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Published: November 29th 2008
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Yesterday we really weren't able to do much for the Home as far as helping them with fundraising. We decided yesterday that there was no point going again today as the plan was to go to other non-tourist districts of Pokhara. We think it would be better for the new volunteers to accompany them when they start the fundraising in the Pokhara Lake District which is filled with tourists. Tony is interested in funding another orphanage that he's had requests for funding from and suggested that, if we had time, maybe we could go and have a look and see what we think. We decided our time would be better served doing this than doing the other fundraising. We arranged with Pashupati to go with him to the Orphanage as Tony had also asked him to go out and have a look. As we were taking a taxi, we also asked Pashupati if he could take us to the centre of Pokhara (~10 minutes by car from the Lake District) so that we could buy candy as a thankyou for him and the staff. Tony had suggested this as it is the time of the Brother and Sister festival and at
this time of the year, this 'milk' candy which hails from India is very popular with the Nepalese people, and they would prefer that to Western sweets. Pushupati was more than happy to take us to the 'right' shop!!!
So we first headed out to the Orphanage. Wow!! We thought the CWH needed help! We realise now that they are far better off than many other children in Nepal. This orphanage is really a farm. The former animal housing has been converted into rooms for the children and the farmer and his wife actually sleep in what is more a shed than a room i.e no front wall!!! The children here help with chores such as milking the cows etc. They seem to be very well looked after when you consider this is a man and his wife who don't themselves, have much at all. Furthermore, the lease on land is only for 7 years. Then the farmer either has to buy the land (which is impossibly expensive) or move to another place! This makes it somewhat harder to look after the children. The children here seem happy and well-looked after and they have a magnificent view of the
Himalayas behind them. There were also volunteers from a German organisation already working there. However, they do really seem to need help with funding and, we thought, some help to make better use of the land. From what we could see, there wa some potential for them to extend the farming to a point where they could care for the kids and, perhaps, make a small profit. At the moment everything they need everything that they have just to feed themselves and the children. We came up with a stack of ideas for any future volunteers (not they we really know enough about farming to know if any of our ideas are feasible!!!).
We then headed into the centre of Pokhara where we bought 2 big boxes of sweets for the staff. We ran into the manager of 'Mamma Mia' where we go frequently for lunch. He thought the sweets were really expensive - well perhaps they were but well worth it for a group of people that had taken brilliant care of us for the past 2 weeks!! They were a super hit that evening. We were of the idea that the sweets just be for the staff
The children's rooms
Converted from animal housing into children's housing but, of course, we were made to try them and then have seconds!! They were very tasty and it was hard to say no to a second one even though we wanted them to be for the staff!!
After returning to HEHQ, we took the new volunteers up to the Home while we took group photos of the kids so that they could hang a photo in the Recreation room (it was there only request for that room). We then returned to HEHQ we wrote down all of our ideas for future volunteers for both the 'farm' orphanage and the CWH and discussed headed off to do the last of our souvenir shopping and off to the supermarket to buy supplies for our 4 days of trekking. We then went to the internet cafe to do a few quick things on the computer when Natalie found us. She came up from Chitwan today and will be doing the trekking with us. We finished up in the internet cafe and took her down to Lake Phewa and then out for coffee at Mamma Mia's. We all had a lovely dinner together at HEHQ and after dinner discussed our ieas with
Tony, Trish and Majella. What a busy but fulfilling day!!
Tomorrow we are off on our short four day trek!! Yay!!
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