Monsoon Madness

The LORD is good,
a strong refuge when trouble comes.
He is close to those who trust in Him.

Nahum 1:7

We are coming to the end of monsoon season, and once again it has been a struggle for some, where flooding has affected their homes, their crops and their livestock. The picture above shows how people value the water whenever it does come. This potential disaster is used for good and they take the opportunity to wash some clothes, although I’m not sure how clean this would be. It is scenes like this that makes us grateful for what we have.

Pratiksha is working hard in the Monitoring, Strategy and Learning team. This time of year does mean a lot of visits to our clusters and projects, and in the next month, she will only be at home for a few nights! The work can be challenging, but she really enjoys the chance to meet some of the people UMN are working to help.

She also recently took a photography course, and despite having to start the lessons at 6 am every day for two weeks, she thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is always on the lookout for a good shot. She’s an active member of the Blipfoto community and regularly shares her experiences there.

Phil recently travelled to the remote district of Mugu. This was a tough trip in difficult conditions, coming at the beginning of the monsoon season. The remoteness of this district is evident by the location of the airport on the side of a hill. More time was spent travelling, or attempting to travel, than actually visiting the work of UMN.

Together with Ramesh from his team in Kathmandu and some of our staff from UMN in Mugu, they took a walk to an even more remote village. This took around 5 hours, split overnight. There, they visited a hostel for girls, which enables them to stay close to their school, and a health post that is trying to help pregnant women with regular antenatal check-ups and to cut down on home births.

The adventure really began when they tried to leave Mugu. Flights in and out are frequently cancelled due to bad weather, and while the weather wasn’t so bad on these days, there were a lot of Indian Hindu pilgrims stuck in a different area of Nepal, and flights to this area were prioritised by the airlines (after requests from the Indian government). Phil and Ramesh made friends with two other people who were also trying to fly out of Mugu. After four days of staying at the airport with no flights available for them, they decided to hire a jeep to drive them out of Mugu and into Jumla, where the hope was that they would be able to find a flight out of there a bit easier. After an eight hour drive over hills, they eventually arrived in Jumla at 11 pm. The next day, RAPs representatives in the area were able to secure all tickets on the first flight out to Nepalgunj, and after a long nervous wait at that airport, Phil and Ramesh were eventually put on the last flight to Kathmandu that night.

It was an epic trip for Phil, but the norm for most of the UMN staff (including Pratiksha!) who travel to many more places like this far more regularly.

See more pictures from the trip in the photo album ‘Mugu’, below.

Mugu

Phil also managed to make a video of what it’s like to land and take off at Mugu, which can be viewed below. Not for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure!

Pratiksha continues to do well in her online Masters studies. She started the course in January and is now in her second semester having successfully completed the first.

Phil has now completed the first year of his MA in Graphic Design from the University of Hartfordshire. Four modules have been successfully submitted and he currently has a 3.5 GPA. The final two modules, which include the year-long Major Study, will start in September.