Travel time

Words can’t describe how long our travel home was. Two nights of missed sleep and about 3 days later we arrived home. 

To help you understand our adventure home see below:

3 1/2 hr jeep ride through the jungle (landslides, flooding, and river jumping) we almost didn’t make it. 

Bus-transit to our flight

1 hr airplane- Nepal Gange to Katmandu (delayed by 2 hrs)

Bus-transit to our flight 

20min cab ride (through Katmandu to Rijen’s office, our friend)

10min walk to restaurant

20min cab ride to hat shop!

25min cab ride to the airport (traffic jam due to this bus trying to pass on a road that’s far too small)

Bus-transit to our flight 

5hr flight- Katmandu to Dubai

15min- bus transit

13hr flight- Dubai to Seattle

45min car ride to Uncle Ed’s house

30min car ride home

Total Travel:

4 flights

4 buses

6 vehicles

AND WE ARE HOME!!

Working at Kopila

Since Ed wrote such a great blog about what he does while he is in Nepal I thought I better do the same. 

The question is what the heck do I do while I’m in Nepal besides love on the kids, so here I go! 

 1. Assist with the communication for the child sponsors. Letters to sponsors, data entry and updating photo’s!

2. I connected Blinkow with a new potential child file database. This will increase their ability to track each individual child. (www.runsandbox.com) 

3. Sanitation- I created a bleach system for washing the dishes, before it was cold water and soap, now also a bleach rinse. 

4. Help write a blog post for Blinknow on making Momo’s. 

http://www.blinknow.org/journal/entry/wanna-make-momos

5. Created and started a leadership team for the house kids. The idea is that these kids will lead the house and teach their siblings how to be better leaders so they can “grow up and OUT”!

6. Support the kids as they watched two close women die and leave their children behind. 

Of all the things I did while I was here the last might have been the most important. We have a saying at work “the interruption is the job”. Sometimes you go into a job or adventure thinking you will do one thing and suddenly things change.  Although these past few weeks have been hard I’m so glad that I was the one who was here for the kids. 

View From The Top!

Today we ventured in two teams to the top of the hills surrounding Surkhet. One team 3 hrs walking and one team 45mins in police vehicle with armed escorts. Anna, Aakriti and I went in the vehicle, and Uncle Ed and a group of about 9 kids hiked the hill.  

It’s amazingly beautiful up in the jungle, so many remote villages. I’m not sure what the elevation gain was, but it was pretty high up. It seemed like a whole new world up there. I could imagine staying for a few days of rest and relaxation. There is something peaceful about being so far up and away from everything. 

Here are the pictures…..

They made it to the top!

We were so excited to be at the top. This is a mix of the two groups. 

The hikers group! 3hrs straight up, let’s just say they were sweaty when they got to the top. 

The beauty is unexplainable by pictures. You had to have been there to fully understand, but this gives you a small glimps. 

Art Supplies

A huge THANK YOU to all of you who donated art and craft supplies for my trip. The kids are having so much fun making bracelets, painting and making cards for their friends. 

Also the skittles and M&Ms went to good use on Aakriti’s Birthday. The only downside was they mixed them together not knowing they were different. I’m going to leave the combine taste to your imagination. 

Every girl needs a bow…

They love painting so much and are so talented!
Their favorite is always the bracelets. They have made so many already!!

Making cards for Mom and other past volunteers. Thanks for all your support! Thanks to you I got to spoil these kid with art projects!

Learning Nepal’s Tradition-Planting Rice

Farming rice is a huge part of Nepal tradition. Almost everyone over the age of 30 grew up farming rice. Since most of them eat rice twice a day and it’s the main staple food source it’s an extremely important skill to know the process of rice. Most of the aunties who live at the Kopila house take time off every year to go farm their families rice. It’s an important job that takes many people. 

We have a few rice patties at the new land where the new school will be located. Our goal at the new land is to not only grow and harvest rice but to be completely self sustainable on the land. We also want to teach the kids how to tend the farm. Many of them will need to know these skills to survive living in Nepal. 

A few weeks ago the kids went out and planted all the rice. Yesterday, we went and picked all the weeds out of the rice patties in the rain. There is some knowledge involved in knowing what is rice and what is grass. I shortly figured it out. The kids helped with the process of weeding and also the processes of having fun. It wasn’t long before they were throwing mud balls at eachother. I guess that’s what kids do. 

