Written by Isabel Valero, Bhimphedi Children Home volunteer

One thing I like to celebrate birthdays here is that we never held in the same way. And this month we have had a lot of them!

You can start the day with a “happy birthday!” and making tickled early in the morning to wake them up, or maybe you have to pursue some of the teens because they are ashamed of you go shouting “Happy birthday,” but it is a thing which makes you happy to any age!

Or maybe you have to say double happy birthday as twins Kush and Love, that drop a smile even bigger than they have, which is nota little thing!

And then there are the special and risky birthdays activities, as we did on the birthday of the smallest in Balmandir, Manuj.

Dani came to mind that we could make a treasure hunt throughout the shelter to find gifts that he had prepared (such as crayons, balloons, a little cap and gloves for the cold and a wood crocodile). But in the end we inspired and the treasure hunt was extended to the whole town!

We did a treasure map with marked places where he had to go. The mission was complicated when reaching places, he had to say “Hoy es mi cumpleaños” (in Spanish!) And if he said well, he got the present.

We picked up Manuj at 16h at the exit of the school and after telling him how the game worked we started to search.

Here in Nepal it is not very common doing a gymkhana, so it was quite fun to watch Manuj embarrassed going from one place to another, saying the sentence in Spanish. After spending over an hour and a half walking around the village in search of “treasures”, making a stop to make a tea at each house and eating all sweets offered us finally got them all the presents!

The birthday ended, without a doubt with Manuj offering candy to all the other children Balmandir!