Category Archives: Children of the Home

Written by Marina Viñas, volunteer of Bhimphedi Children’s Home.

“El Quinto” – also known as “la Quina” – it’s a typical Christmas game in some catalan regions. Since September in Bhimphedi we are working to get all ready for the special annual session organized by “Amics del Nepal” and the S.C.R. El Ciervo de Sabadell that will take place on January 7^th. The benefits of this special session will go directly to balmandir and our kids will make one of the games even more special.

vine — The broadcasting team: Samir, Purnima, Raju, Manuj and Sarita.

First of all, for those who don’t know anything about “el Quinto”: How does it work? Each player has a card with 90 numbers (from 1 to 90) randomly distributed in six squares of five columns into three lines each one (so 15 numbers each square). The first player who fills one line shouts QUINTO and. later, the player who fills a square shouts PLENA. The person who says (or sings) the numbers is called Lloro (parrot).

What do we mean when we say it’s going to be an special game? As it happened in the last two years, the balmandir kids are going to be the parrots of one of the games!

We put the 90 numbers – made with paper – inside a plastic bottle. I asked the kids – one by one – to do as a parrot while I recorded them helped by Rojan. But it had to be in Catalan! It was not an easy work: “it’s so hard!”, “I don’t know how to say it”… In the home there are 26 kids so each one had to say 3 or 4 numbers. But slowly they started to enjoy doing it and at the end I got all the numbers (“at the end” means that it took me three months!).

purnima — We can sing the numbers in any place,

It’s the third year that kids are asked to do this job so the questions quickly started: “Why do we do it?”. “How does this game work?” They were curious about the game and fortunately I had put some cards inside the suitcase (thanks to S.C.R. El Ciervo of Sabadell for giving them). So we started playing with the youngest kids in the “English version”, achieving to remove the mix-up between 13 and 30, 14 and 40, 15 and 50… We have a new tool for the study! Using this game we also did some maths: additions, subtractions…

portada — First quinto sessions in balmandir

The elder kids have also played quinto but in the “Spanish version”. We’ve been doing Spanish classes for some months and we thought it would be a great idea playing “el quinto” in spanish to practice the numbers. At the beginning Ashish, Kush and Lov (who are advantaged students) translated the numbers to Nepali. But after playing, playing and playing, even Kamal and Ramraj dared to act as Parrots singing the numbers themselves. Great!

espanyol — Spanish version of quinto. Ramraj was singing the numbers that time!

“El Quinto” becomes more than a game in balmandir. You can play with us on January 7th at the S.C.R. El Ciervo (C/Viladomat 26, Sabadell). See you there!

[:ca]Receptes de cuina nepalesa[:en]Recipes of Nepalese Cuisine[:es]Recetas de cocina nepali[:], Children of the Home, General, Nepali Culture

This Saturday, samosas as lunch!

Tuesday December 13th, 2016 amicsnepal

Written by Joana Alsina, volunteer of Bhimphedi Children’s Home.

The samosa is a very common meal in Nepal, and in the children’s home we often eat them as lunch, but we had never cooked it ourselves, we always bought them outside. But this Saturday, thanks to the masterclass of a woman of the village,and Arjun’s help, we were able to cook them. Now we have a new recipe in Balmandir!

To make the filling:

1 kg of potatoes
500 g onion
Coriander
Masala (mix of aromatic herbs, to the taste of the consumer)
Chilli
Chickpeas
Tender garlic or other vegetables (optional)

To make the dough:

500 g flour
A pinch of baking soda
Cold water
Salt
Aromatic herbs (dried celery flakes similar to oregano)
Clarified butter (ghee)

To make this recipe we divide into two teams. While one team was preparing the filling of the other made the dough.

To make the filling:

The night before we put the chickpeas in water and leave them to soak all night.
After having cleaned the potatoes we put them to boil in the pressure cooker. Then we peeled them and put them in a large bowl to make the whole mixture of the filling.
While the potatoes were cooking we also put the chickpeas on the fire and we cut the onion on moon shape, the cilantro and tender garlic.
We fried the onion slowly and once well cooked we added them it to the mixture, along with the chickpeas, the cilantro, the spices and the chili.
We mixed everything with the hands and smashed the potatoes so there was no piece left. We used raw tender garlic, so in the filling there were different textures.

