Child Haven, first days

Child Haven orphanage, Kathmandu, Nepal, May 2, 2010
Arjun, Manager of CH Kathmandu and his wife picked me up from Kathmandu two days ago. I am now safely installed in a nice big room in their lovely house with garden only steps away from the orphanage. Yesterday, Saturday, May 1st I spent the day meeting many lovely children and the staff of this amazing place. The buildings are good looking and are on top of a hill with good views of the valley below. I met Carol the cheery wonderful laughing French Canadian volunteer and and I later brought a few kids to a neighbouring area to look for an open restaurant to have lunch; a great treat for the CH kids. Most places were locked up and there were hardly any cars on the street due to the Labour Day conflicts or demonstrations of the Maoists. Later in the afternoon CH had a visit from Ruth Pollock and 3 student nurses from Ottawa. We took pictures and I was asked to write an article for Fred and Bonnie about their work and visit to CH. The children and staff later had a 'concert' or show and tell jokes event in the yard and it was lots of fun, followed by lots of music and I think everyone danced their own theme to Nepalese and Western music. What talent! It was a perfect opportunity for me to see the children and try to put faces, characters and names to each.

This morning my routine really started. Walk/jog at 5 am with staff and CH kids. Back to my room to write report and plan my day and week. Now at CH to send this off and meet with a student to start the process of a PowerPoint presentation. Prakash will download my trekking and Chitwan wildlife park pictures and we will meet up later with maybe some other teenagers who want to learn how to make a PowerPoing presentation. Nepal is striking again today, school is out, kids all over the place, nice to have the use of this office! I would like to be able to do more for CH in terms of activities, but, on the other hand, I am molding my self slowly to be as useful as possible for CH.

So, thats the word for today. If you want to write me, my e-mail is dyane.lynch@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Also, please dont forget to reach deep into your pockets and contribute whatever you can to Child Haven orphanage, Nepal. Again, please forward cheques c/o sister R. Wood, address in previous entry on this blog. This is first hand now, the work and ongoing challenges CH is an extremely worthwhile and wonderful cause and definitely worth your pennies. I feel that I am going to grow big time here.

Enough, work and Child Haven children await.

hugs, Dyane