After the water lilies are gone

Bardiya district is greying. Drying. The monsoon, late as it was with fewer days of rain than needed is long gone. The field officers from colder countries can breath a little easier and are now enjoying the cool evenings and nights.

Meetings on the roof are a nice change, with or without green parrotts flying by.

And we did spent the better part of our working day on the roof today, before me and J went out to SanosShree to do an introdution meeting with a political party representative. We were well received, partly I am sure because we are white and represent an INGO but probably also because going into the so-called remote areas(in our case the Midwest of Nepal) we are hardly in majority in the NGO world. Showing face and all that. It was a very visibly open meeting, plastic chairs were pulled up outside a shop and many local people showed up to listen and have a cup of chia. And this is very good for us. We do come here on invitation from the local human rights defenders, and sometimes it is just plain slow persistant work that change any human rights violations. People knowing about us helps, it is as simple as that.

Other highlights of my day included "getting Junior in shape" activities. Junior is the neighborhood dog that somehow nesteled himself into my heart. But we take it slow, building up the relationship. Washing his ears(todays project)does not come under his favorite actitities. Generally we do do things that he likes, which is basically chasing anything fun, like buffalo, goats(the smaller are more fun), other dogs, a horse if it is not too scary, hens or the odd scared human without a stone in his hand. Cats would be great but there are very few of them so we have to make do with what there is.

And yes, the water lilies are now gone. The wetland that we use to pass on the mornings are now drying up and will shortly be planted on. And the cycle continues.