Once again, the schools were shut for holidays last week so
we spent most of our time keeping the children from the Street Kids Center
entertained. If we don't go there, they literally have nothing to do, no space
to play in, and nothing to play with, so it is in the holidays more than ever,
that we need volunteers to keep the children going.We spent a few days in the center, doing arts and crafts,
reading stories and just generally chatting and a few other days we took them
out to the local parks to blow off some steam. It's great to get them out of
the center and playing badminton, football or volleyball, watching the
paragliders and just generally enjoying
the lake. 
Last week we celebrated a small festival that I have to admit that I do not know anything about, except for the fact that on the day you have to eat sweet potato! (I apoligise, there are hundreds of festivals here so many of them I am still learning about!) One of our newest volunteers, Marion, also had a fantastic
week when some local friends of hers took her to a festival where she ended up
dancing on stage in front of approximately 5,000 people! I'm still waiting to
get my hands on the photos, but she's definitely got some great stories to tell
when she gets back to the UK.
We had some exciting news the other day, that the PoDCharity in Nepal
has been given a rather large grant to help with out placements, which is absolutely
fantastic news! So I have been busy, with Phil, visiting all the placements and
discussing what their current needs and wants are to see how we can help out. I
have sent our 'wishlist' back to the UK
who are currently working through it to see what we can do best with the money.
It also means that the monthly donations that we currently give can be
continued at east for the next two years which is absolutely fantastic. Living
in Nepal and
working with these placements over the past two years, I can see how much of a
positive impact this money has on the placements, and would like to thank
everyone that has donated. We went to Annapurna School on Monday to give them their
next three months donation of lunch money, which is vital for the kids, as the
majority of them do not get given any breakfast or any pack lunch so their
first meal of the day would be dinner at around 7pm.
Schools are now back, and we're getting back into a routine
now. I'm looking forward to the next few months and hopefully welcoming many
more volunteers to Pokhara.
If you would like to join us here in Nepal,
please contact Gemma on gemma@podvolunteer.org
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