A clown brought lots of laughter to Balmandir few weeks ago! Now two volunteers have come to teach some aerial acrobatics! We only need to include a tiger or an elephant in our farm and we will be able to call it Balmandir Circus.
Clown Magi came to bring laughter and ballons to shelter Bhimphedi. Thank you very much!Group photo with swords and other artifacts made of balloons could only inflate the Clown Magi.
Victor and Mery Ann, volunteers from Amics del Nepal in the Youth Project:
After carrying for over a month a heavy piece of clothes (of the Association Gente Colgada) in the backpack from Barcelona via India and Kathmandu, we were finally able to hang it from a tree so the children could enjoy this activity. Well, actually older kids where the ones who hanged it because they have an incredible ability to climb anywhere.
Ashok, the most skillful guy climbing trees, did not take even a second to have hung the clothes.
Everyone was very excited to start with the activity. We started with a small warm-up: running, jumping, moving the body a little bit, to get ready to go up! First simple ascension: girls did it great, big kids didn’t follow any advice but went up by muscle. Small didn’t go much up.
We followed some inverted figures, so they could see the world upside down.
We did some demonstration of some more complicated figures: ups, downs, all where freezed (which it’s not so easy… because they are all the time moving) with open mouth!
No laugh is as fun and contagious as Bhishow’s.
We repeated the activity another day but the rain didn’t allow us to do so much. Now we have to go back to Kathmandu to continue with the Youth Project before heading to India, but we are leaving a piece of clothes so that children can continue playing or using it as a swing.
Time for free game. The game ends when the clothes are broken or one of the kids end up on the floor crying.
Thanks to Anna and Dani your welcome to Bhimphedi, tanks to Amics del Nepal to engage us to their projects and the Association Gente Colgada for giving us the huge piece of clothes for acrobatics that is being so useful all these months in Nepal and India.
On top of the acrobatics and gymkhana, Meri Ann and Víctor have worked on other tasks like fixing the entrance, putting two posts to play football or take the kids to the river.
Fixing the entrance of the Children’s Home.Victor, with the “help” of Manoj, preparing a soccer post for the new goals.
Today is Sunday, working day in Nepal, but today no class. Children have been already 6 days without school, this is normal here, very often there is no class and no one really knows why. But today we do know the reason; the Nepali government has finally approved the new constitution. More than seven years ago they already were talking about it… maybe this time the celebration was really justified.
Taking advantage of the visit of Víctor, MeryAnn and Anna, we have been able to organize a gymkhana that has kept us very busy all the morning.
All Balmandir children were distributed into the four teams and participated with enthusiasm in the 12 trials and challenges that we proposed. It was very cool to see everyone so engaged.
The gymkhana was organized around a globe and four continents: America, Europe, Africa, Asia-Oceania (we didn’t have enough staff to have all continents separated). Each team was given with a card with the name of a city or country. The first they had to do was to look for the city or country in the globe and find out in what continent it was located. In that point all the volunteers were astonished! They did not know where anything was located, “Is Africa in Paris?” “Sydney in Europe?” My god! Maybe because of the many school holidays they have not had time to study geography?
Once they knew in what continent was their city or country located, they had to go find the volunteer representing that continent (we were distributed in the garden with a sign indicating which continent each of us represented): Mery was Africa, Dani was Europe; Víctor was America and Anna was Asia-Oceania. There we would give them a challenge, and once done, they would be given with a score and a new country or city name. Then they would return to the globe to find out what the next continent to visit was.
All running and jumping, shouting and laughing, going from continent to continent, visiting in each step the globe, guarded by the director of the center. They had to do an obstacle race, and build a human tower, a pile of 20 stones, transport water hopping, knitting and even they had to make a collage. And as a final challenge they had to build a catapult and see who could throw a ball farther.
Only two members of the group are allowed to touch the floor.But it doesn’t look so difficult task for this team.Here they are!This is Africa.In America the teams had to pass a water balloon from as far as possible.In America Victor was managing the challenges is enjoying even more than the kids.Kul is not bored either…Basu in another of the challenges of America.They had to make a collage as well.
