Lamagaun, a small village with a smiling future

From the Chandeswori residence we took a bus to Lamagaun, a very small village in the mountains where the NGO Hugging Nepal is building a school.

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Hugging Nepal was born out of concern by a group of people, most of them Spaniards living in Nepal, who, after the tragedy of the earthquake, came together to provide direct assistance to those affected by the disaster. From rebuilding schools, homes, to providing vocational training courses and / or help in refugee camps.

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The bus took us to Ranipauwa, and from there we had to walk about 2 kilometers along a mud road, crossing tiny villages with people watching us as they passed by. It cost us his own to identify the “town” as it is about several houses scattered along the mountainside. Asking several people, we managed to get to the camp of the volunteers who were building the school.

The first to receive us was Mire, a great woman who dedicates herself to spend her vacations working to improve the lives of other people, after we met Lucas, a very important uncle also very dedicated, and finally Alfonso, a climber who was dedicated to work in Spain to later be able to travel to Nepal, help people with their work and teaching, and do some mountain expedition.

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The volunteer camp was very picturesque, it was two tents covering a tents area and a long table, it was like the camp that comes out in the movies of expeditions of scientists in the Amazon … we liked it.

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They left us the tent of a couple who was in Kathmandu at the time. We dined in a house next to the camp, a house made of mud and stone where two old men were responsible for feeding the volunteers based on Dal Bat … rice and a soup of lentils … Look he told us he had a little bad the theme of always eating the same … hehehe … no wonder, and also the Dal Bat is quite bland … The kitchen of the grandparents was all mud, and was on the side of the room main, or dining room.

The woman was cooking sitting on the floor, and we were waiting for our tray with Dal Bat sitting around her. We all dined together under the light of the fire and a lantern, they explained to us their past experiences and during their time there, and we described our trips. Very nice people that we loved to know !!

The next day, everyone woke up at 6 am to go to work. We slept until 7:30, had breakfast and went to school. The school consisted of two parts, a temporary shack where the youngest were, and further up the road an area with two buildings restored, by the earthquake, and a building under construction. In this second zone we agree with Álvaro, one of the founders of Hugging Nepal.

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First we did the workshop with students from 6 to 10 years old. They were about 30 students, with faces of excitement to participate, super motivated, a taste … We started with the introductory exercises, and it was not easy … they were very excited !!! Hehehe … but little by little they were concentrating and the exercises went very well.

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The final part consisted of making small representations … they were super funny with their noses … representing situations … to eat them!

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Once finished the workshop, as always to run to prepare the number. We went down the hill a few meters to the shack where the youngest children were, there we would do the show for all the students.

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They left us a room in the house next door to prepare us, change our clothes and make up, it was a corn grain warehouse … a country dressing room … hehehe …

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Alfonso helped us by acting as a sound technician and arranging for the children to be placed in the public area, already designed to be in the shade.

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So when everything was ready … Let the show begin! Ole Ole ole Ole!!!! From the first moment the children were condemned, motivated, willing to give everything!

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And we took the chance to played with them, we shared the moment, their faces were a gift, they were amazed by seeing us, living our story, enjoying the moment, feeling the emotions that we raised them … without words, only laughter and emotion .. a gift for the soul, food for the heart … Although it sounds repetitive, we keep this moment so as not to forget it …

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And after the show, the volunteers went back to their work and we picked up our things, with our backpacks on our backs, we said goodbye to our companions and we got rid of the road to Ranipawa … this time 2 km of ascent, with 17 kg in the Back, tired of the workshop and the show, it was sooooo long … but finally we got to the main street to wait for the bus that would take us back to Kathmandu.

It has been a great experience shared with an incredible people … we all carry you in our hearts.

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And it was a pleasant news that Alfonso told us that the next day the children were repeating the exercises we had done in the clown workshop … that’s a very good sign … Ole ole ole!!

