First day in Pokhara

---

Our first day in Pokhara (sadly just discovered that also I am not invincible and have a bit of a stomach problem). After breakfast we went into town and had a quick look at the lake that is a landmark for Pokhara.We stopped in a Kangaroobar (yep, in Nepal) with a beautiful view of the lake for a cup of Nepalese Masala tea. On our way we ' met' some lazy beggars, they now just hold their hand out and say: 'money'. Back to Himalayan Encounters HQ where we were spectators in an instruction lesson by Doctor Rose (her name is actually Rosanna). In that lesson she explained to a couple of kids from different welfare homes how to use a stethosscope and blood pressure equipment. Megan and I offered to be patients and our bloodpressure was measured (mine was 120 over 80 and Megan's was 102 over 70). Very nice to see how quickly these kids learn about these things. After the lesson we went out for lunch (it was a very busy morning ;-)) in a restaurant called ' Be Happy'. Had Lasagne which was very nice but it was also very fast out of my system sadly enough. Experienced our first ' scam' for money. A few children (yes really) claimed to be from the welfare home we are supposed to be working in the coming days and they wanted to play soccer but they didn't have a ball.We said we would meet them in the home and have a look into it. That was not the answer they expected (to say the least, they were persistent!), needless to say we never saw them in the home... Again back to the Himalayan Encounters HQ (HEHQ) to go to the welfare home itself.

Our work here will be helping to make one large classroom out of two smaller ones, decorate it and also taking care of the library. Also the garden will undergo some changes. The new classroom will next to being a room for doing homework and extra tutoring also serve as a dining room (children have to eat outside now). We were also told that we were going to help the children with their homework and even some music study. All the construction work and decoration work was planned to be ready in about 7 days, hm seeing is believing... Later in the afternoon we went back there to play some soccer and volleyball with the kids to find out that they first had to make drawings for Dr. Rose because she would be leaving. And after that the children had to do dance practise for the coming festival (of lights). Was fun to see and we already met a few girls that had lots to tell and also a few very young kids. We had dinner at HEHQ and sat down afterwards to talk a little bit with Dr. Rose (she just returned from a meal at the welfare home). To end the day we went back into town for some shopping and blast we forgot to make copies (as we promised) of the volunteering form we were supposed to fill in. Well we'll deal with that later. Tomorrow morning we start at ten o' clock with emptying the classrooms.

---

Photos

Himalayan Encounters accommodation
These rooms are used for volunteers. Ours is the the one more to the right in the photo.