Dani explaining one of the challenges in Europe.Here they had to score in a basket. This team scored from 8 meters.Rojan giving instructions to his blind team.The small genius Sumit with his two helpers, Ramesh and Ashish, building an small catapult.The small catapult made by Sumit has created some expectation. Will it work?Sumit doesn’t look worried. He knows it will work although everyone thinks it’s too small.But Lav is pretty skilled too. And his team will not be left behind.Here Ram Raj and Rojan are ready to shot the ball with the catapult designed by Lav.Wow
The results of all these challenges were recorded. In the afternoon we made the recount and in the evening we celebrated the awards ceremony. As we were very happy with their involvement and participation, we awarded them with a hat with solarlight, and all the winners got a kit-kat chocolate. The second, third and fourth got a small prize as well, a chocolate bar with a size according with the position they scored.
In the evening everyone is waiting for the results.And the winners are… the team of Sanu and Lav!But it doesn’t matter much, because the chocolates are soon finished, and what is left is the prize we gave to all the kids: the solar caps! New trend in Bhimphedi.
We hope they learned a little bit of geography with this activity, otherwise at least we’ve had loads of fun! And they all have these solar hats, that some of them they don’t take out even when they go to sleep.
Almost every week we visit the Bhimphedi Health Center or Hospital of Hetauda (the nearest town from Bhimphedi, just over an hour by bus). But when we need to make something more than a X-Ray then going Hetauda it can only make you scared… So sometimes we have to go with a child to Kathmandu where you can find more hospitals and make more tests.
This time we went with Arati (don’t worry, no big problem), but do not think the girl was scared or worried about having to go to hospital. On the contrary, it was the opportunity to visit Kathmandu for the first time in her life! See all those places and monuments that come to school books and reconnect with many brothers and sisters who live in Kathmandu once they left the Bhimphedi Children’s Home.
Arati looking at the Bagmati river, a holy place called Pashupatinath, where the hinduists burn the bodies of the dead (at the background the smoke of the cremations can be seen).Arati walking among the temples of Pashupatinath.Meeting with Naresh, one of the youth who grew up in our Children’s Home. Now he is working in this restaurant, la Casita de Boudhanath as a cook. He is also studding Management in a college and living in a room with other two youth that came from our Children’s Home too.Visit to the Patan Children’s Home where two girls that had grown up in Bhimphedi Children’s Home now live.Arati puting a bracelet to Pemba, one of the youth that grew up in Bhimphedi and now is studing in a college in Kathmandú. Pemba now is partaking in one of the projects of Amics del Nepal that aims to bring a drama show in a very affected areas by the earthquake.We also met with many other volunteers of Amics del Nepal who are working in many other projects. In this photo you can see Neus, a volunteer who has been doing a great job supporting Amor Boys Children’s Home and Florida School in Mahendranagar.We visited Dharahara, the tower that collapsed in the last earthquake (and had already collapsed and rebuilded 80 years ago). Madan, a youth who left Bhimphedi Children’s Home some years ago came with us.On the rooftop of Geeta’s family house, where we stayed in Kathmandu. Geeta is the Amics del Nepal accountant, and she and her family are just wonderful.We also met Ashok, the only kid who left the Children’s Home this year. Nowadays he is taking care of a building in Kathmandu (and for that he has a room and salary), he studies in college, he is doing a cooking course and making loads of new friends.Ashok in the cooking class in Cocina Mitho Chha.On 20th September Ashok worked in the parliament compound. An historical date that he lived near the main characters of it.
Bhimsen is the Hindu god of commerce and industry, especially revered mainly by Newaríes.
Bhimsen Jatra is held every August / September In Bhimphedi, it is the festival of the village. It is just one day but for locals is the event of the year. In the morning they make an offering to Bhimsen in the Temple of the main street, many families sacrifice a cock that they will after eat. This main street is crowded all the day, unlike the calm of any other day of the year. Some clothing stalls, balloon sellers and the usual goodies and ice cream vendors appear.
At night there is a DJ for the young people, which is quite surprising, because it is very similar to any disco we know in Europe. Young people tell us excited that last year lasted an hour, and this year will last two. They also organize a Bingo! Very slow in our opinion (the 15 minutes between the numbers is long …) but again the locals enjoy it as children.