To make the dough:

We put in a bowl the flour and we melt the butter in a frying pan. Then we mixed with the flour and we began to knead.
We added salt, baking soda, aromatic herbs and finally water. It should become a fairly consistent paste. Do not wait for it to rise.
Then we started to make balls with the dough. Each ball would be the measure to make two samosas. With a roll we smashed the balls to form ovals. Then we cut them into two with a knife.

To put the filling in the dough:

Take the dough in the shape of a crescent mood with the hand, leaving the cut part with the knife facing up.
Put some water with your finger on top to the right and then stick on the left side forming a kind of cone.
Put the filling and then moisten the remaining piece of pasta and close it making a few folds. It was the first time we did it so every samosa had a different shape. Slowly we were perfecting the technique until we made equilateral triangles!
Then we fried them in slowly oil until they looked pink. Once fried you should eat them soon, although they can be served cold, they are really delicious just after frying them.

But the culinary day did not end there. That Saturday was Kamal’s birthday and we prepared Catalan cream for the night. Everyone had all loved this recipe when Tonyo prepared it for the first time. But this time we made an improvement, a cookie base crumbled with butter. We prepared it in individual glasses with a finish of burnt sugar and a biscuit that could be used as a spoon.

This dessert was the icing on the cake of a gastronomic Saturday where we learned how to make samosas and celebrated Kamal’s anniversary in the sweetest way possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjOhoonCDZg&feature=youtu.be

[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], [:ca]Idiomes i lectura[:en]Language[:es]Idiomas y lectura[:], Children of the Home

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Monday December 12th, 2016 amicsnepal

Written by Joana Alsina, volunteer of Bhimphedi Children’s Home.

Quite often, the little ones have already finished their homework when we start studying in the morning. For this reason we divide them into small groups and do activities that allow them to learn while they play. When I arrived in Balmandir I realized that it was quite difficult to read in English for most of the kids. In the home there are many story books so we started reading every day. But many of the children did not understand what they were reading. So, we decided that we had to think of another activity to be able to improve their reading and writing skills and acquiring new vocabulary while playing.

Laura, a volunteer of the Atrapasomnis, suggested I could make a mobile alphabet so children could form words by playing with letters. With cards of different colors we made the vowels and the consonants to be able to differentiate them easily. With the letters of the alphabet each child forms a known word. In this way we try to isolate the sounds of the word one by one. As the child says the sounds, he places the corresponding letter in each phoneme. From here all the letters are joined, thus forming the whole word. This process is repeated to form 8 or 9 words, depending on the child. One day we work on words about animals, another day on fruits and vegetables, another day on the objects we see in the room or through the window. Little by little the number and the length of the words increase, and we form even simple sentences.

We also use the mobile alphabet to add new English vocabulary. We started this activity in the girls room. They had to make some cards with the name of the objects they saw and hook the names onto the object. First they had to write the nouns with the mobile letters and then they had to make a card with the name of the object. In this way, each time they enter the room they read the cards hooked on the objects and they become slowly familiar with the vocabulary. Once we finished the objects in that room we continued with the computer room and the study room. Balmandir is very big so we have many more words to write.

Although we did this alphabet to help the little ones to read and write, the other kids also use it. They use it to play crossword puzzles. Each boy creates a new word adding new letters to the words that are already in play.

[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], [:ca]Visites i excursions[:en]Visits and excursions[:es]Visitas y excursiones[:], Children of the Home

Walk to the big pipe of the hydroelectric plant

Thursday December 8th, 2016 amicsnepal

Written by Joana Alsina, volunteer of Bhimphedi Children’s Home.

Saturdays in Nepal children do not go to school. Saturday mornings, in Balmandir, we make the common tasks. One group prepares the snack, another helps in the kitchen garden and the last one cleans deeply the kitchen. Saturday afternoons we have free time and the kids play, bath, use the computers…

The smallest kids wanted to go to the hills and after lunch we decided it was a good time to go for a walk. The kids of secondary level had to study for exams, so they couldn’t join. With Manisha, Xavi and all the kids from the primary community school we left Balmandir at three o’clock. Our destination: the big pipe of the hydroelectric plant. It has been a long time that they had not gone and some of them, as Purnima, Samir and Sarita had never been there before.

