My first day at work

After 6 days enjoying and exploring Kathmandu, on Monday my work with READ Nepal officially began. And what a way to start a project!

I woke up early to catch the first flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara for a three day tour of READ libraries in the area. I went with Indra Bahadur Bhujel, program officer for READ Nepal and Bob Reno, Asia Managing Director for READ Global.

Pokhara is only a 25 minutes flight away from Kathmandu and it is major tourist destination. The city is located around the Phewa Tal (Lake Fewa), there are lots of restaurants, bars, cafés and shops, as well as many attractions from the Peace Pagoda and Varahi Mandir to paragliding and boating on the lake. Pokhara is the starting point for the famous treks in the Annapurna Range, so all over town you can meet trekkers either coming or going to the mountains.

Unfortunately on Monday, we had little time to enjoy any of that, after all we were there for work, not tourism. As we landed in the small airport of Pokhara we were greeted by our driver for the next two days and headed to our first destination: Myagdi Community Library. Before hitting the road, we briefly stopped at the scenic Boomerang Restaurant and ate a delicious breakfast enjoying the peaceful view of Phewa Tal.

I strongly recommend a visit to Pokhara and I hope to go back in the future to enjoy more of this wonderful town!

After breakfast, we started our journey to Beni. From Pokhara to Beni it is 73 km of narrow and winding road, and the beauty takes your breath away in every turn. Along the way you can see Mt Machhapuchhare (Fish Tail Mt.), countless small pagodas, temples, prayer flags and terraced fields. The journey took almost three hours, in paved and rough unpaved roads.

Along the way, I also practiced my Nepali skills talking ( or at least trying to talk) to Indra and our driver. They were so patient with my endless questions! I have a long, long way to go before being able to understand what they say, but I am working hard and I hope at least to be able to minimally communicate before this project is over! Nepalese people are so nice that I feel sad to miss the opportunity to directly interact with them...

Arriving in Beni, we checked-in in our Hotel and went to see the Community Library. Beni is the starting point to an alternative trek that leads to Jomsom, so it is a small town but very busy due to the trekkers and mules caravans coming and going to Mustang region.

Visiting this library was a great experience that allowed me to know a little more about the work READ does in Nepal. Thanks to Bob and Indra, who patiently answered so many questions, I have learned a lot!

I fully enjoyed every moment of it. Flat Stanley visited the library with me and enjoyed seeing the kids playing at the Children's Area, he tried to read some books, but like me, he still has a long way to go before understanding Nepali and

being able to read a book in Devanagari... :-)

We ended our day at the hotel, eating Daal Baat and sipping some Apple Brandy (produced in the mustang region), talking about READ work, learning nepali and nepalese culture and planning the activities of the following day. This is how work should be, hard and enjoyable! It was an awesome start!

I fell asleep listening to the sound of the Kali Gandaki river, right outside my window. I had to pinch myself to check if I wasn't dreaming... but then I realised that this was, in fact, a dream come true! I only wish I can come back some day to trek all the way to Jomsom and beyond...