Here's a thing: Last week, in the district of Lalitpur near where we live and work a Dalit woman was accused of witchcraft as a few people had died in a neighbouring village. She was forced to eat her own excrement and was beaten by a crowd of about 15. This was of course reported to the police but they did absolutely nothing, which is quite usual here. Her accuser, a senior school teacher, thus continues to be at large and continues to teach! As the victim was a...

We have been here for a whole year. Friday 13th was the auspicious occasion where we celebrated survival, lots of ups and downs and us having written 27 blogs - So I trust you have read them all! To celebrate 8 of us went to stay overnight in a cottage in the Shivapuri National Park. Its just north of KTM and up a hill so you look out over the city, but are in the countryside so its peaceful. The cottage comes with staff for guided walks and catering so all very...

Return from Thailand to the "not so bright" lights of Kathmandu. We're still on 16 hours load shedding a day and the rumours are that it's set to increase to 19 hours a day soon. Still there are there are only 24 hours in the day so it can't get much worse...although that said there are also rumours circulating that the Nepali government is considering increasing each day to 32 hours to enable further increases to the schedule should the power cris...

Many apologies for the delay in posting this blog but, naming no names, someone never got round to doing it after insisting it was his turn. But never mind, Christmas does drag on for a while here as we only got our last Christmas card last week - thanks Alison! -and we're still waiting for one promised parcel! Now you see why we didn't bother with cards! Anyway, a festive time was had by all. We went for a hash run on Christmas day from the GMs house. There wer...

So another milestone - today we have been here for 9 months! It has gone really fast and its hard to believe but still another year and a bit to go. Its December and i'm writing this blog sat outside on the terrace in a t shirt so there! That's the one thing I will definitely miss when we finish, the constant blue skies, though it has been a bit foggy in the mornings recently and pretty cold at night though we're OK in our house. Its just in the office that we ...