We climbed up to the peepal tree and we stopped, as we always do, to admire Bhimphedi’s view. Some of them climbed up to the tree but they quickly came down because they wanted to reach down to the river.

We continued our way, the kids went faster than us because we stopped often because Sumit was teaching us many of the plants that we were finding on the way. Chestnuts, ferns… When we reached down to the river we found the kids fishing, with the hands and feet inside the water. But this time the prays were not small fish but crabs. A pity that Tonyo has already gone because we would have done a tasty rice.

p1090325 — Som, one of the best fisherman of Balmandir.

Crossing the river we found soon the huge pipe and began to climb the stairs.

Some kids were counting the stairs (while they were telling us that there were 1100 to reach up), others were making music with the echo of the tunnel and the most brave were climbing uphill without using the stairs. When we had reached almost three quarters of the way we realized that it was getting late, and we decided to return at home.

The descent was faster, especially for the kids who run stairs down. When we reached to the foot of the huge staircase we found the kids playing. With plastic bottles they had made sleds and they were racing. And some of them finished with holes in their pants…

p1090362 — Resting to regain the energies to walk again.

The way back was very fast. We did not stop to see plants or to catch fish or crabs. When we were descending the sun was setting and when we arrived to Balmandir where the dinner was ready.

Children of the Home, Festivals and Traditions, Nepali Culture, News

Back home for Dashain

Tuesday October 4th, 2016 amicsnepal

Dashain and Tihar are the most important festivals in Nepal, the equivalent of our Christmas. When the dates of these festivals are near is very difficult to find place on any bus, everyone wants to go to their own hometown.

In our Children’s Home there are also some kids who know some relatives and they can go to spend the these festivals with them. This year 9 of the 26 children of the Bhimphedi Children’s Home have gone with relatives! The rest of the children (mostly the younger children of whom we don’t know any relatives) stay in the Children’s Home, where we celebrate Dashain and Tihar as any other family.

In fact some of the boys and girls who have left the Children’s Home to live in another Children’s Home or to live by themselves also come to meet us for a few days and receive a “tika”.

This year is special because we have found the families of one of our boys, Jay, and one of the girls, Bipana. In both cases the children didn’t remember their families, but after a good research work, leaded by the director of the Children’s Home Krishna Pudasaini and many hours of bus, we managed to find their families, both more than 20 hours away from Bhimphedi. Thus, these children will spend Dashain this year with their families for the first time since they were very young.

Ramraj has also gone to his village for the first time since he has memory. To go to his village he must travel for 20 hours by bus, take a plane and then walk some hours. A very complicated trip, but it will worth it.

ramraj-web — Ramraj’s brother has come to pick him from the Children’s Home. They will celebrate this Dashain together.

Kush, Love, Sujan and Kamal, from very remote areas of western Nepal, will meet their families after three years without meeting them.

love1-portada-web — Krishna (right), who had gone to investigate about Jay’s family (second from right) and had found his family, against all the odds, continued the trip to the north-west of the country to leave Love (left) and his brother Kush in their house where they still they have one uncle. Their village is located in the wonderful Khaptad National Park.

love2-web — View of the Khaptad National Park.

Let’s hope next year we can also find new families and even make family reunifications as we have done this year with Sita and Arati.

Happy Dashain to everyone!

arati2-web — Some days ago, Anna Brunet and I (Daniel Roig) visited Arati in Kalaya to wish a happy Dashain to her and her 3 siblings.

arati1-web — This year Arati doesn’t live with us in Bhimphedi Children’s Home but she studies in a private school in Kalaya where she can share her life with her two sisters and one brother. This year it will be the first Dashain that Arati will celebrate with her siblings in the last 12 years.

[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], [:ca]Esports[:en]Sports[:es]Deportes[:], Children of the Home, Festivals and Traditions, Nepali Culture

Celebrating the Children’s Day

Wednesday September 21st, 2016 marinavinas

Written by Marina Viñas and Joana Alsina, volunteers at the Children’s Home

14th of September was the Children’s Day. A general knowledge quiz was prepared in the primary school and the Ramesh Thami team was the winner. It was a nice present for his birthday.

school-3 — Ramesh team, winner of the general knowledge quiz

A gymkhana prepared by Krishna – the Balmandir’s director – was prepared for the return of the children from the school. There were different kind of games depending on the age. The first one was “hit the pot”: one stick was in the middle of the football field with an iron pot upside. Each blindfolder player had to touch the pot using a stick. There were some players that just went along, others went far from the pot and few of them get it easily. Even Ram (the cook) and Maya (didi) tried it.