Finally people carries the “Rath” (a figure of the god Bhimsen) on the shoulders. anyone who wants to carry it, surrounded by men with torches shouting “Lio Lio Ha !! Ha !! Payo Payo Ha !! Ha !!” whose translation (language Newari not Nepali) we have not been able to get.
Maybe you wondered, does Bhimphedi has something to do with Bhimsen? Well, yes. “Bhim” comes from Bhimsen, and “Phedi” refers to “plain at the foot of the mountains”. In Bhimphedi we are in a valley in the first mountain range (Himal) that separates the plain (Terai) and the huge Himalayas.
What do two Nepalis, a Catalan and four Basques do at 4 in the morning in a remote valley of Nepal?
We have a long walk up to Damar, where we are supposed to pick up our Bufala (bhaisi) and its male baby. It is clear, which makes the climb more bearable… and in Damar we are welcomed with a delicious tea, made with fresh buffalo milk.
Soon it appears… here begins the most interesting part of the morning: bring them down throw the long way to Bhimphedi without hurting them or hurting ourselves. Two hours later we arrive to Balmandir where children start shouting and running excited all around. They accompany them to their new home… and hug and squeeze the new baby of the family.
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These past weeks we have been involved in preparing the stable for buffaloes and goats (bakhara in Nepali). The first thing we had to do was emptying the space that we would use as stable as it was full of wooden beams. Some of them were very long and heavy so we had to ask for help from prison workers. After Dani visited the prison at least ten times to ask for help, they finally came…
Two weeks later when the place was finally empty, we started with the reparations… and it seemed easy at first: one of the beams was broken, one of the pillars completely rotten, when replacing this one we had to move the one next to it, the metal sheet that made the back wall was set with the ripple backwards so that the water came inside, the roof needed fixes, making the door was not easy, we put an old unusable gate as part of the wall, we put six pillars to tie the buffaloes, a layer of concrete to smooth the floor inside and give inclination… Gradually the stable was taking shape. Meanwhile we also made a small extension to settle there the goats (previously we had ducks and chickens, and a dog with three puppies. This children’s home is becoming a farm!).
On the other hand, goats and buffaloes need grass, plenty of grass… so we used a part of the garden to plant grass: First we brought the ox prepare the land, then we removed all the remaining grasses and plants, and then we put the seeds. But then, to separate the area of grass from the garden area we needed a fence… so what better than to build it ourselves! We will leave this story for a future post …
So we finally have buffaloes in our farm !!
Nerea y Mikel
Long stay volunteers of Amics del Nepal for the Chindren’s Home of Bhimphedi and the program of reconstruction and improvement of the affected houses by the earthquake.
P.S. Did we tell you that Ricardo and Jorge came from Kathmandu the day before yesterday and brought 4 rabbits? Yes. In Balmandir we have also rabbits.
Beli is one of the wonderful caregivers (didis) of the children’s home. She, with Maya, is the “mother” of the 28 children living in the home. And for those who have children already know it is not easy work at all, even for those who have only one son. Everyone loves them and they never forget anyone nor anything. They cook, take care of the children, clean the clothes of small children, heal them when they are injured (every five minutes), help in the garden, watch if the kids have the necessary school supplies… They even find time to take care of the volunteers (if any of them leaves the dirty clothes unwatched for a second didis will wash them)…
Beli stays most of the nights to sleep in the center to take care of children and girls. But she also has her own family. The house where Beli’s family was staying was two stories made of stone, mud and wood; a beautiful building, but could not resist the first earthquake.
Amics del Nepal, after the earthquake, started doing emergency campaigns such as distributing tents. But we were keeping in mind that we should develop a project to improve permanent housing. Soon we will explain how the project is progressing on a new post.
But Beli, decided to act quickly in order to have a house where her two sons could stay in the rainy season. So soon we advanced the necessary money, and with the volunteer help of some of the older children of the children’s home and the relatives of Beli and two masonries (mistris) and we started to build the new house.
