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In order to let more interested people to know about the orphanage easily, I had interviewed the members of Edventure Nepal. So when some volunteers would make a website for them, the articles can be put on there. During the interviews, I was deeply touched by the innocence of the children and also by their determinations to contribute to the society. Although they are living in one of the poorest countries in the world and they all have their heart-breaking stories to tell, their determinations of humanitarian work are indeed much stronger than many people who are living in any developed countries.
Amrit, Chairman of Edventure, 27years old
A simple man with high thinking
The seed of starting an orphanage in Nepal has long been planted in Amrit’s life.
When he was 18 years old, his father suddenly got cancer. With limited income, he had to drop out from school and worked as a teacher in a remote area in Kaski District(near Pokhara), so as to support the enormous expenses of his father’s medication. For 2 years, he and his sister were taking care of his father in the hospital. Nonetheless, his father still passed away painfully at the end.
During the time he was working in the village, daily stricken by seeing the suffering of his father and the condition of the poor children, he started to think about what he could do to help all those children.
After his father had passed away, he started working full time as a teacher in Pokhara, so as to pay off the tuition fees of his bachelor degree. In this school, he met Tulasi (the vice-chairman of EdventureNepal) who was a cleaner at the school. The fact that Tulasi was tortured by her ex-husband a lot struck him a lot. He was always trying to help Tulasi in the school kitchen and walking her back home in the late evening.
With all the compassion towards the misfortunate situations of Tulasi and the underprivileged children in the village, he realized that if he only worked as a teacher, receiving a very low pay each month, was not enough to help others than himself. So he left for Kathmandu to work in a travel agency which also had supports to an orphanage. From there, he learnt a lot about how to run a non-profit organization.
In the meantime, his sister was diagnosed with kidney failure. In the fear that he would lose another family member, he quit his job, together with his brother-in-law, they took care of her for months and they even went to India to search for better medication. To their greatest relief, his sister’s situation started to turn stable. He was relieved and went back to Kathmandu.
With no job, but bills to pay, he was thinking about his next move. The dream of starting an organization which helped poor children and Tulasi in his home town, Pokhara appeared to him again. With the advices of his brother-in-law, who worked in the Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu, he managed to register Edventure Nepal successfully in April, 2011.
He and Tulasi then rescued the 3 sisters Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga, together with Tulasi’s daughter, Laxmi, 6 of them are now living in the orphanage in Pokhara.
With compassion, inner strength and implementing what he learnt, he would like to grow Edventure Nepal step by step and leads it to be one of the leading non-profit organizations in Nepal. Hopefully in the future, he could travel to other countries, except seeing the world to broaden his horizon, he would visit other non-profit organizations and be inspired by them, so he could implement the new ideas in this orphanage. In this way, they could uplift more and more underprivileged children and let them be the change of the future world.
Tulasi, Vice-Chairman of Edventure Nepal, 35 years old
A tough woman with a tender heart
In Nepal, a country which is dominated by male, women always lack of care and supports. One may wonder, why Tulasi, an illiterate mother of 3 children is so devoted to work in this charitable organization, even though she needed to do hard labour to support the orphans’ living at the beginning.
It is all because of her similar childhood background and her unfortunate marriage. When she was a girl, her father married another woman. Since then, she had no more love and affection from her father and she was deprived of education opportunities.
When she grew up, she was first living with her sister and her brother-in-law as her parents couldn’t support her living. She wanted her marriage to be arranged by her father, but he didn’t even care about Tulasi at all. Finally, her brother-in-law arranged a marriage for her. Only when she got married, she found out her ex-husband happened to be neurotics and violent. All the three children were not conceived under her free will, they all happened when she fell unconscious after severe beating from his ex-husband. His ex-husband was always hitting Tulasi with his hand or kicking her with his leg without any reasons. He even tried to strangle his own baby when he was drunken. Shocked by this incident, she finally made the decision to leave her ex-husband with her children, and started to work days and nights as a low-skilled labour. Because of that, she got a permanent damage on her spinal cord and often suffers from great pain.
With the help of Amrit, her two sons were sent to a well-established orphanage in Kathmandu. Relieved to see that her sons are under good care and protection, she realized that a good orphanage can really change the lives of underprivileged children, so she would like to help other similar children with her love and cares.
Tulasi is devoting her time days and nights in the orphanage, she would love to see Edventure Nepal blooming, helping more underprivileged children with a bigger and bigger international network. Personally, she dreams to see and travel around the world, especially doing a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India.
