Resignations and Constitutions

Nepal survived the deadline last Saturday (28 May) for writing its Constitution. Not by writing a Constitution though. Late Saturday evening in the traditional brinkmanship style of Nepali politics a compromise was reached to prevent meltdown.

So now there is a three-month extension to write the Constitution and the Prime Minister has resigned. How are these connected? That would take a major essay to even half explain so I won’t bother trying, and I’d probably get it wrong anyway. For organisations like UMN the most significant part is the PM’s resignation, demanded by various other politicians as part of the compromise.

This particular PM had only been in office a couple of months so was still getting his own people into their offices and ready to sign agreements, or not. Now it looks like they’ll be replaced by a different set of people before they’ve even got the tea organised. Not an encouragement in the endless work of convincing these politically motivated “civil servants” that we need permission to help their country.

However, life at the office goes on, and so did last weekend’s retreat programme for UMN’s expatriate workers. Ruth and Esther went to stay with friends while I went to the three-day retreat. After arriving back on Monday afternoon the girls were predictably tired and bickering when it was time for school on Tuesday morning. Any of you who’ve had teenage daughters will realise this is totally expected.

I on the other hand, while also having a great weekend, managed to get enough sleep. It rained some, which has the silver lining of power cuts reduced to four hours each day, and there were no nocturnally barking dogs within earshot of the hotel! The programme of worship, bible studies and mountain biking (optional) suited me just fine.

Martin Butterworth