First Day on the Job

I imagine after seeing all of these photos some of you might be wondering if I'm actually doing any work here in Nepal, or am I just being another tourist. Well, yes, I am working here, I started officially yesterday morning Nepal time. My primary job is to complete design guidelines for housing using three (and if I have time 4) structural systems: stone masonry, confined concrete block masonry, confined brick masonry, and reinforced concrete block. I've also been assisting the lead engineer here with getting building department approval for one of the prototype designs that her team has already developed, which includes doing a bunch of research on mud mortar with cement mixed into it. I have also been mentoring a couple of the young engineers here, who are working on a design for a school where they are trying to develop a finite element analysis model computer of a masonry building. I've been telling them how daunting a challenge this is (there have been many PhD theses and technical papers written on this very subject describing just how difficult it is) but these kids are go-getters and want to do it anyway. Oh these kids today...

The TV and Internet are finally up and running at the guest house and I have been getting fed lunch every day at the office, so I am starting to settle into something resembling normality. I even responded to a few emails from work back home, even though I technically do not have to until next week. I'm still waking up with the sun though; I haven't quite yet gotten over the jet lag. It does mean though that I get to see some nice sunrises like this one:

Tomorrow I will be spending the day in the field, visiting one of the villages that I went to last year to review some of the work that Build Change has done there. I am not looking forward to the drive on the narrow, bumpy dirt roads again, but I am looking forward to seeing if anything has changed in the village since my last visit in June 2015. Of course there will be pictures, though they'll be more technical in nature than what I have posted so far. Then again, that is why I'm here...