St Cath's at the Dream Centre

We have just bid farewell to a fantastic group of teachers and students from St Catherine’s School Waverley, Sydney. The group comprised 15 students and 2 teachers and they spent 3 days with us working with the facilitators and girls from both Dream Centres. Their brief had been to prepare activities focused on the Skills for Life component of our Dream Centre curriculum.

Last Saturday (10^th April) we held a full day picnic at Godavari (just outside Kathmandu) and this proved the perfect ice breaker. Within minutes of our arrival all of the girls had split into groups and were introducing themselves and asking all kinds of questions about Australia and Nepal. The St Cath’s girls then showed the Dream Centre girls some books about Australia and Australian animals which were a huge hit.

All the girls were then divided into 2 teams to compete against each other in captain ball and tunnel ball. It was amazing to see how quickly all of the girls became comfortable and began working together. Following this, one of the Nepali girls taught everyone a couple of games and before we knew it, lunch time had arrived.

Everyone tucked into a well earned plate of dahl bhat and curry and took a rest from the dust and heat in the shade. After lunch girls from each group shared some dances and songs they had prepared and they attempted to teach the other side with mixed results! Much too soon the time arrived to board the bus back to Kathmandu. The picnic was a huge success and set the scene for the remainder of the work at the Wiley Dream Centre.

On Sunday, (11^th) we traveled to the Wiley Dream Centre in Chandol in Kathmandu. The girls from the Baneshwor Dream Centre also met us there. After a quick quiz contest and some other games to get things started the girls again divided into groups and started working through the activities planned by the St Cath’s group. The activities included anagrams with names, journal writing and creating goal ladders. After a quick snack break we resumed with some craft activities and finished the afternoon by starting work on friendship bracelets.

Tuesday (13^th) was our last day together (Monday was cancelled due to a strike, that ultimately didn’t proceed!) and everyone made the most of it. Arriving at noon it was straight into some more games before dividing into small groups for reading practice. This was followed by Maths activities and games of UNO which were a huge hit. We had an hour lunch break which gave the girls time to ‘shoot some hoops’ on the basketball court outside. Then, in the final session we continued with the Maths activities and UNO before moving onto origami to finish the program.

Very quickly 5pm arrived and it was time to pack up. No one wanted to leave though as they were all having so much fun. A frenzy of photo taking and gift giving ensued along with pleas not to forget each other and to ‘please visit our Dream Centre again’. St Cath’s presented a number of wonderful gifts to the centre including some patchwork quilts made at the school, and a school t-shirt presented to Chetana (our Nepal Project Manager) for all her hard work in organising the programs.

We must especially thank St Cath’s teachers Sarah Hatch and Keith Hartmann for their hard work and preparation as well as motivating their students to give their all and consequently get so much out of the programs. It was a pleasure to host such an impressive group of girls and they will have left a lasting impact on the girls from the Dream Centres.