New Year

I had the perfect start to the new year. This morning, on the way to the bathroom, Emma intercepted me and asked if I wanted to go to Paravati's house. Paravati Didi invited Emma because we all have the day off today. She is doing some kind of training at our construction site so that she can work on construction projects in the future and earn money herself. With this project, we are not only building a school, but we are also doing something good in the long term.

So this morning, I walked to her house with Emma from Pennsylvania and Mangal Dai, one of our drivers. Of course, there was food. Mega delicious Kir (rice pudding with coconut and other nuts/fruits) and yogurt. We were also invited for Raksi, homemade grain alcohol. But we politely declined at 10 o'clock in the morning. After that, we walked a little further together. The views here are just so beautiful. After a while, we arrived at a family's house that apparently makes very good Raksi and couldn't resist anymore. And well, there are no half glasses here. But it is supposed to be healthy and there were scrambled eggs as well. So we were well taken care of. On the way back, we stopped at Paravati's again because we absolutely had to try her Raksi. Protesting doesn't help much there. But we also got a little something to eat. Sometime after noon, we were back at the camp. We had so much fun and such a great time, speaking Nepali with the amazing people here and getting a glimpse of the everyday life of the locals.

In the afternoon, I had a little photo shoot with Siza from Kathmandu. Kenzie from Washington likes taking photos and thought the lighting was great, so why not.

After that, we hiked up the next hill to watch the sunset. With a perfect view of our beautiful, colorful camp.

On days off, everyone usually takes care of their own meals and I was already very well taken care of... But because it's New Year, a small cooking team was formed from volunteers who bought and cooked salad, cheesy noodles, chocolate banana crepes, and apple pie for 75 people. It was very delicious.

So, as I said, a perfect start to the new year.

https://give.allhandsandhearts.org/fundraiser/1808671