“Power Shedding”

It has become increasingly difficult access the internet here to post on the blog as the government recently increased its “power shedding” aka "load shedding" or rolling blackouts as we would call it from 6 hours a week to 36 hours a week. There is an extreme power shortage in Nepal and this is what is required to deal with it. There is talk of increasing to 11 hours a day in the next month or two. Amazingly people here take it in stride. Most businesses have generators and in the homes most people cook with either gas or wood. The hotel I am staying in has a generator, but it only powers 2 small lights in the room, none of the outlets. An additional challenge in posting is that there is no internet when the power is out. So, I will try diligently to get caught up over the next couple of days.

Two weeks and counting

It is amazing how fast the time has gone by. I will be returning home two weeks from today. It of course is with mixed emotions that I start the preparations for the trip back. Someone asked me last week why it is so hard for me to leave Nepal. I guess the simple answer is that I am afraid that when I get home I will get an eight to five job(which I haven’t had in…well I don’t think I have ever had an eight to five job that I can remember) and that I will get stuck in the grind and never get out. Traveling and humanitarian work has been such a big part of my life and I don’t know how to envision my life without it. There is a big part of me that would like to live here in Nepal and again getting into the grind might thwart that desire. So I guess that is the simple of “why it is with mixed emotions that I am returning home.”