Pokhora ICO Full Day

This morning we met Binod from Pokhora Rotary Club at 10am. He had a van to take us to meet a student sponsored by ICO in a village outside Pokhora. She is home for Diwali. We stopped at Begnas Lake on the way. The countryside was full of big homes in this area. We had to walk up a path on an old road which was slippery and I got my first leech bite😝 We met the young lady student and her family. She is in year 1 of a 5 year Dentistry Degree. She is a topper which means highest grades ( top student). She was proud to show us her awards. ICO pay for her room and board in Kathmandu. They will also sponsor one of her sisters now for Sciences. The 3rd sister wants to do web design. There is a younger sister still. The family lives in a 2 bedroom house. The parents room has the kitchen w a donated induction stove plate so they don't have to cook on the fire outside. The family squats on the land beside the school. The mom gets a bit of pay for looking after the school. The two sisters currently sponsored, will take a bus to Pokhora tomorrow to meet other students and us for lunch. We then walked back to the van, checked for leeches and then headed back to Pokhora for lunch. In the afternoon we visited a local government school to see the ICO sponsored computer lab and to present some sports balls to the Headmistress. Following this we drove up a mountain to visit a family with two autistic daughters and deliver some rice and laundry soap. The roads were good to a point then landslides affected some sections that we had to go so slow for. You don't want to look for some of it because you're staring straight down 300m or so. Bloody scary😬 We did stop at a viewpoint and had some fantastic views of Pokhora, Fema Lake and the Annapurna range. Once we finally got to the road, Jen, Brad, Binod, Laxchme and me walked 15 minutes up a gravel road with the dad to the house. This family is so isolated. The son, who is the middle child has been sponsored by Rotary because he may be able to provide support to his family once trained and educated. The daughters both have severe autism. The parents have to lock them up in their rooms while they go to the fields to work. They are not safe on their own. They could fall off the cliff. The parents have to wash the daughters clothes several times a day ( a washing machine was donated to the family ). The parents were so lovely & smiling, so good to their daughters and so grateful for the supplies. This was a sad situation with some horrible stories prior to support from Rotary and ICO. We said our goodbyes then had to walk down in the dark and drive down the mountain in the dark. Our driver was thankfully phenomenal and
very skilled.
A very humbling day.
.Baca lagi