Saturday today and the kids have lessons until 12.00 midday so we had 3 classes this morning. The kids really are great and they so reading and drawing. Travis went into Kathmandu yesterday and bought a few more reading books so we let them have a look through these. The trouble is they are so eager they are getting through them so quickly and they really need alot more.
Tempo was telling us that the Monastery is nearly entirely funded by overseas investors, seem to be mainly from the US and Spain. They send enough money for the kids to have fruit twice a week and eggs twice a week along side their normal Dal Bhat and Monk Bread.
It breaks your heart to hear them say they have fruit twice a week when we are so used to stuffing down our 5 a day in the UK.
Yet in other areas the Monastery is clearly relatively rich compared with the surrounding villages. In fact there is some beef between the Monks and what they call 'the villagers' as, I guess the villagers see it as unfair that all that money has been spent on the Monastery. Tempo told us it cost $10 million to build and it only officially opened in June last year so still looks relatively new.
After dinner the kids have free time and straight away out came the football. It is amazing how much they love that game and I realised more than ever as I watched them kicking the ball about (with surprising skill) just how similar kids are inside, wherever they are from and even if they are being raised as Monks.
The game got fairly serious and Kris did take a ball to the eye at one point. It looked very painful!
The Monk kids seem to be super fit and spent hours kicking that ball around!
Suman came to visit today to check all was well. Cristina wants to go into Kathmandu tomorrow to try and extend her visa and change her flight so I think we are all going to go along, as it's a Sunday and so there are no classes at the Monastery.
