The route to Kathmandu...

The next day I woke early - it was my 27th birthday! The sun was shining brightly through the thin curtains and as I popped my head through them and out of the window I could see the little town of Surkhet starting to wake up too, with people opening up shops and setting up stalls.. Home felt very far away as I thought back over the previous few days. 

We headed for a breakfast meeting with some of Western Nepal's local government officials - prominent officers for education, health and public engineering amongst other things. The meeting was formal, and conducted in Nepali, so Parus sat at one end of the table with Kate and I to explain what was happening. There was a lot of talk about the great work that NEWAH had been doing in the region, and the need for coordination and cooperation between the government bodies and NGO work. The health official talked with a smile about the 7 VDCs that NEWAH work in in the area and told us that NEWAH is well renowned and well thought of. It was quite difficult for me to follow the discussion, but later Parus mentioned to me that this example of collaboration was quite rare - if this meeting had been called by WaterAid Nepal or NEWAH five or so years ago then the officials wouldn't have attended. One thing that was extremely clear was that the issue of safe water and sanitation was being taken seriously at a local government level. Pressure at this level can only be achieved by partner organisations such as NEWAH and I felt really fortunate to have been able to witness such a meeting - it gave me a fantastic first hand view of how our advocacy work could put pressure on all of the stakeholders needed to make our work successful. Back in the jeep and on the road again, Tom talked about the model of school-led sanitation that had also been mentioned - this originated in Nepal and has now been rolled out worldwide across other WaterAid work. This happened because of the strength of the collaboration between local NGOs, WaterAid and the government - a fantastic working model that really is changing lives. 

We made the four hour journey back to Nepalgunj, down the bumpy, windy roads again. At lunchtime we stopped in a local restaurant - it was incredibly hot. We settled down to eat but Parus and Dinesh had vanished. A few minutes later they returned with about a dozen big bunches of red flowers and the biggest birthday cake I have ever seen. It was incredible! I felt really emotional as we tucked into lunch as I thought back over the last few days, about Guara, about Laxmi, about Nigel and quite overwhelmed by it all. 

After a quick stop off at the NEWAH regional office to meet the whole team (and share the cake) we headed back to the airport for our second Himalayan flight back to Kathmandu…. A long day of travelling done, Tom, Kate and I had a quiet, reflective dinner. It was unlike any birthday I'd ever had. 

The next day, we headed into the WaterAid Nepal office in Kathmandu. It was really interesting to see the office and how it differed to the one in London. We had a great day meeting the staff, learning about their roles, their objectives and their plans for the future. I met up with the Urban project team, who explained that they had arranged two more days of project visits for the rest of my time in Kathmandu. Project plans in hand, I headed off for an early night to read more about what was to come…. 

With Tom, Ashu, Dinesh and Parus from NEWAH and Kate (and my birthday flowers and cake!)