It's been another great week here in Nepal.
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Marion who has been volunteering with us
for the past 8 weeks but the same day we welcomed Julie so we're never sad for
too long!
Before Marion
left, we celebrated Shivaratri, which is the celebration of Lord Shiva's
birthday. To celebrate, (and I'm not sure why, but) they heat up sugar canes in
a big bonfire in the center of town and then smash them on the concrete, making
the biggest sound making you thing explosions are going off all around. We
joined in and brought a few sugar canes of our own before heading off to our
favourite haunt, Silk Road.
Today I visited the SOS
Bahini Village
which is looking absolutely incredible and so close to completion. Raymond (the
founder) thinks the girls should be in by the next 2 weeks which is fantastic
news for everyone. As you know, the Bahini Cafe shut down a few months ago, but
when they move into the Eco Village,
they have a large kitchen where they will continue their bakery training, sell
them at the village and also to local restaurants which means volunteers no
longer need to survive without those incredible Brownies!! I was so impressed
with the set up of the center, the houses are beautiful, they have a health
center, a community room, tonnes of outdoor space, a basketball court, veggie patch,
and everything made out of natural materials. Unfortunately I didn't take my
camera up with me today, but I'll make sure to get some snaps for you all next
time I'm up there.
 |
| Bahini Eco Village |
The Street Kids are all still down with chicken pox - it is
spreading quite quickly amongst them all. Because I am unsure whether or not I
have had them before I haven't been up there for the past two weeks. I'm
missing them a lot, but have been phoning regularly to check the kids are fine
and to see if there's anything they need, hopefully I can start visiting again
this week.
Schools are gearing up for their exams. The older kids have
their SLC's (School Leavers Exams) soon and
then it is a months holiday in April, I know the kids are really excited!
We are currently looking for volunteers to come in April to
run extra curricular activates at SOS Bahini
and the Street Kids
Center. This could be any thing
from English classes, sports, arts, dance, music etc. During the holidays,
there isn't actually that much for the children to do, and a month of no structure
or anything fun can be quite a hard time for them. Over the past few years, we
have run a type of 'summer camp' at Bahini. Last year we had volunteers running
conversational English classes and dance classes with the girls which they absolutely
loved so we are hoping to do the same again this year! If you would like to
join us in Nepal then please email Gemma on gemma@podvolunteer.org. 