Christmas in Kathmandu!

Steve's Blog - February 26th 

I will give you a quick recap of yesterday. We actually had sometime in the morning to go to the Thamel District of Kathmandu and walk around.  I was able to purchase treasure/trash for the grand kids. 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Disability New life Center and did a volunteer project in which the kids painted these little treasure boxes that all have locks. It was really fun watching these kids select their colors and the volunteers were frequently requested by the kids to draw trees, flowers, mountains or whatever they wanted.  I really pitied the kids who asked me to draw, as this is definitely not my area of expertise. However, having said, they seemed to be content with my sketchy drawing techniques. The kids painted these boxes for almost two hours and this one little girl must have changed the colors on top of her box eight times!  I was always refilling her paints for her. I became quite adept at avoiding painted fingers so my clothes would not look like the colors of the rainbow. 

Later, we handed our little gift boxes to the children that included stuffed animals, candy, wooden or basalt wood airplanes and other little gifts. Not really much in our world

but to these 30 kids it was like Christmas morning and just as loud with laughter and happiness - more than you could imagine! Rob Rose also brought clothes to hand out, but it took so long for the painting project that he will have to come back and pass them out later.  It is very sad to me that this is the last time we will see these kids.  They have asked all of us to please come back again. 

No visit would complete with (yes, once again!) mystery food, although this time I did recognize the mo mos which is a dumpling that has some type of sauce over them. They are very similar to pot stickers.

Mt. Everest

It is Sunday morning here and today is the day that we are taking our flight to Mt. Everest which should be an incredible experience. After to flight we will be visiting the Braille Library in Kathmandu. Later in the evening, we will be visiting the Nepali Cultural Dance Center. Which, of course, will provide me with yet another adventurous dining experience! I am pretty sure that pizza will not be on the menu.  I am really hoping that they have at least some type of curry. 

That's all I know right now but I will be emailing and talking to you soon. Tell everyone in the club I said hello.

P.S. I am sorry for all of the spelling errors but the spell checker is working sporadically as is the writer.

Steve Swank is member of the Rotary Club of Des Moines and is on a Rotary sponsored trip to the country of Nepal to view the projects that the club is currently supporting.