After that, it was the time for the younger children. They were ready for the bag race, ready to start with the whistle signal. Some fell halfway but others continued jumping until finish the race.

The next game was the apple ones: children must eat the apple without using their hands. The last game was the spoon-bowls race that Purnima won.

When the gynkhana had finished, the party continued with the football final and the Ramesh birthday celebration. After dinner, we prepared good desserts and presents for the gymkhana winners, and Ramesh also had his birthday’s present. A good ending to celebrate Children’s Day.

p1060226-web — Football winner team: Sujan, Prabhat, Sushil, Kamal, Krishna and Santa.

[:ca]Activitats i tallers[:en]Activities and trainings[:es]Actividades y talleres[:], [:ca]Esports[:en]Sports[:es]Deportes[:], Children of the Home, General, News

Football in Balmandir

Wednesday September 14th, 2016 amicsnepal

Written by Mireia Masó and Jordi Giral, volunteers at the Children’s Home

August has been a very active month about news and changes on the football world of Bhimphedi. Like it would happen if we were talking about professional football, the hot news of the summer have been the improvement on the Balmandir’s football court, friendly matches, the selection of some of our teenagers to play in the Bhimphedi school’s team and even the selection of our small Messi for the region team.

On one hand, for the last months we have been having troubles with the football balls because they were blast very frequently. Which was the reason? When they kick the ball very strong, it is very simple that it ends in the prison wall, which is on the other side of the street, and the iron protection systems, which are used to avoid the escaping of the prisoners, blasted them all. After some days on thinking about what could be done, we decided to build a metallic net to install after the problematic goal. As soon as we bought the needed material, Luv began to work and in just some days he built it. It is a very big net, 10m long and 3m high. Since the moment we installed it, no more balls have been lost.

On the other hand, the goals began to have stability problems. We decided to disassemble them to avoid problems. We rebuilt them, developing better connections between the poles, painting them with black protective paint to make them more durable and we stuck them in the ground using concrete. Finally, we painted white lines and now the football ground has two goals which we hope they will last very long.

image1-2 — One of the new goals and the new fence, made by the kids to protect the balls from the wall of the jail situated next to the children’s home.

To celebrate this achievement, we played a game with the teenagers which last almost two hours. The result was 10-9. Dani’s team defeated Jordi’s team with a goal in the last minute by RamRaj, the star of the group. Only with the whistle sound, which announced the dinner, the players could finally rest. They went as happy as tired to get the deserved Dal Bhat of the evening.

image2-1 — Ramesh and Jordi shooting the ball as they were in Oliver and Benji.

image1-3 — Dani, Love and the other players looking how Sushil receives a ball.

In the regional news, Kamal, Luv and Ramraj were selected to play with the Bhimphedi’s school team. The school organised this team to play a regional tournament in Hetauda. After 4 victories, some of them we equilibrated as they got to the penalties, they reached the big final. The mobilization of the school was spectacular. They organised a bus to go and go back from Hetauda and lots of youngers, teachers and volunteers went to see the game. The unlucky part was that it rained a lot that day and the game was postponed.

Next day, the team and the supporters we came back to Hetauda and that day was very sunny and the game was played under a terrible warmth. The only goal of the match was scored by Bhimphedi during the first time. 1-0! CHAMPIONS! And moreover, our 3 teenagers played the match! The celebration began as soon as the game ended: Once the cup and the medals were handed. The players began to dance and take some pictures with the cup and the supporters. After a while, the bus came and we went again to Bhimphedi. The celebration continued and along the return trip, with drums and music dishes to be sure that every single person in Hetauda and Bhimphedi knew that they won the tournament. “It’s the first time we win this tournament!” Looking at their happy faces and how Bhimphedi people received them when they arrived to Bhimphedi, it seemed Futbol Club Barcelona (or Futbol Club Bhimphedi, as they like to say) doing the celebration with the people after winning the Champions League. Congratulations Champions!

img_20160817_153844 — Ramraj receiving the champion medal.

img_20160817_153918 — Luv receiving the champion medal.

img_20160817_153922 — Kamal receiving the champion medal.

img_20160817_154117 — The champion team with the cup and the medals!

img_20160817_160023-copia-2 — The three kids of the children’s home selected for the school team, the team that won the football competition. From left to right: Luv, Kamal and Ramraj.

