Johan’s diary – 17th of September
7:45 I wake up to the clock, I woke up a few times before my alarm went off this morning because there weer flights taking off at low altitude over the hostel and then there was a guest at the hostel awake and talking loudly. He is an American Israeli and works with training in beekeeping for an Israeli aid organization. A man from Ratankot went for training and found work as a beekeeper. The knowledge of how important the role of bees for pollination of crops is almost nonexistent in the villages, so these courses are extremely important. Today there will be little for breakfast, as I am starting to running out of supplies. I had to content myself with a bar, coffee and mango juice, it worked well although I prefer the porridge.
8:30 I have a meeting with the construction engineer again in the meeting room.
8:45 The construction engineer is here but no Karma, we start the meeting anyhow.
9:00 Karma appears. It becomes a good meeting but I need to be very clear that we only have a certain amount for the budget so we need to make a lot of compromises, but I feel confident though that it will be a safe and strong house. I am promised a new calculation for tomorrow, Friday, before I go back to Sweden.
10:30 I sit, work, email and fix the miscellaneous work paper etc. I am trying to book a train ticket from the flight home on Saturday morning but the Internet is going so slowly that it’s not working.
12:30 Johan Friman and Helene Grell of the OPERATION Nepal will pass, they’ve been and bought the volleyball net, we want to give it to the monks. We go over and give it to them and help with the installation, there are many happy faces. Then we end with a long match in high humidity and almost 30-degree heat. You realize that it’s an advantage to be 30-40 cm longer than their opponents when playing volleyball. Really fun and nice to move!
14:00 Shyam comes and we go through the building plans and he reports for each available piece and what has been acquired by the former construction, which we can use.
15:00 Shyam drives me on his motorcycle to good shops to buy shirts in the special red as monks wear, he helps me find what I’m looking for, we’ll have these for the book fair because it matches our book excellently. Sophie sent by the way just pictures on the window of Karströms bookstore in Mariestad with our book, it makes me feel a little proud that we made a book!
16:00 We go to the Hyatt and eat lunch/dinner, we are really hungry and I only have one serving of freeze-dried remains and thinking I eat tomorrow night before I set off for the flight so I had no lunch to eat at the hostel.
17:30 Back at the hostel, the monks are still play volleyball, the net seems appreciated! I work on.
19:45 I have a telephone meeting with Sophie and Torbjörn, the time is 15:00 in Sweden. I discuss the building meeting we had this morning.
20:30 Taking a shower, cold water again today so there will be no long showers.
20:45 I boil a cup of tea, and work on. I start writing in my diary and e-mailing.
22:00 The diary is completed, I will try to go to sleep earlier this evening, yesterday I worked till 00:30 and then I could of course not fall asleep for a while, I never learn. It is all from me for today.
Thank you for reading!