Recylcing Paper

Kopila House does its best to cooperate with the environment. It can be difficult when it comes to recycling because there are currently no programs to collect civilian glass, paper or other reusable materials. Last year a man stopped at the house to collect paper from old notebooks along with several other recyclable materials.

Upon Dinesh’s request he returned for a second visit. You can see in the pictures below, everyone is eager to help with the collection of the old notebooks for the collection man. The going rate for a kilo of notebook paper is 7 rupees. You can see in the pictures below as he uses his hand scale to measure the total weight of paper collected. The house and the environment will benefit for the reuse of the paper.

Dinesh and KC look on as the papers are weighed by a hand scale. Laxmi gets a closer look and agrees, "This one looks good!"

Nothing goes on at the house without Santosh (orange shirt) checking it out. He leads the rest of the crew (Amrit, Binita, Sarita, Rina, Santosh and Sharan; left to right) as the papers are separated.

Radio Show

Kopila House is located at the old entrance to the main local university. Students pass Kopila throughout the course of the day. Many stop to watch the children or see what is going on at the house.

Recently, Dinesh was contacted by a student who has a radio show on ‘Pokhara Air’. The student asked if several of the children from the house could join his hour long show. The student brings children on the show on a monthly basis to sing songs and tell jokes.

Dhiraj, Babit, Mina and Maya (the four oldest) were selected to be on the air. Dinesh prepared with the kids beforehand and readied them with songs and jokes. Babit had learned a joke at home so he would share it with the air waves, the others would be singing songs.

Dinesh, KC and I took the kids to the radio station about a half hour before the show started. You could see the happiness turn to nervousness as we exited the taxi at the station. Mina, the most boisterous of the bunch, was even calmed to only a few words before the program began.

The program commenced with introductions followed by songs and jokes. After a short break, the four children sang the Kopila House song together. It was followed by another round of jokes and songs for the children. To conclude the program, Dinesh, KC and I were introduced. KC and I then sang a popular Nepalese folk song with the kids. Needless to say, all the kids did an incredible job. The radio team even spoke with Dinesh after to see if the kids might be available in the future.

As we entered the house, it erupted. Everyone had huddled around the radio to listen to the show. The didis and children welcomed the new local stars of Pokhara Air.

The Fearsome Foursome before going on air (Maya, Mina, Dhiraj and Babit).

Every radio in Pokhara was tuned into 95.8 for the performance.

Dinesh with the kids during one of the breaks.

Dhiraj on the microphone pleasing the people of Pokhara with "Jingle Bells".

Football Match

As KC and I were reading the local paper, we noticed that the Nepalese National Football Team was hosting two international friendly matches against Pakistan in Pokhara. It’s a rarity for the National Team to play in Pokhara and we thought it would be a great activity for several of the older boys who live, eat and breathe football.

Dinesh had heard from a friend about the matches and it was agreed that Dinesh and I would take the older boys (Amrit, Dhiraj and Babit) to the match. After Dinesh told the boys, it took me back to hearing my father say we were going to Disney World. Their faces lit up with excitement. It was everyone’s first trip to the local stadium for a football match. We arrived well before game time to get seats in the shade. Ranjit, a Kopila House Board member, had reserved several plastic chairs for us. The boys looked at Dinesh and I a bit puzzled then asked Dinesh when we would be taking the field in Nepali. I guess Dinesh and I never explained that we would not be playing with the national team against Pakistan's national team, only watching. They were not dissappointed as the stadium quickly filled and without a seat in site it was time for kickoff.

The snacks for the game in included a local favorite dalmouth (corn flakes, dried soy beans, peas, peanuts and chili powder) and dry low mein packets. Amrit decided to use the sauce packet from his low mein package, quickly making a sticky mess. The rest of us decided to save our sweet and sour sauce and the mess for a later time.
The deciding goal was scored by Pakistan in the 46th minute of the 2nd half. It was an exciting match and an afternoon the boys will remember for a long time.

















Amrit with Dinesh and Ranjit in the background. He is normally all over getting his picture taken but a more important event was getting all of his attention.

















The Nepalese and Pakistan national teams poise before game time. Pokhara is trying to establish its self as a center for football in Nepal. The national team plays outside of Katmandu on a extremely limited basis for matches in Nepal. By the show of support for the city, football should be coming back to Pokhara soon.


























Amrit, Babit and Dhiraj before game time.

Holi

Holi (also called Holaka or Phagwa) is an annual Hindu festival celebrated on the day after the full moon in the Hindu month of Phalguna (early March). It celebrates spring, commemorates various events in Hindu mythology and is time of disregarding social norms and indulging in general merrymaking. The central ritual of Holi is the throwing and applying of colored water and powders on friends and family, which gives the holiday its common name "Festival of Colors."

Obviously the children absolutely love this holiday (as did Gordon and I). Everyone ran around the yard with water balloons and water guns, spraying colored water on eachother...which then turned to buckets of colored water poured over heads and handfuls of paint spread across faces.

It was a wonderful day!

The whole gang after hours of fun...not a frown among us.

Saran and Sandeep fill up their water guns with red colored water.

The didis refill our supply of colored water.

Rina, trying to open her water gun package.

Mina as she tries to hit Gordon with a water balloon

Dinesh giving water balloons to a very excited Sabita.

The children, already covered in paint, line up for more supplies.

We'll post a link with more pictures of holi later....there are so many great ones.