Slight change of plan

The thing I dreaded has happened - disruption to travel plans - although not from the source I might have expected. It's a long story and I won't bore you with it, but believe me I'll be reluctant to book a Flybe flight ever again after this! We've changed our travel plans and are now going to take the overnight sleeper from London to Inverness on Wednesday night, arriving in Inverness on Thursday morning. Neither of us has been on the sleeper before so that should be fun, and because it doesn't leave till 9pm from Euston we get to spend the afternoon and early evening in London - Camden Market here we come! I bet the prices will scare the wits out of us after being here, though! :)

We spent the last couple of days playing at being proper tourists. Yesterday we went to Patan with Pieter and Carlyn, two of the volunteers here. It is just south of the river and is now part of Kathmandu but it used to be a small city in its own right hundreds of years ago. It has a beautiful royal palace, part of which has been converted into a museum so we had a good wander round looking at everything, it was a good day. The Durbar Square there doesn't allow cars so it had the advantage of being fairly quiet and feeling relaxed.

The day before we went to the edge of Thamel to the Garden of Dreams - a beautiful garden designed in the 1920s by a very rich Nepali along the lines of English and Italian formal gardens. It had ponds and grass and flowers and fish and despite being right next to the main road was surprisingly peaceful - a mini haven in the midst of the madness.

The kids were off school today (and apparently have tomorrow off too because it's the last Sunday of the month?!), so we've spent most of the day with them. Whilst we're both really ready to come home, and are looking forward to it, there is a lot of sadness at the prospect of leaving the kids when we go. A number of them have been writing notes and drawing pictures to tell us that they love us and will miss us, and all of them are asking when we will be coming back. I don't honestly know whether we'll be back in Nepal at any stage (cost being the major obstacle) and it's hard having to say that we can't guarantee we'll see them again. We've promised to email and write, particularly to the 5 or 6 kids that have really befriended Alison, and we'll make sure we keep up with that. We've also decided to sponsor the two sisters that we've become very close to, Anu and Anita. Michael has offered to set up a separate bank account for us to put money into and to give us control over what it's used for - I've said I'd like to make sure that it's there for the girls to have things like new shoes or school books when they need them, or if it's more appropriate for them to save it up to go towards fees for any further education or training they might want to do when they're old enough.

Anu & Anita's mum died about 3 years ago, and their father came to NOH distraught because he couldn't manage to look after them and also work. Apparently there were no extended family to help out and without an income here you lose everything - there's no such thing as a Benefits system. Michael says that he's a good man, and that he sees the girls regularly - he took them home for the school holidays while we were here, although we haven't met him. We can't afford much every month, but a small amount goes further here than at home, and we hope that this will be a way to stay part of the girls' lives and to improve things for them as much as we're able to. It's been a difficult decision because there are other kids in just as much need, and if I could afford more, I'd happily send it to help them out too. We might try to continue some fundraising activities after we're home and send some lump sums to help out with other kids if we're able.

I'm going to post this just now and then download photos from the camera to put a separate post on for those.

Ann & Alison
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