Written by Joana Martínez, Bhimphedi’s children home volunteer
It´s been almost a month since I arrived to Balmandir and the kids started school after the April holidays. Here time flies! We all have started working with the new school year. With the younger ones in Balmandir (or not that young anymore…!), we have decided to go deep into the mysterious and unknown world of the dinosaurs. During few days the kids have discovered who those giant reptiles were: how they lived, what they were eating, which was their habitat, the different kinds and species that existed, the huge amount of years that have passed since they lived in our planet and why they were gone for good. We have colored masks of the scary Tyrannosaurus Rex, classified some of the best known dinosaur species, found out the meaning of several complicated concepts and recreated images of our favorite ones.
Kids painting their masksSanta and BIshow cutting their Tyrannosaurus RexAnd here they are, our frightening dinosaurs!
However… after bringing to an end all the activities we have an undeniable winner concerning the Jurassic world: Patchi, the adventurer triceratops who has won most of Balmandir children´s hearts over! If one walks around the kids rooms and common areas it’s hard to not to find hanging on the wall some drawing related to this friendly dinosaur, the main character of the documentary “Walking with dinosaurs”, such a hero to our explorers!
As we loved making small scientific and historical findings we decided to install a timeline in the study room in order to place all the things that children will learn: how the planets appear, which animals are the most ancient of the Earth, how the first humans were… But that’s for sure; Patchi and their companions will always hold an honorary place!
The timeline in the study room wallThe dinosaur cornerSome of the kids work and… Patchi!
I have arrived to Nepal with the thrill of returning to a country that fascinated me. Newly arrived to Kathmandu I got some good news: I will share the trip to Bhimphedi with Dani (the coordinator of the children’s Home), Sujan (a kid who is in Katmandú for a dentist visit), Sarita, Susmita, Purnima and Samir.
Dani and Sujan already know well the way. so we follow them with our eyes and steps. The rest of us we will be in Bhimphedi for first time.
I’m happy to share the first moments with Sarita, Susmita, Purnima and Samir. waiting for the Jeep, a mango Juice, listening to them singing songs in the Jeep on the way to a beautiful but still unknown valley.
We arrived after three and a half hours, it felt short to me despite the warmth and the small space that we, 13 people, were sharing.
Just arrived to Bhimphedi, we were curious and anxious. We quickly felt the warm welcome and the joy on the air. We ate the dhalbat and went to sleep, looking forward to the coming brand new day to discover the place where we were and, the place that will be the new home and the family of the Fantastic 4.
The girls and Samir eating a snack with Kali and didi Maya.Sarita and Purnima with Kush, getting to know the buffaloes.Samir having fun with Kali and Tate.Sarita and Purnima playing at the slider.
Saturday, 6:30 AM: POM! POM! One of the best awakenings. I opened the door and I see Samir, Sarita, Susmita, Purnima with Dani giving me a Suba Prabat (Good Morning in nepali) and an invitation to go for a stroll around Balmandir… impossible to reject!
“Wooow! We are surrounded by mountains”, we strolled watching the buffaloes, the kids, the garden, the chicks… and on that ride we started knowing everyone; after just being able to sense their faces the previous night we finally could see them with the morning light.
A few days later here they are: playing in the slide and enjoying. They have already started at school, they work hard during the study time and they have their own favorite corners in the children’s home. They also help to prepare the snack on Saturday, they dance and sing in this new home with our new family here in Balmandir… and we’ll keep on walking!
Purnima and Sarita with their new raincoats.Susmita, Purnima and Sarita ready for school.Sarita and Susmita made some nice earrings with paperclips for me.Samir playing guitar with Bishnu.The girls after having a good shower.
The course is about to finish! On Monday, March 14th finals start in high school. And ten days later begin tests in elementary school. Sure, as the big brothers already are on holiday they will help small to prepare for exams.
This month when children finish their homework, they study. When they know a topic, they ask me to ask them to ensure they are able to repeat exactly what the book says. They are experts at memorizing, even things that have no idea they mean.
Exams schedule
Ashish and Ramesh studying fifth course, if they pass the course they will study in public school next year. Although not entirely clear where the classes will be done because it is intended to demolish the building that was hit by the recent earthquake, to build a new school.
The smallest studying and doing homeworkAshish studying for his exams
April 1st is the last day of exams for children, and then have a few weeks of holidays, where we’ll have big fun: celebrate the Nepalese new year, we will receive new volunteers, we’ll play new games that these volunteers will bring us, receive new brothers and we bid farewell to the older brothers who finish ESO this year.