Laxmi, 15 years old
A humble and loving young lady
She is the daughter of the Vice-Chairman at Edventure Nepal, Tulasi. Growing up in a single-parent family and seeing all the violence imposed by her father on Tulasi, she is far more mature than her age. Sometimes she shows a flash of confusion amid all her charming smiles. Because of Amrit and her mother’s devotion to help the unfortunate ones, she is also inspired and would like to be a social worker in the future. She wishes that when she could acquire more knowledge and skills, she could assist Amrit in running Edventure Nepal.
Girls in Nepal are usually married in a very early age. However, she doesn’t have this dream. She just wants to be a better person, so as to take care and support her mother and let her mother be proud of her.
Despite all that, she is still a teenage girl. During her free time, she likes to sing Nepali and English pop songs, dancing, drawing and learning computer skills. Her favourite foods are vegetable MoMo (Tibetan dumplings), pizza and chocolate cake.
The 3 sisters, Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga
They are the poor children of Tika Ram and Guma Bastola. They are originally from the remote village of Paiyun (puranchaur VDC, Kaski). Their father suffered a lot from various diseases. Without any proper medical treatments, he was Paralysis. After he had passed away, the mother also went crazy and lost her memory. Since then, the children had been deprived of all sorts of basic necessities. When they were found, they were rescued to the orphanage.
Tulasi, 11years old
The little adult
When she lost her parents, she was taken by her relatives to work in a hotel, washing dishes all day long. After Edventure Nepal has rescued her, she and her two sisters are provided with nutritious food, clothing and education opportunities. Though she is only 11, she is very mature and pro-actively helping to take care of her younger sisters in the orphanage. What is really impressive is that she even shows great care to the people around her and acts like a responsible adult. Her dream is to be a social worker or an English teacher, so she could helps other underprivileged children like what she was once to be. She would also like to do a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India and to study in USA one day.
In her spare time, she likes playing games and dancing. Her favourite colour is black, favourite subjects are Nepali and English and her favourite food are meat and orange.
Yemuna, 9 years old
The source of joy
When She was first brought to Edventure Nepal orphanage, she was somehow disoriented and showed no interest in everything. After about two weeks, she started to regain her charm. Whenever she gets the chance to play, she will give out lots of laughter and always be energetic. Her dream is to become a pilot, so she could travel around the world and see all the wonderful places.
She likes drawing and dancing. Her favourite colour is green, favourite subject is Social Studies (includes Geography and History etc.) and her favourite food are curry pumpkin and pomegranates.
Ganga, 6 years old
The enthusiastic learner
Ganga is the youngest among the three sisters, but she loves to learn and she learns really fast. Sometimes you will see her reading her own books and studying by herself. If any volunteers are in the orphanage, she will definitely come to them and ask to teach her English! Her dream is to travel in a bus so as to see the world, she even imagines that she could become a bus driver so she could travel in the bus all day long.
She likes playing the traditional Nepalese game, carom board. Her favourite colour is Yellow, favourite subject is Mathematics and her favourite foods are dhal (lentils) soup and grape.
I am doing a fund-raising for them, so to equip them with essential furniture, cooking utensils, electrical appliances and a motorbike (as they live on the hill). If you would like to give a helping hand, please let me know by emailing me at pinkgata@gmail.com. Your help will be greatly appreciated!
I still remember when I left India last year, my heart was full of love and compassion. So when I first came back to HK, I continued to practice what I learnt in India and spread selfless love around. However, facing such an extreme capitalist system and society like HK, it was a great challenge to keep my heart pure. After 7months in HK, I had already felt that it was getting more and more difficult to keep my mind and heart in balance.
Here in the orphanage, everyday playing with the children, receiving their innocent love and being like brother and sister with Amrit, I didn’t realized that I had actually become part of their family.
One day, Amrit invited me and Theo to his home which is 14KM far from the Lake Side. There live his mother, his brother and the three super cute buffaloes. His home is only a very simple two-storey stone house and I could see the old age was reflected on the wall. Beside the house, there is a piece of corn field, in which they only use buffaloes manure.
Amrit's buffaloes.
As in all Hindu families, women are always busy with the cooking and men are waiting to eat. Seeing the situation, I found that I was the only woman who was not in the kitchen! Seeing Amrit’s mother, his aunt and Tulasi were cooking the big meal in the kitchen, I was wondering should I help. On the opposite of what I was thinking, they offered me chai (mike tea, though I rejected as I normally don’t drink tea with caffeine) and asked me to sit and do not worry about the cooking. Though I could not really communicate with them verbally, I could feel their love and joy.
