Project Nepal

Update on Jack in Nepal

A little background on the Nepal trip and how it was formed. 

The school where my kids attend have various fund raising projects going on. Project Nepal is one of them. One of the boarders at Regents is a student from Nepal on a scholarship and tries to raise awareness and funds for his hometown. The primary Round Square Week developed because of Project Nepal. Only 10 children were chosen for this trip last year before Jack came to school. 1 child backed out right at the end of the school year so one spot was open. Jack came to the school at the start of the term in August and was hearing talk about this trip, he expressed interest. Coming home after school he would tell me about it. Talking about going to Nepal and what they were going to be doing there. Now mind you if you know my Jack this is not normal. Typically if it's not sport centered he doesn't have interest but with so much talk of this trip and 2 of his buddies (always helps when you have a friend to travel with) going he really wanted to go. 

Walter and I just let him talk and thought the interest would fade. When he went away in November for a week I thought for sure he would come home saying how homesick he was (missing me 😜 ) and the interest in Nepal would fade fast. How wrong I was. Actually it was the opposite after spending 2 days at the Hill tribe he wanted to spend more time doing service projects. He hounded me about going to Nepal telling me the window was closing for his ability to go. Now mind you he had not been asked to go but he was SO sure if I told school he was interested they would want him to come plus they had room for one more person. Gotta love a self confident kid. 

After discussing it with Walter, I approached Jack and told him he had to come up with 5 facts about Nepal, watch a movie that was recommended by school about the Dalia Lama and write a small paragraph about why he wanted to go. This was my last ditch effort to truly be certain he wanted to go and for the right reasons not because he and Tyler would have a 5 night sleepover together in a cool country. I didn't think it was necessary for Walter and I to spend our good money unless he truly was vested in this trip. He did it all!

Contact with school was made, they were more than happy to have Jack, deposits were made, visas were obtained and now he is in Nepal. 

We receive a daily email from his teachers/chaperones. 

Here are the first 2 emails with a few pictures. It kind of gets me choked up when I read them. 

What a lucky boy he is!

Dear parents,

I am happy to tell you that we have arrived in Nagarkot and the power has just come back on!
The journey from Kathmandu was incredible and the children were awestruck by the scenery: mountains, everyday life, winding roads and goats, yes goats.

Our rooms are very comfortable and the children are either sharing in pairs or threes.  We have had a lovely snack of vegetable pakora and chips and are looking forward to some supper; masala tea is a hit!

As the sun has gone down the temperature is dropping, cold by Thai standards but for us tough Northern Europeans, just like a summers day! Our children are enjoying monopoly and each others' company, long may it continue.

I will update you tomorrow as soon as we have power and internet access.

Photos are taking a while to upload so I will try and send some more later.

Regards,

Maxine and Nat 

Dear parents,

Your children are amazing! I wish you could have been here to share everything we have done.  Here are a few selected highlights:

Our hosts have been playing the guitar and the children have enjoyed singing and dancing with them, I have a lovely video of this which I will try to upload separately. They have been great company for us and each other.

Many experienced 'hot water bottles' for the first time last night.  " What do you do with them Miss Watkinson? Can we put them under our pillow?" Eventually we got the children sorted.

It has been very amusing watching the children trying to eat their meals with gloves on; for some reason they were reluctant to take their warm clothes off even at the dinner table! I think the novelty of big jackets, hats and gloves is wearing off now.

We walked 3 km downhill to the school, in the cold, warm jackets on and definitely needed.

Our children were shocked when they saw the size of the classrooms and the lack of facilities but they excelled themselves in leading activities.  With the younger children Jules, Shivangi and Bryce demonstrated how the children could work with play doh to make animals.  The children had never seen play doh before and initially had no idea what to do, two hours later, yes two hours of sustained interest they were using their own imaginations to make animals and flowers.  Prabin said he had never seen this amount of energy from the children before. A magic moment.
The rest of the group, Tyler, Claudia, Callum, Jack, Sophie, Coben and Leon all led activities in separate classrooms where they drew their families and talked about names and ages, encouraging the nepalese children to do the same.  They demonstrated games such as duck, duck, goose and bungalow which really helped to break the ice.
They loved the leadership and are busy writing about it in their Global Citizenship diaries as we speak. 
We survived the 3km walk home, climbing 800m; the school children do this everyday, having eaten nothing since breakfast time, which put our discomforts into a very different perspective.
Your children's attitudes and enthusiasm are incredible, I doubt many others would tackle the differences in culture and overcome the lack of shared experiences so well and with such success, you should be very proud of them indeed.
Once supper is over we will plan for tomorrow.
I will do my best to upload some photos and videos but can't promise as the internet connection is quite slow. Please bear with me on that one.

Have a lovely evening and we will send another update tomorrow.

Regards, 
Maxine and Nat. 

Jack and his buds. 

Eagles are well represented in Nepal. Whatever Jack! on that sweatshirt. 

He may be a great kid but his choice in team favoritism is awful. Lol

Their facilities where they are staying. 

Walking to school

At the school playing duck duck Goose

Funny thing - though we moved from MI I had to borrow and hats and gloves and buy him pants because I brought no cold weather clothes with us. Pathetic I know 😉

Cheers from the other side

😘 M