For guys who finish ESO, Kul, Ashok, Jai and Sanu, these are very important dates as they will examine from the SLC (School Leaving Certificate) in Hetauda. These tests decide whether they can study high school or choose between vocational training or work. But these are also very important dates to them so that once completed these tests they will leave the shelter where they have grown for many years and begin a new stage in Kathmandu, Hetauda or elsewhere where they choose to study or work.
From the left to the right: Jai, Ashok, Kul and Sanu , are the 4 boys who will leave this year.
It is something that happens every year, but neither they nor we can avoid us to feel sadness when we think we leave the place and the family that has been living since childhood. But we will follow them closely, and certainly go very well.
Written by Isabel Valero, Bhimphedi Children Home volunteer
The big ones are the first to begin the exams in less than one week. To study it takes a lot of energy, so we came to mind to make a special meal. We know that children love eating, and if it is the food that they have cooked, better!
So, on Wednesday was holiday because of the Sherpa New Year Eve, and to make the most of the day we proposed the smallest to cook for everyone! One of the kids, Som, had cooked a very good pie for volunteers, and we encourage them to repeat the experience this time for all the children and staff.
A second after the proposal, children were already discussing which specialty prepare and telling us what ingredients we should buy.
So Dani and me with the two most excited children (Som and Santa) went to buy the ingredients that we hadn’t in the shelter:
3kg of meat
5kg flour
2kg cabbage
1 kg of eggplant
We called this dish as “homemade pasty” as Balmandir style.
Here you have the video explaining step by step the procedure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23r33cJ4WZE
Mix the flour with water and salt; and mix them together.
When they were preparing the dough they came to mind that they could accompanied the pasty with a tasty tomato sauce! So we had to return to the shop to buy three kilos of tomatoes.
1. Mix the flour with water and salt; and mix them together.2. Cut the vegetables3. Mix the vegetables and meat4. Flatten the dough aut the filling inside the pasty.5. Fry the pasty and remove when it get toast
Chopped tomatoes, a little cabbage, spices, chicken bones; all cooked in the fire to make a delicious sauce. And at two o’clock in the afternoon it was all ready to serve and eat!
ENJOY YOUR MEAL!
And after the meal, and again have energy to study for exams; come on! making the last effort of the year!
Written by Isabel Valero, Bhimphedi Children Home volunteer.
Children in Balmandir had already been warning some days ago that sports days approached, they went to play volleyball or jogging in the evenings when they returned from school, but I never thought this sport event was in the most stylish Olympics.
The last Friday and Saturday there was only a feeling of sport competitions. It was an annual event organized by the Sport district council. It was the first qualifying round of this event among the various institutes across the country. Bhimphedi was one of its four district in Makawampur. 10 different schools participated in Bhimphedi (24 possible schools that are located in 10 different towns).
On Friday there were no classes, and everyone was preparing to go for a run, jump, throw the javelin or playing volleyball. You were on the main street and all you saw was a lot of young people dressed in sports equipment ready and waiting for the moment they had to compete.
Even didis and MAnoj didn’t want to miss the competitions!
The event began on Friday at 11 am with a parade of all schools with their representative flags. They were competing until six in the afternoon. They started with the 100m and 1200m races, after the long jump, relay race, shot put, javelin and volleyball matches.
10 school prepared to compete in a queueready for the competitions!
Some children in the shelter are qualified for the next phase: Saran was first in the 100m race, Love in the shot put and Sita and Aarati were classified in relay race . Now they have to wait 10 days to go and compete the final in Hetauda. That exciting! If they won in Hetauda, they should go to the regional competition in Chitwan, and then to the national competition in Kathmandu, but there’s high level and has been classified now is a great prize!
On Friday afternoon and Saturday morning there was only volleyball matches. The place chosen was the excellent sports field in Balmandir! So around noon everything was already finished, and as a gift for the shelter to cede space, gave us the sticks, volleyball net and ball for practice for next year.
The first volleyball match in Balmandir fieldEveryone expectant looking at the volleyball match
After a half day of sport, everything returned to normal and the streets and Balmandir already returned to be with the family environment again.
Here you never know what will happen the next day, what will be the next thing happens in Bhipmhedi?
In April we started English classes for high school students in the public school in Bhimphedi. The only specialty that is offered in school is “education” for those boys and girls who want to become teachers, specialty in English.
Most of these students do not speak English. And they have studied in a model school where they are learning by rote, where teachers used physical punishment, lack of punctuality and determination (not a day that all school teachers appear in class). So, we thought that if we provided some different classes, where they could improve their English (to be taught in a few years) might be interesting to think how they want to teach in the future.