Finally, we were all sitting together with cross legs in a small room and eating the traditional Nepalese food Dhal Bhat (lentils, rice and vegetables). During the meals, they were talking and joking in Nepali, sometimes Amrit did the translation for us. Actually even if Amrit hadn’t translated for us, I could still feel that joy and peace in the house. I strongly felt that Amrit was really treating me like his sister and his mother was treating me like her daughter also.
We are such a big family!
At night, when I was back in the guesthouse and writing my journal, I suddenly realized that I was completely filled with the endless love by the orphanage and Amrit’s family. At that moment, I felt my heart was beating with all the love and compassion toward them! My heart was exploded with so much love that I felt so blissful, peaceful and happy. I had been away from this feeling for 9months already! Streams of tears slowly came down on my face, I was feeling so grateful because life had given me such a lovely family. I was not the person who was helping, they were in fact all God-sent angels, giving me love!
Amrit and the kids.
I and Theo or sometimes only myself are used to come to the orphanage every day. Setting off from the Lake Side at 6am, take a 20minutes bus ride and walk up the hill for 15mins. When we are in the orphanage, we usually teach them English or play with them in the open ground area which has a fantastic view of the snow mountain range.
Playing at the top with the kids.
Besides, I am also discussing with Amrit about how the orphanage can get more supports from some international organizations. For example, I helped them to sign in as the member of Couchsurfing and Workaway; I also put their information on the travel forums in HK and Taiwan to recruit travelers as volunteers.
Until now, I got many positive responses, many friends from HK and Taiwan are planning to come to the orphanage when they will visit Nepal. Recently, 2 HK friends, Florence and Patricia and 2 Taiwan friends Athena and Darren had just visited here and all brought along with them nearly 20kg supplies in total. I am so touched by their sincerity and hard work of bringing all those things.
Volunteers from HK and Taiwan.
Besides that I should say thanks to many passing-by travelers who stopped and gave a helping hand. One of them is Teri, a dear friend of mine whom I met in HK when I was hosting travelers on Couchsurfing. She is such a warm person that who is always smiling to all situations in life like an angel, sending out love and warmth wherever she is. She deliberately made a turn from India to Nepal to see me and she also volunteers in the orphanage, giving many creative and practical ideas. When I think about the happy moments that I and other volunteers were playing our childhood games on the grass, remembering their genuine smiles, I feel super grateful that the river of life brings me all these angels.
Teri, me and the kids.
Actually at first I was worrying how they could afford the daily expenditures in the orphanage. At the early period, Amrit was working in a temporary census job, which only paid him 8000Rs (around 114USD). For Tulasi, though she had severe spinal cord and uterus pain, she still worked in a food-packaging factory for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. And she only got a monthly salary of 4000Rs (around 57USD). With this amount of income, they had to feed all the 4 children! This is really incredible in the eyes of those who come from a developed country. How can they possibly manage it?
I thought, I could help them at that time, but it was not a sustainable way as I was only a traveler without a stable job. At last, I decided to ask for help from my dear HK friends. The amazing experience happened next told me that I and Amrit were really living out our life purposes.
After I had sent out emails for one week, I gradually got many replies from my dear friends, giving me creative ideas and also the generous financial support! Because of their selfless help, this orphanage doesn’t need to worry about food in the meantime. I feel so deeply that this is all just grace and I am the instrument of God, which helps the loving and kind-hearted Amrit and Tulasi to fulfill their life mission step by step.
Recently, all volunteers brought the kids to the Lake Side. It was their first time to eat Pizza and row a boat on the Phewa Lake. It was such a happy day!
‘If you let the river of life carries you along, you will always arrive the best place for you.’ This is my living philosophy and it is always true.
One of my missions of living HK this time is to volunteer. When I first arrived the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, I didn’t have any good impressions on it, so I went straight to Pokhara. I was so happy that I could enjoy the beautiful Himalayas and the calm and beautiful Phewa Lake. Once I settled down in a nice and clean guesthouse, I started to look for healthy food. As I was always cooking fresh and organic food in HK and I seldom added salt, oil and chili, so when I first went out to the restaurant in Nepal, I could hardly order anything which were up to my standard.
So I used a whole day to search for another guesthouse, hoping to find a place where I can use the kitchen to cook, but it was in vain. Desperately I went back to my guesthouse and when I started to talk with the manager, he offered me to use the kitchen in the guesthouse! I immediately cooked my first home-made food in Nepal. Though it was just the simplest boiled vegetables and brown rice, it was the most delicious food in the world.
