My office – a typical Terai house

My office at DWO looks like a typical house in city areas of the Terai. For reason that mostly are based on economy rather than logic the house is painted on the front only as if it is expected that any day a new house will be building in connection with the unpainted side of the house, so that the boring grey cement doesn’t show.

The office is in two stores with the district office on ground floor and the regional office on the first floor. My office is on the first floor with my desk right by the window you can see on the picture. In the summer the curtains are closed to keep the strong sun out, so we sit in the dark and work. During the monsoon it rains in through the window so we have to cover the window with plastic and once again we work in the dark. Only in the cold season do we get a bit of light for our work, since the office is so cold that we work on the roof top in order to get a bit of sun…..and that is how a typical Terai house is….