The classes are presented as follows: “The classes are completely optional, and do not put any note or give any certificate. Come only if you are interested in learning, do not have to pay anything, nor get teachers paid. But teachers will come every day to class, so all we ask is that you come every day and you may be punctual.”
Nerea and some of the students in the english classSome of the English students
Since the first week we saw that these instructions were not as easy to follow for these future teachers… Every day, a different number of students, and every day there were and reappeared old who had not come the day before. Why? “Big problem at home”.
So we gradually reducing the number of students, thinking that if they saw that we were strict, they would be responsible. But eventually only one student has survived. But what a wonderful student! Just for him it is worth all the work.
Prabhat comes every morning at 9:30 at the shelter, once finished high school classes (which hopefully are 6 to 9 am). When he is with us he practices English grammar, reads Harry Potter in English, learns typing or using the computer.
Prabhat and Isabel doing an English class in Balmandir
In addition to strengthen this guy, we decided to sign him for teaching us help small children at the shelter. So he can gain experience and earn some money.
There can be no other way to end this post by thanking the wonderful volunteers who have been taking these classes in high school: Laura Conde, Nerea Guezuraga and Isabel Valero! Thank you and thank you!
I leave you with the first video of Prabhat directed by Sergio Rodríguezm an original story that Prabhat has prepared in class! The video has the option to add subtitles in English to follow better the story:
The cultural activity in Bhimphedi is, almost in its totality, about traditional celebrations (some Hindus, some Buddhists) of the different casts who live in the different neighborhoods of the village: the Tamangs (mongols who are mainly agricultures), the Newars (the traders), the Chhetri y Brahaman (religious and farmers), the Praja (woodcutters)…
Some of the young people of the village have found, though, a huge common passion that makes them be united and work hard to improve day after day: the dance! with a lot of influence from Bolliwood. Some of these boys started a very active group called “Bhimphedi Guys”. They organize daily dance classes (morning and evening). Often, you can find them around the village shooting videoclips.
Leaded by Nirmal (one of the boys of the village that some time ago won in a national channel dance show), this team has collaborated with the Children’s Home in many occasions. The children of the Home have partaken in the dancing classes and some videoclips, even in some of the dancing tournaments the Bhimphedi Guys have organized in the village. This group of dancers created a videoclip for Mònica Sans (Singer and responsible of the AWASUKA project and the Bhimphedi Children’s Home in the Amics del Nepal Board).
Last Sunday, the Bhimphedi Guys recorded a new dance videoclip. Many of the scenes were in the children’s home, with the kids, staff and volunteers of the center as audience. You can already see the result:
One of the scenes of the new videoclip of Bhimphedi Guys, recorded in the Bhimphedi Children’s Home.The older children and the staff looking at the shooting from the distance.
After years of practice, many of the children of the home love to dance, they don’t do it bad at all. They don’t miss any opportunity to use their dancing skills, for example when Sara and Xavi came to Bhimphedi. These two wonderful volunteers of Amics del Nepal, who apart from recording for AWASUKA project, they visited us to the children’s home and we enjoyed with them for few days. Thank you for coming Xavi and Sara, thank you for making us the Bolliwood dance workshop!
Sara and Xavi recording for AWASUKA project.Sara teaching one Bolliwood choreography to three of the girls of the Children’s Home.And Valeria also joined to the dancing workshop.
In the Children’s Home we have some books: novels, stories and comics. But it is very unusual to see a kid reading any of these books. However, it is quite common to see a kid with the school bookd memorizing them. It is as if they were training for playing a Trivial tournament. Reading anything that does not prepare them for it, it’s considered “wasting time”. It is absolutely essential here to know who named the Pacific Ocean; or which is the lake located in the highest altitude; or the exact high of the mount Everest.
Nepalese use the same word for “to read” and “to study”: parnu (पढ्न). The number of literate people has increased a lot in the last ten years. But the culture of reading for pleasure is not widespread yet.
A few months ago Nerea Guezuraga started an activity with the secondary level kids of the Children’s Home to promote reading and to improve their English level. Every evening, after dinner, from 7 to 7:30, we have met in a room all together and listened a couple of pages of the first book of Harry Potter, read by the actor Steven Fry. In the most interesting or complicated passages, we stopped the recording and by turns a kid re-read the passage, and discussed it.
For months we have had this good habit. At first the children were a little bit reluctant, but towards the end of the book, the kids used to came quickly after dinner to the reading room. Many days requesting to read an extra page.
Finally, Sunday we finished “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”!
Tuesday is holiday: Sonam Losar (Tamang cast New Year), so we decide to project the film of the book we havejust finished reading. In this way we celebrate the first book of over a hundred pages all these children have read!
