Silas took a photo of the view from the roof

After so many hours of travel (more than 30 hours on the road, and you lose track), it felt like such a gift to walk out into the sunshine of a Kathmandu afternoon to be received by a friend we’d been anticipating meeting for so long. Nick and I have travelled in different ways and in different places and it was decidedly comforting to step off a plane and find friendly faces waiting to welcome us and take us to our new home. We filled a van with luggage, latched a few to a taxi’s roof and started a first tour of the city as we drove to our 6 week guest house home. We passed a few landmarks, a recommended grocery store, a church gathering place, a dirty river, and to the kids’ great excitement, they saw cows wandering alongside the road – just like we’d promised them. Not so sure we are going to be able to fulfill Selema’s long held desire to own a goat so easily, but this was an easy one to check off.

Our rooftop terrace

The apartment was stocked with some food to start us off, a pot of soup on the stove, a phone ready for us to use, a list of phone numbers and reading materials, maps, offers of help nearby and encouragement to rest and take the next days to settle in before the work begins. They’ve clearly done this before.

One of the bedrooms

Soup never tasted better and our beds were cosy and horizontal (expectations are low after trying to sleep in seats for so long!). That first sleep was sound if it didn’t last long. Freda and Selema woke to the day at 4am with a critical need for chapstick. They seem to have stirred the rooster though the sun was not yet risen. And so our first full day in Nepal has begun. Cock-a-doodle-doooooo!