The kids finished their semester exams and had a week holiday.  We took them outside the valley to Pharping, a rural town with several Buddhist pilgrimage sites, clean air and mountain views.  4 boxes of Christmas presents also arrived!  My mom Heidi gathered 20 shoeboxes full of gifts for the kids.  At first the kiddos didn’t know what to do with the boxes but once they realized the cool stuff inside was really for them they were elated!  That night they couldn’t sleep and several snuck out of their beds to check on their new markers, crayons, hairclips etc.  On Saturday they decided to write thank you cards and draw pictures to show their  gratitude.  3 hours later they were still coloring, cutting, writing and designing their Masterpieces of Thanks.        

Across the valley the nuns of Ngoedrub Charbeb Ling nunnery are preparing for a trip to Bodhgaya, India to participate in the Nyingma Monlam, an annual prayer festival where thousands of monks, nuns and Ngakpas pray and meditate 8-12 hours a day together for two weeks straight while seated around a tree marking the place where Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment.  The nuns are excited for their teacher to return in a few weeks and are hoping for more support to start coming for the monastery.

       Well for the time being, the power is back on for 8 hours a day.  A great leap from 4 hours.  Several large protests around the Kathmandu valley against the increased load shedding forced the government to turn the lights on a few more hours a day.  While the lights were out 20 hours a day, we didn’t have power long enough to fill our water tank on top of the house.  Meaning, we had no water for a week.  No lights, no water and a propane shortage all led to an interesting week.  Now, for the time being we have water and were able to buy some propane but you never know what tomorrow may bring here.

      Anjit, Anjana and I met with an NGO this week, Volunteer Society of Nepal.  They host international volunteers around Nepal, run an orphanage and school and fund several other projects.  They are sending a health volunteer monthly to give checkups and also offered to send volunteers to help the kids learn English.  Since our failed clothing drive brought no winter clothes to our home we also asked if they had any ideas on where to get donated or cheap jackets.  They offered to buy our kids jackets and warm wool socks to wear while in the house.  “Glorious!  What fortune!” my shouting was not the most appropriate response, but uncontrollable.

      Anjana is keeping everyone accountable with her accounting and is working to make more contacts with other NGO’s in the valley.  She starts her grant proposal and NGO management course February 2nd.  Our big decision for this coming week is whether or not to buy her a new scooter.  For going to and from class and building and maintaining our burgeoning NGO network walking and Kathmandu public transit won’t cut it.  She’s bringing us 3 options this week and it looks like she’ll have a bike by Wednesday. 

Nun Project   

      I moved across the valley to Ngoedrub Charbeb Ling Nunnery for the much of the week to see my nun sisters and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Khenpo Konchok Monlam Rinpoche.  Rinpoche is currently in Hong Kong teaching and raising money to keep the monastery running.  Currently there are only 11 nuns, down from 22 last spring.  The lack of funding has forced Rinpoche to travel looking for sponsors leaving the nuns without a teacher.  Several left to other nunnerys and others returned to Tibet.  Looks like it’s time for us to kick the Nun sponsorship program into overdrive.

We added some new stuff to the website.  I changed the Photo Album to be prettier, and we’ve got a new project to help support a monastery in Tibet.  Each project now has its’ own page, which you can access from the Current Projects page or the dropdown menu under Current Projects.  Be sure to check out the new Tibetan Nun Project to find out the details of the latest organization Padma is helping support.