And Again

Having spent over an hour blogging yesterday, the server decided to disappear into outer space! I lost the whole hour of effort. Its been pretty frustrating all round.

I have been busy for the past few days. Its been a case of almost 9 to 5 day for me. I would leave @9am for my daily must at the physio clinic. If time permits I would go to the local Internet cafe to either blog or check my emails. Then Uma and I will go and visit some of the new children we hope to sponsor.It is usually around 4/5 pm before we get back home.

We have been to visit two of the children so far. One of the families live in a pretty dire environment. The family of 4 ( parents and 2 kids age 8 and 6 years) cooks, lives and sleeps in one bed(if you can call a big piece of wood a bed !) in a room no bigger than 10x10. It is really shocking (to my limited exposure to life !). However, the children seems happy in themselves. They were so excited to be given a packet of dolly mixtures and stationary set each. I marvelled at how easily pleased the children are when they have so little themselves. Mum is the second wife. It is a fact that she was not aware of at the time of her marriage. This lucky man has two wives who toil for him, to enable him to drink and be an odd job man whenever he is sober, or feels like working. This seems to be a very common feature in the lower socio- economic group. As a matter of fact, many of the children we are hoping to sponsor has the similar stories running through their lives. Mother works, then she gets beaten by the husband who drinks, therefore unable to hold down a regular job.

I had a chance conversation with my physio, who confirmed my observation on this. She said it is a real problem for the Nepali women in the lower social strata. Yet, things could not be more different for the professional class! I have become quite friendly with the physio who comes from an upper middle class family.She is exploring her options to come to UK to do her Master, either in Physiotherapy or Public Health in the coming year.My hour and a half of intensive physio cost just over a fiver . And it is private medicine. Thats value for money in any language

Well, we have spent some money. We have bought 2 bicycles for the children. One with stabilisers for the younger ones and the other is a normal bike for the older children.The children are having many of their ' firsts' experience this week .Learning to pedal forward (rather than backwards) and realising that applying brakes simultaneously will give them control can be quite mind blowing On top of that, they have to steer the very stiff handle bar to go forward or round the corner. I t was quite hilarious to watch them trying to learn the different skills in order to ride . There were a lot of shouting and screaming. It was an exhausting 2 hours of initiation for the children and adults alike

We have also bought a hand operated sewing machine, 8 Emergency lights/lamps for the new children we hope to sponsor. I have also purchased a supply of gorgeous pashminas for fund raising purposes. I am hoping that I will be in good time to entice the sponsors and donors in late October/early Nov to think about xmas present ideas .

Somehow ,Uma is not keen to take the children out, so we had a KFC feast with pizzas last night. Again, it was their first taste of KFC. I am afraid we overdid it a bit.We were all stuffed. We each managed 3-4 pieces of chicken with the local hot spicy chilli sauce. It was yum! But burnt a bigger hole in my budget than I have originally planned. To date, I have probably spent just under 500 sterling or thereabouts. Apart from the sewing machine, I have receipts for most of them. Uma needs to keep the receipt for warranty (5 years) purposes.We are planning to have a lunch for all the families whose children we hope to sponsor on next Saturday

For the first time, I am seeing rats and mice being chased and killed by the children. I think the unseasonal rain flooded the vermin's' hide out. They were all flushed out of their normal habitat. I even saw a cockroach as big as a child's palm. Its pretty gruesome to say the least. I have to say this has made this trip less pleasant The rain seems to have eased. We are now getting more sunny days.There is evidence too of the authorities attempting to clear the stinking rubbish away. Unfortunately, as soon as the roadside is clear, fresh mounds of rubbish are added overnight. That is because many people cannot afford to pay to have their rubbish collected. It is a constant headache for the authorities.