Written by Marcel, Bhimphedi’s children home volunteer.
Last May 14th a tractor came to Balmandir to help us with the plugging of the kitchen garden. It was easier than ever!
Tractor working on the kitchen garden.Tractor machineryWork finished!
The children were delighted by this visit and they were the whole time near the tractor looking how it was working. In fact, when it finished the work, without any hesitation, they mounted on it and began to play as if they were actually driving it.
The children looking how the tractor was workingKush, Manoj and Raju “driving” the tractor
This visit was a great help for us, because the corn that was planted has been growing and growing very much, we will have a good harvest this year, though you can not say till it’s done.
The corn is growingIt grows very quickly!Now the mazes are 2 meters high. In the middle of the field: the “naspati” fruit tree (a fruit between an apple and a pear, very common in the area). The tree is now full of fruits. Always there is some kid on the tree taking some fruits for himself and for his friends.On the beautiful mountains of the valley (or hills as they call them) the beautiful clouds, very common in the raining seasson. Now it rains every day…
Meanwhile, the smallest of the house have prepared to the volunteers a delicious dish, they cook for us some kind of grass (“sagh” in nepali) that was growing wildly in some of the margins of the kitchen garden. The most delicious grass we have ever tasted!
Bishnu, Som and Anoj heating the oil.Cooking the “sagh”.Almost ready to eat!
Some weeks ago we started to give Spanish and English lessons to the older ones in Balmandir. Up to now they are acquiring basic notions of Spanish and they can already express some simple sentences to greet, ask the time, the name, the age… It is kind of funny to walk around the house or Bhimphedi and suddenly hearing “Como estás?” (“How are you?”), “Adiós!” (“Bye”) or “Buenos días!” (Good morning!”) (even if sometimes they wish you good morning right before going to sleep! We’ll allow them to do so, poor them…) Besides, not only Balmandir kids greet in Spanish. Our boys have taught their classmates some sentences and they also shout in Spanish to us when they see us around.
Learning how to use the verb to be.The new students taking notes.Kamal, an advanced student!
Back to the Spanish lessons, the kids are learning basic vocabulary, the days of the week, the months of the year, the numbers, the alphabet, to conjugate some verbs… step by step! Every fifteen days they take part in a Quiz run by Dani. With some against the clock questions we check if they have assimilated the contents during the week and depending on how they manage the situation they can accumulate some points. Those points will be converted into prizes which they will have to choose by themselves. In this way we put their cooperation and effort capacity to the test while they learn a new language.
Concerning English lessons, we are reading every day a fragment from the novel “Momo”, written by Michael Ende. This book narrates the adventures of Momo, an extravagant girl but with an exceptional sense of empathy. Momo has to fight against the Men in Gray, some thieves who steal the time and joy to her town citizens. With this reading we intend the kids to get better English skills and to learn new expression forms and vocabulary. From time to time we watch a part of the movie based on the book. In this way we get away from routine and we clarify some parts of the book that they didn’t understand well. We also place some other activities among the Momo reading, as grammar or writing exercises and more amusing other ones.
Ashish and Ramraj focused doing the reading exercises.Kamal re-reading the text.
Written by Joana, Bhimphedi’s children home volunteer.
Last week we could enjoy a great evening due to the celebration of two birthdays in Balmandir. We celebrated the first of them from a distance, but it wasn’t less important because of that. Enric Recoder, our beloved Amics del Nepal president who made his debut in this position just few weeks ago, was having his birthday. From Nepal we wanted to wish him all the best in this new year that makes him a bit older (and wiser!) as well as in this new adventure as a president! Best of luck Enric! The other person from Balmandir who was turning older it’s no other but me! Now that the day has passed, I can assure one of the best experiences one can live being a volunteer in Bhimphedi is to celebrate your own birthday in Balmandir, in this awesome environment and with the best company.
The day started with a pleasant and touching surprise. When I arrived at morning, the kids came out to welcome me with an avalanche of drawings and greeting cards they had made themselves and they filled me with hugs and “happy birthdays”. During the time the kids were at school I prepared a couple of cakes, putting my improvisation skills to the test since I had to handle the situation with the few and different ingredients that Bhimphedi’s little shops offered me. Didi Maya, Arjun and Ramesh helped me out during the snack time (the school school break at lunchtime), and to be honest I have to say the cakes didn’t turn out bad at all! The rest of the afternoon, to me, consisted in feeling lucky as anyone else to be able to celebrate my birthday in such a special way and enjoy the marvelous company of the marvelous kids of the marvelous Balmandir!
Arjun, Ramesh and I after preparing the cakes.Here you are the result: chocolate, mango and banana cakes.Some of the drawings and postcards the kids gave to me.
And once the evening arrived we took the two cakes out, one in honour of Enric and one for me, we pulled the Cokes, Fantas and Mountain Dews (a kind of soda they love) out and we sang with all our might the Happy birthday song in order to be heard from Barcelona (and in case the sound couldn’t arrive we dedicated a video to Quique!) What came afterwards was an actual pitched battle to get what was left from the cakes, faces covered in chocolate, kids running around and me throwing candies as if I was the king Baltasar in the Three kings parade! An unforgettable and unbeatable day that surely I’ll always remember with the biggest of the smiles!
The kids waiting impatiently to taste the cakes.Group photo of the evening.
Written by Joana, Bhimphedi’s children home volunteer.
One of the things that catched most my attention when I arrived to Balmandir was watching some of the kids running up and down the courtyard and playing a pair of ramshackled and out of tune blue guitars (nothing strange considering how much they use them!) Some of them were rubbing the strings frantically and moving their heads with a comic pose, others were more concentrated and practicing some of the chords that Àlex, one of the former volunteers, had taught them.
