13.02 Early morning we woke up because we had to drive to Pokhara all together by our bus and it was a long way to get there.
At 9 o’clock we started from Kathmandu to Pokhara and it took 8 hours to get there, in between we had some stops for chai (tea), food and for stretching body because all the time sitting inside the bus makes you more tired.
After a long drive we reached one of the very beautiful parts of Nepal, but the main focus for us was to find the FWHC children’s village Pokhara (orphanage).
We asked the people on the street and they told us the direction how to get there so we didn’t have to struggle a lot to find that place.
It’s a little bit far from the main market but a very beautiful place.
And we arrived there and what we saw there was totally heart warming for all of us in the team, because we never thought something like that but they gave us a big surprise.
89 children were standing on both sides of the street inside the school with flowers along with their house mothers,teachers and Alex to welcome us.
Alex is from Germany .He is the founder of that project in Nepal.
It was just like a gift but on the other hand all the eyes were looking on us and their eyes were saying many things without words.
And that was our first interaction with them, but somehow we already got connected with them by heart.
And after that we went to our rooms they had prepared for us and after some relaxing we met in our dinner place because it was already dark.
Alex came along with the principal, then we got the full schedule of the week and it was really very well prepared.
So from next morning we were going to start with a workshop and we were so much excited about that first day, all the tiredness went away after that beautiful welcome.
And then we took our dinner together and went for bed .
14.02 The first day of workshop came, so we divided into 2 groups and we started giving workshop at two places at the same time.
On that first day we started to get to know the children very closely, and everybody has some bad past (some lost their families in the earthquake, some don’t know who there parents are, some have just faced a bad side of humans etc.). This made us really sad from inside because it’s not just a problem of one child.
Then we decided that for the time we are here we will make them really happy so they can forget their past and enjoy the time with us.
And we started with the workshop, the first day went really very good, everybody wanted more and more so everybody was excited for the next day.
Those things were totally new for all of them and they were loving it.
After the workshop we again had a good meal.
And at the dinner table we all came together and we started sharing our experience with them and we all felt the same way.
So we prepared the workshop for the next day and we started doing workshop with them every day.
After 5 days workshop we already had to prepare for the show because only two days were left for the final.
Next day after playing indiaka and some warm-up we gave them concept work to create their own story and we found many good stories in both workshops next day. We just polished their ideas as we say it, combining their creativity with our method of improvisation.
And we all put 3 shows and 2 dances together.
19.02 Now the day came for the final show and one more surprise was still waiting for us: The people from the old age home were also invited to watch the performances, so now the children had to perform 2 times –one for the old people in the afternoon and one for themselves in the evening. In the spectators the youngest child was 2 years old and the oldest was 102 year old.
So everybody started preparing themselves 1 hour before the show with painting their faces, wearing character clothes and props.
Everybody was helping each other and we felt that something very good was going to happen.
Now the time of the show came. Children were nervous so we told them it’s good that you are nervous, take it as positive so they believed in themselves and went to perform.
One by one we did all the performances and after that we asked how people were feeling and we saw the smiling faces of the old people, smiles coming from the inside, which made us feel very good. We had come together with them to talk to them also.
All in all that week we also experienced the sadness again very closely.
Evening performance took also place and after the performances we got a momento from Alex and all of them and after that we all had a dance party with bonfire, .so it was a really memorable day.
Now next day we had a free day so we decided to do have some adventures together because we were in one of the adventure places in Nepal.
We went paragliding and after that along with Ina we went boating.
It was really funny when the white girl was rowing while we three men were sitting in the boat and enjoying the lake , everybody who was looking at us seemed to be shocked!
And then we went to village school again, everybody was tired so we went to bed very early because next morning we had to start for Lumbini.
We were so happy that we finished our project very well, but on the other hand everyone of us was sad because we were aware that we had to say good-bye to all of them. But that was the truth and everybody had to accept it.
Early in the morning we woke up and after getting ready we went outside with our luggage. Again a surprise was waiting for us but this time it made all of us very sad because the children were standing there with flowers and they had also some gifts and cards for us, all the children were crying.
But now we had to say good-bye to them and we went from their school with their school bus because we had to reach the bus station to take our bus.
The school bus dropped us at the bus station and we took the bus for Lumbini. All the way everybody was thinking about the children and their lives.
We reached Lumbini (birth place of Lord Buddha), checked in to our hotel and after a good sleep we went for sightseeing and we saw many stupas and temples of Lord Buddha and we relaxed our stress.
Next day our bus came from Bodhgaya to pick us in Lumbini left to Bodhgaya. On the way we also visited Kushinagar (death place of Lord Buddha) it’s in Northern India.
And then arrived at our place in Bodhgaya.
When we now reflect on our project in Pokhara, smiles always come to our faces.
Jai ho
CREACTING INDIA TRUST 