Nepal - How it all Started

After spending few days in Kuala Lumpur I arrived in Nepal on a cloudy Sunday evening. It did not take me a long time to fill all the forms and to obtain a three months visa. However, I had to wait for my luggage more than an hour. It seemed to be the last bag in the airplane. I took a taxi to the guesthouse, which I had booked for two weeks. This place was suggested by a Guillermo who had been working in Renewable World for the last eight months. He was also staying there. I met Guillermo on arrival at the guesthouse.

Renewable World Office, Kathmandu

April 6th: it was my first day in Renewable World. I met all three staff members: Nepal project manager Lata, senior technical project manager Baburam and project manager Anita. Each of them briefly mentioned their background and introduced me with Renewable World projects in Nepal. They also explained me the projects I will be participating in.

However, that week did not start so good. Due to a high temperature and fever, I was absent from work for next two days. I am quite sure that I caught this illness before arrival to Kathmandu. Hiding from the 32 degree heat in air-conditioned rooms and then back in the sun again; this probably put too much stress on my body. Anyway, on Thursday I was back at work. Feeling much better, I was able to focus on my projects. Since Guillermo was leaving in three weeks, I would have to take over some of his work. Therefore, I tried to learn as much as I could from him.

Besides this, I was assigned to work on a project involving a wind/solar energy system. Renewable World together with local partners is developing a wind/solar pilot project that will provide electricity for a remote off-grid community in the East Nepal. My job is to write a proposal to apply for the funding. This includes a technical design, cost analysis and assessment of the project sustainability. Another project I will work on is the best practice guidelines for implementation of community scale wind/solar hybrid projects. Since I am particularly interested in wind energy development, I was truly happy to go on with this. That Friday I also received great news from my colleagues. I was offered to join Guillermo and Anita on a site visit: a very important field trip for Renewable World. This included the installation of the first remote water metering system in Nepal and a feasibility study for a hydram system in another site.  

The third week was actually my first full week in the office. On the first day we reviewed our success on the water metering system. This involved writing a technical report and analyzing the performance of the system. From next day I was able to work on my wind/solar proposal. To get more information about the wind/solar hybrid systems, I met with our implementation partner and another company who works on wind energy development. We discussed everything starting from wind resource assessment and technical design to community ownership models and opportunities to establish small enterprises that would be powered by wind and solar energy. After this busy week I felt like getting some fresh air. On early Saturday morning I went for a hiking to the Shivapuri peak in the north of Kathmandu. After five hours I was back at the bus stop and was waiting for a microbus. There was no sign of what will happen next…