How it continued – Thums Up and Down and Up again!

When you want to travel to India, you need to apply for a visa in advance. If you are a Latvian – 30 days in advance. This was not my case. All I had was a flight ticket to Delhi on early Wednesday morning. If I did not obtain a permit of stay, plan B was to buy a ticket for the next flight to London. After a long delay in Kathmandu, I finally arrived to Delhi. At the information desk I was explained that there is no ‘visa on arrival’ available and even if my connection flight is after several days I will be not allowed to leave the airport building. So plan B seemed to be the only option. But I was in no rush. I just walked around the hall – a 10 x 10 m room with the airlines service desk at one side and the information desk opposite. After a while I noticed two guys discussing something with a girl from one of airlines. I found that they have arrived to India without a visa. A familiar situation I would say. The Italian guy had spent three nights after the earthquake at the British Embassy in Kathmandu. There he was told that the Indian government issues seven-day emergency visas for applicants travelling from Kathmandu. Seven days sounded more than enough for me. Yet no one at the service desk mentioned anything about such visa. The girl explained that she is not able to help us, but asked as to wait for the immigration officer. The surly looking man took as to his office and, reluctantly, explained that we can get this emergency visa if we leave within seven days. Here was my entrance to India.

Peter on a train in India!

One of the guys I met knew a cheap place in the city centre, except he could not remember the name.  We walked around until one of many importunate Indian lads persuaded as to check his offer. For a surprise it was a really nice hotel, just £7 per night. After a long shower, I went out to get some street food and make an agenda for the next few days. Taj Mahal and Akshardham Temple were must dos. Absolutely astonishing, particularly the latter. It did not surprise me that the security check was stricter than at airport. No cameras or phones were allowed. To summarize, it is so crazy cool country! Just have to deal with your nerves to not get frustrated!

On an early Monday I arrived in London Heathrow. I got a bus ticket to Brighton, which cost £28. After five weeks in Asia this was a price shock. It was a bank holiday so the Renewable Office was closed and I had some time to get around the neighbourhood. Brighton welcomed me with a sunny, but windy day. Since the closet beach to London is in Brighton, people were fleeing out of the metropolis to get by the seaside causing a traffic jam. I really hoped that my hostel is close to the central bus station. Somewhere in Kathmandu two of four wheels of my luggage were broken and I had to pull this 25kg burden behind me what was quite annoying. Luckily my hostel turned out to be just 5 minutes away and situated by the sea.  I had booked a bed in a 2 bed dorm. Although I had all day, I felt quite busy. I had to bring my computer for repair, do the laundry and I urgently needed to get a haircut. Actually all three things were urgent.  After solving the first two problems, I found a barber shop. I asked the barber what is the Brighton style? And after 15 minutes I got my answer: a very short cut on sides and the back of the head with long enough hair on top to slick back. In the beginning I did not like, but the time took away my pain I got used with it.  

Brighton Beach

Tuesday was my first day in the new office. It has two large rooms with an open passage and a small meeting room. There are six people working of whom I knew only Development Officer Helen. After introducing myself to Matt, Marie, Alice, Paula and Paddy, I tried to take a deep breath, sit at the computer RW had prepared, while mine is being repaired, and return to a normal office life. Things had changed over the last 10 days aloud, so where my projects. Since our implementation partner Wind Power Nepal had not yet returned at office, I had to stop the wind/solar hybrid system proposal I was writing. I had reached a point where it was not possible to continue without a consultation with them.

However, Global Programme Manager Nick Virr did not let me to be bored. He asked me to focus on the remote metering system that I took over from Guillermo. I had to do cost analysis for future water metering projects as well as finish a technical report started by Guillermo. Besides this, I also worked on a community implementation model. This is a great document started by Nick and other RW members. Basically, these are guidelines for Renewable Energy Project implementation in remote, off-grid communities. This document includes everything from pre-feasibility study and community selection ending to capacity building and community training. It not only explains the development process, but also includes technical templates, surveys, tables, questionnaires and other tools for each stage of the project implementation. There is still a lot to do to finish these guidelines and I hope to leave my input as well. By the end of the week, I was still staying at hostel. It was not that easy to find an affordable accommodation. The main problem actually was a short term let. Most offers included a contract for a minimum of 3 months staying, but at this point I did not know how long I am going to stay here. On Sunday I found a nice room in a 5 minute walking distance from the office. This cost me £120 a week, which is a good price for a room in the city centre.

