Happy New Year 2023

… to all our supporters worldwide wherever you are in the world and whatever traditions you follow.

I hope you all enjoy this alternative New Year card – an image of Namgyal Monastery on the cliffs overlooking Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang. This is the home of the boys monastic school in Mustang. Our girls’ school is a bit further up the valley.

The school card shares some sense of how stunningly beautiful yet harsh an environment and barren the vegetation is in the area.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS from the children

Although our school is in the Buddhist tradition, our children know about Christmas and other traditional celebrations in cultures other than their own and have drawn this lovely Santa card for us all in appreciation of all our efforts to support them and their education. Please enjoy their efforts.

And Now It’s Time to Pack!!!

After three long years it’s time to pack for a visit to the school mid January. It feels like such a long time since we were there although our Italian friends managed a visit in the summer.

Thanks to the generosity of you all, many items of warm clothes and knitted toys have been kindly donated. The load has accumulated over the last 3 years and I’m so glad now that at least there will be space for air to move beneath my bed and in my wardrobes, which I can open now without fear of an avalanche of clothes!

Logistics for the trip are always challenging – the easiest part is that somehow most of this has to be packed so that three of us can get it onto the international flights to Kathmandu. From there, Asian collaborative-style logistics have to be adopted and so we’ll find someone to take the bags on the overnight bus to Pokhara, where someone from the school will pick them up early mornings and transport them up the hillside to the school in a jeep. Then we’ll follow on after the short flight from Kathmandu the next day.

Somehow it all seems to happen – ok let’s see

Going Shopping….

Our plans for the trip, in addition to getting together with the children of course, is to go shopping locally. We have gratefully received some generous donations to enable the purchase of books both reference and fiction that we will buy locally.

And to enable us to complete the library area that we began planning before the pandemic hit us all and put these ideas aside for a while. Teachers are excitedly drawing up their wish lists as I write.

And as the school is hoping to be granted a licence to teach years 11 and 12 in the coming year, and to support their efforts, we’ll also be buying science teaching materials to improve their facilities.

Here, our senior students enjoying a co-ed science class recently…..

Other News….

At this time of year, the main other news from the school is that exams have just finished – our students joined the boys at the monastic school for their mid-term examinations as most classes are co-ed these days

And Finally…..

As we begin 2023, having celebrated our Western New Year, may we offer out heartfelt thanks to you all for all your amazing and generous support this past year.

We are totally dependent on the generosity of our kind supporters and you’re all really stepped up to the mark this year. Despite the economic downturn we’re managing to pay our teachers next year, sponsor the children in school and support a couple of projects like a new teachers’ room, library and science teaching materials.

The size of our gratitude to you all is immeasurable. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all! Of course, more news will follow in February after our school visit.

And at the school there are new beginnings too – please enjoy these snaps of our little Binu (baby) welcoming one of the new pups to school life….