Well-Being For All

Terry's Travel Log (Blog) lV - Pokhara, Nepal

Greetings all!

It is the evening of the 12th here. We arrived safely in Pokhara in west-central Nepal today. It is a spetacular drive twisting through the mountains. The pace is slow and there are a lot of trucks and busses. It is about 200 kms and usually takes about 5 to 6 hours. About 40km's out of Pokhara, the timing belt broke and the engine stopped on a corner on a hill. The driver and I took the engine apart on the side of the road. When we took off the timing belt covers we found the 2 broken belts. Lots of burned knuckles on hot engine parts. We then took off the valve cover and we found 2 tappets broken in lttle pieces which likely means those 2 valves, the 2 pistons and likely the crank shaft are broken or damaged. That was the end of the road side repair hope. The 3 program staff and I went on to Pokhara after we pushed the truck around and coasted down the mountain into the regional capital town where the driver can get food and hotel until another truck can tow him back to Kathmandu. Lots of excitement.

It was long after dark when we crawled into Pokhara. The mountains are close here but the altitude is actually lower than Kathmandu so it is a little warmer. It is raining, cold and very damp. The temperature feels like about 5 or 6 degrees now.

I met witht he local SAP Nepal staff. They are our partner counterparts here. They have a full itinerary planned for tomorrow beginning before sun up and we will get back to town after dark.

The growth of the local village groups under the training and group formation experience of SAP Nepal has been tremendous. It sounds like tomorrow will be an exciting time. I have some pictures with me on my computer from Nepal back in 1999 when I was last here. I am going to try to find some of those people if I can and ask them what difference the project has made in their lives. This will be the kind of test we can only get from long term partnership like World Accord has with local agencies in Nepal, India, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Haiti. After 26 years in Development, World Accord has been part of a significant transformation in the lives of tens of thousands of people. Amazing!!!!

Good night, all!

posted by World Accord Staff @ 10:03 AM