Now in the relative peace of Pokhara, Nepal's second city. What a pleasure it is to have warm weather, hot showers, fresher air, and wi-fi in my room. We still have 12 hour power cuts, but at least this guest house has a more reliable backup, so not spending evenings in darkness.

As soon as I arrived, I phoned the director of the charity I had come to see, to check that they could see me sometime. Ten minutes later the accountant arrived on his motorbike to pick me. Bina, the Executive Director told about Kopila Nepal's work, and what help they needed. By the end, I was wishing that I could stay much longer than a week. Bina is clearly a woman who gets things done, and the driving force of the charity. She impressed me with what they are trying to do, and has told me several harrowing tales of women who have suffered from domestic abuse, or as a result of the civil war. Afterwards, we went downstairs from the office to her house, where she prepared the traditional Nepali meal of dhal bhaat for me.

The following day, I sat in on a training course they had organised. Kopila has helped women in rural communities who have suffered some kind of domestic problems, to set up self-help groups, and is teaching them how to make them work (e.g. group working, electing officials, and managing the small savings schemes they have). Each village self-help group had selected one or two women to attend (those that could read and write) or in some cases their daughters.

They had all come from distant villages, and would have walked for up to 6 hours, then taken a long bus ride just to attend the course, which would last 2 days. Knowing what travelling is like in Nepal, I was full of admiration for them for just getting there. Along with everyone else, I had to introduce myself (in my very limited Nepali ), and be photographed with one or two of them (a rare sight to meet a western I guess).

Later, I was taken on the back of a motorbike, around the sights of Pokhara, which mainly involved crawling through very narrow and dark caves (public caves would never that narrow in the UK -most people wouldn't fit through!) .

Then today, the accountant took me on the office motorbike up into the hills to visit a legal awareness training session they were running. Amazing rural scenery, with steep terraced fields, and great views of the high mountains. This is more like how I remember Nepal !

We'll have to do the more mundane accounting stuff in the office tomorrow, sadly.