We meet the children

Thursday 18th April
We had our first proper day in the orphanage today.  When we arrived the eight little ones were having writing practice.  It was mostly copying in both Nepali script with some English and it was very good for children of their ages, 3 to 6.  Then we had games like "Ring a Roses" and "I wrote a letter to my friend". The children all knew the words, in a fashion, and loved all the actions.  One of the committee members came in and had them perform Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  If I ever get the hang of posting photos I will post a video of this.  The fog horn voice is the Memsahib whom Barbara has named Mrs Gandhi.  Some of the older children had started to drift up into the toddlers' room and the level of English in the 8 year olds is remarkable.  I showed them photos of my house and the snow,and the pictures of Frank went down a storm.  There are lots of dogs in the streets but they must be strays I think, as they look a bit uncared for and I don't suppose you could afford to feed a dog if you were struggling to feed your family.

Two of the older girls aged 13, have won scholarships to a private school, and honestly, their fluency in English would put our 6th formers to shame.  Within a short time they wanted to hold our hands and hug us. They are so loving and eager to please.  There are also three 15 year old boys who are in the orphanage at the moment on holiday but return to boarding school on Monday for three months.  They all have sponsors.  We asked about mealtimes and the children yesterday had a small bowl of noodles for lunch.  Other days they have some spinach or cauliflower yet they don't look undernourished but they do get fed up with the repetitive food.

The sanitary arrangements are basic to put in kindly.  Even the toilet in the administration area would probably be one you had a nightmare about.  I took a photo of the gutters, which overflowed with dirty water.

We called in for a coffee at what is becoming our regular coffee shop, The Himalayan Java, and also to use the free wifi but there were repeated power cuts so the signal kept dropping.   Actually there are planned power cuts for 10 hours per day and each building is in a rota but you still get smaller cuts in between.  Today at the orphanage, there was not only a power cut but the water went off as well.  Toilets even worse.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed a lovely shop selling hand made paper goods.  Lovely wrapping paper, notebooks, wall decorations and lampshades etc.  I bought a small mirror decorated with jungle animals.

Lastly we got a costing for our planned trip to go tiger spotting by elephant.  We are travelling by road, 5 hours, to Chitwan, having 2 nights there and flying back.  Not for another 2 weeks but am very excited about it.