Steve Jobs Legacy – The power of the iPad

   Thanks God for giving us Steve Jobs for the short time he spent here on earth and for his role in the creation and distribution of the iPad.  I have been struck each night by the burning desire these kids have to spend time on our two iPads.  The system goes by sleeping room, where each night, the 4 or 5 children from a room get to use the two iPads for one hour after dinner and before Satsung (a nightly family meeting).  I have seen children try to skip dinner, or cram their food down to be able to get at the iPads a few minutes early.  The rule is each child gets at least 20 minutes of the hour to be the user, but as you can see by the photos, everyone else is using it vicariously.  They must spend at least part of the time on something educational, but from what I have seen, it is all educational.  In any event, this simple to operate device is changing lives for the better here at Kopila Valley.  Thank you Steve, for making a difference in so many lives!

Here are the two groups in the Satsung Room clustered around their precious iPads.

Not unlike a rugby scrum, it is hard to see the "ball" so the circle continually moves around.

Julia, who spent her entire day today marking, fitting, and distributing new clothes made time tonight for some one-on-one learning with Shanti, using her own iPad. She is doing such great work here. I love watching her work with kids.

Temple

Yesterday we took a walk through the valley to a temple. The valley is full of rice patties. I’m sure that this is where the snake hangout so I tried to be careful. When you enter the temple grounds the ” grounds keeper” (a 70 year old lady) puts what we call tika on your head in-between your eyes. This is thought to be your third eye. A place of intelligence. The walk was so beautiful. The kids love taking adventures and going for walks. They especially loved the temple!
See it for yourself through my pictures.

First Math Lesson with Maya

Let’s just say this is a good starting point, however I have my work cut out for me;)

Error

This video doesn’t exist

Surket Museum

Yesterday we went to the Surkhet museum with the older kids. It was about a 25min walk to get there from the house. The museum consisted of one small room with some artifacts, displays, and pictures. It was so fascinating because all the things that were in the museum are things that the Nepalis still use today. I couldn’t help but think about our museums back home. Everything in our museums always seems so outdated, but here in Nepal it’s still the same. The kids talked a lot about the cast system, I’m still unclear how it all works so I need to do some more research. Although we saw that in Nepal there are four different types for people; village, mountain, river, and jungle (rautae). It was so amazing to see the differences.

Below are some pictures of the museum.

Kopila Kids Vids 2

We do have some Big FUN here while we are working hard and being Big in Nepal and the following video is an example of just that.  Maggie, Jeff and Julia got invited to a birthday party for one of the pilots here in town and because of all the things going on all day, they didn’t have much time to plan for it…so at the last minute Maggie jumped up from the dinner table and said “I’ll just bake Ben a cake!”  I thought she was kidding, but baby Namraj in arm she and Jeff, our KV School Principal, stepped into the kitchen and whipped up a cake batter.  The plot thicken significantly after the cake went into the oven, but we will make that a tale for a different day.  Enjoy Surkhet’s Own… 

DUTY!

Everyday the children have what we call duty. There is a group duty and an individual duty. Its the same thing as chores. Yesterday the group duty was to help in the garden. Our staff has been busy working in the garden getting ready to plant a new crop. So for an hour in the morning all of the kids helped bring compost. It’s funny because when it is time for duty some of the kids try to run away and hide so they don’t have to do it, but of course they are always caught and end up doing it anyways. Here are some pictures, enjoy…….

October 16th Kopila Kids Vids

Hello Everyone around the world, Uncle Ed here also Being big in Nepal with Julia.

I haven’t been sleeping ALL this time! I have been working on my projects that need to be accomplished in the next 3 months.

1. Water (I am going to help Tope get us a well that gives us continuous water, or else.

2. Power – We are going to add to the solar system (no, not another planet) – more solar panels and more batteries, what ever it takes to keep the lights on and the router working.

3. Connectivity – Speaking of keeping the router working, we now are the proud owners of a small UPS that has taken us through several short outages. We are about to build a Network Cage (my first international data center) to secure and protect our lifeline to you from jump ropes, diapers, errant laptops, and school books, all of which I have found lying on the network equipment at one time or another since arriving.

Three Project, Three Months, No Problem! Big talk from Uncle Ed, the new guy from the States. Time will tell.

Oh, yes, why am I appearing on Julia’s Being Big in Nepal… we are about to add video to our services. Please stand by.

You asked for it, you got it… This is our introductory test of video capability. We spent several hours yesterday recording clips of our 40 movie stars. Last night in the cutting room we produced what you are about to see here. This morning, Maggie approved it for publication and it may eventually become part of a Kids Vids corner on her website: www.BlinkNow.org But for now... here is your first look at Koplia Kids Vid 1 ..

If you have problems viewing the video, please contact Tech Support Surkhet Nepal C/O Uncle Ed Just kidding

Rotations

Rotations: today we started by getting a schedule going for the kids. They are off from school until November 5th so it’s our job to keep them busy. Jeff ( the new principal) set up some rotations for us. My rotation was craft corner, Uncle Ed taught about clocks and time zones, grandfather ( Maggie’s dad) did out door games, and Jeff did math study time. It went surprisingly very well. Here is a little video of my rotation. We talked about the sun ( rise in the east set in the west) and I had them draw a picture of their favorite time of day. They had to place the sun accordingly. Check it out……
Come to find out I cant upload videos on here but I will post it on my Facebook;)

Surket

Going Native

Today I went to the market and went shopping for clothes. We went to the fabric store and picked out all sorts of fabrics. It was so much fun. Then we headed to the tailor to get some clothes made. The tailor looked at me and asked Maggie ” is there enough fabric” because I’m a bit taller than the average Nepali, we laughed. He asked me what I wanted, neck line and everything! Then he measured me up and wrote me out a paper check. ( all of the stores use paper checks! Haha) Under $40 later I ended up ordering 5 shirts and 4 pairs of pants. I’m going to be a whole new Nepali woman. I will post a picture of my new clothes when I pick them up in a couple of days, but until then here are some pictures of the tailor shop that is making my new clothes. The last picture is of Ausnd ( from Argentina) Libby ( Maggie’s sister) and me.