My second week could not start worse. On Monday I got message from the computer repair shop. All they told me was: we tried everything… Neither they were able to fix it, nor recover my data. 200GB of pictures, videos and documents were gone. There is a lesson to learn! I still have not lost hope and will try another repair shop. Meanwhile, I ordered a new computer. Tuesday morning I got more terrifying news: There was another big earthquake in Nepal. I found out quickly that my colleagues in Nepal are safe and followed the news all day. Although the aftermath was not as bad as after the first earthquake and I was 7000km away, this struck me hard. Much harder than the earthquake I experienced myself. I do not know if it was this hopeless feeling that I cannot help anyone or was it the fact that another earthquake is going to postpone my return to Nepal. In any case, I was not able to focus on work for next two days. Only after talking with Marie I felt better. Her enthusiasm about her work and positivism about the life in general, even during this difficult situation, is something everyone should learn. It is great that such person works for Renewable World. 

On Thursday I had to pull myself together anyway. For the first time I was going to meet Nick as he was coming down to Brighton. I wish he came another day as I still had a terrible mood and I knew that we will have an important chat about my future. That day Nick told me that he is not able to attend a presentation on a following day and asked me to go there instead. I was asked to make a presentation about the water metering system and the installation me and Guillermo did in Dikpa site few weeks ago. This came out of the blue, but it was a very necessary boost for me. I had just one evening to prepare for a presentation. For people who are used to speak in front of audience this may be more than enough, but not for me. I tried to not express it, but I felt nervous. On the other hand, I positively welcomed these feelings after being sad and obscure for last two days. After work I went for a pint with Nick. Usually I would avoid mentioning the work, but this was the only chance to talk with Nick in person, so we talked only about work. I got all the answers I was looking, mostly about my future in Renewable World: how long and where I will stay – in the UK, Nepal or maybe Kenya!?

My presentation was a part of a fundraising event. Renewable Energy Systems (RES) is a big supporter for Renewable World. Their office was in North London, King’s Langley. A day before colleagues joked that I am going to King’s Landing. Well, The RES complex is definitely the capital of renewable energy systems. A representative from ‘RES’ took me for a tour. They have installed a 225kW Vestas wind turbine in the site, an array with PV panels, a biomass boiler, one of the biggest underground heat stores in the UK (1400m3) and a display of solar shingles (I think RES called them differently, so my apologies if I am wrong). I wondered if I will learn more by examining ‘RES’ technologies than they from my presentation. How successful was my presentation should be asked to someone else, but I was surprised that I knew so much about the metering system. There was only one question I could not answer: Can we scale up these renewable energy projects and make them commercially feasible in the areas of multiple market failure? Even before the gentleman asked me this, I knew that finding an answer to this question is part of my work over the next few months.

After the presentation I had a chance to talk with RES engineers. One of them was from Kenya where he had worked with solar energy development. We had an interesting discussion about the issues related to renewable energy systems. One of his stories slightly shocked me. His previous company had installed dozens of solar home systems in Kenya. The device basically consists of a solar panel installed on the roof of each household in the community for battery charging and lighting. After few weeks more than half of them were gone… stolen. I did not remember all details, like were the thieves the members of the community (most likely) and where would they sell the PV panels or a better question is who would buy stolen, inappropriately dismounted panels? I would compare this with stealing food or water of someone as access to energy is one the basic needs. In any case, I had not heard this before. My colleagues were not informed of similar issues in Nepal.

On my way back decided to spend some time in London. I walked around Waterloo area by the River Thames. Eight years ago I worked in the restaurant ‘Las Iguanas’ situated close to the London Eye opposite Big Ben. It was nice to bring back all the memories from the old days.  When my friend arrived we went for a late lunch to the same restaurant, had some tapas, nice chat, news update. Notmuch had changed but staff. At some point later I checked the calendar. What I saw is that I have less than a month left until the great cycling challenge. Renewable World organises an event celebrating the Global Wind Day: 2 days, 200 miles, a scenic road from Durham to Edinburg passing near seven wind farms. And I do not have even a bicycle not mentioning that I have never cycled a distance half this length. This will be a challenge indeed…