Happy Dashain!

The run up to Dashain, one of Nepal’s two biggest festivals, has been frantically busy. (Mind you, this is being written by the ultimate Christmas whinger!) We finally sent off our 300 bahini beads to ACP and look forward to more orders.We also had a visit from a delightful group of Australian and Canadian teachers all living in Albury, Australia. Five hundred Bhutanese refugees have settled in Albury as part of the third country resettlement program for the 100,000 refugees living in Nepal. The teachers thought it would be useful to see where many of the refugees they teach and support in Albury have been living for the past 20 odd years.The group visited Samunnat and came bearing wonderful things - pasta machines, clay, sandpaper and books. They also cheerfully lugged over computers donated by Rhonda and Geoff (aka IT wizard) Coleman who visited us earlier this year. The ladies were very excited with all of these things. The computers are very timely as a number of the ladies completed a basic computer course in the Newstart training and can now practice more regularly. Some will use them to begin their own small business where they hope to make up wedding invitations.Our guests did lots of shopping and it is always wonderful for the ladies to see people delightedly anguishing over which of their gorgeous creations they should buy. They don’t always get to see the shopping part so it is very affirming for them when they see people's joy in their art.At the ladies’ request the teachers also ran some fantastic conversational English classes focussing on the kinds of conversations people might have with them when they visit. It was wonderful to see how much progress could be made in a short time. It also gave us ideas about building on conversational classes.We were thrilled by the visit and grateful to them and to Rhonda and Geoff for thinking of us in such practical and generous ways. We hope they had a great time and look forward to meeting others who brave the East to come and visit.Until next time, happy Dashain!You will be pleased to know that no goats are being slaughtered as part of Samunnat’s celebration! But thanks to your generosity and the ladies’ incredibly hard work, they will all be able to buy their children the traditional gift of new clothes for Dashain with their wages!