The first day of our volunteer induction was postponed because it was the Diwali festival and it is a public holiday where brothers and sisters celebrate. Buphi the Executive Director of VIN (Volunteer Initiative Nepal) invited all the new starting volunteers to come over to his house and join in their celebrations. It was the most wonderful opportunity and a true privilege to have been invited. Family life here is so important and the getting together for these festivals is very exciting for all those involved. It is tradition here to sit on the floor so we all sat around chatting and being introduced to the family. Bhupi has 3 bothers and 2 sisters who were all there, the main part of the ceremony is for the bothers to receive Tika from the sisters which involves the women putting a type of oil on the men's hair and then combing it. They then paint a yellow line down the forehead and put spots of bright colours down the line. They are then given a plate full of food as an offering. Afterwards the men draw the same markings on their sisters and then they kiss their feet. After they had completed their part of the ceremony they then let us take a turn and the sisters gave us Tika. It was a very special day.

On the first day of our induction we went to the VIN office and met some of the staff. We spent the morning learning about VIN and all the programmes and projects they run and after lunch we learnt about the Nepalese culture and some of the Nepali language.

The second morning we spent trying to learn and practice some more of the Nepali language, which turns out to be very hard. In the afternoon we went sightseeing, to a Hindu Temple. The Temple was situated on a holy river so this is another place where Hindu's come to cremate their dead relatives. As we cross the river there was 2 bodies burning on the side and 3 more bodies on the ghat waiting to be cremated. Before the bodies are put onto the fires they dip the feet of the body into the river and then the family splash water onto the bodies as a type of prayer ritual. It was a really emotional experience and quite hard to witness. At one point a widow was blessing her husband in the water and she was just distraught, crying and screaming with emotional pain. I have never heard anyone cry out their agony like this before. It is certainly an experience I will not be forgetting in a hurry. After the emotional trip to the temple we head to a huge Buddhist Stupa, surrounded by this ring of Tibetan shops and small cafes. It was such a lovely little haven in the middle of Kathmandu. It was just fascinating to watch the Buddhist followers and monks walking around with their prayer beads, being totally immersed in their faith. It was such a friendly and peaceful place to visit.

The third and final day we had a programme specific introduction. This was really interesting and definitely helped to reassure my nerves. We learnt about the Women's Empowerment Programme, how it works, what it does and giving us an idea of how we can help. It was decided that for the first week we would be going out in the community, meeting some of the women's groups and just observing how everything works. In the afternoon we head off to our host families and where I will be living for quite some time to come.