Working life

Over the last few weeks we've been kind of working and living in Kathmandu. In the daytime we have been working in the office, developing key documents including a very long, complicated Bid Proposal seeking significant new funding for our project. We also had lots of meetings with other organisations to promote our work and look for support in taking forward our project. Although I didn't expect to see this walking out of one place we had a meeting (they are sacred here, so can kind of do exactly as they wish, including attending impromptu meetings!):

In the evenings and weekends, we've visited the homes of some good friends which has been really interesting and welcoming, as well as introducing us to some amazing local cuisine. We even went bowling with some of the guys from work (I resisted doing a full statistical analysis of our results!):

We've also done a few tourist things, like a walking tour of Kathmandu. There are some REALLY old monuments which don't always seem to be cared for, like this little Buddha statue dating back to the 6th Century, amazing that it is still intact:

And this intriguing wood structure with thousands of coins nailed on as offerings to the toothache god, suffice to say Selina made an offering:

We also visited Monkey Temple:

Since we don't have a kitchen in our guest house, we have had the opportunity to try lots of different food. We have been discovering the wonders of Korean food, like bibimbap which is a combination of veg, noodle and egg mixed together in a hot bowl. Here's a tasty stack of (spicy!) nachos and amazing pizza (although the oil on the pizza made us suffer that night!):