So, I have arrived home after 3 months in the subcontinent, never an easy transition to make, but even harder when you have had to say goodbye to 30 young girls to whom you have become very attached. Last Wednesday was very tearful, light flooding was reported in Godawari. An emotional and tiring time, returning to Delhi, entering the full swing of this incredible city for 24 hours before returning to a grim grey London, returning to Adrian, whom I had not seen since a rushed farewell outside Kathmandu airport in monsoon rains 2 months before. But now I am home [View Full Entry]

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Life goes on and it is time for me to leave soon. There has been more problems with the internet, therefore updates have been sparse, I know I have not even filled in the rest of the Char Dham trip yet. Anyway one Saturday was spent visiting Kathmandu, realising that I really do not like Thamel at all. There are so many tourists and beggars and things that we just do not see in Godawari. I did visit the Garden of Dreams, a garden that was created by a Nepali in the nineteenth century, a sort of copy of an eighteenth [View Full Entry]

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Oh so much has been happening that I have not had a chance to write much, plus we have had a lot of problems with the internet. To start where I left off Miriam the volunteer that was flying back to England needed some company in Kathmandu so the weekend before last we trooped off down to the Kathmandu Garden House, which feel as much home as here in Godawari now. We spent some pleasant hours exploring the old town and taking a lot of photos. Then last week, Zoe and Dan, who have been working down in Bairawa, on a [View Full Entry]

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This week another volunteer, on her way home to England has joined us, in Godawari. Her name is Miriam, she has been working down in a project near the Indian border, making mosaics with Deaf children. It has been nice to meet her, she is studying for a degree in Contemporary Practice at Leeds. We all went down to visit the girls in their house, they were incredibly exited and I had to do Hindi Film style dancing for them, which was quite exhausting. The sculptures are going OK and I hope that the girls are enjoying it and learning some [View Full Entry]

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So now in the third week at Godawari, it has been an interesting time, the girls have started to make sculptures that we can stick broken glass bangles on. This meant that on Friday, myself and three girls went into Patan, to Mangle Bazaar, to buy more Bangles than the old couple running the stall have ever sold before. This morning we smashed them all! On Saturday we visited the children’s homes down the hill in Thorkil. There are 4 homes, all for circus returnees. We visited the home where school girls life and the home for little children. This was [View Full Entry]

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So, entering the second week in Godawari. Getting used to working with the girls now, even if the ones that I worked with last week were the Mosaic Girls, ie the girls who are employed to make mosaics, not the Project Girls, who are the one I am supposed to be working with. Anyway we had fun and they worked very hard, producing some lovely things. I have some company, some one I can speak English to, not just bad Hindi/Nepali. Lexa, another volunteer from the UK has joined me. She will be teaching ceramics. We went to Kathmandu for the [View Full Entry]

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So I have been in Godawari for 3 days now. Life has slowed right down, I feel as if I have been here for much longer. It does feel much more like I am in Nepal though. Not least as until tomorrow when another volunteer arrives, it is just me and Nepalis. It is a very beautiful place, especially when like today it stops raining and the sun comes out. I have been working with about 8 girls, they have made sculptures and today some designs for applying mosaic to sculptures. It is hard to believe that these girls where sold [View Full Entry]

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Adrian has now flown home to the UK. It was very strange to say goodbye to him yesterday at the airport. Especially as they would not let me inside, security. It was pouring with rain and the taxi was waiting for me. Plus there were a lot of Nepalis looking on. Not very romantic, or maybe? I am now in Godawari, where I will be staying for the next 8 weeks. It is about half an hour outside Kathmandu, but hundreds of miles away in atmosphere. I feel like I am in Nepal now. It is a beautiful place, in the [View Full Entry]

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So we have visited some old places and some new. Yesterday Swayambunath, which is the really famous stupa (Buddhist prayer mound) that appears on all the pictures that you have ever seen of Nepal. It is still quite a place and does not really seem to have changed. The walk there was great as well as we passed through really interesting streets, with no tourists and no tourist shops. We also ate the best samosas, well since leaving England actually. Today we went to the 5th Dham, the most important pilgrimage site in Nepal, Pashupartinath, a truly amazing temple on ghats. [View Full Entry]

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Hi to all, we are now in Kathmandu. Sorry that there has been a lack of BLOG, but we have not seen an internet cafe on the whole of our pilgrimage route. What I will do is fill in the gap with installments as if we were on the pilgrimage, but not now. First, here in Kathmandu after 20 years, it is a great shock. Its so set up for tourists now, I knew it would have changed, but this is beyond belief. Thamel just goes on for ever, not just Freak street and the German Bakery now! It comes as [View Full Entry]

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