Dal Bhat Tarkari

Dal bhat tarkari is sooooo good. That is what I have been eating for the past couple of days since I moved in with my host family, the Pokhrel's. The couple's 18 year old daughter, Rachna and her parents Ramesh and Indira have been taking such great care of me. I am so lucky. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for all of the children here in Nepal. I started my volunteer "duty" this week and it has been quite the challenge. There are about 35 children in the facility ranging from 5 to 15 years of age with many different types of physical disabilities. I have been tasked to help them learn English and help them with their homework. Yesterday, I was asked by one child, Surendra, to help him with his Algebra! Algebra? What's that? I haven't done algebra since high school! Well, it slowly came back and I did not lose face afterall (how could I let down a kid who says "you don't know algebra???", I answered, "well, it's been a while, but give me your book - (written in Nepali no less), and I will figure it out". Whew, dodged a big one there. Hopefully today he won't ask me to help him with trigonometry - I will be doomed!

Anyway, on the serious side, the organization - Hope and Home are really trying to do more for other facilities in the valley. We visited a school and orphanage outside of kathmandu which was very eye opening. If you ever want to volunteer or help out - please let me know, and I will hook you up.

Well, I need to go now. More in a few days.
Namaste,
Jackie