Food and kings

I am beginning to realise how strange it is to be part of a community of volunteers who are all here for a fixed time. No sooner have you got to know people than their time is up and off they go back home again. Of course this is happening all the time as people arrive in groups (usually twice a year) some with different lengths of placement and some go home early so it is a constant round of welcomes and goodbyes. We often complain about staff turnover being an impediment back in the UK but in VSO it is at such a level that you have to reverse your thinking and see the turnover as an opportunity to work with someone with a new skill set. Interestingly the organisations we work in are less affected by all this coming and going as they usually have one volunteer for a two year stretch.
The weather has been getting hotter and we had to buy a fan to give us a little respite particularly at night but now the monsoon seems to have arrived(according to the papers). The last couple of days have been cloudy and rainy and I think we can expect more in the next weeks. At least it has taken the temperature down a bit.
Since I last wrote we have had the historic first meeting of the newly elected Constitutional Assembly and now live in a republic, the king is referred to as the ex -king by some and simply by his first name by others. He has been given notice to quit the palace and nobody seems to know where the crown and sceptre are. There continues to be much political wrangling about who will be President and where they will live. I read the papers on a daily basis but I am not sure that I am much wiser for that.
I go for lunch everyday with my colleagues to a tiny shack just near the office. It is always busy with office workers. Popular because of its freshly made food and prices. The menu is very limited, roti or paratha with a little bean curry and yoghurt (the alternative is chow mein but I have only seen one person have this in six months). However even here the global food price hike has hit and the price of the standard plate has gone up by 25% in the last week. Still very cheap at 25NRs (about 20 pence in sterling) but a 5 rupee hike will be very significant for the lowest paid Nepalis. This little eating place is also a great meeting place and I was honoured to meet the most famous and best sarangi (a small traditional string instrument) player in Nepal there only the other day. He sat and drank tea with us telling us, in Nepali, about how much in demand he is at the moment from the many recording studios in KTM. It was good to hear that this skilled and once itinerant and much discriminated against Dalit musician was at last having a comfortable life. The strain of his former life shows in his face however and he looked much older than his 63 years.
It is lychee season here in Nepal and delicious they are too. Sold in huge bunches, still on the stem and with leaves, they look and taste wonderful. Huge pink globes the size of plums which make the ones we buy at home look like an entirely different, and inferior, fruit. We have an office in the terai where the fruit is grown and everyone was very excited when the weekly mail arrived accompanied by a box of lychees. There was a huge plateful on each of our desks and more to take home.
Well, must go and eat some mangoes which are also in season.
Namaste
Julie