Not much after a month, just before the monsoons arrived, the house was ready. And if you already think it’s a big thing, it’s still more surprising for people who knows Nepal: One day you can not work because an old man from Chabeli died, and the day after it you can not work, if you don’t want to call the bad luck. Another day, before putting the stones in the foundation, it should be a religious ceremony. Just after putting the roof, it should be another ceremony. And after the ceremony, Beli had to organize a dinner to invite her relatives and employees. But in that dinner, one of the workers, who was responsible of the cement mixture (without machine, of course) drank too much alcohol (roksi) and fall down and injured his eye… The next day the mixture could not be made, so it was not possible to work. “But he says that tomorrow will come.” Beli told us laughing. A week later finally we could resume construction.
Surely something will must be done to improve her the house, once the Amics del Nepal architectural project starts, but there are other houses made like this and endured the earthquakes. So Beli is very happy to have own new house! where her children can live comfortably protected from the heavy rains of the monsoons.
Thanks to all you who make it possible, both in our country and Nepal.
Ricardo, a member of the board of Friends of Nepal and regular in Bhimphedi volunteer has returned to Nepal for the fifth consecutive year. Ricardo is the creator of TaperNepal project, in which resources for the Children’s Home of Bhimphedi are collected through selling handicrafts made in Nepal.
This year Ricardo has come from India where he was doing a course related on his profession: Yoga trainer. But he is also a gardener by profession, which has been extremely useful in Bhimphedi every time he has come. Thanks to his energy, good mood, willingness to work, his knowledge and he himself being a handyman, every time he comes to the home things that seemed impossible are achieved.
This year I went to pick him up in the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the country’s only international airport, located in Kathmandu. And as you might expect, Nepal never fails to surprise you. While I was waiting, watching if he appeared down the hall, suddenly a monkey pops! There are monkeys all over the city (the rooftops, on the millions cables hanging on the streets, temples…) but inside the airport?
It was not a little monkey, but from behind the glass everyone was watching him with a smile. Suddenly, it jumps up and hangs on the glass, and then it lands on the floor near all the people with amazing ease and tranquility. People are surprised but not get so nervous. It goes next a man who is sitting. He takes a bottle of Fanta beside his bench… he looks it without much unease… the monkey looks menacing to him blowing. But the man ignores it, and the monkey sits facing his prize. Suddenly he bites the bottle and the drink jumps pressed by the pressure. The man now runs. The monkey knows what it is doing, is not the first time… it slowly drinks its Fanta and doesn’t look up and go till the drink is over. Ricardo finally arrives. This country is great. A disaster in many ways… but great.
Ricardo:
Back to Bhimphedi for fourth summer consecutively. This year was more necessary than ever to come to help; Because of the earthquake, for the kids, for Dani… for Nepal.
And to my delight, the Children’s Home is more beautiful than ever and full of life. The garden has lots of flowers, there is a shelter with chicken and ducks, the kitchen-garden is well maintained and Kali (the dog of the house) is about to give birth. Balmandir overflows life.
Just when I enter to Balmandir, Maya comes running to put a “tika” (red dot on the forehead). Maya is a wonderful “didi” (elder sister). I visit the orphanage and I see that the workshop I left last year with all the tools of the house organized is not there. Well… then I’ll have to do it again. Fortunately Kul has taken care of almost all the tools so, we just have to find a new place for them (because the older place is not so good after the earthquake).
Sort, clean, burn what is not worth… Next morning we have already finished the task and even I’d time to organize one room for me. Then Kul and I made an inventory of what we have and what we need, one of these days we will go to Hetauda to buy and improve our tool collection, thanks to the money collected by TaperNepal of Bilbao and Zaragoza.
Manoj with a mustache made of corn’s fair.On their way to the river to have a bath.Working in the kitchen garden.A wonderful International Team, from left to right: Mikel, Daniel, Anish, Ricardo and Kul.
Many people have made possible that I can go back, again, to be with these kids and enjoy helping in Nepal. Thanks to everyone!
Some of the children in the children’s home have some members of their own family out of the house. Examples of this fact are two of the girls of the children’s home, that even though their family situation does not allow them to live permanently with them, we do promote that they stay as much time as possible during the holidays, so the relationship with them becomes strong.
So these days we have brought Sita and Binita to their home towns, a good excuse for a trip for the other girls too, to visit new places.