As we were standing in the middle of the rice patties I must admit I was mostly worried about leaches & water snakes, less about the wedding, but to my luck none were found. 

Not sure I will ever enter a rice patty again, but who knows. It was a fun experience. I’m so glad that we are raising these kids to understand where their food comes from and to appreciate the skill of farming. 

Happy Teachers Day from Kopila

On Tuesday we celebrated Teachers Day at the School, this was my 2nd teachers day here. For the celebration many of the kids preform different songs and dances on stage for the teachers. The kids here are so talented when it comes to dancing. I always beg them to teach me, but I think I’m hopeless when it comes to learning Nepali dance. 

Here are a few pictures from the day…

Aakriti and I

Kopila Valley School Staff

The Volunteer Team  

Why not cut the cake for teachers day?…

One of the many dances

These 6 did a fantastic dance, they are so talented for their age. 

Stories…

There are more stories than could ever possibly be told here in Surkhet. One story that has hit home for me this trip is that of a 3 year old girl in nursery class (M).

Those of you who follow my Instagram know a little about her. Her mom works 7 days a week and is gone 10 hours a day working on a construction site. She is a good mother who works hard to provide for her family. M has two sisters who are in a children’s home in Katmandu, her father is dead. On a normal day M is left alone from 6am until 8pm. The best part of her day is coming to school at Kopila. Some days her only meal is at school and often she hangs out at on the school grounds until the gates close at night. 

She has been on my heart since I first saw her. Today I went looking for her since we had a half day at school and found her alone outside her house playing in the nally (a small stream of water that is VERY dirty). I asked her when was the last time she bathed, which would have been at the school since they have no plumbing her house. She told us two weeks..

P age 6, another Kopila child who lives in the house couldn’t help but offer to go get her shampoo and some of her own fresh clothes so we could bath her at the school. There isn’t a lot we can do for this girl, her being in school is a huge step already! 

As I washed the dirt off her small body and in her hair I knew my call was to love her, to hold her and play with her. My heart breaks for what she would call, a normal every day reality. 

After M was all cleaned up we took her home to hang her dirty pair of clothes that we had washed at the school. Her home is what Americans would use only for a chicken coupe. No running water or power and about the size of a closet. The first thing she did when we got home was change her clothes. When asked why she said she didn’t want to get her new clothes dirty. 

I’m not sure why her story has hit home for me more than others, and yes there are others, hundreds just in our school, but what I do know is I will do my best to love her with all I can while I’m here. 

The New Land with the Kids

Yesterday afternoon we walked to the new land with the kids. They were begging us to go there all day because it’s one of their favorite places to spend time. Normally when they are there they; run, play, eat mangos, milk the cows, hold the bunnies and jump into dirt piles. Sounds like a regular old time in the states for farm kids huh! 

My first time milking a cow!!

Dirt piles are so fun!

The amount of food here is unbelievable…

Walking to the land…

Honey and Bees at Kopila

You may know already that there are several bee boxes at Kopila due to the famous bee keeper Orren who came for a visit. We have two boxes at the house and two or three at the new land. When I first arrived I asked the kids; why do we have the bees and will they make honey? They didn’t seem to know. 

Yesterday, K came out of the garden with a bee keepers gown on and a huge pile of honey comb. I guess that answers my question, yes we are making honey. 

I could hardly believe how much honey came out of the comb, maybe close to 1 1/2 cups! It’s so amazing how bees just know how to make honey! I must say my mind was truly blown away. 

​​
Here is a video of Orren at the”Do Lectures”. 

http://www.thedolectures.com/orren-fox-barefoot-bee-keeper/#.V4ra2PQXenM

Hardware Store Shopping in Surkhet….

I finally figured out why Uncle Ed keeps coming back. You might think it’s the kids (mostly it is), but I saw a whole new side of adventure with him yesterday shopping for a few simple hardware items.

Our list; ladder, screw eye hooks, dust pan, coat hook and a toilet seat. Seems simple right, well not in Surkhet. Every place we go I tried to explain these item with my small amount of Nepali mixed with English. Most people look at us like we are crazy, but every once in a while we strike gold. The hunt for the items is exciting and sort of like treasure hunting.

We ended up with; a coat hook, toilet seat, dust pan and screw eye hooks. 4 out of 5 is pretty good for this place.

A few pictures from town!

The Rainbows here are always a bright surprise!

 

Julia with Dust Pan – She learned to use it as a Fan!