Every day I enjoyed the golden sunrise, sunset and the beautiful lake scenery at the roof top, it seemed that I had totally forgotten what was I supposed to do here. And it had already been two weeks since I left HK.
The beautiful Himalayas.
One day, I got an email from my friend, he asked me how was my progress with the volunteer work. His email was like a bell in my head, it rang me up and reminded me that it was time for me to look for volunteer opportunities! Since I started to have this idea in my head, life also started to respond to me. Then when I was walking along the Lake Side, I saw a flyer on a telephone pole recruiting volunteers for an orphanage. I contacted the Chairman of this orphanage, Edventure Nepal, and I immediately visited the place next day. It is situated in a beautiful area in the middle of the hill and it is just 4km away from the Lake Side.
The orphanage is situated in a very beautiful area.
I found that this orphanage had just started for less than 2 weeks, Amrit and his sister-like friend, Tulasi had just rescued 3 sisters. So including the daughter of Laxmi, 6 of them are now living under the same roof and sharing whatever they have.
The lovely kids.
To be frank, after the first meeting with Amrit in the Lake Side, my mind kept warning me to be careful that they were cheating by the name of an orphanage, because they were looking for financial supports on top of volunteers. However, after the meeting, I suddenly got lots of ideas on how to help them like fund-raising and how to connect them with international charitable organizations. I found that I had learnt a lot because I have volunteered in different countries in the world.
Contrasting to my mind, I actually got a lots of God’s signs that told me they were the right people to help. For the first time, I saw the name, ‘Amrit’ on the flyer, I already got a familiar feeling, as my guru’s name is 'Amrita'. And so do all the names of them. For example, 2 of them are named ‘Tulasi’, which mean a sacred plant in India, and it is also seen as theIndian deity Krishan; 2 of them are named ‘Ganga’ and ‘Yemuna’, which both means the sacred rivers in India. And the last one is called ‘Laxmi’, this is exactly the name of the goddess of wealth in India. Maybe someone may think these are just common names in Nepal, but actually names like Ram, Hari, Sita, Deepak etc are far more common.
Teaching the kids English.
The most obvious God’s sign is that the orphanage is so close to the holy temple Bindavasini. And inside Bindavasini, the main goddesses are Devi and Kali. And you know what, my guru, Amma is worshipped as Devi and Kali!! After visiting the orphanage, I went to put incenses in the temple and meditated there for 10minutes. My heart told me, this was the place I should come and I should trust Amrit. Of course, before that, I had already asked everything about how the orphanage was set up and confirmed that there was nothing in doubt.
The peaceful Bindavasini Temple.
After the big day, all the people went abroad. Ursina and Fabrizio went to Morocco for honey moon; Andrea (Ursina's sister) and Marius went to southern France. Matthais(Ursina's brother), Barbara and Julieta went to Buenos Aires to visit Barbara's family. Susanna and Hans Peter(Ursina's parents) were going to Germany soon. Before that, Susanna invited me to their house in Chur where I spent a very nice time with them.
It was a very sunny day. As Chur is in the valley, the weather is usually much warmer than Basel. Luckily, I could escape from the coldness in Basel!
View from the train.
It was not my first time to take the train in Switzerland. And I also experienced so many train journeys in India. But once I was in this developed and organized country, I was totally disarmed and I made a mistake that I never made.
When I was sitting in the train, I thought,'Um, the train in Switzerland is such a extreme against India. Here is clean and quiet and almost no passenger!' I sat comfortably for one hour. When the train approached Zurich, the ticket officer came to check my ticket, I handed it to him indifferently.
Then he looked at me over his glasses and asked,'Have you ever heard of the difference between 1st and 2nd class?'
I immediately sensed the mistake while I was opening my mouth widely and said, 'No!' I didn't mean I had never heard about it. Acutally, I meant, 'Oh no, stupid me!'
He still looked at me without any emotion and said, 'In fact, you need to buy a 1st class ticket if you want to sit here, but unfortunately your ticket is a 2nd class one.' Then he gave me back my ticket and asked me to go to the other coach.
What a shame! I thought. But when I went to the 2nd class, I didn't notice the difference between them. It was still quiet and clean and comfortable and also with AC. Thinking about the chaotic sence of the 2nd class train in India. I thought, it was difficult to blame me for this mistake:p
Susanna and H.Peter had constructed a new terrace last year. When I came last time, it was not yet finished. This year they accomodated me in the new guest room on the terrace.