Chandeswori Residence, a magical house for beautiful people

The Chandeswori residence is a small house, located in the village of Tupche, which houses 12 blind or partially sighted children. This house was in charge of the Chandeswori school, hence the name, which receives government aid to support the children. The conditions in which they lived were quite precarious, they were dirty, without hygiene routines and the spaces were not adequate.

Petit Món was in charge of improving conditions, rebuilding the house with volunteer architects, designing it especially for the needs of children and to optimize natural resources. The result was incredible, the house, which was reopened in August, is beautiful and perfectly adapted for the needs of children.

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Montse proposed us to go there to do a workshop and basically give them a little attention, since the town is in the middle of nowhere, at the foot of the mountains! In their day to day these children do not receive too many stimuli for their development, so with the workshop and games we could stimulate them a bit.v

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The children are adorable, at first they behaved in a shy, distant way, but as we got closer and knew everything was easier. Above all we fell in love with a person … Sukuman !!!

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A blind 4 year old boy, well, you can see leftovers, he was the happiest person in the world, you gave him a little bit and with that you could spend hours. Playing with him was a blast, and he went to take any small show of affection … he left us really touched … you should see him eating his Dal Bat (rice with a soup of lentils and potato) with his hand (like it is eaten in Nepal) enjoying as never before, with the look in front and removing the head of joy and pleasure.

How little Sukuman needs to be happy … I used to tell him that he was a superhero, and that way we had a good time, clapping our hands and repeating his name …

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His brother, Aitaman, also blind, is very shy, almost does not speak, although he is always with the group. All the children there help each other a lot, they are a pineapple inside and outside the house … they are really a love.

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Aitaman and Sukuman sleep together at night … they are very cute … We also have Savin, Vinayak, Santosh, Inosh and Ramsaran, who are older.

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The first three with partial vision and the last two with total blindness. Santosh and Vinayak love to dance, they throw themselves all day with a loudspeaker dancing Nepalese music, they are very funny …

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Savin likes to pound any instrument he finds, especially the guitar that is in the house, and the other two are more timid. Inosh had a harder time accepting us and Ramsaran is reserved but it was very close.

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The girls are beautiful! There is Sharmila and Iswori, with total blindness, and Ashmita who sees through an eye. The three are the joy of the garden, Sharmila loves to sing, and she does it very well, so we did not stop asking her to sing us songs.

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There was also Sarita, the smallest, with the most temperament, and although she did not like the physical contact, she did not stop looking for us, but when she wanted to … There’s another child in the house that we did not see, Surendra, because she had to Go to your house for a while.

We had never worked with children with visual disabilities, but it was not difficult to make games with them, above all, of course, games in which they would dance!

In the afternoon, after school, they arrived home and we prepared to do the workshop. We started with exercises that we normally do but with modifications, which worked very well, with the same result as always. The most timid, Aitaman and Inosh at first were very embarrassed, even Aitaman went to sit at a secluded bench. Until we asked after a while and agreed to join …

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Then we made the game of the statues, they had to dance and when the music stopped they made a statue … they loved it and showed an imagination that was increasing as they were challenging each other. Then we played the hot potato … and so on until it got dark.

You would have to see Aitaman after rejoining, giving him a little more attention, how excited he was dancing, holding hands and the rhythm of the music smiling as we had not seen so far … and the rush that occurred with the hot potato leaves that did not touch him … that bonico was!

At night we continued the party in the room, dancing with Nepalese music, especially Santosh and Vinayak, giving everything, showing their best moves, even doing improvised choreography … very funny … Sukuman was throwing himself on us to do some game, Savin pounded the guitar and the rest around stretched out on the bed and commenting on the play.

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The next day we accompanied them to the school, there we talked with the teachers to know when we could do the performance that we explain in the next publication.