Kamal practising guitar.Bishnu and Samir playing guitar in its own way!
It is also so interesting to discover such a new musical context with very different rhythms, melodies, dances and languages: here they dance in a Bollywood style (or better, in a Kollywood style, the Nepali version of this Indian cinematographic industry), the singers hum in a high-pitched voice and the melodies and instrumentation sound so exotic. However, here they can’t escape from the occidental influence either and the own Nepali tunes are mixed and fused together with our Pop ones. Besides, while listening to the kids playlists one can find among Raju Lama, Sugam Pokhral or Anju Panta superhits some songs of Justin Bieber, One Direction or Shakira (they love the Waka waka song!)
Together with Marcel we fast decided with all these musical high spirits we should promote them. Therefore, Marcel keeps on with Àlex’s legacy teaching the kids how to play guitar and I, with some percussion instruments and flutes that I picked up before travelling to Nepal, I’ve started to introduce the kids to the mysterious language of music. Pentagrams, keys, notes, silences, tempo, crotchets, quavers… such a bunch of unknown concepts that the beginner musicians are assimilating bit by bit and with a lot of patience and effort. Ah! And don’t think this is only a children matter… Even Krishna, Balmandir’s center chief, has joined our little orchestra! If this experiment works out we will try to play some songs all together, let’s see how it ends up… We will keep you informed!
First music lesson with the begginers.Bishow, Samir, Kiran and Raju making their debut with the flute.Kamal reading pentagrams.Krishna, the center chief, also wanted to join us in the music lessons!
Meanwhile… we’ll go on enjoying our walks around the playground and the kitchen garden while we hear, as a background sound, how the guitar players in the bandstand improve day by day and are able to play the chords of their favourite Kollywood songs as they sing them with a melodramatic voice.
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.
Written by Marcel Rocafort, Bhimphedi Children Home volunteer
Paula and I have already completed the first week as volunteers. During this week we’ve had time to realize about the differences that exist between the country where we come from and Nepal. We have also started to get to know the children of Bhimphedi’s Children Home (Balmandir) and tried to memorize their names, which is not so easy.
When we had just arrived, Dani explained us the different projects he had in mind for us and the next day we got into work. One of these projects was to build a bamboo stage for the goat’s barn in order to make the room’s cleaning easier. Working with Àlex and Diego (volunteers of Awasuka’s project), we decided the material that we would need to build it and we ordered it. We are still waiting for it… (in Nepal the most simple thing can take such a long long time).
Waiting for the arrival of the materials Paula and I decided to organize some outdoor activities with the children of Balmandir that led to an entertaining evening full of laughts. We played various games such as sack races or the challenge of biting apples without using hands.
Basu and Manoj jumping with sacksAnoj starting the waiter ‘test’Ashish running against LuvAnoj, Santa and Raju eating applesRojan and Kiran trying to bite apples
Now we have in mind to start Spanish lessons and make the kids learn some basics. Soon we will start teaching them the most commonly used phrases and from there we will try to increase their vocabulary and their knowledge of the language gradually.
In Easter, the president of Amics del Nepal has used her holidays to visit the projects of the Association. Ten days Nepal making meetings in Kathmandu, Patan, Bhimphedi and Mahendranagar.
These few days have been very useful to close collaboration agreements and making meetings with all organizations that Amics del Nepal has been supporting for many years.
In Bhimphedi Children’s Home, the last week, some of the volunteers and children have been painting the stairs of the library; and didis have been repairing the garden in front of it.
Some of the kids painting the background for the stairs once they were dry after being newly plastered.Basu painted the stairs and his hands.The “art boy” of the Children’s Home draw some flowers on the new flower pots on the sides of the stair.
The girls and Isa made some drawings on the central part as well: grass, flowers, insects and small animals.
To finish the artwork, Sita and Isa draw on the other flowerpot.
Saturday morning we did a general cleaning (we clean every Saturday, but this week we have put more enthusiasm). We have also prepared flowers and we have saved the only gas cylinders that we had so Cristina can use the two days she will be in Bhimphedi. Here in Nepal we have the saying “Guests are gods.”
Meeting with all the kids of the Children’s home to coordinate how to tidy and clean the compound and rooms before the arrival of Cristina. And also how to welcome her once she was here.
During the brief but intense stay, Cristina (president of Amics del Nepal), Miquel (member of Amics del Nepal in Kathmandu) and Nima (daughter of Cristina) have visited the whole Children’s Home, played with children and met with the coordinators of the Children’s Home to discuss the next tasks and challenges of the project.
Cristina and Nima arrive!On the backside Nima playing badminton. On the front Cristina looking from the distance, but…Soon later she also joined and played a good game with Sushil.
As if it was made to entertain the visitors, this last week we have had new newborns in the children’s home: three goats, two puppies and six chicks.
With lots of guides, Cristina and Nima visit the Children Home and the new born goats.
They also see the new chicks.And our buffalos.
Cristina has also visited the office of AWASUKA, where she met with Monica (project coordinator), Amit (new local engineer hired for the project), Ranjit (President of the local cooperative), Ram (secretary of the local cooperative) and the volunteers Alex and Diego (Base-A / UPC). At the end of the meeting Cristina and Ranjit signed the first agreement between the two organizations to hire a local technician for AWASUKA.
A short visit, but productive and enjoyable!
In front of the door of AWASUKA office: group photo with the members of Amics del Nepal, Agragami and UPC/base-A.Meeting in the AWASUKA/Agragami office.Final agreement signed by Amics del Nepal president and Agragami president.
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!
