Holiday Fun!

The end of 2011 has come. What a year! It has had its ups and downs, stress and sadness. I would have never imagined I would be where I am today 12 months ago. But I know now coming to Nepal was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. It’s hard to believe I will be going home in less than a month.

I also can’t believe I haven’t written on my blog for so long. A couple days after my last post was my birthday. The other volunteers made sure all the kids knew so when I got to the orphanage that morning all the kids in the “baby room” sang Happy Birthday to me. I was called “birthday auntie” for the day. One of the older boys wrote me a note on the volunteer board that said “Happy Birthday Mandi Auntie”. Later in the day I had gotten all the kids little treats and I passed them out during their snack time. While I was passing them out all the kids and Didis sang Happy Birthday to me again. Throughout the day I was getting cards that the kids had made me. When I got home that night I found that my family had sent me a video from home with my sisters, mom, nieces and nephews wishing me a Happy Birthday. It was a great day, and will be hard to beat in years to come.

About a week after my Birthday we went to the orphanage in the morning and there was excitement in the air. All the kids were talking about Manju sister getting married. Manju is one of the house mothers. We asked them when she was getting married, and they told us “today at ten o’clock”. We didn’t really know what to think because we hadn’t heard anything about you being engaged or even dating anyone. When we talked to one of the Didis she told us that Manju had only met the man 3 days before and that it was an arranged marriage. WHAT!? I didn’t really know what to think about that, but that is how things are done around here. So of course we went to the wedding. It was very interesting; in the middle of a park that I have walked by dozens of time is a little area with 5 or 6 little temples that I had very noticed before. The wedding was in one of these temples and there was only enough room for the bride, groom and that man doing the ceremony. I couldn’t understand what was being said but it looked like the made offerings of money and fruit to the holy fire. They exchanged rings. Then the groom applied an orange powder (sindoor) down the center part of the bride’s hair. It is tradition for the woman to wear this marking for the rest of her married life. After the ceremony we were invited to the brides new house. (The woman moves into the family home of the groom.) At the house we were served Dal Baht and Fanta. And after about an hour the party was over and we were given a farewell, with flowers and a scarf. It was a fun day and I hope Manju is happy with her new husband.

A week and a half after the wedding it was Christmas!! What a great time we had. On Christmas Eve we made crepes for the after school snack (Tiffin). That was a huge success. When we had finished with tiffin, a couple other volunteers and I took my laptop over to our sister orphanage where some of my other friends are volunteering. Because this orphanage has Wi-Fi I had talked to my dad (Santa’s helper) about Skyping with the kids. We ran into a couple bumps (my dad couldn’t see the kids) but that didn’t seem matter; the kids had a great time. We let them ask Santa a few questions. How old are you? Are you married? Are you married? Do you have any sons? Where do you live? Do you have any daughters? The kids wanted to meet all of Santa’s family. At the end of the Skype Santa told the kids that he was not going to be able to make it to the orphanage but he was sending some elves by to drop off their presents. Soon after the kids said good-bye to him the doorbell rang. All the kids ran to the door and when they opened it all their presents were on the porch, and the kids were looking everywhere for the elves. They loved it, it was so great. That night my roommate and I watched “The Sound of Music” her family watches every year on Christmas Eve. I’ll admit I fell asleep half way through it. On Christmas morning we got to the orphanage around 9:00 and took the kids up to the roof to do some face painting. We had talked about what we were going to paint and said we were just going to do small things on their cheeks, I do a great snowman. But some of the older boys wanted to do each other’s faces so we did end up with some zombie looking boys walking around on Christmas. While most of us were on the roof the other volunteers had gone down do the lobby and started putting out the presents we had gotten. Thanks to many donations from friends and family we were able to get each of the kids clothes and some kind of toy or other item that they needed. When we all went downstairs the kids were so excited. The volunteers took turns handing out the presents to each of the kids. When all the presents were out we had them open them all at the same time. It was great seeing all their faces as they look through what they had gotten. After about an hour we put a movie in for the kids to watch. I was so excited because it was “A Muppet Christmas Carol”. The kids love the movie and after words had lots of time to play with their new toys. That night all the volunteers went out for dinner. When dinner was over I got a chance to Skpye with my family for a couple of hours. It was great to see them all and all the things they had gotten for Christmas.

