Busy, busy, busy

Thamel


Playing the stones game - hours are spent throwing a stone up in the air, picking various others up off the ground and then catching the one you threw - I'm rubbish at it


Emma and I posing for the camera - obligatory when you hand it over to one of the girls!


Jeni Rai with tiffin (lunch) - a huge cake!


Rasmita practicing hula hooping

I can't believe it's over a week since I updated the blog last time. It's been very busy, plus we've tended to be out during the times that the electricity's been on so there's been no opportunity to sit down and write this.

We've spent most of our time up at the top house with the kids, playing cards or a word/picture game that we bought, and Alison's been brushing up on her basketball, skipping and running around. There's been an epidemic of tickling as well - that's always popular up there!

We had a second thunderstorm the night after the first last week - it was spectacular - huge bolts of lightning and loud thunder that went on for about 3 hours. One of the volunteers here managed to get some amazing photos so I'm hoping he'll email a couple to us.

We took three of the girls (Anu, Anita and Anu Maya) out to do some shopping and have lunch at the big supermarket last week. They'd been sent some spending money and Michael (the founder of NOH) had been intending to take them but had lots of other things to do that day, so we offered to go with them instead. As I think I said before, the supermarket has escalators - a rarity in Kathmandu - and the girls hadn't seen them before. The youngest one, Anita, leapt on and off like a pro after the first trip up the escalator, but Anu Maya (the oldest) was really scared - after four trips she was still really nervy and had to hold my hand! We spent ages in the toy department and of course the girls only wanted Barbie dolls (well, the Indian equivalent) - the more shiny nylon tacky dresses with the dolls the better it seemed. After they'd decided on their dolls, we went to the Bakery Cafe for lunch. It's staffed completely by people who are deaf, which worried the girls for a few minutes, and then they ate the biggest lunch ever - pizza, chips and momos (tibetan dumplings) followed by huge ice creams and washed down with Fanta. The Fanta here is the most intense orange colour - we've dubbed it 'nuclear'. What became very clear during lunch is how conscientious the kids are about not wasting food. There was too much for them, really, but they were determined not to leave it, and were visibly upset when Alison left a few pizza slices because she was too full. It's a humbling reminder that we have so much greed and waste at home - in our own kitchens every day.

There was an expedition to the swimming pool on Monday morning followed by a birthday tea for all the kids with a March birthday. The swimming pool's in a leisure club that's still being built just down the road from here, called The Nature Club. The pool's finished, but there's building going on everywhere which is so typically Nepal. The kids had a brilliant time - although I think the water was pretty cold - there wasn't much swimming going on but lots and lots of splashing and screaming! The swimming costumes here are all really sweet - it's not the done thing for a Nepali girl to show off her body in a swimming costume, so they all have little skirts which are really cute! It was funny, though, watching all the boys posing and trying to look cool in their swimming shorts - some things are the same the world over!

I"m sure there are other things I should tell you about, but for now I can't think of them - we're just trying to make sure that we fit all the things in that we want to do now before we leave for home - like visit a couple of the big temples here, go to Bhaktapur for Nepali New Year (April 14th - it will be the year 2067 here), and finish washing all the blankets! If you'd like to see how Emma (the Volunteer Manager) has been getting Alison to contribute to the running of the house, have a look at www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/duncanemma/3/1270221727/tpod.html (don't think that will show as a link, but copy and paste and hopefully it'll work).

Have stuck a few photos onto this post but there are more to come off the camera from swimming and playing at the house, so I'll try to post a few tonight or tomorrow.

Ann & Alison
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