No house...

Bad news, looks like we won't get the house we had hoped for. Once the landlady learned we worked with trade unions and were here on a tourist visa, she became very demanding, so doesn't look like it is going to happen. So back to square one, househunting...

Our most likely new house

House hunting in a new country, always a joy... 

We took four days to run around Kathmandu and Lalitpur (on the other side of the river) to visit houses. As both Thomas and me will probably be working a lot from home, we opted to have something a bit bigger than an appartment and looked for a house, preferably with a garden. Not an easy undertaking in a city as densily populated as KTM, but through different realtors, we visited about fifteen houses and made a shortlist of three. It became a bit tricky as Thomas really like one, and me another. Hence, today, we met with the owners and rated the houses, and we are proud to present (if everything goes well) our new little haven in KTM (actually Lalitpur). 

It is a thirteen year old building/offices, here, right by Patan Dhoka, a part of town which houses several UN offices and is a bit more classy. The house is/was occupied by an NGO, which means at least the infrastructure and cables for internet and invertors is there. 

It has a well for when there is no water (a very important issue here), four bed rooms (for our friends and family), an office room  and even a garage and servant quarters out back (which we'll probably convert to a meeting room or something). 

Bathroom

 It is right by a campus, which is very green and will hopefully give some fresh air, highly needed in KTM.

2min walk, view on the campus

Terasse on top of the house, with solar panels

The veggie garden behind

The lawn in front, to lounge

             

The kitchen

                 

Currently their meeting room, soon to be our bedroom

Tomorrow we'll have to discuss with the owners and also go through the contract so hopefully everything will work out. We agreed on a price of 60 000 Nepali Rupees or 490€ per month, to which we'll have to add 10% taxes and utilities (water and electricity). Next week, the NGO that is currently occupying the house will be moving out and then we might have to wait antoher ten days for the house to be repainted and cleaned. 

We'll keep you posted!

An app... for loadshedding

I just got one of the weirdest but yet most practical apps on my phone ever: Nepal load Shedding schedule. Kathmandu is plagued by severe powercuts (more than half the day without power). It reminds me of my time in Haiti, where power cuts were even more frequent but completely random (meaning you had to keep the lights turned on, so at night, you would wake up when the power comes and then quickly get up to do laundry, charge your phone etc.). Here however, there is order in the chaos: the Nepali electricity Authority publishes regular load shedding schedules, like the one below.

Agreed, this one doesn't help me much, but rest assured they also come in English.

Anyway, still tricky to look up, which neighboorhood belongs to which group, and then cross reference with the dates, it is a bit complicated to read and remember. Hence, some Nepali guy came up with the brilliant idea of putting it in an app.  It has a map of the different zones, locates where you are and then tells you if you have power, how much longer you'll have, all nicely indicated with a little light bulb. Things certainly have changed... It might seem weird, but it can actually come in quite handy. Thomas wanted to buy a SIM card in a shop, but they couldn't help him without electricity to make a photocopy of his passport (yes, you need your passport and a ID picture, and I even had to leave fingerprints when I bought mine). Hence, useful to know when the power will come back...

I'm on the top of the world: Nepal

We're off to Nepal! After the end of our two years in Morocco (Sept. 2013), and our subsequent trip in Western Africa (so well depicted on this blog, I'm not going into details), we went back to Belgium for Christmas and New Year. And then I got hired as the Asia Coordinator by World Solidarity (WSM), a Belgian NGO working on Social Protection. I will be based in Kathmandu, Nepal until end 2016 but am to work with all Asia partners, though particularly the ones in South Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh and India- map).

I started beginning of March, but after an initial visit to Bangladesh and Nepal, am back in Belgium for the hand over and the meeting with the other international staff WSM has beginning of May. Hence, our departure date is 19th of May and we're very much looking forward to it.

I have also created a new blog to share some of my work experiences (since this one is private and focuses on my travels), which is www.brunowsmasia.blogspot.com