Once the tournament of the Hetauda district was finished, a selection of the best players from different teams was made to play the next phase. The good news is that Ramraj, our little Messi, was selected!

The team also won all the matches of the second stage and qualified for the phase of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Ramraj enjoyed this tournament, but because they lost the first match and drew the second, they did not qualify for the final. However, Ramraj returned to the children’s home of Bhimphedi with a big smile.

Children of the Home, Festivals and Traditions, Nepali Culture, News

Janay Purnima, the Full Moon of August

Tuesday August 23rd, 2016 amicsnepal

Purnima is one of the girls who joined us in Bhimphedi Children’s Home last April. Her name means “Full Moon” in Nepali. A very appropriate name, because her eyes are as spectacular as the moon in its splendor.

On Thursday 18th there was the full moon of August, and this is known in Nepal as Janay Purnima, a festival which is celebrated throughout the country and India in different ways.

For the Nepalese Hindus of the mountains, priests are rubbing their hands, because it is a busy day for them: they roll a colored red and yellow thread around the left wrist of all people in exchange of some rupies. This type of bracelet will protect them but it can not be removed until Tihar, a festival held in early November.

For the Nepalese Hindus of the plains bordering India, sisters put some bracelet and “tika” to her brothers, as a sign of love and care.

20160818_093802-web — Beli didi, one of the workers of the Children’s Home, putting the bracelet. Both caretakers of the Home put bracelets to all the kids and volunteers.

20160822_210327 — From up to down: Bracelets from Maya didi, from Beli didi and from the priest.

In any case in all the houses people eats “quati”, a mixture of 12 different types of pulses half sprouted with buffalo meat, reach food which provides them the energy to recover from the rainy season.

The day before the Janay Purnima festival, our Purnima had warned us: “Tomorrow is my birthday!”. In the file, the birthday is not that (besides the festival changes the date with the Moon). But her brother, a year elder than her, supported his sister statement. So the day of the August Full Moon, we didn’t only celebrate Janay Purnima festival, but we also celebrated the birthday of our Purnima.

The celebration was pretty beautiful, singing songs and eating cake in the light of the full moon of August (throughout the afternoon we had one of the common energy cuts).

The gift was a box of crayons, and still another box of plastic colors and little box of paints, with a small notebook of white sheets to draw. All wrapped up among dozens of newspaper sheets, and girl exultant of joy.

The diversity of festivals of Nepal, and the intensity they celebrate them, is surprising: the very next day of Janay Purnima, we celebrate Gai Jatra (the cow festival of the Newar caste) which commemorates the dead of that year. On next Thursday, we will celebrate Krishna Astami (birthday of Lord Krishna) on Friday Bhimsen Jatra (the big festival of Bhimphedi). The following week the Father’s day, followed by Teej the women’s day. The next week, Indra Jatra and between all these festivals still we will celebrate an Islamic festival, but we can not say the exact date till one day before celebrating. It is a country of festivals.

gai-jatra-01-web — One cow dressed for Gai Jatra, the Newari festival to commemorate the defunct of last year.

gai jatra 05 — Prachande, the funny character of Gai Jatra, who throws water dirty of cow poop to any fool who dares to come near him.

gai jatra 1 — Some kids dressed for the Gai Jatra, remembering the defunct of the last year.

We must also say that we are not only entertained by these festivals, but we also have bus strike because the traffic police has been very strict allowing buses only to take the people fitting in the seats, which leaves the owners of buses without profit and the villagers without transportation (because there is never any seats available). And of course if there are no buses, teachers can not come to the village to teach, so the school is also closed. As I said, Nepal is a festival of a country…

Children of the Home, Festivals and Traditions, Nepali Culture, News

A wedding out of the ordinary

Saturday July 30th, 2016 amicsnepal

The coordinator of the Children’s Home is getting married with one of the teachers of the school! The children of the children’s home are very excited. All their friends don’t stop asking about the topic that everyone talks about in Bhimphedi.

