Hello Nepal. Its me again !

I find it quite hard to think that it is almost a year ago since I made my first trip to Nepal. And yes, its that time of the year , and I 'll be making my second trip there again soon.

I have been busy doing a bit of travelling here and there, fitting in some fund raising activities at various times for the forthcoming trip. I have been very fortunate in that everyone I have spoken to has been very encouraging of my efforts. This has reflected in the very generous donations I have received to date. A total of £1036 have been collected so far. And I am optimistic that it will reach £1200-£1300 by the time I leave on 2nd September. Considering there is credit crunch going on, I thank everyone for the generosity you have shown

I keep thinking 'what would I do differently the second time round ?' Less clothes and more goodies (they will be regarded as special treats ) for Uma's 8 at the Orphanage where I'll be staying. Uma took in 2 new children recently.We had the additional double bunk beds built last year with some of the sponsors' money. I will post the children's photographs which Uma sent to me recently on the blog.

When I asked Uma what would she like me to take for the children from here, she said 8 t-shirts, varying in size for age 6 to12. I naturally said- oh that will be 6 pinks and 2 blues then. Her email came straight back with ' no, 8 blues' Its very interesting that Uma has always maintained the stance that the children in the orphanage must always wear the same colour,same type / style of outfits, be it tracksuits, jumpers , woollen hats etc regardless. Her reason is that there can then be no comparison, no envy, no competition, no squabbling and showing no favouritism for all the children concerned. I argued with her on one occasion that the individuality of each child (my western value ) is then suppressed. It will become increasingly difficult when they reach teenage. However, I can see the logic in her thinking especially when I look at the children playing well together, in a safe and stable environment. It is all about being relevant in the context of where we are I guess

I am aware of the children having very little in the way of nice smelly toiletries . I have decided to buy them individually among other things, small size talcum powder, and cream for face and hands in winter.In fact I found 8x small pots of Astral cream in Super drugs yesterday at 97 pence each. That was a real bargain.I now need to hunt for the 8 t-shirts. Someone suggested that Primark may be a reasonable place to look.

Well, so much rambling for now. I will attempt to keep blogging from now to keep all the sponsors posted