3RD JANUARY

This morning I set out for a walk to the next village to visit a “children's village” there. It was a warm morning and I was soon taking off my coat. The road was long and winding and I met a Korean lady, Jean who was doing the same walk so we walked along together and chatted. She had just completed a ten day trek and was looking to do some volunteer work.


The road led out of town following Lake Fewa into the countryside. On one side of the road were fisherman and on the other small farms and rising hills. The roadway was generally a single lane and often dirt. Most vehicles were tractors, buses or motor cycles. At the end of the lake was a swampy open area. Here when the lake was low the farmers grow rice and animals graze. The Sherpas bring their horses down to graze for winter and there were numerous buffalo. It seemed to be hay harvesting time and all across the flat land at the end of the lake farmers seemed to be cutting and stacking hay. We stopped at one farm to take pictures. Once we broke the ice with the locals by showing them pictures of themselves there was much laughing and posing for pictures. It made one old farmer's day to get his photo taken with Jean and when the others ribbed him he couldn't get the smile off his face. We took photos of the cattle threshing the hay, the farmers stacking it and loading it onto a truck or carting it off on their backs.



At the village we were met by two Swiss volunteers who we knew from Lakeside and who were now working at the children's village. It is a large orphanage sponsored from Germany and houses 60 orphans. They have a large complex with four separate houses for the orphans, with each house having two house mothers. There is also houses for the volunteers to stay in.

After the visit we kept along the road. There was a small monastery, still being built. There were tents on the roof for sleeping quarters. We also crossed a river feeding into the lake by pulling ourselves across on a small punt or raft. It was beautiful countryside, so quiet, and the people so friendly once you talked to them. We probably walked nearly ten kilometres so caught a local bus back into town. Jean was disappointed that we didn't have to ride on top of the bus.

In the late afternoon we were back up at The Everest Children's home. Amanda had met three Australians (Jude, Johnno, Jade) and an American tourist (Kristen) on New Years eve and we had taken them to the home as they were interested in some volunteer work. Yesterday they moved up into the volunteers' room there. They decided to tackle the chicken coop! After more discussions and drawings they today went to the markets. About 6.30 the two boys and Chandra arrived back with a large load of second-hand timber. In the dark (another blackout) all the volunteers and all the children carted pieces of wood up the steep hill to the home