tradition
 |
| Heetasha & Koshesha |
All VSO colleagues were invited by my
Program Manager Geehta to a so called 'Gufa ceremony'. Her daughter and nice celebrated
this Newari tradition , where the Newari girl child gets married minimum two times
in their lives, first marriage to the fruit of the Bel tree. The belief
is that since men can be unfaithful, the girl’s first marriage should be one in
which unfaithfulness cannot occur (No Bel fruit is going to run off with
someone else!). The second marriage is to the Sun God, that’s the one we were
attending. The idea behind such absurd sounding marriages is actually quietly
romantic. By marrying a little girl to a bel fruit and then to the sun, Newar
traditions ensures that even in a possible unfortunate death of the girl’s
husband, the girl will not be deemed a widow, a title that was looked upon with
great disdain and intolerance by older societies because of her prior marriages.
These traditions may therefore have been designed by the Newars to save their
little girls from disrespectful treatment by the community.
Independence – My new bicycle called “Prince Diana”
 |
| Vogmask - Ready to go! |
After 3 weeks of walking to the VSO office and taking Mini-Busses at the weekend, I decided to buy a bicycle. We get a small allowance from VSO for a very basic bicycle and therefore I decided to buy a basic one with no gears. The allowance didn’t cover the whole bike, but a good bit of it. The brand is ‘Prince’, manufactured in India and it is dark red with a few stickers on saying “Prince Diana”! I had to giggle when I saw this first ;) But hey, who has a bike called Prince Diana! I love my bike :)
It gives me independence and I can finally cycle around Kathmandu. I also got a helmet, some lights and finally a ‘Vogmask’ with a filter against the pollution, when cycling around rush hour.
Cycling uphill is a bit challenging with no gears, but at least it keeps me fit ;)
I already cycled into the city center and did a bit of an excursion outside the Ringroad to Bhaisipati. I love to cycle around the city to discover the different areas of the Southside of Kathmandu!
 |
| Footbridge and the other one for vehicles to cross Bagmati River |
Visit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Local Development
(MoFALD) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MoFA) Office
After 3 weeks, I had my first visit to two
government offices in Kathmandu. It started off with some learning’s 'How does the
system work' ;) You can only enter the main gate for the ministries if your car
has a blue plate. VSO does have one, so we were fine. I was wondering how it
would work if I would come with my bicycle and it seems like that would be very
difficult to get access. We had two good meetings and both departments were
very supportive for our project. Looking forward to see how this goes. I also attended a workshop with remarks from different government officials, speakers from different INGO's and NGO's, which was organised by Action Aid.
It was a good event, I am learning a lot and meeting lovely people. The view onto the garden was amazing, considering you were in the middle of Kathmandu!
Job Roles always come with a surprise
So myself and another VSO volunteer will be
hiring 3 Nepali staff, 2 Information Manager Adviser and one Admin staff for 6
months. Guess what I was doing last week. I did scan all the incoming CV’s and
selected candidates for interviews for next week. I will be part of the
interview panel and I am very excited indeed. After leaving IBM I didn’t think
that I will ever hire people again, especially in Nepal ;) But I am more than
pleased and I do enjoy the hiring process for sure. Wish us luck, that we can
find the right people for our team so we can help Nepal in the Coordination
efforts for the post-earthquake.
Accommodation Hunting in Kathmandu
The VSO House for the volunteers is really
lovely. I am staying in room no. 5 and I do really like it.
We do have 6 bedrooms and if the house is full it is very busy. In
particular with so many power cuts, everybody would need to be mindful not
charging any devices, so the solar backup actually does last for one light in
each room and the internet. This might not sound so critical to you, but if you
have no electricity for 15 hours per day, it becomes really important ;)
After my placement with VSO had changed and
my base is actually Kathmandu, I decided to go house hunting. Ruth, another volunteer also based in Kathmandu and I decided to look for a place to share, as we
might get something nicer if we put our allowances from VSO together. So we
looked at 3 different places so far and one is my absolute favourite! It is in
a quiet, safe area in cycle distance to VSO and Ruth office and we would be
very close to all the other volunteers as well.
Lots of bakeries around and access to shops and supermarkets. The
apartment has a balcony, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It would be perfect :) Hope we will get it and so we could move Mid of February! I will keep you all posted and hope you are looking forward to the next blog entry!
