Holidays, exams and donations...

I can’t believe it is already mid-September – time is going so fast! I have been here nearly two months and am getting into the swing of Nepali and PoD life.

It has been a quiet time here in Nepal recently. Last week we had to say goodbye to our lovely volunteers. Anna, Rebecca, Katie, Katie and Martin were wonderful volunteers and contributed so much during their time here. We miss them already!

Hilary, our new volunteer, has arrived though and is settling in very well to the placements and getting used to Pokhara life! Her first day yesterday was a good taster for life here as we arrived at Annapurna Primary School to find that there was a holiday, (decided upon that morning)! Life here is unpredictable and these unplanned holidays happen frequently. The day did not go to waste however as we went to Hilary’s other placement with the Street Kids! I was able to donate some clothes and basic medical supplies which had been contributed by HEG and some of our previous volunteers – there is still more to donate to our other placements and so a blog post will follow shortly!

All the schools have exams going on currently and so the children are all working hard. These exams are taken very seriously for the older children and so we are busy helping the children with their revision.

Last week, I visited Asha Foundation. They have a beehive and in the last week, two of the children had been stung by a bee. Angel was fine however little Asim had been stung on the face; he was experiencing an allergic reaction and his face was quite swollen. I contacted the PoD Charity and we were on standby to take him for medical treatment, however the swelling went down and he is back to his usual cheeky self now! We have informed Hari, the Chairman, that as it was an allergic reaction, if he is stung again the affect is likely to be worse so he is aware of this and keeping a close eye on Asim! Fortunately this didn’t stop the boys having lots of fun with the skipping ropes we took – they became a Lion’s tail, a microphone, a snake, a cowboy’s lasso, a hat, a wig and a jumping hurdle as well as an ordinary skipping rope! Their imagination and excitement is lovely to see and be a part of.

We are looking forward to a busy season here in Nepal. Dashain and Tihar, important Nepali festivals, are coming up and so the schools will closed for a few weeks. This is a lovely time of year in Nepal, with plenty of street dancing and parties; I am personally very excited to experience my first Dashain and Tihar, having heard so much about how wonderful they are. There will be lots to do, and our volunteers will be busy at Street Kids and our other childcare placements so it feels like, currently, we are in the calm before the storm!

If you would like to join the team here in Nepal please email Gemma on gemma@podvolunteer.org