arko barsa - next year

Time flies and it is almost two weeks since we said goodbye at the school. One has to make travel plans with enough time for each journey, time you either spend in busses or at airports. Or, like this year, because everything went surprisingly smooth, you spend this time with friends
Arko barsa, next year - that was not only the question of children and teachers, this also was our promise. At school we were not only able to treat the kids and teachers with medical basics, we were also able to do a big part of the teaching due to a lack of teachers. For me, I left a part of  home there and looking forward to come back next year!

Last blog before the journey starts

To keep the blog updated while we are in Nepal is quiet difficult. Here are our travel plans, roughly speaken: We leave at Frankfurt Friday evening, March 22nd and will arrive Saturday evening, March 23rd at Kathmandu after a long delay in Doha. We will head to Pokhara pretty soon and then as soon as possible into the mountains, to Jomsom. We will spend about one week there, visiting the school and friends. After that we return to Pokhara, taking Kunsang with us for the yearly check up at the hospital. Also we want to visit Mendok of course and her new school. We're heading back Friday evening, leaving Kathmandu via Doha again and arrive Saturday morning April 6th in Frankfurt. You can get current news during our trip on  Facebook.

itinerary in Nepal

It makes a difference for this one

Reading K.P. Yohannan's "No Longer A Slumdog I stumble across the story of the starfish. I have heard it before, many times though, but this morning it really speaks to my heart. I was doubting a little bit, I have to admit. Doubting, if it's all worth it. But then there is that story...
...of a man walking by the sea after a storm. The tide's reciding leaving thousands of thousands of starfish on the sand to die. As the man walks along, he suddenly sees a young boy. The boy bends down, taking a starfish in his hands and throwing it back into the ocean. One by one he picks them up and throws them into the lifebringing water.
As the man comes closer, he addresses the boy. "Why are you doing this?" he asks. "Don't you realize there are miles and miles of shore with thousands of thousands of starfish? You are wasting your time. You will never make a difference."
The boy simply picks up another starfish, throwing it back into the waves. As it landed, he turns to the man saying: "I do. Just now it made a difference for this one."

short update for 2013

The new year is just 2 weeks old - and in a little more than 2 month we start for our next trip to Nepal. And the pleasant anticipation for it is growing continually! From the roughly two weeks we want to spent as much time as possible in Mustang, so the timeline in Pokhara and Kathmandu is quite tight.
What we need to get straight before is the procedure of money transfer for the sponsoring of Mendok and Kunsang. Both of them we want to enable to have their schooling in a place where they have access to the medical help they need. Kunsang we will take to Pokhara where she will have her at least yearly needed heart checkup. After that the decision can be made where would be the best place for her to go to school.
End of this month the team 2013 will meet for last preparations, before we head to Frankfurt on March 22nd for take off...
By the way, you can get the first newsletter 2013 here or at Facebook.

This is our new picture postcard - and this is also the one thing, that started with Christmas. When this little child was born, the happy ending of this world's (hi)story started. So many Christmas blessings and a good start into the new year!

Child of Heart

Kunsang is a  tiny, shy ten-year-old girl from Muktinath. She attends Lupra School. Her mother, who lives alone with her daughter, works in the kitchen there.
As an infant Kunsang had heart surgery. In fact she should have check up every 3, at least 6 month. All the documents and informations about it are still in the hospital in Kathmandu, where the surgery was done. This makes it difficult to give significant results after the check up is done. Besides this one fails because of the time and the costs for travelling to Pokhara, the nearest town with a hospital able to do these check ups. Not mentioning the costs for the treatment, which are low for us, but expensive for Nepali people. We could help her in April with one first check up. The result: the height she is living at is not good at all for her health condition.
Right now we try to figure out the best way to help Kunsang. If you want to know more details: info@projekt-mendok.org