I’m writing from Honolulu Airport, where I have a 4 hour layover and wandered through a construction site to find a sweet little garden with ducks and a koi pond. Not a bad way to wait for a plane. The sun is shining, a rainbow is coming through the drizzling rain, and I’m on the road again.

Thanks to all the very generous donations I received, I am Nepal bound with over $1000 of funds and a packet of books. My wishes were far exceeded, and now my team and I have the task of deciding what to do with the extra. A very large housing project may be in the works for next year, but until the embargo ends we are not actively building shelters. I do expect to spend a few days helping with constructing a gravity water system similar to what I used to do in Honduras. You may remember a very remote village that I visited toward the end of my trip in May that was concerned their hard earned funds would be reallocated to earthquake relief. To the contrary, CASD-Nepal managed to buy and ship most of the supplies before the monsoons and before the border with India was closed. That project is now underway.

In addition to that, and visiting Ghusel to help with their library and see all the beautiful people there, my Australian teammates will be working on a mobile education program and potentially starting a second library in a neighboring village. I also hope to be able to purchase warm clothes for all the kiddos there. So while there isn’t any one obvious project for me this trip, there are many ways that I will potentially be making a positive impact.

But before all that I’m reconnecting with my CASD-USA team (Ben and Sean from my first time in Nepal plus Katie who was instrumental in all these connections in the first place) for a brief Christmas in Cambodia. I’ll only be there for 4 days but it will be worth it to have a little decompression time between my work in CA and my work in Nepal. I am so very looking forward to sitting on a beach with them, no matter how brief. Then heading to Nepal, doing something fun for New Years, then getting down to work.

Update: I made it to Cambodia after being in transit (on airplanes or in airports) for 49 hours. Four out of five flights were delayed and I ended up missing the last bus to the coast. I found a clean air con room for $6 and booked the first shuttle out in the morning. If Plan B goes well I will make the ferry that runs once a day and be reunited with my friends tonight. I will be out of wifi until Dec 28. So Merry Christmas!!

Also, I’m having some issues with WordPress at the moment so any pictures I upload are upside down. Trying to figure it out but ran out of wifi time. Sorry!