Carrying a small adult's library, varnish, nails glue, other miscellany and my own bags up to Gaathi, by myself and infront of the majority of the group, (until we got to the water where I promptly gave up) was a personal Everest for me. Not even slightly lessened by the 2 guys carrying double sheets of 6' × 4' 1" thick plywood each up the hill slowly passing me while I rested. I spent the evening before travelling to Maandra sorting, checking and stamping our previous book donations, (we 'ficial naa bruv, we gots a stamp!). The children joined in helpfully moving everything around and generally disorganising things until I realised I was making life difficult for everybody involved and just got them to do the stamping and sorting while I 'supervised', (read made sure everybody got equal turns with the stamp).
While we journeyed up to Maandra we met the carpenter in the way down, took a quick selfie, (...the shame) and carried on. Our undying gratitude to Beebal, B'Niel and Shivraj for getting the shelving and varnishing finished ready for the opening the next day. In the meeting where we agreed a better project for the Trekkers later this year, the use of the library and possible future learning support. Afterwards I spent some time working with the Healthcare Assistant, creating the spreadsheets for the Health Post and Library and digitising the first medical records, (finally!).
Sometimes things are a long struggle in Nepal, but eventually, with patience, effort, and some more patience under the general banner of unwarranted optimism...you get there.
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