Mukti Nepal

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I have arrived in Kathmandu & am settling into Mukti Nepal, which is
essentially a children's orphanage. I am spending the next eleven weeks volunteering here before moving onto India to begin another tour, which after two weeks will bring me back to Kathmandu... It will be nice to catch up with the kids again & I will be able to bring Sam (my Aussie friend) along & show her around.
I am now an English teacher & take class before the children go to school of a morning. The children are trying to teach me Nepalese as quickly as I am trying to teach them English... They have VERY limited materials & the first part of the class is spent trying to rustle up pencils & writing paper, followed by constant pencil sharpening. The hardest part (apart from not EVER having done this before) is that the children are from five different schooling levels & it is difficult to devote enough time to each one. I am about to email my brother, who is a teacher & my mother, who did some tutoring to get some tips.
On Sunday I will be going to the local primary school because Goma, the 'mother' at Mukti is friends with the owner & his wife who is the Principal. They are going to help me purchase some supplies for the children, from pencils to educational toys.
Isabelle is a French lady who is in the process of adopting one of the
children from Mukti. She visited Nepal in November last year as part of the process & has been here two weeks this time trying to get all of the paperwork finalised. The officials in Nepal are very slack & are in no particular hurry to process her, which is becoming increasingly frustrating as she is basically stuck in a Kathmandu with her new daughter indefinately. All she is waiting on at the moment is one stamp, but you would be surprised to discover how difficult this is to obtain. The Ofice of Foreign Affairs will summon her when they are good & ready & already they have given her one bogus stamp, so she has to go back again & again & waste hours waiting in line. Personally, I think they are waiting for money (a bribe) & then it will be a breeze, but Goma does not want to do this as it only encourages them & makes it harder for her & the next person who wants to adopt.
I am missing home a bit, but have just paid some money so I can make calls from Mukti to Australia. Unfortunately the internet there is VERY slow & so I have walked down the street to an internet cafe, which is very cheap at only 35 cents per hour.

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