An early one

Friday 5th October 2012

I decided to begin today with a proper meal (for once!) and headed to the fantastic Organic Green Cafe which, though pricey, serves excellent organic food.  I took my "bahini" (sister-friend) Ranju and we tasted some of their unusual salads and tea - I tried the Yarsagumba tea after learning about its special powers at the documentary film evening on Wednesday!  I was collected from lunch by long-time friend Michael who was interested to learn more about the TriNetra centre. The children are usually at school on Fridays, but luck for us, when we went to visit they were at the centre because it is exam time so they get time off.  We spent a wonderful couple of hours playing with the children and had a competition as to who could make the best model from Playdough (the same Playdough that Finnish girl Paulina had brought for them the last time I was there). Kancha talked about how the foundation came to be and gave Michael leaflets and fliers to help advertise the centre, word of mouth is the best way to garner support for a cause in Nepal.

Michael and some of the children

Two children with their models

I had invited my two baby brothers Santosh and Krish (again not my real brothers but the first children I ever sponsored in Nepal (from 1999) and people very dear to my heart) to come to visit me as my trip to Nepal is so short this time, and by 4pm Santosh had arrived in Kathmandu, though not before getting stuck in a huge traffic jam for four hours at the checkpost before the city.  Travel into and out of Kathmandu is notoriously difficult with just one major road between Kathmandu and the second city Pokhara, not particularly wide and hewn into the mountain.  It only takes one vehicle to break down (which they do regularly as many of them are very old and the roads are very steep!) and a jam will quickly build up, so I very much appreciated the boys' efforts to come.  We took Santosh for a cup of tea at Or2K and caught up on a year's worth of news!  Santosh married several years ago and now works as a driver in Pokhara. Deepak, the friend I watched a documentary with on Wednesday, came to join us for an apperatif at a local restaurant and from there we went to the fabulous Kilroy's restaurant, set up by an Irish man in 1998 and famous for its desserts!  I was treated to the house speciality of Bread and Butter pudding when the waiters, who have greeted me there every year since it opened, found out that I got married in the time I'd been away! 

Santosh enjoying a lemon soda

Bread and Butter pudding

Poor Krish did not arrive until 9pm, having been stuck in the jam for hours on end.  With his wife, Manisha, and two children in tow, we quickly made sure they had some proper nourishment after their awful journey.  We went to popular fastfood restaurant "Crazy Burger" (!) where they were treated to pizzas and sizzlers. Manisha and the kids safely back at the hotel I took the boys for a wander - Friday night is the most popular night of the week for nepalese people to party as saturday is their holiday, so it made sense for them to make the most of it!  We caught a local band performing in a packed out bar and then had a call from friends to join them at a party in their nightclub, but as the boys are like my own family and in Nepali culture brothers and sisters don't generally go out drinking and partying together much, we kept things low key and I just had one drink each and were all safely in our hotel rooms by midnight!

Krish's son with his pizza