Pokhara

A lot has happened in the last few days including a visit to Nuwakot where we visited village schools and saw the school built with our earthquake funds.  We travelled for many hours by bus over two days.  We have donated money for a science lab at one school we visited.  This is a donation from NEF .  Today we visited some sponsor's families in Simpani .  Carrie and her daughter Lauren met Manu and his mother for the first time.  Manu's mother has burned and deformed hands and suvives by begging at the temple.  Emotions were high here and tears shed.  We visited Daumaya and her family, all four girls are sponsored.  Everyone enjoyed themselves.  It is the Tihar festival now and today is the dog festival and so the dogs have tikkas and flower malas.  Photos of Manu's family, Maya and Sabita BK and the dogs enjoying their day.

Visiting Schools

Today we visited two schools out at the village of Hattiban.  This is a beautiful village and it is always a pleasure to visit here.  Chalnakhel school is where the Duncan Rotary Clubs installed railings and doors and windows a few years ago.  The children we sponsor in Hattiban were badly affected by the earthquake and many are living in temporary tin shacks.   The children are always a delight.  We did a bag up for each child, those that had a letter or gift we put in the bag and for the others we put in a piece of clothing and a pen or book.  This way every child gets something.  Photos:  Children at Chalnakhel School, Krishna reading Anju her letter, little Rosi, college student Kabita, Hattiban school children.

Sabitri

Today Sabitri, our blind student, came to visit us at Ram's office.  I will never know how she navigates the Kathmandu traffic, I have a hard time myself.  Sabitri is in a Master's program, she is very bright.  She is still waiting to hear whether she has a teacher position at a village school.  We are hoping for her as she wants to be able to support her family in the village, she has a brother and sister there who are blind and cannot speak.  We brought her to the hotel to give her some clothes and shoes which she was very happy with.  Then I walked her to the bus.  We will see her again before We leave.  She looked very lovely today in a turqoise and purple couta.

Chring

One of the sponsored children that we saw today was Chring.  He is one of our success stories.  Chring comes from an extremely poor family with an alcoholic father.  The family has had much misfortune.  Chring lost his closest brother in age to untreated ear infection that caused a brain infection.  His baby brother was adopted to a family in Spain.  His two older brothers quit school early and became labourers.  His older sister left the family and was educated by another family.  I often see the father drunk on the street but he is very proud of Chring and his continuing education.  They move often from one drap room to another.  Now Chring can talk to me in fairly good English.  Thanks to NEF Chring will complete his education and be able to get a job and help his mother.  Chring always seems happy and has a big smile.  Many thanks to his sponsor.
Sorry but I cannot upload photos from my ipad at the moment.  I have tried for hours and it is not working.

Chring in runner's donated shirt.

We arrived in Nepal on Tuesday night after a 40 hour journey.  Yesterday we met with Ram and Krishna and went over all child and school lists.  Everything is going very well and the students are very happy in their new schools.  There have been a lot of changes in Nepal since the earthquake and the government has many new rules.  NEF is being run very efficiently by Ram.

We slept for many hours yesterday and hopefully feel better today.  I will visit children and schools starting tomorrow.  I am having some trouble with blog and keep losing and this is my fourth attempt.