Dilip

Dilip drawing for tomorrow's charity event. He is the best drawer in the orphanage. While others draw from a book and other drawings, Dilip does his work on his own and he is still better than the rest.

Dilip was found on a street, small and all alone. He didn't even know his own name, so Pramila named him Dilip. His birthday is celebrated with all the rest of the children on Buddha's birthday last Saturday. A dentist a few years ago said that he is eight years old, so now he should be around 11.

For six consecutive years Dilip was awarded with the school's best student award.

Once he was diagnosed to be sick with meningitis. For a few months he was laying in a hospital fighting for his life. After the hospital he remained at home for a year, not going to school, but still at the end of the school year he passed all the exams and was moved to the next class. The only sign of his dire sickness is his slight and thin body. Other than that Dilip is as charming with his bright smile as he had been before the sickness.

Mattresses

A mattress in the sun, being dried after heavy rainfalls. Most of them are usually carried inside when the rains start, but sometimes a few are forgotten.

Dance

On Saturday we have a charity event in order to raise donations for Aishworya Children's Home. These children are waiting for Pramila to teach them a dance for the event.

Crossroads

Diagonal crosswalks on one of the largest crossroads in Kathmandu. The traffic lights aren't working, thus a traffic police officer is trying to regulate the flow of vehicles. Sometimes it seems that everyone is driving in all the possible directions. And in the middle, disregarded by everyone, the pedestrians risking their lives in attempts to get on the other side of this madness.

Bus stop

This is how a bus stop is marked in Nepal. The larger and more important ones have nice little sheds against rain as well.

Ganesha

Every morning the neat line of the little children going to school passes this image of the god Ganesha. Almost every one of the children rings the bell to wake up the god and touches the image. Ganesha removes and puts obstacles in a man's life, and the children pray for luck that Ganesha could bring them.

The water

The water to our house is brought by a car like this and pumped in the tanks on top of the roof. The capacity of a tank is 5000 liters and the cost - 1500 rupees. During monsoons the tank is being filled twice per month while now, with ~10 volunteers in the house, twice per week.

The Streets Part 2

The new government of Nepal has decided that the city is in a need of wider streets. As a result of this decision long parts of one of the city's main streets have loosed their pavements. The pedestrians have no other choice as to walk on the road, where bikes and cars are rushing by mere centimeters from them.

Those, who risk walking the ruins of the pavements, from time to time encounter large, uncovered holes in the ground marking the sewerage pipes. One careless step or a glance other than on the road, and a small kid could vanish under the ground, while an adult could end up with a broken or bruised leg.

The Streets of Kathmandu

Some of them are so narrow that the car drivers have to stop and step out to remove a bike, blocking their way, into some hole in the walls.

The market

The sights of Thamel's markets - vegetables on naked ground and men selling fresh meet in the midday's sun, trying to wave away the swarm of flies with a newspaper.

Buddha's Birthday

Yesterday we had a grand celebration of Buddha and Pramila's birthdays. We had a great tent raised in the yard, all the children in their best clothes, much food, dancing and singing. Even aamaa Nirmala for a moment broke into a dance. The elder children had prepared a dance as well to entertain all the little children and the guests. The house war bristling with energy till the very evening.

Aishworya Children's Home

This is our castle. A few days ago the Danish volunteers brought a ball home and the boys had a great time with it. Meanwhile the younger ones their to do their homework in one corner of the yard.

The Praying room

Children pray two times a day - in the morning and in the evening. When the sun sets, the older children light candles and incense, while the little ones sit in neat lines and sing and chant their prayers. The gods on the wall are Shiva and his wife Parvati - one of the strongest gods in Hinduism. The Swastika symbolizes luck and its direct translation from Sanskrit is "to be good" or "being with the higher self".

Water heating

The way water is heated in a rural school - some kind of a clay device and a wire injected in the socket.

The rural village

With fields all around, these houses have been built close together to leave more land to the crops.

A rural school

One day we went to a rural school on the way from Bakhtapur to Changu Narayan. It was erected with the help of an Italian organization and the Italians had also been volunteering in the school for 10 months. However, the level of English among the teachers and even more so among the students was very poor. The teachers in the English lessons would talk to the students in Nepali as they did not know or where ashamed of pronouncing the English words.

