The second focus group

Today’s crowd was not as big as yesterday’s. Yesterday were the survey types. Today were the land records types - those who work in the land registry offices. Some I had met before in the field visits. Others were new.

Nepali men wear their hats to meetings – indoors or out. Mostly they are the typical Nepali caps, others wear baseball caps. The other dress was either western garb, or a nepali suit with a suit jacket over the top. There were some unexpected visitors invited by the joint secretary. One was from FAO – the food and agriculture organization based in Rome, that promotes agriculture in developing countries, and is often a donor agency for projects. The others were from the Asia disaster relief organisation – three earnest Japanese who did not stay long.

I wore my new vest and looked stunning.

As per the agenda of yesterday, after an introduction, a local consultant spoke about the Business Process Re-engineering exercise that had been done for the project. He spoke in Nepali, and there were lots of questions. I spoke next, in English, and there were some questions from those who felt comfortable enough in English to ask them. It seemed to go well. You never know…..

I know you are waiting to hear what was on the menu – rice pilau, and several salads, and naan and roti, and a dahl, and several Chinese dishes, and a lamb meatbally kind of thing. All very tasty. Gulab jamon ( which I do NOT like) black forest cake and a halwah were for dessert. I may have eaten too much.

Afterwards we met to discuss the content of the final report, and then back to the apartment. I will wear my new Kurta tomorrow to work. It is red.