Day 3 - Another Crazy Picnic Program!

On Thursday morning the majority of the group were starting to look a little weary from all the running around with kids here, Nepalese kids seem to have unlimited amounts of energy no matter how hot and/or dusty the conditions are! We therefore did allow everyone a bit of a sleep in as the day's program was only a short bus ride from their hotel in Thamel.

When we arrived at Sankha Park in Dhumbarahi a huge tent had already been erected and about 60 kids were enjoying a breakfast feast! They were extremely excited to see the interesting group of foreigners arrive and before long breakfast was forgotten as it was much more fun to be singing and dancing with the visitors.

The program for the day was organised by our partner CWISH, and we hosted about 120 kids from around Kathmandu. Almost all of the children in attendance were child domestic workers that we have been assisting through CWISH. They attend CWISH's drop-in centres to receive non-formal education which after 9 months will have them at a level where they can commence proper schooling. Thursday was especially exciting for more than half of the kids as it was a celebration of them having completed the non-formal classes and they would soon be going to school for the first time. This became very real for the kids when a tailor arrived mid-morning to take their measurements for school uniforms!

In a previous post I have mentioned some statistics that show the disturbing situation for many children in Nepal. In particular, there are about 21,000 children working as domestic workers in Kathmandu and around 100,000 across the country. The children attending the program last Thursday were part of these statistics. I think this really brought home the harsh reality of life as a child in Nepal for the visitors from Australia. It made the day even more special because we knew these kids did not normally get the opportunity to play or have fun.

So with these sobering thoughts in mind the Aussies lead the kids into a frenzy of games and activities. We had all kinds of things happening at the same time including hot potato, the hokey pokey, captain ball, balloon races, 'what's the time mr wolf?', skipping with possibly the biggest rope we had ever seen, and so on. It seemed as though the kids' energy would never wain but after a solid couple of hours of playing faces started to look tired and the announcement that lunch was ready was welcomed by all. Thankfully the play area was situated under some lovely big trees so there was some respite from the midday heat which has been quite severe here recently.

Lunch was a huge feast of dahl bhat cooked by a mobile catering group and the kids all ate huge plate loads, much to the amusement and sometimes horror of the visitors. Part of the reason for the enthusiastic eating was that the kids knew what was happening after lunch - presentation of their books and pencils to start school! This would be exciting enough for kids in Australia let alone for the kids here who in some cases had not been to school before.

Once all of the visitors had finished their lunch we preceded to the presentation area where all of the kids were already sitting, the anticipation in the air was palpable. Each of the people from Australia had a turn at presenting some of the kids with their packs and before long the anticipation was replaced by sheer joy as the kids tore into their packs to see what they would be taking to school each day! As the last packs were presented it was time for the visitors to leave. As we looked behind us we were surprised to see that an impromptu disco had commenced on the grass. I'm not sure where the kids found the energy but it does remind us that kids are ultimately the same the world over.