Friday, October 10, 2014

Dashain in Pokhara...

Celebrating my first Dashain in Nepal was a wonderful experience. It is such a special time of year here and it feels a privilege to be a part of it.

Myself and the volunteers decided to have our own Dashain celebrations and chose the day to go to Sarangkot to watch the sunrise. We got our taxi up there at 4.30am; we were tired and grumpy but it was well worth the effort! The view was spectacular and watching the sunrise together as a group had a lovely, magical feeling about it. The only thing that would have improved the whole experience for me would have been a hot mug of tea and a bacon sandwich, but you can’t have everything I guess!

The schools are still closed here and so the volunteers are working hard at our childcare placements. They have been doing lots of fun activities with the children from sports to bingo! At Dashain it is traditional for swings to be constructed all over Nepal; these swings are constructed by the local community and traditionally represent community spirit working together to create fun! We had great fun with the children (and just for ourselves reliving our childhood!) playing on the swing!

The children from Dashain had been visited by a volunteer who had worked with them some years ago and had kept in touch and she had bought all the children a Dashain gift of a new outfit for each of them. Freya, who is here on a Film and photography placement, brought out their model side and they spent lots of time posing for the camera having lots of fun!

Sadly, today we had to say goodbye to Freya! She has been a wonderful volunteer and we cannot wait to see the rest of the photos and videos that she has gathered.

We have a new volunteer, Tania, who arrived this week. She has been getting to know the local area and exploring. Pokhara truly is a beautiful place to visit or live in. There is so much to see and do and just walking down the street you are greeted by so many sights and sounds that are mesmerising! 



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

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