On Saturday we went to Binita’s father house. To get there we had to take a bus and then request a truck driver to take us in the cabin with him. And slowly, uphill, we arrived in her village, located near Daman, over 2,000 meters of altitude.
Visiting a budhist monastery near Binita’s father house.
Drinking milk tea in Binita’s father’s home after the earthquake.
Enjoying in the playground of the school where Binita studied class 1, seven years ago when she still was not in the Children’s Home.
On Sunday however we went to the plains beyond Hetauda (Terai) to Sita mother’s house (re-married after the father of Sita killed).
With Sita’s family.
All girls and staff spent a really good time in these new surroundings for a couple of days. Although we returned a little sad to leave two girls in their house for a few days, soon they will return to continue the activities that we have planned in the children’s home.
These days are holidays in Bhimphedi. The government school is closed for the rainy season, because for children who come from the mountains and have to cross the river while coming would be difficult to get to school. Thus, we have used this time to divide the 28 girls and boys from the home into four groups, each group representing an imaginary country they have invented themselves. Over the coming months the groups face different tests, games, sports competitions, artistic activities … where they get different scores.
Until now they have designed the flag of the country, have competed in badminton and football and created the imaginary map of their country (with different regions, towns, rivers … all with imaginary names). We have programmed already many other activities for next days: a origami contest (creating paper figures), making a movie, creating a video using “stop motion”, building table games, and telling a story using shadows. Everyone is very excited! And so all the staff members are!
Flags of two of the imaginary countries of two of the teams, with the current scoring.Flags and scoring of the other two teams.
Map of the Dragon imaginary country.
Preparing the court for the badminton competition.First match of the badminton competition between Jay and Ashok.Binita’s and Sita’s match caught the attention of many of the kids of the Children’s Home.
Some of the kids looking at the table of the badminton competition with the scores of the disputed matches.
We will keep you posted of how the various activities evolve, and you will see the results of some of these works! The fun starts!
Since I arrived to Bhimphedi, three and a half months ago, until two weeks ago I hadn’t seen how a normal school day is for our kids. Just when I arrived big ones where starting final exams and I helped small children to prepare their exams that started one week after. After that, they had holidays that were supposed to last less than one month, but finally lasted more than two months. So I was asking myself if I would experience how is like the life of these kids when they go to school. As you can read in our last post, finally the schools have started but during these free weeks we have been using our time in different things.
The orphanage has a very big compound with lots of potentials and during these holidays we have been working to improve the center. When we are only two working in the house things evolve at a very slow pace, but when we are thirty we easily finish things that at the beginning seemed impossible to do. And still we have had lots of time to play to old and new games.
First game of Chinese Checkers in Balmandir
During the holidays, we have adopted a new pet in Balmandir. We found an owl without mother and the children have been taking good care of him, and even now that he is able to fly free, it comes back when it’s hungry.
When I arrived here already there was the idea of getting a sewing machine, because very often the kids had to bring the clothes to the tailor and they wanted to improve the bed sheets and curtains… But it’s not very useful to have a sewing machine if you don’t know how to use it. So Kush give the idea to send some interested kid to do classes with any of the tailors of the village. So Binita, Sita and myself started a course without knowing anything, but after making almost 30 pieces of clothes now we are “experts” according to Binita’s point of view.
On top of having fun for the long earthquake holidays, the girls have got an interesting skill that may be useful for them in the future.
Binita drawing on the clothes before cutting.Urmila, the sewing teacher, shows to Binita how to do a difficult step.Sita making a cushion.Basu dressed with the first pieces of clothes made by Binita.
After the earthquake the volunteers had to change our headquarters, but in the new room we had all the materials, clothes and tools in boxes on the floor. So we needed a place to put all this things. After asking prices of furniture we decided it was too expensive and we came with a great idea: why not to make our own furniture? Quickly Love, one of the most active kids of Balmandir, made of this project his biggest priority, and he didn’t stopped till he had very nice shelves. This is what we can call “learning by doing!”
And this has been only the beginning, because after finishing it he continued reappearing tables and benches.
I believe it’s very important to promote the interests of the kids, because it keeps them active and learning new usefull skills for their future.
