14/10/19 Alpha 5

My team is Alpha 5. We've been getting to know each other for the last few days and Catherine and I are lucky to have a great group.

Two competitions in the last 24 hours and Alpha 5 have won both!

Tomorrow we get deployed to Trek for 19 days. We'll be led by 3 Nepali mountain guides through the Ruby Valley. Our extra supplies turned up today, inc 50 toilet rolls, 19 cooking gas cylinders, 19 kg of Porridge, two 25 litre bottles for water, 2 tents plus a complete emergency medical bag. All had to be split between the team and carried.

The day has just finished, it's just gone 11pm and breakfast is at 6am!

13/10/19 Alphas, Names, Raleigh Olympics and the Ultimate B'stad

Since arriving at RIMS Catherine and I have been managing a Delta group. This morning after breakfast we were given the names of our Alpha group, the group who'll we'll be taking on Trek. We didn't really want to change although the switch of around 50% of the team has been carefully controlled by Raleigh HQ with input from the Medics. The new team is also great. We now have 3 Dutch; 2 girls and 1 boy and they are good fun.

I ran a Culture session this morning, a chance to get to know our new team and learn things about their Country and Culture. Many interesting details, my favourite has to be when discussing Nepali names. Bikal, our male Nepali speaker explained that most names given are related to a God or some sort of empowering or lucky meaning to give the child a great start and a good life. Excitedly I asked Bikal what his name meant. 'The disabled or disadvantaged one' he said cheerfully.......

I left the group writing their own group contract, some things that they will do to be a good group and look after each other. I could have lead it but I wanted them to own it. I came back 20 mins later and was very impressed with the content. They had nailed everything I could think of, lots of team things and care of each other, sharing the load, issue resolution and not being a dick!

The evening activity was The Raleigh Olympics. Quiz round then out into the yard for a blindfolded conga in teams through an obstacle course, guided by one person calling out directions. The added bonus of a twisted ankle, as the yard was a mix of new grass and strewn with rocks and rubble! Then back inside for more challenges, including making paper planes and seeing which flew the furthest. All ended up with a Cayley in the small hall with 60 VMs and Venturers. We did amazingly well considering the speed the boys were twirling each other and the lack of space.

Down to dinner and the chap behind the counter had possibly the greatest hoodie ever. Tonight he'd zipped it up as it was cold. Now we could all read the heart warming slogan 😂

12/10/19 Volunteers, Deltas and a Quiz

Odd sort of day. Having been flat out for 2 1/2 weeks, today felt odd as it was more about the Volunteers getting training now.

Catherine (Medic) and I still have the same lovely group of youngsters (Delta 5) today although that will all change tomorrow when the groups get adjusted ready for phase 1. Apart from keeping them all on track with where they needed to be, most of the day was spent sorting out the evenings 'Organised Fun' event. Its a quiz. All questions researched, 5 rounds written and it was great fun although I'm a little hoarse from having to shout to get 60 young adults to listen up!

Earlier in the day I had to use a teaching technique on one of the Dutch lads who was talking to his friend whilst I was speaking...so I just stopped talking and quietly waiting for him to realise. He sheepishly stopped, sat up and listened from that point on!

Lots of the Volunteers are in a gap yesr, doing something worthwhile which is great. Most of them are still up and making noise, Iyhink the 20 day Trek or the 20 day Community phase will be a very big challenge.

The quix went really well, the volunteer's enjoyed it I thin

k.

11/10/19 RIMS

Having collected the 60 Volunteers from the Airport we head straight RIMS. RIMS is a training location that Raleigh use as a base to train the Volunteers before they either go to Commuity and work on the WASH program or Trek.

Really interesting group, mainly 17-18 year olds, with a few slightly older ones. Feeling old and tired today, not helped because at 17 they are 32 years younger than me!

RIMS is slightly out in the sticks, apart from Shamsher (my Nepali friend) I'm also sharing a room with two little lizards, a massive cockroach, a cricket and a bird (feathered) which keeps making a funny little noise. Hopefully it will shut up soon, although the young volunteers are still outside making a lot of noise so the bird has competition!

Considering this is day one with the Volunteers, the tally is already impressive:

Monkey bite x1
Lost wallet x1
D&V x1
Lost passport x1

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

10/10/19 Allocation

Today is the day we finally get to know what our first assignment is - into Community for 20 days to start the project work or out on Trek for 19 days.

