VaaO episode 4: 01/10/2016 - 'Tattoo making'

Today was the 4th day of us visiting the orphanage. It is very fun when we go every week to an orphanage to help children, it is an honour to be able to attend and a golden opportunity. This week we were running a bit short on time since most of our team members needed to leave at 12 PM instead of 1 PM, so we only did the activity for 1 hour this week. That 1 hour was more than enough to give us satisfaction and make the children have a happy time and day! In that 1 hour we managed to do various activities efficiently. The main activities we did were:

• Tattoo making on their hands.
• Coloring
• Music and dance
• Reading
• Played football
• Team building activities
• They watched us do cards tricks
• Distribution of pen and pencil to the children by us.

At the end of our activities we wished them happy Dashain (a very big and famous festival in Nepal at this time of the year). We also told them that we would not be coming for the next 3 weeks because it is Dashain and we had holidays from school, some members were going on a holiday but most importantly, most children won’t be there and they would be going somewhere for Dashain, so we told them that we won’t come too. I’ll miss them for 3 weeks!

VaaO episode 3: 24/09/2016 - 'Lets paint'

Today was the 3rd day. Today’s main focus was on painting/hand printing. We split the group of children into 2, one group is instructed to read and the other group is instructed to paint or hand print (for smaller kids). Today’s episode will be focused on a particular boy/girl who was the star of the day!

Star of the day:

The name of the star was Minesh Limbhu. He is 11 years old, studying at the Pinagal Academy school. Today, all students were amazing but this boy was an exception. He made a very good painting and he challenged himself, that’s what I liked the most about him. We had told him to do hand printing but he said he wanted to make a painting, so we said okay. He made a masterpiece which was unexpected. Picture attached.  He was also a very nice and kind boy, followed instructions and listened carefully to us. He had also introduced himself very nicely. He was a confident speaker, wasn’t shy to talk to us. We all liked him very much. All students had made a painting or did a hand print, but his painting and the amount of effort he had put into that work was above our expectations! He had also helped me organize all the paintings. The way he had read was beneficial not just for him but 3 other children as well. He was basically reading a book and then 3 little children came up to him, who didn’t know how to read English very well, so as he was reading his book he was translating the story into Nepali and explaining it to the other 3 children which was indeed very impressive. We all just loved him!

VaaO episode 2: 17/09/2016 - 'Change your station'

Today was the 2nd day. Me and my friends (Nin-waam, Sneha, Tencho, Suvrat, Dhanvi)- we are doing this together in a group because it will be more beneficial for children at the orphanage. As a starter activity we played passing the ‘passing the parcel’ game with them and whoever the parcel had stopped onto had to say there name, age, school, class and what they like the most. Then, after a few minutes we divided them into 3 groups and made a circuit. One of the circuits was coloring, another was reading, and the last one was sports activities. Each group was at each station for 20 minutes with 2 of us on each station with them for help. They rotated and went to the next activity after 20 minutes, and then again, so they all got a chance to do everything. To finish off, we played music for the last 15 minutes and gave them freedom to do what they liked and wanted to do. Some danced, some played football, some read, some played indoor games, etc. We also gave them chocolates just before leaving! It was fun overall!

Volunteering at an Orphange (VaaO) episode 1: 10/09/2016

After organizing this great opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage with friends, we all met at the Swimming pool, Satdobato at first. Then we all went to the orphanage and met the lady in charge and I talked to her and told her that I came last week, and then she welcomed us inside. It was very nice of her. We went to her office and told her the days and timing we are planning to come at and what we will be doing generally. She was very happy and so were we. She introduced us to the children, there were about 30 children and then each child stood up and introduced himself/herself to us. The children were approximately 6-14 years old. They all seemed very well mannered and nice children and they were. After a while when we got to know them and since it was the first day we mostly only played with them and they did what they wanted, we just guided them  roughly. In a while, the main owner of the orphanage arrived. She was a kind hearted and a nice lady. She welcomed all of us and asked us where we are from, our names and why we are doing this. She also welcomed us by giving us all a scarf. Picture attached. Another thing, we were so excited about this that we even forgot to ask the lady’s name!

Volunteering at an Orphanage (VaaO)!- check out all the episodes!