It was like the 'executive suite' of a 5-stars hotel which had a wonderful view over the mountanin and the whole valley.
Because of the glass, the terrace was exceptionally warm in this cool weather. I felt like in the early summer.
I love the different shades of the green in Switzerland.
I love cats. And there are five cats in this house! The cutiest one is Tommy! He doesn't look like 17years old, right?
Oh, my sweetie, why are you so happy?
Actually, his eyes were fixed upon this Swiss speciality. And he licked all the cream from my fingers!
Tommy, what are you thinking?
He was arousing attention when Susanna was sending text message to Ursina.
On the other hand, Tommy's sister, Jeanie had secretly hidden under the chair in the sitting room.
The cats had really brightens my days up.
When we were heading to the mountain hut in Emserberg moutnain, Tommy came to farewell us.
It was quite incredible that I came to this magical little hut again, after almost exactly one year!
And I did the same thing as last year - BBQ!
However, there were still a little bit differences. Last year, I came with Ursina and Fabrizio, this time with Ursina's parents; last year, we did the BBQ outdoor, indoor this time. Last year, I could see the snow mountains surrounding the house, this year I could only see a heavy layer of fog.
Before...
After...
When the fog was gone, we went for a little walk. It was incredibly cold here, such a big contrast to the warm terrace! Actually, during this period, Europe was abnormally cold. It was the same even in Italy, eg, the time being should be early spring season, but the temperature was still like in winter.
Luckily, we found some blossoming around. They told us it was indeed spring time.
There was another kind of beauty in the fog.
Thanks very much for Susanna and H.Peter, they are very sweet and funny. I felt they were more like my friends than parents. Susanna always cooked delicious food for me, thanks for the asparagus and the home-made sauce, they were excellent! H.Peter was also putting a lot of effort in speaking English with me, thanks so much and thanks for the small flowers:)
Susanna also brought me to a local concert, where a Swiss girl, Elisabeth Sulser performed different kinds of flutes, including the horn of a cow (unluckily, I don't know the proper name of this musical instrument). I had never imagined that flutes could produce such a big varieties of sound. Morover, when the flutes were mixing with the harmonium (with a funny player), the music was amazingly pleasant. I liked this concert a lot and it really boarden my 'narrow music horizon'!
Thanks for all the things!
Contrasting to people who are thinking they should have a crazy night before marriage, Ursina just wanted a quiet and a cozy one.
Fully packed with clothes, food, luggages and other preparation materials for the wedding, Carla (Fabrizio's sister) drove Ursina, Saskia and me to the town Neuchatel the day before the wedding. We would check in a 'hostel' there and spend Ursina's last night to be single.
I had been to the lake Neuchatel last year on which we were sailing. But I never knew the town Neuchatel. It is small, but still lively and modern, kind of mixing the feeling of quaint village and a busy town.
The downtown area.
One can easily turn into the alley and escape from the busy area.
There are plenty of old houses.
Ursina and I walked to the high point of the town, from where we could have a overview of this beautiful place with the lake behind. At the same time, we were so happy that the sun finally came out from the clouds.
After meeting Ursina's sister, Andrea and Regula, we went for a creperia to have dinner. A restaurant where only sells crepe!
We greedily thought we could eat three crepes, but after the second one, I was completely K.O. Look at my crepe! It was full of delicious cream!
We carried our big stomachs to the hostel nearby. An old building also.
Inside is quite modern.
There is a swimming pool also! Unluckily, it was too cold to jump to it.
Our beautiful and cozy room.
Once we arrived, we immediately hanged out our clothes. Which is mine?
Not many people know this German game, Settler of Cantan. But I was lucky enough to learnt it in Colombia and I was totally addicted to it. And it is one of Ursina's favourite game also! So we had a six people battle this night.
Buying brick, selling sheep, building settlements, exploring the new island, the winner finally came after about two hours of struggling. You can see who was this from her contrasting smiling face...
Then we played another game, which is called 'Activity' in German. But in HK, it was quite popular in the TV show game, which is called, 'The Big TV'. Though I had some difficulties in adjusting to it because the game is based in German, we still had many funny moments.
That was Ursina's last night before marriage. I like it very much as I also don't prefer to see something like a half-naked man jumping out from the big box, dancing around all the ladies...
Actually, a beautiful day was waiting for us to get up early and experience it!
A super beautiful morning on the wedding day.
View from the hostel.