Trek it is. Currently repacking to get my pack weight down as low as possible, especially as we then have to pack emergency medical kit and day food etc.

My other Volunteer Manager is Catherine, a lovely Scottish Dr who will be Trek medic. Despite all the medical training we've had it is great to have such an experienced professional Dr coming too (and Catherine plays a mean fiddle!)

Can't wait 😁

09/10/19 R & R

Another day of sightseeing and R and R before it all kicks off tomorrow.

Feels like I've been in Nepal for ages already. Its only been 2 weeks although we've already undertaken days and days of training, practical and medical plus 2 trips out into the Community to train and survey. Volunteers turn up on Friday, cannot wait to meet them and get started for real.

Back to today.

Cornflakes and hot milk for breakfast, slightly odd, ok as long as you ate them fast!

Off to Durbar Square to look at the temples. Wandered around for a few hours, down little back streets, evidence of the Earthquake all around.

Stopped for some street food snack which was great, I'd happily have eaten more!

Back to Guestmandu for lunch (Dal Bhat obvs!) then the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Joe and I went to the barbers, me for a trim and Joe a cutthroat shave.

Now back having a rest while waiting for our washing to dry on the roof line.

Skype birthday cake event later, Vesper was sad that she couldn't share birthday cake with me yesterday so we are going to eat cake tonight together, I already have my chocolate muffin at the ready!

Hermann the Beetle turns up today, can't wait to drive him!

08/10/19 Most important day in Nepal

Today the whole of Nepal are celebrating my 49th Birthday.

Banana pancakes with syrup for breakfast followed by Tika, to mark the most important day of the year. The Tika was carried out by a neighbour as the guest house owner was away, nice old guy who explained what was going on before applying a red dot of paste to our foreheads, putting cut grass on our head and giving us all a banana and an envelope with 30R in it.

I'll come clean, it is my birthday but it is also the most important day of Dashain, the biggest festival on the Nepalese calender!

After breakfast we took a walk up to a temple that overlooks the whole of Kathmandu. Very hot climb to the top but worth every effort.

Tea stop after, perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the raging river below.

Back to Guest house for lunch and then a rest before we headed over to the Raleigh house where the Medics had prepared an evening treat. A great fun evening with Scottish Dancing followed by  Bangers and Mash and a banana split for dessert! They'd made me a lovely card and they gave me a Toblerone too. What a great team ♥️

All in all I've had a fantastic day, full of good food, friendship,

fun and laughter.

07/10/19 First day off

Late breakfast in celebration of the first of a few days off.

The Nepali Volunteer Managers have been allowed to go home to celebrate Dashain, so we have a few days of down time.

Lunch then off to Thamel to explore. Mainly shopping streets and restaurants. Finally managed to get a Nepali SIM, my photocopies of my passport were photocopied!

06/10/19 Heavenly Brownie

Communications training, Raleigh want Blogs, Case Studies and Photos from the Communities to use to promote their work to their Sponsors and Supporters. Good news is that I can appoint one of the Volunteers as Comms Champion and they can handle this, I'm sure the kids will love doing it and I am more than happy to delegate!

Found a local bakery that sells the best Brownie.  Group trip down, we were like a plague of locusts, leaving a large dent in the pile of Brownies.  Instant happiness. Ben had to be carried put of the bakery, luckilly the Medics had their stretcher to hand!

Long call with Susie and the girls which was lovely, got to see a few friends too who were passing by in the town too which was fun.  Later we had another call and I saw Reg, Pook and Button.  Especially hard out here as we are specifically not allowed to touch any animals, especially dogs due to the risk of Rabies.

Played Spoons again, this time we actually found enough Spoons to play with!  

05/10/19 Bad start to the day

Hit a bit of a brick wall this morning, a hard first week, tiring physically and overload of information, home sick and recurring dreams about the bus ride from hell.

A talk with Richa (Raleigh DOC) made me feel a little better and the day improved from there.  Still have to face the bus at some stage but feel more prepared with different options including walking some of the sections if required

PPV debrief, writing up all of the notes taken in the Community, sorting out finances etc and then back to more medical training.  This time it was identifying Mental Health issues and what to do about them and Leadership styles and role play.

Introduction to a game called Spoons, which we played most of the evening.  Good fun and plenty of laughing.

Later we all went out for a walk and came across a Ping which is a large bamboo swing put up for Dashain for people to play on.  The idea is that you need to spend time off the ground, the higher you get the better, although the huge bamboo structure creaks and groans the harder you try.