We offered to come twice a month to teach English to the teachers, but the school couldn't offer us the accommodation. 

It could have been a nice break from the constant dust in the Kathmandu's air. Out in the countryside it is full with fresh, sweet air.

The Montessory School

Two of our children have been accepted in the high-quality and expensive Montessory School. It charges 100 euros per month and aamaa Nirmala could have never afforded to send the children to this school if not for her good connections. She knows a few from the management of the Montessory School who agreed to teach two children for a month. 

River Road

This dusty road winds its way near Bishnumati river. The dog had a piece of meat in its teeth and for a while he was trotting after me.

The Pancake Day

On May 18 the Danish volunteers made pancakes for all of the house - children and staff.  

The yard

In the mornings the yard serves as a place where to exercise and dress in the school uniforms, in the evenings the children group according to their class and do their homework.

The school

The little children go to a boarding school where all the lessons except for Nepali are carried in English. The volunteers were welcomed to stay and teach in the school. Each one of us at any one moment could at best teach only two children, which eventually led to a chaos as those who didn't have a volunteer by his side sat alone and most often did nothing productive.

A morning in Aishworya

Children getting ready for the school

The children of Aishworya

Here the little ones are welcoming a new volunteer from Poland - Kasha. Others are struggling with a thousand-piece puzzle. A bit too much for the youngsters.

Bamboos

These could be found not only on the roads outside Kathmandu but also in the center of the city - the former king's palace is full of them.

The children of Shivapuri

The children in the Shivapuri National Park. The one on the right has black circles around his eyes - the locals believe that would protect him against the harm.

The children run after us for quite a long time. The best strategy was to ignore their shouts for another picture.

Shivapuri National Park

The ride to the Shivapuri National Park could substitute a bungee jump - each sharp turn in the narrow road up fills every part of the body with adrenaline. However, the reward is sweet - a day full of fresh air, which is a remarkable improvement over the Kathmandu's smog that had been choking us for a week already.

Pramod and his friend Robek leads us through the park and we stop to rest at a local Nepali house, whose owner treats as with a bit of spicy meat and drink.

Patan's Durbar Square

Patan or Lalitpur is a city adjoining Kathmandu. The river Bagmati sets them apart. We went there with our new brother Promod and his cousin as our guides. Till now we had gotten everywhere for free by showing our volunteer cards, but the guards of Patan's Durbar Square wouldn't let us in. They asked for a paper of the local municipality office stating that we are volunteers, so there we went to get the paper. However, the bureaucracy of Nepal is not much different from the one everywhere else in the world and we ended up floating from one office to the next until at last we found out that the guy we needed was out and nobody knew when he was coming back.

Thus we ended our pursuit for the official paper and returned to the Durbar Square in the hopes of bargaining with the guards. It turned out that Promod's cousin knows the main person responsible for the gate-keeping, who in the end let us in for free. Thus we learned that the power here is in the connections.

Bouddha

Next day we went to another Buddhist place - Kathmandu's region Bouddha, which is said to be one of the two most important holy places for Tibetan Buddhists outside Tibet. Indeed we spotted many lamas roaming around the place. The stupa itself is the largest one in Nepal.

Not far from the stupa there are a few monasteries for the lamas to pray and live in. We went to one called the White Monastery. We had to wait an hour till 16:00 when the monastery opened its doors for non-lama visitors. However, when we entered a ceremony (puja) had just began and we silently slipped along the wall. One of the lamas closest to us put a soft mattress on the floor indicating a place where to sit.

At first the praying lamas were staring at us shamelessly. For one we were non-lamas, for another we were not even men, so I could understand the stares. And soon they died away as the men in crimson robes returned to their prayers. For the next hour we enjoyed the beauty of Tibetan Buddhist prayers - they were chanting and singing in the rhythm of drums and trumpets, from time to time changing the tone and rhythm. The drums beat through our ears and a horn made such a high note that it seemed to penetrate our bodies. An unforgettable experience.

During the ceremony a man rounded the monks, pouring each a white liquid from a pale can. They gave us a little cup too and poured the queer liquid that tasted awful. Later we learned that it was Tibetan ciyah - made with a butter and salt.