Now its New Years day and I am so ready to see what the year new has in store for me. I am very lucky and thankful to have been in Nepal with all the kids for the holidays. I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Years. Love and miss you all!

Random Pictues

Picnic and Peace Pagoda

I have pretty much gotten into the routine of thing around here, some days I forget that I am only here for a little while, and one day I will have to go back to my real life. Every day here is amazing, the tourist season is ending, which is nice because there are a lot less people around and now I feel I can enjoy the real Pokhara.

Sense I talked to you all last we have moved guest houses. We are now about 10 mins away from the orphanage (instead of 40 mins) so I feel like we can spend more time with the kids. They love when we have dinner with them and they always try to teach us how to eat with our hands and not get rice all over ourselves.

The orphanage has been able to buy a large piece of land that they are going to build the Namaste Village. It will be a place with the orphanage, a women center, and apartments for volunteers and room for a garden. This last weekend we all went to the land (that is currently a large rice paddy) and had a picnic. It was so much fun. We took some games to play, we went for a walk round the little village, and we ate lots of food. The didis and house mother are so great at having everything so organized. The volunteers put together a game of “Pass the Parcel” where the kids sit in a circle and pass a wrapped gift around the circle, and like in musical chairs when the music stops the child holding it gets to open one layer of wrapping, which had a candy in it. In the end the last child got the present of some stickers and pencils. They had a great time with it. They also played a game where they are blindfolded and have to walk; with a stick along a path about 20 ft and try to break a clay jar on the ground. Kind of like a piñata. The last game we got to play was tug of war, first the kids did boys against girls, the boys won the first time and the second time when the boys were pulling really hard all the girls let go of the rope so all the boys fell down, so I count that as a win for the girls. Next we did male staff and volunteer against the female staff and volunteers (we outnumbered them 2 to 1). The first go the girls beat the boys no problem, and I don’t think the boys liked that very much so the second time around they got some of the older boys on their team to even it out. Once again it looked as though the girls were going to win so all the rest of the boys jumped on the rope and started pulling, seeing this all the girls jump on our side. In the end the girls won again. All in all it was a great day and by the end everyone was very tired. Most of the kids fell asleep on the bus ride home. But I must say the road to and from the picnic was one of the scariest roads I have ridden on sense I have been here.

On Sunday Tor, Tasha and I hiked up to the Peace Pagoda, which is on at large hill overlooking Pokhara and Phewa Lake. The hike is not an easy one, all uphill with rock steps. It took about an hour to hike up, but the view when you get up there is amazing. I will probably go again because the day we went was over cast and on a clear day I’m sure it would be even more amazing.

As some of you may have seen I have created an event on Facebook to do some fundraising for a little boy named Pranam. About a week before I got to the orphanage he had an accident and caught the sleeve of his shirt on fire, which caused severe burns to his arm and back. He has been in the hospital from over a month now and about a week ago got a skin graft on his back. The volunteers here are trying to raise some money to help cover some of his hospital bills so the orphanage doesn’t have to worry about covering it all. If you want to know more send me a message and I will send you a link.

I just want to thank everyone who has helped out with this, we are getting a better response then we could have ever imagined. If you haven’t donated and are planning to please remember a little bit goes a long ways here.

Chitwan Pictures

Chitwan

So this last weekend 5 friends and I decided to go down to Chitwan National Park and ride some elephants. It is about a 4-6 hour bus ride (depending on the roads). The bus we rode down on I think was made in the height of the ‘60’s and the Beatles took on their Magical Mystery Tour. It had green and orange lights running down the middle with green, orange and gold plastic designs along the luggage rack. Every time I stood up I would hit my head on one of the lights. And of course the seats were not that comfortable.

