Nov 1, 2009
On Oct 27th, we flew to Pokhara to visit our Nepal House Kaski facility.
There we renewed acquaintance with Shiva & Basanta and met the other counsellors Veena and Laxmi (who was just recently hired).
The facility is in the Pokhara suburb of Kaski and although just off a main road, is down a lane and in an almost semi-rural setting with tranquil views of farm animals, fields being farmed, and an incredible view of the sacred mountain, Fish Tail. The play therapy & art therapy rooms are brightly painted and present a very cheery atmosphere for the children. We also met Leslie Chessick, from Vancouver, who has been in Pokhara for a couple of weeks and will be staying another 2 months to provide additional training for our counsellors.
The day after we went to NHK, the counsellors went to prepare (paint) the therapy room which they will be using at the AIDS facility to counsel children with AIDS.
We really enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing the facility now operational -what a great way to finish off our trek.
While everyone was busy painting, Marty and I were treated to a Nepali lunch at the home of our guide, Shiva Thapa, and his beautiful wife, Sharmila. (If anyone is planning on visiting Nepal, we would highly recommend Shiva and suggest you visit his website at http://www.dreamdiscoverytreks.com/)
The last couple of days we have been real tourists - riding on the back of an elephant in Royal Chitwan looking for rhinos, which is a bit safer than on foot, like a French group discovered. They came across a rhino and her baby and all 14 of them had to scramble up a tree. Our guide also calmly told us that 8 days earlier, one of his friends got trampled and killed by charging rhino.
I think our favourite part of the Chitwan tour was seeing how the Tharu people live. Their homes have thatched-roofs with walls constructed of elephant grass and covered with a mixture of mud and dung. In contrast we did notice that many have electricity and tv antennae's perching on their roofs.
All in all, we have had an amazing journey but we are ready to board our plane and head back home to family and friends, and huge green salads.
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Namaste Darcy and Marty
ReplyDeleteIt is great to read all your experience during your visit in Nepal.
Hope you already organize a slide show of the picture you took in Nepal. Thank you so much for choosing us to organize all the trek and tour and i really appreciate what you are doing for Nepal house. Keep it up.
All the best
with love and greetings
Shiva Bhakta Thapa and family