I’ve been back in the’Du for about six weeks now and, shamefully,  have hardly posted anything on the blog.  I thought I had the discipline down…perhaps not.  It seems that it a required tradition that after I return from Greece, I go through re-entry displacement for a while.  I know its coming, but I never know in what form until I try and settle back in everyday life.  By re-entry displacement I’m referring to a feeling of non-belonging anywhere really which, accompanied by other issues unforeseen, leads to life in a hazy funk for a while and an abandoned blog.  (Who wants to read about hazy funks!).

I remember two years ago going through a similar period after I returned from Greece to the Philippines.    Oh the rain!  It rained nonstop for weeks straight and I don’t mean English drizzle.  It pounded down relentlessly, the streets flooded, people were forced out of their homes, but on the 21st floor of a Manila high rise apartment, I just felt trapped and bored.  Back in Kathmandu, I was hoping to return to a rainy season that was mainly over.  Was I ever wrong!  It has rained heavily every day for weeks (mostly at night) and, this time, with flooding and fatal mudslides. For hillside villages in rural areas, it has been devastating. For us, of course, its just meant lots of mud, mildew on everything, drowned plants, and a soggy background to a series of work and health challenges which have been slowly coming under control.

As the malaise lifts I remember why we came here, and the reality that we now have only ten short months to appreciate where we are and enjoy Nepal for what it is – warts ‘n all.  Normal service will resume shortly…..