Me

You'd never guess this was n Nepal, right?  This is the only trendy club in the country.  It's in the tourist district, but tourists don't know about it.  It's members only and on Friday nights in particular it's full of all the richest Nepalese, most beautiful girls, and some of the expat community.  It's a totally different world from the streets below, and admittedly a nice escape. I somehow became buddies with the DJ when the club first openned, and now that all my expat friends are gone, I mainly go to see him these days.

Me and Ganesh at my favorite pizza restaurant.  Nepal doesn't have mush in terms of cuisine.  Basically your only option is called Dal Bhat.  As in lentil soup, and rice... It's good, and I haven't actually gotten sick of it... but maybe that's because I indulge in all the great cuisines available to me in the tourist district.

A new boy, Raju.  He refers to himslef as "Monkey Boy" in English!!

Me with Ganesh's family.  Me, his aunt, his cousin, his grandmother, and his grandfather.

Around Nepal

Pachupatinath is known to most for its burning of the dead, but the kids know it mostly for all the monkeys!

This seems to be a new feature of the political problems they have.  there was always a section of the main street that was the public trash dump of the tourist district.  This summer there were many public trash dumps blocking many streets, and I wonder if it was by design to control traffic routes.  Dunno, but this was right in the middle of the tourist area.

Ganesh

The prosthetic limb shop at HRDC.  I took Sabina to the doctor against Tej's will to find out what can be done for her immobile leg.  I was told by Tej it was polio, and that's she'd been to the doctor, but that wasn't enough information for me, and I figured it can never hurt to go again.  I had spent a fortune in rupees at a western clinic (on my own checkup), and the doctor there offered to help.  His father was the most famous orthopedist in Nepal and would see us for free.  Long story short, I learned everything I could ever wish to know about Sabina's incurable asymmetrical paralysis, and met this famous doctor and his partner.  They offered to show me around another hospital that they started and ran outside Kathmandu, HRDC.  HRDC is a great hospital that is of way higher standards than any other I'd been to in Nepal (including my expensive travelers clinic), and it was entirely dedicated to helping children from around Nepal for free.  It's great, and I have thought about how I can help them like I have YAUC.

Ganesh and his cousin went with me to HRDC  on our way to his family's home.

While in Ganesh's village, I was asked to teach English at the village school.  I admit I only did it begrudgingly.  It was an all-day affair and the real English teachers were very strict that I teach Nepali style ("repeat after me" for 45 minutes).  The kids totally FLIPPED though.  They went out of their minds that a white man was teaching at their school.  I felt bad that I really didn't want to be there, and admit to not looking forward to next time, when I will surely have to do it again.

Ganesh was waiting for me after school in this amazing tree in the middle of their yard.  You can't see it, but ALL th soil has eroded away from it's roots, so the thing is suspended about 6 feet above the ground by its own roots.

The Kids

Well, not really the kids, but these are the donations of clothes by my OTHER kids at the Japanese elementary schools.  May not look like much, but this is a TON of clothes and shoes!  All I could bring in my big suitcase were the shoes, and some socks!

There are the kids looking in on Avin picking out his new shoes!

Tej and Avin are psyched that they have such nice, well-made shoes now!

My freind, Ash, from Boston is Nepali, and was visiting his family in Kathmandu when I was there.  He came by YAUC with some other cousins and played with the kids, and helped them study one day.

Man, these kids are great dancers!!  Hahaha!  So cute how much they got into it while humming the "happy birthday" melody over and over!  This is the current maid's daughter, Manisha, and Laxmi in the background.

Menuka looking contemplative at Pachupatinath

Aisha

Tara

Menuka

Laxmi and Tara

Tara and Manisha

Tara

Parmila and Tara

Tara

Laxmi and Tara

Laxmi

Manisha

Manisha

Menuka, another volunteer, Sabina, Tej's brother, and Raju

Parmila, Avin, and Karnaraj

Menuka

Avin, Laxmi, and Tara

Laxmi

Sabina, and the burning area in the background

Sabina

Avin

Avin

Raju

Laxmi

Avin

Karnaraj

Sabina in Baktapur.  She's looking at something that was really surprising her.  It turns out she is from Baktapur (an ancient city and UNESCO World Heritage Site 1 hour outside Kathmandu).  She seldom returns, though it turns out she has family there.  She saw her brother!  He saw here too.  They talked briefly and she was very shy.  That's all I know, but it was weird.

Laxmi in our hired van to Baktapur

Manisha in my glasses

Tara, Sabina, Manisha, and Aisha

Saskia and Tej don't understand why we should keep the old laptop donated only a month earlier by Hannelore and Caroline.  Saskia went to far as to berate them  on her website for "donating trash".  Well, I could think of a lot of reasons not to throw it away... here's one of them.  An old computer with Windows 98 is better than no computer at all... I think the kids should be trained on computers since it is something that will certainly give them a HUGE leg up in the job market they will eventually enter.  I can guarantee you their peers have never even seen one, but by the time they are ready for a higher education or a job, only the lowest level jobs will be available to those without computer skills.  No doubt it's collecting dust under Tej's bed, instead.  I spent as many 30 minute computer sessions with Sabina as I could before I left.  I taught her how to turn it on/off, use the mouse, open MS Word, type, and save.  She was more excited about the music from Tetris, though.

Avin

Aisha

More dancing - Aisa

Another of my good friends, Anup, came by to play with the kids.  Parmila immediately took to him.

Raju (a.k.a. Monkey Boy)

Sapana

Parmila

Parmila

Parmila has begun to develop a great smile.  When she first came to YAUC 2 years ago she was nothing but an ugly crybaby that pissed and shat herself everyday.  Well, she still wets the bed, but she's getting a little better, and is actually turning into a cute kid.