When we got to Chitwan we met up with one of our other friends that had been in Kathmandu with us and had just finished his teaching program he was doing. We stayed at the Eden Jungle Resort. It was really nice; the rooms were like little duplex bungalows with a nice pouch out front. The landscape was beautiful, with palm trees and great flowers. Like its name suggests it was like a little jungle.

The whole trip was a package, so we had a schedule already planned for us. The First day we got there our guide took us on a tour and gave us a little history lesson on Chitwan. Which I must say is very rural, the houses are separated by large rice patty fields and most of the houses are made of mud and have straw roofs. The whole area is fenced off with an eclectic fence, to keep out wild animals (elephants, rhinoceros, and tigers). We went for a walk around the village and down by the river. As we were walking our guide pointed out to us that just on the other side of the river was a rino. It was hard to believe that this was an animal I had seen before but this time we had no bars between us, and all he really had to do was run across the river to get us. It was amazing. After stopping to take pictures and about the time the rhino made it half way across the river we moved on to the end of our walk, just in time to watch the sunset across the river, BEAUTIFUL! After the sunset we went back to the resort and had dinner. After dinner we had a cultural dance performance. It reminded me of a luau in Hawaii.

The next day we started at 7:30 with breakfast and then took a truck ride to the elephant safari loading platforms. The elephants wear a “saddle” that holds four people at a time. It’s kind of like a box made out of wood with no top and only 2x2’s framing the sides. So you sit with your legs on either side of a corner. We had to climb up a large platform that the elephant backs up to and then climb on. You have a driver that sits just behind the elephants head. I must say, it is kind of scary and it take some time being that high off the ground and not having any control of where you are going. I think the worst part was when you were walking down hills. But the whole experience was amazing. We crossed rivers, charged through large bushes. We did see a rhino that was just standing around eating. I felt a little better seeing from the top of an elephant then when I was standing on the ground. We also saw some white spotted deer. The whole trip lasted an hour and a half.

After we got off the elephants we walked a little ways to the river and got a chance to bathe with the elephants. Pretty much we got on the back of an elephant (bareback) and he then began to spray us with water from his trunk. The water was so cold. After about 5 good sprays he thought it would be a good idea to lie down in the river, causing us to fall off his back. It was so bad the first time I had to do it twice. The first time I was in front, the second time I was in the back, and in case you were wondering the front of an elephant is much more comfortable then the back.

After the bathing we went back to our room and changed into dry clothes and had lunch. Shortly after lunch we all loaded into the back of a truck and drove a ways up river and waiting for us were canoes. These canoes were carved out of the trunk of a tree, so they were one single piece of wood. I was sitting in the front of the boat aside from one of our guides Laxman. He loves birds and because I was the only one he was able to talk to he told me all about the birds we saw. It was great talking to him, he spoke quite good English and he loved talking about the birds. The ride itself was very nice and calm; we just had one man in the back with a stick that he was using to push us down the river.

When we got out of the canoes we got back into the truck and it drove us to a spot right across the river from where we would be entering the jungle for our jungle walk. First we had to cross a bridge that was made of large branches and 50 gallon sandbags to walk across. On the border of the jungle we had a safety briefing. If you see a Rhino climb a tree, If you see and sloth bear run, if you see a tiger run for your life, but don’t turn your back to it. Just a little ways into the walk we found some monkeys, we could only see a couple of them, but we know there was more because we kept getting half eaten fruit dropped on us. The walk lasted about an hour. We did see large herds of deer, and we did see a buck that was hiding in the trees. The closest we got to any tigers was some paw print in the mud from a male tiger.

The jungle walk ended at the elephant breeding center. Where they had a 4 month old baby elephant, and a set of 4 year old twins. This is the first set of twins at this center and only the 5^th set reported in the world. They were so cute. After that we went back to the resort for dinner and sleep.

