First off I’d like to wish two of my great friends from
home some congratulations! Bill ward and
Jamie Shubert-Yanicki got married yesterday!
As much as I love it over here, I am so sad to miss events like the
wedding. While I know that a great time
was had by all, it’s still hard to be 10,000 miles away on a day when two of
your friends are getting married. That
said, based on some initial reactions it sounds like a great time was had by
all!
The past few days have been fun over here…and we’re
approaching the heart of the break and the Dashin holiday is coming up right
around the corner. To celebrate we have
several things planned, which include some exciting meals, parties, etc. Two days ago, we actually took a group trip
down to the “beach” which was a ton of fun.
The bus right was interesting to say the least, and I felt like we were
about to go sliding off of a mountain about 10 times. Further, in large part the roads are not
paved here so motion sickness became an issue for several of the kids. Fortunately, most of the throwing up managed
to occur once we got off the bus, with one exception. When we got to the beach, we had it to
ourselves for the first hour, which was so peaceful and relaxing. Initially we thought the water was going to
be freezing, but it turned out to be
perfect. Not surprisingly, bathing suits
aren’t too prevalent over here so there were tons of naked kids running around. They had a blast though and so did the
volunteers. About an hour into our trip,
roughly 100 people showed up to the beach, and we were not sure why. We had heard that it would be quite quiet,
and knew that it was remote after that bus ride! It turns out that there was a funeral being
held by the water’s edge, and they were doing there farewell blessings. Following, the funeral they left and we once again
had the beach to ourselves. For a snack
we had some “Fruiti’s” (Mango Juice boxes) bananas and oranges. Following the snack, I went for a long walk
to explore the forest, and this really awesome foot bridge that went over the
river. We then played some more by the water’s
edge, and managed to get a Frisbee game going with some of the kids. After Frisbee we had the most delicious
lunch. The aunties and uncles spent the
afternoon preparing “Puri” which is essentially deep fried roti (think funnel cake)
and mutton. We have meat once a week, and
this was a huge treat for everyone. After
lunch, we washed the pots and pans off in the river and hit the road for
home. By the time we got back everyone
was spent and I was BURNED. For some
reason, I thought I would do better with the sun over here, sadly that was not
the case and my back has been hurting for the past two days.
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| Bridge over Troubled Water |
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| View from the Bridge to the kids |
Beyond, the trip to the beach we’ve started some new things
at the house. For example, Safira has
been leading Yoga every morning which has been wonderful. Historically I’ve not really had the patience
for Yoga, however, I’ve really started to enjoy it. It’s a great way to start the day, on a
peaceful and fulfilling foot.
Additionally, we just introduced Kickball to the Kopila kids. After some serious patience, and a steep learning curve, we had our best game
to date last night. It’s really been a
wonderful game in terms of getting everyone involved…(some of the children are
very young or have physical handicaps).
Also, despite some initial hiccups and frustration I think the
volunteers are really enjoying it as well!
On one final note, practice has begun for the “Kopila’s Got
Talent” talent show! The kids took some
time thinking about what they’re going to do last night, and we’re having our
first rehearsal tomorrow. I think I’m
going to do some sort of song and dance, but have yet to decide exactly what. Stay tuned….
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