Nepal Calling , again !

Well, its that time of the year again. I could almost hear ' Lai See didi, Lai See didi, can you do skipping rope? Lai See didi Lai See didi,thank you for the goodies' in my consciousness somewhere. It is so faint that I know its coming from a faraway land in the Himalayan mountains. I must admit I do find it hard to resist the call to visit the place. It tugs at the heart strings to want to see how tall the children have grown, and how far they have come in terms of their emotional and mental development.

Having had a pretty traumatic year at a personal level, it certainly is therapeutic to be able to cast one's focus elsewhere for a change, to be less self indulgent and inward looking! The moment the flight to Kathmandu was confirmed, I was out and about trying to source things from different places. Uma is always ready to have a long chat on Skype. We discussed at great lengths the unmet needs out there. However, we both accepted that we cannot help everyone. She would do some investigation from the local state schools to see if there are children we could help. Back came a list of children a few days later- all 13 of them. She has met them with their families, and have taken photographs of them all.I was emailed with the background information and the photos. We have started to shortlist them in the order of priority depending on how may sponsors I am able to secure at this end. I have 4 possibly 5 so far. Talk about thick skinned.........and not letting rejections put me off

In the meantime, I have been quite sucessful in receiving donations from friends and relatives who are interested to continue to support my effort for the coming trip. I have donations of over £300 so far. I have bought jigsaw puzzles, Disney cartoon CD like Polar Express and Anastasia as well as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The charity shops in Beckenham certainly do well for these things. I have also purchased quite a bit of stationary stuff for Uma's children , as well as stock for the new children I am going to meet when I am out there. Matalan proved to be another good place to find bat and ball sets and skipping ropes and the like .And then its the usual M&S 's talcum powder, and the tiny pots of moisturisers from Astral for Uma's lot. They went down so well last year that Uma asked if I could do the same again this year, at their request. To date, I have spent £132 so far, with the receipts in full

For one who views food as an important aspect of any social interaction, its only natural that a fair amount of packects of fun sized nibbles and chocolates for the kids were purchased in good time.Uma loves dark chocolate. I have also bought some goodies from Malaysia. I am very happy to say that they are all safely packed away in the suitcase now. I must admit I do feel like mother Xmas, not that they believe in Xmas. They are Hindus after all .

Well, it certainlly feels good to start blogging again after almost a year. How time flies! And how life's event sometimes changes one's perspective on things . I am just thankful that I am still here to do all that I want to do.

Till the next time, thank you for showing the interests and continued support