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Nearing the end of our second week in Melamchi and we're certainly used to the quiet routine. This week Drew has been working on the computers, trying to set them up nicely. It seems they don't respond all that well to being slung into baskets and carried up 1000m of rocky paths on the back of porters (one is now held together by a sellotape repair!). Heather meanwhile has been helping with teaching including a few days of science lessons. This got the memory working hard, having to remember how to work out molecular formulae, valencies and balancing equations.

Purna left of Thursday to go down to Kathmandu; the work down there means he'll be away for about a week. He's hopefully bringing back some more computer equipment to improve the IT set up; this will include an internet dongle... so all going well we might have internet access soon?! However it would appear the only place you can get decent phone reception is over the far side of the school grounds, from where you're looking straight down the valley, so we're not holding our hopes up that the reception in the office (where the PCs are) will be up to the job.

We have discovered the village shop, a small dark hut equipped with a car battery for lighting when the power is off, and packed to the rafters with everything you might need from biscuits to shoes and school exercise books. So far we've tried the coconut crunchies and rhino (strengthy) biscuits. Despite being very strenghty, the rhinos will not be a repeat purchase.

With Purna gone, we're moving between this house and the in-laws for meals. Jhangmu and Karma don't stay in the house when Purna is away, so we're on our own at night. We did offer to try and be self-sufficient, but apparently some volunteers tried this before and could not manage the fire. We're not unhappy at being fed the lovely food prepared by Jhangmu (and her mother and sister-in-law). The loss of our independence is one of the things we've noticed most (e.g. not being able to make ourselves up a cuppa when we fancy one) – much more so than the loss of alcohol and TV!

We've played musical statues with the younger classes, with Drew playing the guitar, which had us in fits of laughter with their crazy and very enthusiastic dancing. We've also taught them Old MacDonald which they seemed to love, but the teachers in the classrooms next door may have got a little tired of Eee-i-ee-i-oh. The younger classes have also been doing their assemblies, which has been very comical. Class 2 (5-6 years old) did a drama, we think about classroom and teachers' behaviour), which featured one of the wee boys smacking the girls in his class with a book. Luckily they all seemed to find this very amusing. Both classes 2 and 1 generally disintegrated into giggles and left the audience slightly unsure as to what had just happened.

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