Shreyas Agrawal Year 10, The British School, Jhamsikhel, Kathmandu, Nepal.

As part of my Duke of Edinburgh award at the bronze level, in the service category, I have chosen to volunteer at an orphanage called ‘Loving Home’ located in Satdobato, Kathmandu, Nepal. I will be doing this for over 6 months, for 2 hours (11 am to 1 pm) every Saturday, with a few of my friends.

Call for VOLUNTEERS:

Firstly, before starting anything, I would like to thank my parents for giving me support to take part in this marvellous opportunity.

When I got to know that we have to do a service for 3 months in order to receive a bronze certificate for Duke of Edinburgh, I was confused as in what I should do that would be beneficial for the society and at the same time also give me happiness and satisfaction along with learning. Me and friends (Nin-waam, Sneha, Tencho, Dhanvi, Suvrat) made a group together and decided to do something together so it would be more beneficial. We had a brain full of different ideas of what we could do for a service, but could not decide on which would be perfect and meet all the requirements. After involving a lot of discussions, we came to a conclusion that we should volunteer at an orphanage and help little children live a better life. That way, it is beneficial for the society, gives us happiness and satisfaction and we also learn how to cooperate with small children and also enhance learning leadership skills.

My dad had also given me a brilliant idea of volunteering at an orphanage and also encouraged me. Also, my mom used to regularly go to an orphanage to donate items with a few of her friends. I got to know that, the orphanage she used to go was nearby and was suitable for us to go and volunteer. My mom helped me a lot in organizing this; she called one of her friends asking her for the contact of the orphanage. When I went to the orphanage with one of my friends just to organize everything, as soon as I told them that I live in sunrise homes and my mom and her friends come here, they immediately recognized me. Without my mom supporting me attend the orphanage, this would not have been possible. Thanks a lot to my mom.

Varanasi travelogue

THIS TRAVELLOGE IS ONLY FOR VARANASI. SINCE VARANASI WAS THE ONLY NEW PLACE I WENT TO IN THIS AUGUST 2016 TRIP

Trip to Varanasi

Our trip started by landing at Delhi Airport from Kathmandu on 3rd August, 2016. From Delhi airport we went straight to Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. That is where we go to pray to our god. On the way back from Jhunjhunu to Delhi we stopped at a few temples. We stayed in Delhi for 2 days, and then got the train to Gorakhpur. Next morning we were in Gorakhpur. Went to my mom’s house; party. Then we went to my dad’s house and then headed for Varanasi also referred as Banaras with my parents, my younger brother, my grandmother and also my elder cousin sister.

Day 1:

Reaching Varanasi…
The train from Deoria (my dad’s house) came to Varanasi City station at 10:30 am. My uncle (fufaji) and cousin brother were at the station waiting for us. We went to their new house they had just moved to in Varanasi. I was happy to meet my aunt (buaji), my cousin brothers and also my little cousin sister. We had some traditional kachori sabji at their house as breakfast which was indeed delicious.

Temples…
The month of August is considered as the month of worshipping Lord Shiva. This entire month is dedicated in receiving blessings of Lord Shiva, known as Sawan. In Varanasi is the most famous temple dedicated to Lord Shiva known as Kashi Vishwanath Temple. After breakfast and shower we headed to Viswanath Temple. The traffic was deadly. I will talk more about that later. After Viswanath temple we went to my uncle’s (taoji) house near that temple. We were in their house for about 2 hours and in the mean time my parents were shopping. From their house we went to another temple called Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple. It was 7:00 pm by the time we finished everything at Sankat Mochan. After having some ice cream we headed back to my uncle’s (fufaji) house. It was 8:30 pm by the time reached the house. The house from that temple is only around 2km, which took us 1 hour 30 minutes! I know that shocking, but that’s the time it takes with Varanasi traffic especially in this month.

Reached home…
After reaching home no one had the energy to cook food and eat, so we just decided to go out for dinner in a restaurant. The restaurant was good and had mouth-watering food. After getting back from the restaurant we all just slept without wasting even a second! That was the level of tiredness we had from the whole day of visiting temples and especially wasting hours stuck in the traffic.