The next morning we started at 630 for tea and then bird watching. Because I had talked to Laxman the day before I was on top of this. They do have some ducks called “love ducks” they are always found in pairs and if one of them dies then the other will kill itself. They are beautiful. When they are on the ground they look tan, but when they take flight their wings are white and only the tips are tan. After the bird watching we went back and had breakfast and then went and caught the bus to come back to Pokhara.

All in all it was a great weekend. But it was really nice to get back to the kids.

On a side note

Today is Thanksgiving I didn’t think I was going to have such a hard being away from home today (I has saving all my homesickness for Christmas) But I have had kind of a hard time today. I did get to Skype with my Mom and Dad, Sarah and Amber this morning and that was great. Then this afternoon I stayed back at the orphanage to help get dinner ready while Tor and Tasha went with the Didis to get the kids from school. When they kids came home they all came up to me and told me Happy Thanksgiving. By about the third child I was hold back the tears, it was so sweet.

I just want everyone to know how thankful I am for all of you and I love you all very much!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AMERICA!

Funny Friday

So much has been going on sense I wrote last. But here are just some of the highlights

Every other Friday the kids have what is called "Funny Friday". It is a chance for them to put together are program of dance, singing and plays that they perform for everyone. This last Friday was one of those Fridays. Along with all the performances the kids were also given prizes for their good grades or for improving their grades. So it was a big deal.

Now you need to understand the kids come up with all the performances on their own, none of the adults help them.

First we had a dance number from six of thegirls. Punam, Aasta, Maiti, Om Kumari, Muna, and Sarmila they did a great job.

After the girls there was musical number by Ajabira and Sunil with Budesh playing the Madal (a double headed Nepali drum)

This program was not just for our orphanage the kids from Onni (the sister orphanage) also

came over to watch and

participate. The next dance was performed by a girl from Onni named Roshni.

Then we had a dance number by Sujata that was all dressed up in the traditional Nepali dress, and makeup. She did amazing.

Following the dance Bina read a poem that she had written, it was really nice. The kids here are so creative and smart.

I’m going to stop here a minute and explain. I keep using words like “Good”, “Great”, and “Amazing”. But they were more than that. I can’t express how truly amazing all of the kids did. That said I will continue with the program.

Next we had Ghanshyam do a television news program for us. Now this was done in Nepali so I didn’t understand a word he said but it must have been really funny because everyone was laughing, so in turn that made me laugh. Part because I didn’t know what was going on and part because it was funny.

Okay, after that was one of the greatest things I have ever seen. About 10 of the kids wrote and performed a play. It was the best thing ever. It also was in Nepali, but being a play and the great acting of the kids I understood. It was a story of a man (Madan) who left his wife (Menuka) and mother (Saraswoti) at home while he went away to work (I think, that is really the only part I didn’t know for sure. But he went far away.) While he was gone he got very sick and he told his friends to leave him behind. He was later found by a medicine man who took him to his house and helped him recover. Meanwhile his friends thinking he had died went to his house and told his mother and wife that he had died, causing his mother to than die of sadness. This in turn caused his wife to die of sadness. Leaving only the man’s sister alive and morning are three losses. Soon after the death of the wife the man returns to joyously be reunited with his family. When he found only his sister at home and shocked to see him, he becomes worried. When his sister tells him that they all thought him to be dead, he becomes so upset that he also dies in the end. He was then carried off stage by all of his friends.

And really how can you follow something like that. Well with five little kids singing “The Wheels on the Bus” of course. The five youngest kids Niruta, Monica, Sanil, Umesh, and Krishna, with their arms swinging and mixed up words. It was great.

After the kids Renuka sang a solo with her lovely voice, followed by Durga and his rockin dance moves. To finish the whole night off was a solo by Sabin who also did an outstanding job.

The whole night lasted about 3 hours and was full of so much talent, all the kids did a great job.

I will post more of the pictures later, the internet is slowing down.

Other things that happened I saw my first firefly!! Also I went to Chitwan and rode on an elephant. But I will have to write about that tomorrow, it is getting late.

Loves to all!!