Halftime Report

Today is the official halfway point of my journey to Nepal. I left 32 days ago and I'll be coming back home 32 days from now. I suppose then that I should say a few words here to commemorate this occasion.

While this is not yet my longest trip of my life (there's still another 2 weeks to go before I get there), the 32 days is the longest time that I have ever spent in any foreign country, topping the 3 weeks that I spent in Australia in 1996 and the 3 weeks I spent in Indonesia in 2009. Still, it doesn't seem that long ago that I first arrived here looking for the driver that was picking me up, wondering where I could exchange my money, what food I would be able to buy, and what work I would be doing for Build Change. Those questions have all been answered plus a few others like how I would be able to do laundry (the guest house has a washing machine). I one thing I haven't done yet is withdraw money from an ATM. Food is so inexpensive here that I haven't had to pull money out since I arrived. I'll have to do it at some point though...

Staying at the guest house has been very convenient (not to mention free), but it does get lonely here since it's a 4 bedroom house and I'm the only one here. There are some advantages to being here by myself: I get hot water in the shower, I have control of the TV remote, I'm the only one using the Internet, and no one is eating my food. However, I have no one to talk to in person here and it still gets a little spooky at night. Only in the last couple of days have I felt comfortable enough to turn off all of the lights.

It's still a challenge to get a full night's sleep, with a mattress that is on the floor and the packs of stray dogs that bark and howl every night just outside my window. Then last night there was an excavator working to clear one of my neighbor's lots until around midnight. It's working right now too even though Saturday is supposed to be the day off for Nepali workers.

From my bedroom balcony, it's louder than it looks in this photo

I realize now that I should have brought some DVDs with me, because the TV selections here are pretty limited. There's The Sopranos and lots and lots of cricket, plus four English language news stations: the BBC, two stations from India that only talk about the cash exchange program the government there just instituted, and CNN with its all Trump all the time news coverage.

One of the things I'll remember about this trip is the advertisement for a women's facial skin moisturizer Pamacare that comes on every time I turn the TV on. Apparently they have some deal with the satellite provider, so every time I turn on the TV there are the same 4 girls splashing this moisturizer on themselves while the announcer talks about how wonderful the product is in Nepali before finally saying in English "Pamacare, forever with you."

Yeah, this will be forever with me, but not in a good way...

Despite all this, and perhaps to a degree because of it, I'm glad that I came. The work here is going slowly but still going, and I am still keeping up with work back at LBNL (especially since someone else is handling the parking stuff ;).

A couple of the guys from work are coming over to watch the Manchester United v. Arsenal football match that'll be starting in about 90 minutes. In honor of my sister and because I'm not a fan of Man U I will be rooting for Arsenal while my colleagues will be rooting for United. They're supposed to be bringing dinner so there is one less meal I have to worry about...