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28th Febuary – Holes

This night was shakey and pretty loud. Rain beat the staff quaters in short but heavy bursts and lightning cut through the darknes. One was less than 100 meters away and woke us both up. Also there was a minor earthquake as we learned this morning. The downpour has dropped the temperatur below 19° the entire day and the night slides towards freezing. There was snow in Dhulikel.

So we step outside during a lighter rain periode to get some penaut pancakes and curry for breakfast. Our cook and our Dhan Dhoj, our bricklayer, didn’t show up so Dipendra ( the correct spelled lab technician) quickly fixed it. Over night the tarp had transformed our first two layers of bricks into a little pool. So we geared up with rain jacket, rain pants and boots to proper things up and steped out. And like it always is the rain stoped right when we were done. Good non the less.

Since it is dry enough to work we pulled the tarp and started digging holes for the roof poles. We are located right on a hillside so getting in between the rocks and the foundation proofed difficult but possible. When the rain started again, we covered up and went for lunch. Afterwards we started digging on the lower end of the foundation in a mix of sunlight and sprinkles of rain. Dipendra helpes us and went to make a small curry and dough rings for afternoon snacks which we enjoyed after finishing of the holes we started earlier. We left the cover on in case it rains tonight.

After a back-of-the-envelope calculation we determined that our foundations should be sufficient to withstand all plausible stresses. A two hour session of writing lists of every part we will need to cut out of our soon to arrive metal followed. Why so detailed? Tomorrow will be quite the gathering here. Our metal and welder arrive, another welder and bricklayer and Norbert join us and the medical officer of the ourpost comes back. Hecktic is on the menu.

About the temperatur: Henning is up to long sleeve shirt and two fleece jackets while, I hang on with a shirt, a light sweater and a fleece jacket – while in our room. We both agree to break out our sleeping bags under our blacket forts.

With chivering regards from Bolde,

Arne and Henning