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In the afternoon we took out some games that Petit Món had bought for them. They were super excited !!! They lacked skills but were surprised by everything they could do. It looked like they could not solve the most basic problems to challenge themselves with more difficult ones. You would have to see the greatest solving puzzles, Sukuman and Sarita on a carpet playing with shapes … It was as if they discovered how to be children … They were beautiful …

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And finally we ran out of time, we had to go to Lamagaun for another collaboration. So we told the children, Aitaman burst into tears, Inosh got angry and went to a corner. And the rest, hiding their long faces, dismissed us with grief. It cost us horrors to go … these children had given us a lot of love … but we had to continue … Goodbye friends …

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We will be back. If someone would like to volunteer, this would be a perfect place !!!! You would be great and you would make 12 beautiful children happy, ask and we will pass you the contact, they deserve it!

World Child Cancer, many cares to give

In Yangon, Myanmar, we contacted the NGO World Child Cancer. It is dedicated to providing resources to the oncology facility of Children Hospital of Yangon. They are dedicated to improving the conditions of patients suffering cancer, and provide minimal education to the children while they are admitted in the hospital.

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After communicating by email, we met our contact person, Mr. Tung, a very nice and smiling guy who is in charge of directing the teaching team! We met in a cafeteria next to the hospital to specify details. After the meeting, he took us to visit the plant and the school. This is the largest hospital for children in all of Myanmar, and the conditions were pretty basic. We could see the Oncology plant, with the chemotherapy room and the recovery room.

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The school is a room next to the mentioned unit, with books and material as a classroom. It is opened every working day from 13 to 15 hours. On the wall hungs the list of subjects that the children work on the week, with some days dedicated for drawing and artistic expression, in addtion to other subjects. So it was prepared for us to share with them some exercises of theatre and expression for them to do with the children.

At night Tung confirmed that we could do the workshop for the teachers, but due to a flu pass it would not be possible to work with the children. Due to the chemotherapy the children have a very low immune system, so if there is a case of the flu they can no longer join them as a group, they would be exposed to contagion and it would be very dangerous for them. They could not even attend to the school on these days … A pity, although better to prevent.

And… the day of the workshop arrived!! We took the train and headed to the hospital. Once there, they were waiting at the door of the building to accompany us to the school room. Tung was already there and introduced us to the seven members of the group, teacher and social workers, aged between 27 and 55 years, approx … all women, and Tung.

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The younger girls looked sharp, eager to start, curious to see what we were going to show them, while the older ones were quite rigid, we suppose that they were shy, like asking themselves, what are these clowns going to make us do? … hehehehe …

The room was prepared as if we were going to give a theoretical symposium on child protection, a table with two chairs for the lecturers and chairs for the public … hahaha … So we started, and the first thing we said was to remove chairs and tables and put them aside … I think the older ones were even more scared …

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The objective of the workshop was to provide teachers with tools to do artistic activities with the children, but first they had to do the activities to know how well the mechanism, the difficulties and the variety of possible results … hahaha … They were shy…

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Let´s start !!! First, a presentation to start getting to know each other, they were all very shy !!! and sometimes they were very rigid … And once we all met, we started the exercises, from the beginning, and we gradually increased the difficulty … it was very funny!

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With the time they were getting relax, having a great time !!!! After the warm-up exercises, we went on to make small interpretations.

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You would expect to be complicated because they were timid … but it was amazing … hahaha … what a laugh !!!! They were very brave and we enjoyed a lot!! … we have not laughed so much in any workshop so far … crying !!!

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We were all parting … all the time, until the end. We shared a few exercises with the whole team … an amazing team!

The farewell was emotional, they thanked us for showing them another way of teaching, another way of approaching people, of getting people closer to themselves, and above all so that children spend some time traveling through their imagination and the one of the others. The faces of them were clear and sincere, did not need more words or translations, those clear smiles were telling us … What a great team! We hope to see you again … Thanks!

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In addition, Tung asked us to accompany him to dinner that night, and since we had a lot of connection, we accepted! He invited us all night to dinner and a few beers while talked about life and Myanmar … Interesting guys,,, Thank you Tung! Keep in touch!!!