Hello, hello, hi!

An absolutely brilliant week here, probably our best so far.

Last Thursday we visited the other group of volunteers in Lamatar for a Nepali language contest. We all got war painted up and some of us (mostly me to be honest) really got into the competitive spirit. We ended up losing by 2 points, but I should point out that they had a Hindi speaker on their team. Hindi is an almost identical language to Nepal and without that advantage we would have wiped the floor with them. I'm not bitter at all by the way!

Still, it was good to see all the other volunteers and have a nose at their project.

At the weekend I visited Kathmandu with James and a few others to do some gift shopping. Contrary to what I believed before I tried, I actually really enjoyed haggling with all the stall owners. Hopefully all the recipients will like the gifts!

We had our last full day at work on Monday; most of our remaining work days will be half days as we wrap up other things and get our send offs from some of the people we've been working with. I took 10 minutes to myself to take in how much work we had actually completed and I felt really proud. Without meaning any offense to previous groups, we have been told several times that we have been the hardest working group, which is a great compliment. It's been an absolute pleasure to get stuck in every day and see the results pay off.

On Tuesday we got a chance to visit a local private school to contrast it with the government run school we are currently working with. While the facilities were a lot better and the staff highly motivated, it did change my perception of private schools in Nepal. If you look at my first blog I talk about a two tier system in Nepal and it reads quite negatively in regards to private schooling. One of the teachers gave a presentation that changed my opinion somewhat. He pointed out that private schools do not get a single rupee from the government, no money in donations and no special treatment from authorities. All of their income comes from the parents of students, and the teachers have to answer to these parents through the education of their children. They admit they are undoubtedly in better position than state run schools, but they are no means getting an easy ride.

After Tiffin we travelled over to Lubhoo to visit an orphanage funded by a Swedish charity. The kids here were absolutely CRAZY but so nice at the same time. We had a game of football with them, which I was absolutely chuffed at, dying for a game as I was! We also brought them some gifts, including a big party size Connect 4.

Some of the young lads took one look at the ball pit style balls that came with the Connect 4 and the next thing you know me, James and Jimmy are being chased around the football field by 25 kids, dodging red and yellow missiles! It threatened to get out of hand at one point when we literally had to run full pelt to get away, but it was all in good fun!

One of the staff members showed us round and the facilities were really impressive. The whole visit was heartwarming. The amount of poverty and suffering we've witnessed or heard about makes the people working for a good cause seem all the more saintly out here! Good luck to all those kids!

Yesterday we had a send off from all the kids at Sirutar Secondary School. This consisted of a mix of traditional Nepali dancing and some western stuff like guitar playing and break dancing. It was beautifully chaotic, proper organized chaos but we loved it! The staff at the school were heaping praise on us and made a few of us sad about our impending departure, but it was still a lovely show. The playlist seemed to go out the window towards the finish and it ended up with all of us dancing on the stage with all of the kids. Brilliant! haha

Today it's my 25th birthday and while I still miss my family and friends, it's an honour to be able to celebrate it here. Tomorrow we're off to Kathmandu to toast my halfway to 50-ness, and on Sunday we're all planning a get together at mine and James's. Brother has promised us some great Nepali snacks and has said we can use his massive speakers for some music! Wehey!

One quick story to finish. Yesterday I had to run an errand and asked my little Brother if I could take Fuzzy the dog. Pratik didn't realise how far I was going and said it was fine. As I rounded the corner at the end of our path I thought 'Hmm, I wondered what all the other dogs of the village will do when they see Fuzzy?' At that moment every single dog in the village seemed to descend on me going absolutely mental! The dogs here are really scared of humans but ridiculously territorial when it comes to other dogs. I literally had to kick dogs away from Fuzzy, while most of the inhabitants of Sirutar watched and laughed! So embarrassing! For the return journey I armed myself with a stick and got a jog going and got home safely. So dozy of me not to realise! Funny story for James and Pratik when I got home though! haha

Next week will be my last blog when hopefully I can sum up the many many different experiences I've had in Nepal. But until then…

Love!

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