Sister sister!

Sister sister! the common attention getter by the kids in the children's home, they yell it ALL the time, it is so cute in the nepali accents!

now, to catch you up on LAST week (we have not had internet for a while!)

Last Friday, no children came to CBR! Of course, there was no petrol for the jeep... so, we had an entire day with the teachers. We sat down with the director, didis, and teachers and did simulations and “lessons” for the teachers on how to run a special education classroom, basically. We helped them make picture schedules, and modeled their use. We also modeled ignoring and positive reinforcement, among many other behavior management techniques. The six hours we spent with the teachers were some of the most influential moments we’ve had at CBR. We are looking forward to seeing how the teachers act in the future.

Last weekend, we went and stayed a couple of nights in Thamel. We arrived on Friday afternoon after a day at CBR. We decided that we would make a trip to the US Embassy so that we could register and let them know that we were volunteering in Nepal. Right down the road from our bus stop at Ratna Park, there is a heavily guarded area with huge walls and automatic doors that has signs on it saying “United States of America.” Like normal people, we assumed that this was the actual embassy. When we approached the gates, we were told that this was actually the diplomat’s sports club. Seriously? Do they really need a freaking sports club half the size of Nepal? Who knows what it really is – this is just what we were told. Anyways, they told us to walk a ways up the road and we would reach the actual US embassy. So, we started on what ended up being a trek across Kathmandu. We kept walking, and walking... we passed the French, British, Israeli, and Japanese embassies, but we still had no sign of the American embassy. We started our little walk around 3:50 pm, and around 4:45 pm, we finally arrived at our destination. It was in the middle of nowhere, wayyyyyy outside of Kathmandu. When we walked in and asked to enter the embassy, we were told that entry hours ended at 4:30 pm. Jessi pushed and pushed until the guards finally called someone inside. When we got on the phone, we were so excited to here a man with a southern drawl say to us “Hey there kids!” The man came out, helped us fill out our forms, and sent us back on our way. What an afternoon...
Later in the evening, we went to the Chabad house for Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest that begins on Friday evening and lasts until the end of Saturday. It was interesting because almost everyone, save Jessi and another guy from Washington D.C., was Israeli. There were not any Chabad people and there wasn’t even a Chabad rabbi, but it was interesting to meet all the Jewish tourists come together in a place like Nepal and celebrate Shabbat.

Last Saturday, we spent the day at one of the new children’s homes that VSN is serving. Two Israeli women whom we met at the Chabad house the previous night accompanied us to the house – one is a pediatrician and the other is a social worker. Two of the girls in our volunteer group, Ruchi and Tanya, are currently placed there. Before they got there, the place was barren and dirty. The managers at the center are nice and love the children, but their main interests for the children are making sure they receive an education and getting them enough food. Although these two are very important, they hardly paid any attention to the children’s health. Ruchi, Tanya, and the rest of the health team performed full health checks on these children, and they now receive daily care based on their health check results. They also spent a lot of time and effort decorating the place and making it seem more like a home. The walls are decorated with drawings and paintings that the children made and also with their pictures.
When we first arrived, we spent some time watching Ruchi, Tanya, and the children finish up a group painting they were working on. They then turned the radio on, and we all begin dancing to Hindi film songs. After the cassette finished, Jessi pulled out her guitar, and we sang and played music for them. We sang them some country songs as well as some children’s songs such as “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” We all had so much fun, and the children really enjoyed listening and singing along to live music.
We had the opportunity to watch Tanya perform physiotherapy on a boy with cerebral palsy and a girl spina bifida. It was interesting to see the different exercises that they had to do. This is all so new for these children because before Ruchi and Tanya arrived, the children with disabilities in this home usually just sat in makeshift wheelchairs. With Tanya, they exercise about twice a day for about an hour or so.
We stayed at the center until about 5. Ruchi and Tanya have made such a difference in the house – the children are so lively and they are finally beginning to realize the importance of their own health.

Last Sunday, we visited Baktapur with Ryan and Andrea, two volunteers from our group. Baktapur has many squares known for their numerous temples dedicated to the many Hindu gods. Out of all the temples, however, Baktapur is most widely known for its erotic elephants temple. This temple has carvings of elephants in various suggestive positions all around the top. There is another temple that has the 24 positions of the kama sutra carved into it an all four sides of the temple... no wonder this place is a major tourist attraction. The area is also known for its woodwork and pottery.

The bus ride back to the village was THE craziest thing we’ve ever experienced! Both buses were packed beyond belief... it was rush hour and it was raining. On the second bus, Jessi lost count at 37 people, while Rachna was busy being evangelized by some meditative monk who wanted to show her his ways. One of the many memorable bus rides back to the village...

This week, we have introduced the idea of inclusion to CBR! The children at the VSN children’s home in our village do not have school because they had exams last week. We have had the chance to walk the typical children over to CBR where they read, play, and interact with the kids with disabilities at CBR. The children from the VSN home have loved going to CBR, and it serves as a reward for them. Every time we visit the home (every morning and evening) the kids go, “When can we go to CBR again?” They work so well with the kids with disabilities and even help us with modeling good behaviors for the kids and didis and translating in Nepali. It has been so exciting to see this week unfold with inclusion in Nepal!

We have also been shooting a movie with the kids for fun, they have a nepali script, and recording their singing on Garage Band, a mac program on the laptop. They are such high tech nepalis!