Day 2:

Ganga River…
I woke up at 5:00 am to go the holy river Ganges. Ganges flows through India and also Bangladesh. We had left the house by 6:00 am and reached by 6:15 am at the Dashashwamedh Ghat. We took a little bath in the Ganges. It was very relaxing and pleasurable. It is considered that if you take a bath in the Ganges then your body is purified. After the bath we went to another temple to do another puja after being purified. Later we had breakfast.

Going back from Varanasi …
Our last stop was my uncle's (taoji) house where I went with my parents. He owned a very stunning hotel called Hari Vilaas, which was indeed very neat and clean. We were at their house for around 30 minutes and in that time he also order a pasta with white sauce for us from his restaurant which was without any doubt extremely delicious.

The departing time of the train was 2:00 pm. We had planned to leave their house by 1:00 pm, it takes 45 minutes to reach. I started booking an Ola cab at 12:30 pm so it would come by 1:00 pm, because in Varanasi it takes a long time for Ola’s. I could not find any cabs, none showed up on the app. Then after around 10 minutes one prime showed up, I immediately booked that one and rang the driver. He said he will be there in 15 minutes so I confirmed the booking.

After 10 minutes I called him again to ask, how long will he take? He told me he would be there in another 10 minutes; we started to think that it might get late. We still waited for 10 minutes for him to come. He didn’t arrive. I called him again and he said another 10 minutes! I cancelled the booking and then we decided to look for another one immediately. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any cabs until 1:20 pm. We were already very late!

So, we decided to squash into a Solar Auto, which was all we could find, after all not that bad, until we realized that he had brought us to the wrong railway station! It was 1:30 pm. You can probably imagine the situation we were at – super tensed and worried! My dad got angry at the driver and was like why did you come to this place? Immediately go to the other station! I don’t have any words to describe that moment, because it wasn’t just the fact that we would miss the train but the fact that half of the people – cousin sister and my younger brother didn’t come to my uncle’s (taoji) house, they stayed back at my other uncle’s (fufaji) house and they had already reached the station with luggage and had sat in the train. That moment was extremely nerve-racking!

After 2-3 minutes we saw a gas Auto which would run much faster than the solar auto, we shifted to that auto and told him to accelerate as fast as possible to the railway station, it was 1:45 pm. That guy – the auto driver was an extremely kind hearted person, he drove the fastest he had ever in his entire life and made us reach in time to the railway station. He was just a god who had appeared to help us! We reached the railway station at 1:50 pm, which was just in time! The train departed at 2:00 pm, on time, which was the end of our beautiful, happy and memorable journey!

By- Shreyas Agrawal,
Year 10,
The British School, Kathmandu, Nepal  
 

Dharahara article

I have written an article titled THE LIFE, PAIN AND DEATH OF DHARAHARA on the anniversary of earthquake. This article is based on a beautiful painting which I saw in an exhibition at Siddhartha Art Gallery.

THE LIFE, PAIN AND DEATH OF DHARAHARA 

I AM DHARAHARA. Oh no! I was Dharahara , the tallest building in Nepal. God! Me? Really me? Yes it was me who fell down in the devastating Earthquake which hit Nepal with a rector scale of 7.8! As I started to shake, I knew my death was coming. In a few seconds I was dying myself. Within a few seconds, from being the biggest attraction in the city, I became the biggest killer. From giving smiles to people's face, to killing hundreds of people and breaking into hundreds of pieces before my last breath. Did I deserve this? Did I actually kill them? When I fell it was horrible, hurtful and haunting for me. 

There was a small house next to me and that was in danger, all my fault. Me, the evil building, fell on the house killing all the people in the house as well as people around it. Lots of dust and dirt stormed as I fell to the ground. It really was painful. Me, a beautiful sparkling white tower, in no time, turned into a gloomy, grey and ugly mix of my debris and dead bodies. 

I died a year ago along with my dearest people. I know, Kathmandu wants to create me again, taller than before, stronger than before. But I am finished, I am dead. My soul is not. I can reincarnate. Thank you Kathmandu. 

 Shreyas Agrawal Year 9,
The British School, Kathmandu, Nepal. 
The writing is inspired by the painting.