I feel I'm starting each blog the same at the moment i.e. "another month down" but it does feel a bit like that. Now we know when we're going and are starting to plan our trip home it does feel like a bit of a count down. And once we're through the summer which is the hard period from the weather and lack of time off point of view then things will go really quickly!The weather has been hellish for the last month - terribly hot and humid so very hard to sleep at night and no energy. The monsoon finally arrived last weekend, much later than last year so God knows what the water situation will be like this winter but we'll worry about that then, at least it's a bit cooler now.

In fact it was wonderful the rain arriving last weekend as G and I had gone to the Hyatt for a treat - a sort of late birthday cum anniversary celebration. I was a bit wingey about the crap weather at first but it was great as we went to the gym - lovely on a running machine with air-conditioning and no traffic or potholes to avoid and then straight in the pool and then soaking in the heated Jacuzzi outside in the rain! Much nicer than being in the baking sunshine! I wonder how long till I'm sick of the rain when we get back to Scotland but at the moment its lovely!

We went to the Hyatt last weekend as we'd decided to give the 1600 hash run a miss. It was going to be in Charikot which is about 5 hours drive away and I just couldn't be bothered spending half my weekend stuck on a bus and I 'm pretty sure we made the right choice but it was a shame as unbeknownst to us the GMiz was back from the US for it. But we've still managed to catch up with her while she's been here and its been good to see her. I probably won't hash much more this summer now the monsoon has started as it gets too slippy - I'm scared enough as it is up a mountain on a tiny path without feeling I'm about to slide off it! Even when we set the run ourselves earlier in June and I had scoped out a nice walk with big wide, not too steep paths we ended up coming back a different way down a really awful precipitous path so I have decided for the next few weeks to just find myself some nice long flat walks every Saturday instead.

The one downside with the Hyatt was there were scales in the gym so bad news for both of us! Gordon has lost 12kg i.e. almost 2 stone. We knew he'd lost weight because of his running but that's ridiculous so he is now trying to put some back on before we get home and his family have a fit! He is now lighter than me which is disgraceful and cannot be allowed to persist! I of course have the opposite problem so while he is trying to fatten up I have to diet - great! The plan is we will cook the same amount of food but he'll have to eat half of my share!

Work for me has been a little bit more eventful this month. We did the final training on monitoring and evaluation for partners at the beginning of June. Mandy, Laura and I seem to have been working on this forever and thank goodness it's over. We may do another session in November but the worst is done and it seemed to go pretty well.

June was also the anniversary of Nepal being declared an untouchability free nation! Not that it has made any difference to the day to day life of most dalits so my organization held a march and rally to draw attention to it. This was pretty successful with around 1000 people out marching and blocking the main roads to traffic for a couple of hours. I doubt it will make any real difference as this sort of thing happens all the time in KTM but at least they got noticed! And the weird thing was the number of people who wanted to take my picture as a white person supporting the cause. Felt very odd!

I've also been sorting out paperwork for my replacement who would arrive in November. It all has to start so early as it has to go to London then they have to find someone and get them trained etc. In fact it looks like they might have found someone already as a girl has e mailed me with loads of questions. Thing is there won't be another volunteer with NNDSWO in KTM, the next one has to be in a district office and so they have selected the Terai which is completely different from here - flat andvery hot in summer and much less from a facilities point of view. I'm pretty sure I would have hated it there though it's possible the work would be more rewarding as they need more done and there are other offices to support in neighboring districts. But I answered her questions as honestly as I could and she still sounded quite positive so hopefully she'll come and will enjoy it!

Not sure what G has been doingat work - he seems to keep himself occupied and doesn't moan as much as me, though he must be sick of the mid term review which has gone on forever!

So that's it for June. Sorry, no photos this month. We did take the camera to the Hyatt but the battery was flat from lack of use - we'll try and do better in July!