Weekend Update

Well its hard to believe that I have already been in Kathmandu for 2 weeks – time flies when you’re having fun! It has been fantastic to see all of our friends again and on the work front they have all been doing an amazing job, which then makes my job that much easier and more enjoyable. On the political front, the elections are set for 10th April and so far it appears that they will be going ahead. There has been some small pockets of unrest in the Terai and other outer areas but I think the general consensus is that everyone is fairly serious about doing this properly and getting on with governing the country so let’s hope for the best.


As I sit in the café of the Kathmandu Guest House to write this I am struggling to know where to begin. It has been a very hectic time as I have traversed the city numerous times for meetings, and then some more meetings, each time drinking numerous cups of Nepali tea (think Chai), to make sure all the logistics are sorted for Thulo April 2008. I guess the best thing to say here is that all of our plans have been implemented as hoped and I can’t wait until our visitors start arriving and we start the real work! It is going to be such an amazing month of new and exciting initiatives and the support and passion from our partners here in making preparations has been brilliant. Our timetable is set and I will list it here so you can follow our progress:

4th – 5th April: Women Journalists’ Workshop, being conducted by Janet O’Connor and held in conjunction with Working Women Journalists Nepal.

16th – 19th April: Implementation of the 100 Views project, being conducted by Libby Hathorn at the Model School. This will include numerous sessions of teacher training incorporating art and poetry and will be followed by an official launch of the program, the first one outside of Australia! The teachers and students are going to start creating various pieces of work all based on and inspired by Mt Everest. This is an ongoing project that will culminate in a festival at the school in which all of the work will be put on display for the students, teachers, parents and the wider community. In addition to this we will be setting up an online contact between students from the school and students from schools that have implemented the program in Australia so that they can share their experiences.


21st April: The students from MLC Sydney will be visiting the Bal Mandir orphanage and providing a entertaining program on the importance of personal hygiene and looking after your environment. With around 100 excitable Nepali kids present this is no doubt going to be a hilarious afternoon of fun.

22nd April: The MLC group then head to the school in Phulbari where they will be painting a mural, implementing a rubbish sorting system (what we hope will start a revolution in Nepal!), and challenging the local school children to a game of volleyball!


23rd April: MLC then travel to Bhaktapur to visit the boys in the Bhaktapur Muscular Dystrophy Centre. They will be divided into small groups with the boys and compete in a treasure hunt amongst the ancient temples and alleyways of Bhaktapur, finishing with a picnic lunch in the grounds of a UNESCO awarded traditional newari style house.

24th April: This day’s program sees MLC conducting teacher training programs for different class levels at the Model School.

25th April: MLC’s work culminates in a cultural program at the model school in which the local students will perform some tradition songs and dances and the MLC students will reciprocate – should be interesting!

Hmmm, now I am feeling quite tired just thinking about it! Somewhere amongst all of these activities we have to find time to visit all of the girls with scholarships, launch the Daisy Chains program, launch the Pets as Therapy program, collect report cards for all of the scholarship girls and keep everyone updated through this blog. Oh well, sleep is just a state of mind anyway!