Oh boy, here we go…

Thank you so much to the friends and family who have donated so far. We have already collected more than enough funds (and so quickly, thank you) and due to a perfect opportunity that has arisen in our busy schedules, we are going to deliver the books and equipment that we have already collected TODAY!

A week ago, the school teachers at Chankhu Besi gave us a wish list of items that they would like to have and Uday (our Nepali language guru) and I spent our free time after work scouring the Kathmandu markets to find the best deals.

Aside from the 220 Room to Read Local Language Books (and we are still getting more) we already managed to purchase, we were also able to get:

• Maadal Nepali drum one set (we threw in an extra one)
• Baasuri flute (we threw in five)
• Cassette player and 2 nursery rhyme tapes (English and Nepali)
• Accordion powered piano keyboard (wait till you see what this thing looks like)
• 5 footballs
• 2 Volleyballs
• 5 Skipping ropes
• Dolls as teaching materials
• Rack or cupboard with glass on it
• Paper, cardboards, and chart paper
• Dust bins
• Boardmarkers, Pencils, Pencil crayons
• 4 water jugs and a 40L water container
• Calculators
• Wall clock
• Various flip charts with pictures
• Number chart (Nepali and English)
• A world map (I can finally show them where Canada is)
• Stacks and stacks of writing notebooks and materials

The school has about 60 children, all between the ages of 3 – 10. The 4 school teachers along with a few villagers will be meeting Uday and I at around noon at the top of the hill to help carry the various items down.

I am very excited but also quite a bit nervous at the same time. Aside from the needed items mentioned above, I hear that most of the community members have been really eager to see all us again (most of which have been calling our mobile phones non-stop ever since we have left). Unfortunately, due to time conflicts, the availability of Uday (very important as he can translate), and that most of the volunteers are out of valley, I am the only one who can make it back today. Nonetheless, my visit will be short and sweet with a direct visit to the school and a quick visit to my Parajuli family. I’m sure we will all be back for an official “Return to Chankhu Besi” visit soon.

Stay tuned for photos and video footage of the event.