Apologies for the delay since our last blog - just too depressed after all our hols were over to write anything!

We had a lovely time in Royal Bardiya National park over the Tihar festival. It is in the South west of Nepal close to the Indian border and on the area called the Terai which is very flat and a lot warmer than where we are towards the mountains. A lot of the people who live there are a different ethnic caste called the Tharu though their culrure is largely similar to the rest of Nepal, i.e. they are hindu, women are still discriminated against and they are very poor. But their houses are noticeabley different as they build them completely from mud - they are mainly brick around KTM. They look very attractive - quaint I suppose you'd say as a tourist - and they keep them absolutely spotless. but its like stepping back in time by about 500 years. They do have electricity - when its on as they seem to get it even less than we do in KTM - but they still mill everything themselves using stone implements and they still plough using Oxen. We visited one house which was a reasonable size but not for the 27 people who lived in it. Gordon quite liked it though as there was a racsi still at the back! But it was a real insight into how people live in rural Nepal, even more than at the village we stayed in as part of our training.

Anyway, on the more fun rather than educational side it was an entertaining 4 days. We safaried on foot, on elephant back and on a raft through the jungle. We saw a fair amount of wildlife, including the highlight which was a rhino and her baby, but no cats. We kept seeing footprints though being a cynic I did rather wonder of there was another guide up ahead with a tiger paw marker on a stick! But it was good fun and I loved the elephant ride. Unusually I think I enjoyed it even more than everyone else as I was the only one who didn't seem to be really uncomfortable. Maybe I'm just the right shape for sitting on an elephant!

Our trip was not without its moments of excitement. We stopped to swim while we were rafting. I and another woman decided not to bother but everyone else piled in and swam across to an island in the middle of the river amid much shrieking about how cold it was. But then one chap, Anil, started having a panic attack and disappeared under the water so there was immediately a major panic and big rescue operation which soon had him on the island. He had just got very uncomfortable - he apparently isn't a strong swimmer and with the water being so cold and deep it just sent him into a complete panic. The guides all leapt in a raft and brought him back to the right side of the river so all ended well but was probably the most exciting event of the rafting day. But poor Anil's luck was not in that day as once we were all safely back at the hotel having a beer in the garden a possibly carniverous mouse ran up his trouser leg and clawed his hand when Anil slapped him out! At least it never got any higher than his knee but these were certainly very precocious mice - we had one in our room on two of the nights which wouldn't go out even when I shouted and shone the torch at it! We were very glad of the mosquito net over the bed there anyway!

But it all seems a long time ago now. Work has been very busy as this time of year is frantic proposal writing to the donors who decide who they'll give next years money to during December. We also need to finalise what training we will do in the districts but trying to pin my lot down to anything is like herding cats. We will probably decide it all the day before - but why am I worried? Its Nepal!

And the temperature is rapidly dropping here. We have been doing our winterising - buying slippers as its too cold to just have bare feet on the concrete floors now, hats, blanket and gloves to wear in the office - a bit differnt from the light scarves during the summer - and head torches to cope with the 10+ hours of load-shedding we are being promosed from the beginning of December! Ho hum, its all part of the adventure I suppose!

The new batch of VSO volunteers turned up this week so we entertained them at a party on Friday at VSO and then took them on a treasure hunt to help orient them to Kathmandu yesterday. It was strange that we are now the "experienced" volunteers - 8 months now, one third of the way through! - as I still don't have a clue what's going on half the time. Never mind, they seem a nice bunch and those based in Kathmandu will probably join in our Friday night social circle! Strangely there's only 2 of the 16 from the UK this time - in our group we were well over half - but there are a few Canadians, a couple of Dutch and several Indians and Philipinos.

Well that's about it for this update - hope all is well with all of you