Bougainvillea in our garden
11/08/2026
At the end of this week, we will have been here in Kathmandu for a month.
Term has begun. School is an easy walk away (although crossing the Satdobado road can be a challenge – this is the road that runs North-South, to connect with the Ring Road that loops around inner Kathmandu), and the four of us arrive just before 8am, which for Tim is half-an-hour later than he had to be there for his old school (yay), and for the kids is an entire hour earlier (boo).
Speaking of Tim, he is now Head of Mathematics, Computer Science AND Business. But he doesn’t have to teach Business, just be line manager. He is very happy with his timetable and enjoys his classes.
The kids are happy in their respective classes, and both have lots of opportunities for growth and enrichment, with specialist teachers for art, music, computing, PE, library, and languages. Class teachers have a full-time teacher’s assistant, and class sizes range widely but tend to be fairly small – Felix’s class, at 18 kids, is one of the largest in the whole school.
My timetable is slowly and steadily being established, with students to see for counselling and for learning support. Over the course of the term, I’ll take over as Head of Safeguarding, which covers everything child protection across Primary and Secondary – dealing with any disclosures of abuse and neglect, reports of bullying, or of inappropriate or concerning behaviours by staff, volunteers, and students, incidences of self-harm, etc. There is no external child protection unit here in Nepal, so the school handles everything in house, reporting to the school’s governing board, and occasionally liaising with sending organisations where needed. I would love ongoing prayer that God would give me wisdom and discernment. Pray that I would be receptive to the Holy Spirit’s voice as my team and I navigate how to care for the students in and through what can be very complex situations.
Neither Tim or I have started language learning yet, although that’s still the plan at some point, but Tim is doing a lot better than me at learning peoples’ names, and navigating basic living tasks, like buying food, ordering taxis, and getting around. I spent big chunks of our first three weeks quite ill, but I finally seem to have adjusted.
What else?
Our boxes arrived safely, and it is a great joy to have our favourite books, our board games, and the kids’ Lego once again. Praise God for protecting them as they travelled from Australia, and as they sat in the airport waiting to be released to us.
We do miss the convenience of Australia. Although there are many supermarkets and small roadside stalls, we miss the ease of being able to pop into Woolies/Coles. Or Bunnings, to get small household projects ticked off in an afternoon.
I miss access to nature, but the view of the mountains is beautiful, and regularly brings to mind the words of the song
O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
He has it all in hand. And right now, I rest in the certainty that this is where we’re meant to be.
– Alex
The Newmarches in Nepal 