Our Children in Pokhara

Kamal has just returned from Pokhara where he was registering children and buying their books. He has just sent these photos. I did not realize we had so many children here but it really made me feel good to see them all in these photos so I wish to share them with you.

Address for Correspondence

I have had a lot of requests for an address for sponsors to write to their children. You can send any mail to the following address and it will be delived from there. Just put your envelope with the child's full name on it into another with this address on it. Remember that mail to and from Nepal can be very slow with letters taking up to three weeks to arrive.

Save Blessing Child's Home
G.P.O. Box 8975, E.P.C. 1093
Tutepani, Lalitpur
Nepal

Fundraiser - Garage Sale

We will be having our garage sale again this year on June 16th. Any local sponsors who have anything they would like to donate please call me at 746-0249 or 746-8936. We are quite willing to pick anything up that you cannot drop off. Drop off is at 6718 Beaumont Ave. Maple Bay.
Monica has very generously offered her driveway for the sale again. Last year we raised $2000 which was excellent and we were able to do some special projects with this money and also have some as a back up fund which we had never had before.

Back home in Canada

I returned home to Canada last Monday evening after spending five days in England on route.
All in all it has been a good three months with a lot accomplished in Nepal. Highlights were: the move to the new residence for the orphanage, the sewing project and the buying of the tea shop for the newly widowed lady and her family and paying the medical fees for the burned lady. These things were very successful. There were also all the new matches of sponsors and children. It was a busy time with good results.

Unfortunately I had trouble with photos. First back at the end of January I accidently deleted all my photos and we had to retake. The the day before I left Kathmandu I left my camera in a taxi which had almost 500 photos on it. I had tried to have them burned to a CD the previous day but the computers were down. All my friends tried all avenues to recover the camera but of course in a city of thousands of taxi cabs it was impossible. There were a lot of sponsors photos on there. Kamal and Jagat will retake but it will take some time. Some of the photos are irreplaceable. I am sorry about this but I feel terrible about it, so much work wasted.
Please be patient and you will get your photos but it may take some weeks. I have all the earlier ones that were taken but not the ones from the last month and some may be missing from the first lot that I deleted. Eventually all will be retaken.

Thank you for all your sponsorship renewals the families and children really appreciate it and thank you to all the new sponsors.

Susan

Our Trek into the Mountains

I have returned from a week in the mountains which has been wonderful in spite of bad weather, everything from snow, rain and hail. We did have some sun for a few days. A trip to Nepal does not seem complete without some time spent in the mountains as they are the essence of Nepal. The mountains, villages, animals and very friendly people are second to none. Long days of trekking is akin to meditation and clears the mind. I also trekked into a village where I visited a school six years ago. It was this school that gave me the inspiration to start the work that I am now doing. I wanted to see it again. I was happy to see that it was much improved from when I was last there. It seems every donation that they have had has been put to good use. They had made improvement all round and were continuing with such things as glass windows, science lab and a secondary school program since a little girl died while making the three hour walk back and forth to get higher education.

We also spent more time working in Pokhara. This is very rewarding. Great news to report. We were able to pay the medical debt of the lady who was so badly burned through a donation specified for this. It will be one of the highlights of the trip as the gratitude of the family and the organization where the money was owed was overwhelming. Now the family can get on with recovery.

I have left Bob in Pokhara for a couple of days as he is helping two grandmothers who have been left to look after their grandchildren. One lady was sleeping on the stone floor without even a mattress with her granddaugther. We have bought her a bed and mattress and now Bob is getting a bit more furniture for both of them. He wanted to do this as his donation. We also want to get some medical advice for a little boy who is crossed eyed so Bob will enquire about this.

I left half my heart in Pokhara and will leave the other half here when I leave next week. I have a lot left to do this week before I leave as there always seems to be things left to do and people to visit.

Holy Day in Nepal

Yesterday was Holy Day a festival which involves colour and water. Small bags of water with coloured dye in them are thrown from roof tops at people below. The water bags actually went on for two days before the festival. Yesterday though it was much worse and colour was also thrown and rubbed in your face and clothes. A lot of people just stay indoors. It is quite a sight to see. Kevin had fun having water fights with the kids at the shelter.

Today we bought a gas stove for the woman in the tiny room and she was really pleased with this. We were going to paint her room but she said if this happened she would be thrown out as then the landlord could re-rent it for more money. The walls and ceiling are black from the kerosene.

The Tamang family's mother has returned which is great news. We saw her there a couple of days ago. Tomorrow we are returning to Hattiban to see some children. Hope to go back to Pokhara on Wednesday although there are some rumblings about more strikes.

A day at the Zoo..... from Kamal

Kevin tooked zoo all the children the children was very happy. Projul also went us he don't want to keep that Madal at home . The children played many funny things and they looked many animals. Tomorrow is Festival colures. Festivel children will play each other with cloures and cloures water with balunes. Anyway see you all the best and have good luck. God bless to you. Here are pictures of children at Zoo with Kevin.