| 3. The Volunteering Experience | ||
| The
placement
where
I should collect my very first experience in working with
children
was the Light for Nepal
Children's Home.
It is situated on the outer rim of Kathmandu in relatively quiet
surroundings.
At first I was supposed to work near Bhaktapur, but this was changed by
the RCDP only the day I left the guesthouse. The orphanage was a nice and clean three-storey building, inhabited by 26 kids from 4 to 13 (+ 2 older boys, 16 and 18). In addition staff and a varying number of volunteers. At the time of my stay there were 3: Ayako from Japan, Shawn from Canada, and me. Work consisted of playing with the kids, helping with homework, looking after them in all sorts of ways in the house. Usually they are in school during daytime, but because of the Dashain festival they had school holidays during my stay, so when I didn't leave during the day to do some shopping or sightseeing I was always busy ;o) |
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 Much of the life took place on the roof top. You have a nice view from there into the surrounding hills (some of them around 2000m high; Kathmandu itself lies at 1200m) and of the outskirts of the northern city. Weather was fine most of the time, like a European summer, and so meals where served (and cooked) here... |
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 Three friends: Rita, Sita and Shanti |
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 During Dashain festival, every familiy, every house prides itself with having a goat as special meal. Before butchering it, it usually lives a short while with the people who were going to eat it. We had a really cute one even with us in the home. The next day I was up at the rooftop for morning tea (6.30 a.m.!), it was no more... |
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 Everyone happy ;o) Not all of the home's children are on this picture, because some do have relatives and are picked up by them for a couple of days homestay on occasion of the festival. |
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 One more day out: A trip to Kakani, northwest of Kathmandu, with a great mountain view. It's lunch time, and the food we brought with us is distributed. |
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 One last group picture with the whole wild bunch! In fact, the children were really wild sometimes, but most of all very cute and very nice. It was real fun being together with them, even for me, who had very little experience with kids and none at all with any kind of educational work. So for all of you who are interested in doing something the like: I can only recommend it! |
