Today Lumsa school had a program for us … was a great way to spend New Year’s Day and also the first day of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 so this made the day even more special.
We hiked up to the school early to sort the jumpers and beanies to be distributed to the kids later that day. While we waited for the program to start we did a tour of the classrooms to check out the whiteboards and skylights. There was a dedication to NAFA on the bottom of the whiteboards so we took lots of photos with the kids in front of the whiteboards.
The program started and we were given masses of katas and flowers by the students, teachers and other community members. A group of Sherpa women did the traditional Sherpa song and dance which was a real treat. There were many speeches and the children danced and sang.
Then we all walked up to the classroom that housed the library and I had the honour of cutting the ribbon on the door to officially open the library. The library looked fantastic … beautiful shelving and desks and benches with NAFA written on the desks. You could tell the teachers and students were very proud of the work they had done in setting up this library for the students and community.
After lunch (in one of the teachers houses with a very smoky fire!!) we distributed the jumpers and beanies donated by NAFA to all the kids. We were 9 short so these are to be sent up later to the kids who missed out.
Then we were presented with a Happy New Year cake. Brenda cut the cake and every single child (at least 100) got a small piece of cake to enjoy. Brenda then presented some sporting equipment donated by NAFA and I presented the colourful bi-lingual library books donated by Room to Read. We took the books up to the library and displayed them on the shelves and Brenda did a quick lesson with some of the students on how to use and enjoy the library books. The kids took turns to read the English and the Nepali. We then spent some time with the kids making butterflies out of pipe cleaners & beads Brenda had brought from Australia. This was extremely popular with the kids and we were absolutely smothered by them cos they all wanted to see what we were doing and to have a go … was so much fun!
The day finished with everyone, even the three of us, dancing … need more practice on the Nepali dance steps! Was a fantastic day with the Lumsa School community and a New Years Day I won’t forget for a long time.
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