Children Balmandir are eager to celebrate! We will celebrate our wedding only within the family: Manisha’s family and mine in Nepal (meaning the children and workers of the children’s home).

“When is the wedding?” Here things can not be planned, if someone plans something sure Nepal will make sure your plans change. This uncertainty makes things difficult but exciting. Even five days before the event, when the date was already fixed on Sunday 26th June, and some guests had already hired the jeep to come on Saturday to Bhimphedi from Kathmandu, things changed: the priest told to Manisha’s family that Sunday was not a good day for the wedding, so we had to do it on Friday, two days earlier. Everyone, run…

On Friday morning, accompanied by all the children and staff of the Children’s Home and friends, in a well decorated car and dressed in a peculiar way, the groom moves to the bride’s house.

After her family welcomes the coming team, we celebrate the ceremony in a small temple and take the bride. Here, when the girl gets married becomes part of the family of the husband. But in this case however, Manisha not change her surname or stop meeting her family.

Friday afternoon the party took place in Balmandir, all the kids had lots of fun: creating the decoration, preparing gifts, eating lots of delicious foods (including lamb, chicken and paneer) and especially dancing.
Boys and girls who no longer live at the Children’s Home this year also came to the party, so this was also a good excuse for meeting friends and brothers. A day to remember!

One of the gifts that the children and volunteers prepared for us was a video: any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence…

https://youtu.be/c8WzjGR2i04

Children of the Home, Volunteers

La veu de Benicarló

Friday July 22nd, 2016 amicsnepal

Article written by Tony Fibla (volunteer of Bhimphedi Children’s Home) published in three back covers of the magazine in Catalan: La Veu de Benicarló

First Part

After finishing the story of Manaslu now, as I promised you, I will explain the experience I had as a volunteer in an orphanage in Nepal, precisely in Bhimphedi Balmandir. “Balmandir” literally means temple of children, and is used sometimes in Nepal for the Children’s Homes or orphanages.

Bhimphedi is a small town 60 km south of Kathmandu, we could almost say it’s a village-street in the old way linking Kathmandu with India. After building the new road, far from the old path, this town is not living the brightest of its times.

The way to the capital town is not easy. Only jeeps dare to go through the dangerous road. When I was there another problem was added: the lack of petrol and gas. It turns out that because of political problems as a result of the new constitution in Nepal, India closed borders and fuel and gas supply was almost inexistent. The price of the fuel increased dramatically and the number of running vehicles dropped to almost zero. Queues to get some liters of petrol were very long, not to mention the huge queues to obtain a gas cylinder.

Lluc and I met with Dani, Catalan coordinator of Balmandir and Anna, in charge of the volunteers of the Association Amics del Nepal in Barcelona, who by chance was at that time also in Kathmandu. We took a reserved jeep where we traveled 8 volunteers, including parents Dani who had come to meet their son.

The journey takes three hours to cover the sixty kilometers. There are two possible tracks, one bad and the other one worse. On the way I had the time to explain to them my relationship with Nepal and the reason of my involvement as a volunteer in Amics del Nepal in Barcelona.

All of us we settled in a guest house near the Balmandir. There is a kitchen, a large living room and four nice rooms. All was good but Nepal we had no gas to cook. What do we have to do?

After leaving all our packs and choose our rooms we went to Balmandir where we were welcomed with a simple and beautiful welcome ceremony. Then we had the first contact with the children. There are thirty students of which four were girls. Were ages ranged from six to eighteen.

All children attend school. The elementary students attend to the community school where classes are taught in English. The secondary students attend to the public school, there is no other option for secondary in within Bhimphedi.

That time, between Dashain and Tihar festivals (the most important festivals of Nepal that we have discussed on other occasions), it was also holidays for the students

Dani told us that this year the studies were pretty bad because of all the national problems generated by the earthquake and blockade.

In the Children’s Home the earthquake had left a mark on the older building, but the other buildings are in good condition.

Luckily when the first earthquake happened, kids and staff of the children’s home were in the opening of the basketball court, outdoors with no buildings around. No, no one was hurt but all of them were scared by the big event.

