The First few weeks........new heights!
So I leave the seaside behind and head briefly to the bright city lights of London. I spend a night in London where I manage to get an upgrade to the five star Montcalm due to an accident at my hotel in Paddington. It’s a very swish however a bit too posh for me and I start to miss my simple Brighton hotel by the sea with fresh air coming in the window. On the Sunday, my flight isn’t until later that evening and therefore I afford myself a lie in. I also have enough time to take in the British museum which is always worth a visit whenever you are in London.
I arrive in Kathmandu airport via a connection through Delhi which was surprisingly nice. I had heard horror stories and therefore was expecting much worse but maybe I arrived at a good time while the airport was relatively quiet. I then take my next flight which is only a short hop to Kathmandu. I arrive into the airport and have the usual wait for the visa. There’s always a bit of hanging around to be had and unfortunately there is no Nepalese embassy in Dublin and hence I could not get a visa before I left. I eventually pick my bag up on the other side and then ask at a shop approximately how much a taxi will cost to Patan and head out to do the usual haggling and negotiations with the drivers. However, before I reach them I am again greeted with smiles, this time from a girl called Cecilia. I wasn’t expecting anybody to be waiting for me at the airport but was pleasantly surprised! Cecilia just started working for Renewable World Nepal four days previous and had been sent by Nick to pick me up from the airport. She will be working in Nepal for four months working on climate change adaptation at a national and local level (NAPA and LAPA programmes). I felt really guilty as while I was queuing for my visa inside, she was left standing outside in the heat and sun waiting for me to arrive.
We grab a taxi after Cecilia negotiates a fair price and travel to the guesthouse where I have booked in for a week until I find more long term accommodation. Cecilia is also staying here and introduces me to the owners Ashok and Katrin who are very welcoming. It’s a really nice guesthouse with lots of different people staying, mainly working for NGO’s and volunteer organisations in Kathmandu. I get the tour and then pop out again quickly to have a quick look around. It was rush hour so the traffic was a little crazy! Later that evening a group of us from the guesthouse all go out for some Nepalese food. It was a local restaurant with very nice food and we all eat very well. Nick and his wife Sam also pop along later to say hello and Nick tells me that we had both passed each other on the street earlier without knowing.
I start in the Renewable World Kathmandu office the next day. Cecilia tells me that Nick went out shopping the previous day for some desks. Up until a few weeks ago it was just Nick running the whole Kathmandu office by himself. However, now he has another three members of staff, myself, Cecilia and Lata, a Nepalese girl. It’s not long however, before I’m drafted into my first meeting that morning. Nick is meeting with a Frenchman called Denis Blamont who works for the World Mountain People Association and is looking for advice on building a biogas plant at high altitude (above 4,000 meters). There are thousands of small scale biogas plats in Nepal that turn ‘gobo’ cow dung among other things into gas for cooking and lighting. However, in order for them to work effectively they need to operate between a temperature of 15-30OC. This is a problem at high altitude especially during the night. Nick is forthcoming with a number of good solutions while I am happy just to sit there and listen. Just from that one meeting I learn a lot from the wealth of experience both these guys have.
The next day I meet with Sagun from Sunco who is the technical partner for the Solar MUS projects (solar power for water irrigation). We go through some technical issues and then discuss the possibility of joining their team for the installation of the three remaining Solar MUS sites. Nick is keen for me to go out and supervise the installation as the two current sites are not performing as well as he would have liked. The following day I have an 8AM meeting with Nick and a number of people from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Café Somo which is conveniently located across the road from my guesthouse and does an excellent breakfast! Even though I am the closest I am still the last to arrive but of course I’m still there before eight. At the meeting with ADRA we discuss using renewable energy to power birthing centres in very remote locations such as at the top of mountains. It takes me a while to get to grips with the manner with which woman are treated during their pregnancy but I won’t go into that here. Essentially though, the birthing centres provide a clean and comfortable place away from the rest of the family for the woman to give birth to their children.
In the afternoon, myself Nick and Cecilia meet with the National Biogas Promotion Association (NBPA) and some representatives from GIZ (a German NGO). A presentation is given on research they have carried out into the performance and economic viability of household bag digesters (small biogas plants). On the Friday I meet with Wind Power Nepal who have partnered with Renewable World to develop a wind resource map of Nepal. As luck would have it a couple who happened to be passing through Kathmandu and both work for Scottish and Southern Energy in the UK (who are a technical advisory partner to Renewable World) are meeting with Nick that very morning. I drag them along to my meeting at the Top of the World Coffee and we are able to transfer a wealth of information between SSE and Wind Power Nepal.
Friday evening we go out for a few drinks after work followed by dinner. We take it a little easy though as we need to get up early the next morning to go to the Sundance music festival which is happening up near Kodari by the Tibetan border. It’s about a five hour drive so I don’t want to be feeling groggy on the bus. Anyway is was a great weekend, fantastic music, great people, lovely scenery and a sore head on the Sunday to top it all off which was fitting considering it was St Patricks day!!
The next week I have fewer meetings which was good so therefore can catch up on some work. I meet with Marijn from GIZ about a data monitoring project similar to the one Nick would like to see implemented. We meet in the garden of our complex for a coffee which is always a good spot for a meeting. We discuss the possibility of providing a low cost solution for measuring a number of parameters for biogas digesters that would help gather information for his research. Later that evening I get a late call from Raj who works for iDE and mentions that there is a vehicle going to Kavre in the morning. Kavre is where one of the Solar MUS sites is located and I am excited about the possibility of getting to visit my first project site. I travel as part of a team performing research into integrating a new type of maize crop into small rural communities. I learn a lot from the people I am travelling with, particularly about agricultural practices in Nepal. However, I only get to briefly visit the Solar MUS site and due to the limited time, only get to check the control panel and run a few short electrical tests on the equipment.
Later that day as the iDE team need to pick another person from the Ministry for Agriculture, and as I was taking up valuable space in the US Aid 4x4 vehicle I am dropped off at Dhulikhel. I take the opportunity to walk around the area. Dhulikhel is the administrative centre of Kavre but is also a very popular tourist spot due to the location in a plush mountain valley and has spectacular views of a number of different snow capped mountain ranges. However, today the mountain peaks are clouded in a thick haze. This is down to the time of year and is probably going to be a common occurrence for my trip unless I get above 3,000 meters. Although I am told if it rains really hard for a day or two the next day you will have a clear view but I’m not sure if I want it to rain that much!!! I had enough rain back in Ireland and am enjoying the sun and high twenty temperatures. I arrive back to the Ministry of Agriculture in Dhulikhel after a nice walk and have a cup of tea with some of the officials. They ask me if I would like to meet with the head of their department and so I am very pleased to accept. I meet with a very pleasant man who was very well informed about Ireland. We arrive back into Kathmandu about 7pm and I then move my stuff into my new apartment which I was looking forward to.
Thursday evening we all go out for dinner for Sam’s birthday. We go to a little restaurant in Jhamsikhel and we all have a great evening. We also discuss plans for a trek this coming weekend. Somehow, as the night progresses it is let slip that we are meeting at 6am for a 5/6 hour bus journey followed by a 8/9 hour trek to a temple at Kalinchowk. I think all our jaws dropped at the same time at the table. However, despite the early Saturday morning start it was a fantastic weekend for everyone and we completed the trek a lot quicker due to the impending threat of darkness. As we were well above 3,000 meters we got some spectacular views of the snow capped Annapurna and Langtang mountain ranges with Everest in the background. We also experienced great food and a new drink called Tomba made from fermented millet grains and some local wine.
All Fintan's photos are available on our Facebook page.