Within two months the children have to make the final exams. Once finished, we will begin the second book, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” Until then, children will keep training to be the best Trivial players!
In Bhimphedi there is a public school that offers classes from first grade to tenth. And there is also a small community school that offers from kinder-garden till fifth grade.
We take the kids of the children’s home to the community school until it is possible, because the number of students per class is lower, and they make more classes in English and mainly because classes are much more regular.
Each year, the community school organizes at the end of the term a trip for children in fifth class, and therefore their last term in the community school. The day before, all children in fifth class and teachers prepared everything for the trip: they bought food and cooked everything can be prepared the day before and put the sound system to charge, nothing else needed.
The program was simple: the bus reserved for the occasion, go to Hetauda and visited three different places: first a temple (Kusmanda Sarobar), then another temple used as picnic place (Banaskhandi) and finally a children’s park (Puspalal Park)! Everyone is very excited!
In the morning the two kids from the children’s home who study in fifth grade woke up very early and got ready to go to town! At 07:40 they were already in school. But teachers send them back home and tell them to return once they have eaten dalbhat. Finally at 9:30 we left to Hetauda!
The first stop, Kusmanda Sarobar, is a curious temple in the middle of the river bed. Around the temple there are 108 cow heads shaped fountains. 108 is an auspicious number in Hinduism and Buddhism. Then we put them all a “tica”. And everybody made a wish to the ear of a small metal cow. And ready, we return to the bus to go to the next stop!
In the right Ramesh and Ashish, the two kids of fifth grade from the children’s home. Next to them two of the teachers of the community school, Manisha and Ranjita. In the left, I, Daniel, the coordinator of the children’s home.
How easy! how simple! A small temple surrounded by a lot of fountains. An old man placing a colored dot on the forehead. A small metall figure and all students and teachers, delighted and happy! On the countrary spanish children can be bored visiting even the Alahambra…
But then things get interesting. To go to the next stop, we have to cross the river, and the bridge is under construction, so the driver without hesitation went through the river! The water enters through the door of the bus, but no problem, we move forward. This really has been exciting, and without planning, as the best things in Nepal.
The next place to visit, Banaskhandi, is a forest where there are several temples and some shelters for picnic. We spent there five hours. Eating, dancing, singing and taking pictures next to the temples. Many other groups of children and not so young also where doing the same.
When I say picnic, do not think of snacks of bread, no! They make a fire on the ground for rice, another for preparing fried vegetables and other to prepare the chicken (which in many cases chop in that moment. Change the environment, but not the menu.
The shelter on the left side is a temple. The shelter on the right side is to do the picnic. In the background you can see some teachers and students preparing the meal. Like these two shelters there were many all over the place, where other groups were also celebrating.
When it’s 4 o’clock, and I think it’s time to go home, then in a flash, they pick up everything and return to the bus to go to the children’s park. The bus driver, who had also thought we were about to go back home, complains that the bus was only booked till 4pm. But despite complaining, he smiles and drives to the Puspalal Park.
When we arrived at the “children’s park” I understand why we go so late. It’s just a garden where there is a huge “pool” maybe it was built as fish hatchery. And there is now a boat. We pay the tickets, and they take us on a round on the boat by the pool. Everyone is very happy. It seems that I am the only one who has found it a little bit ridiculous as a children’s park… but I hide it and finally I also have fun!
After the exams, 8 days of holidays for the small kids, 3 for the bigger. We have being using these days well.
We visited the army camp (although they didn’t allow us to cross the front door), Dhorsing, the bridge of Suping, we have to gone to the forest for firewood to cook (India still maintains trade blockade with Nepal, so we have no cooking gas) and we went to the forest again to look for “tarul” (a type of potato that is eaten in a festival called Sangratri).
Excursion to Suping, less than one hour walking from the Children’s Home.
We played many sports as well: basketball, football, table-tennis, activities directed by Kul (one of the big kids who studies the ten class and helps a lot in the Children’s Home)…
Some kids getting ready for a relay race organized by Kul.
And volunteers have organized fun activities:
– A group treasure hunt with sweet rewards:
– A game where both teams had to memorize the symbols that were at the quarter of the other team, then ran to their own quarter and reproduce them as similar as possible:
– Modeling clay:
– And five children participated in a drawing contest where they had to make two drawings that give the impression of three dimensions:
Careful! There are some big cracks on the table!One levitating ball!Another levitating ball!Still another one!Oh, these were not levitating balls, they were egg-ish drawings!The five artists!
But today Sunday the children already return to classes with their batteries recharged!