Second Part

The schedule of the orphanage may be a little bit surprising for you: children get up at 6 in the morning, drink tea and study for an hour. At nine they eat rice (dalbhat they call it), we have talked enough about this meal in the stories of trekking. At 10 they attend to school. At noon again they come to the center eat something and go back to school until 4. They play for a while and about six and a half they eat the second plate of dalbhat. Then they study for another hour and at 9:30 all go to sleep.

During their stay, volunteers make all kinds of activities with kids: Help with the study time, games, trips, jobs, baths in the river, works of all kinds… But of course, in Nepal, time doesn’t flow at the same speed than here.

The orphanage has lands six buildings: one holds the dining room and kitchen, two blocks have the bedrooms, another the showers and services, still another for the library with a computer and finally the old building that currently is used only as a workshop because of the damages made by the earthquake. There is another structure with roof where kids can clean and dry their clothes (each child has to wash his own clothes, no washing machine here).

When cooking the dalbhat, there is always someone helping didis (“didi” means literally “elder sister”), who are women who are always ready: cooking, serving, helping on anything and often they play the role of mother, always with a smile.

In the rest of the compound we can see a football pitch (made by the kids: they took out the stones, leveled it, put the goals…).

There is also a farmyard with chickens, rabbits, ducks, goats and a buffalo that gives milk for all kids. Kush is the responsible for the animals, a charming 14 years boy. If he has some free time, he goes running and singing to watch the goats or buffaloes.

His twin brother, Lov, is a handyman. Always with a hammer and four nails in hand or with a saw or doing some carpentry works. Before finishing one work, he has already planed the next two.

When you start doing something, immediately you have three or four kids around kind to help.

Third Part

At that time they were making a fence to protect the kitchen garden from the goats. The doors had to be done. There Kul comes, a 18 years-old boy, serious, hard-working and good person, ready to do all the works. His head, at that time, was focused in the pond for ducks, though finally we have use it to make compost.

The kids also help to take care of the kitchen garden of the children’s home: onions, beans, spinach, beans, fodder for animals… it’s wonderful to eat what you grow!

Everything about drawing and decoration is work of our artist Ramesh. For magic tricks Rojan, a wonderful kid always ready to help. These are two very special kids, like many other in the home. I feel bad not being able to name them all for their qualities.

There are those who do not stop and are always asking you for something. Often you have to say no, but they never get tired of begging. It’s normal, they are kids.

Toys? What toys? They build their toys themselves. First they think what they want, then they build it, and finally they play. Simple. Three activities are much better than any toy. Cutting paperboard, using some plastic bottles, four pieces of wood, two bamboos, four pieces of paper… Their brain and hands never stop.

You could say, looking with our occidental eyes, that there is material scarcity. But seing the human quality of these kids, it makes you reconsider you much of what we do here, how we educate and how little value we give to things.

Problems? Of course there are. But everything is solved by good faith and understanding with each other.

We must also emphasize the solidarity between the elder and younger kids. How they help each other!

From these lines I want to thank all the children of Balmandir Bhimphedi: Jay, Anuj, Arati (Irati, tireless) Ashish, Ashok, Basu, Binita, Bipana, Bishnu, Bishwa, Kamal, Kiran, Manuj (the little mouse), Sushil, Raju (nonstop), Ramraj (Tiago), Ramesh II, Sanu, Saran, Sita, Som, Sujan, Sumit (always elegant) and the ones mentioned earlier. To all, thank you.

When I go there again, some will be already in other places and new small kids will be there. Life doesn’t stop.

I also want to thank everyone who helped somehow with Balmandir Bhimphedi through me: The schools Francesc Català of Benicarló and Jaime Sanz of Peníscola, Caixa Rural of Benicarló, Penya Setrill and many of my friends… Oh! And everyone who attended to the wedding of the century (Marta-Gyan) that came to Nepal loaded with clothes for the orphanage till we filled a jeep.

In October I will return to Nepal if anyone has any laptop that you are ready to donate, contact me.

Amics del Nepal in Bhimphedi

Category Archives: Children of the Home

“La primera pel quinto i per tothom …” in balmandir becomes more than a game

This Saturday, samosas as lunch!

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Walk to the big pipe of the hydroelectric plant

Back home for Dashain

Celebrating the Children’s Day

Football in Balmandir

Janay Purnima, the Full Moon of August

A wedding out of the ordinary

La veu de Benicarló

www.amicsnepal.org/bhimphedi