Challenges

That’s what life is about – meeting challenges – and we were challenged in a really fun way last Saturday when we were hosted by our friend Bob G. at the climbing wall at Kathmandu Mountaineering School. Bob is an American who owns a trekking company here in Nepal, and he’s also a bit of a freelance philanthropist – he’s heading to Ecuador in a few weeks to teach English in a remote jungle community for three months, now that trekking season is over for the winter.

Saturday’s outing was only open to older kids who had done their extracurricular English vocabulary homework, so we took 14 or so, along with Bonnie, Sarah (a volunteer from Seattle), Dick and myself. As a special treat, we were joined by Bindhu, one of our Ama Ghar graduates who is now a nurse at Patan Hospital. It was so exciting for us to see her again! We’ve known her since she was 14, and she’s such a fantastic girl – we’re very proud of her.

The climbing wall is as much a test of strategy as it is of endurance and strength. It was amazing to see the kids move up the wall so quickly – they love to climb. Climbing skills must be in those Nepali genes!

Once all the kids had a chance at the main wall, it was time for the adults to try. Bonnie Auntie didn’t fare too well, I managed to get halfway up – and then Bindhu challenged Dick Uncle to a race. He didn’t win the race, but he made it to the top – not bad for a 66-year-old! Bob G. said he was going to send photos to AARP – very funny. And, of course, our 30-something hiker Sarah made it up with no problem at all.

Then we moved to the advanced wall – too tough for all but the best: our big boy, Sajun, literally pulled himself up with his arms, and our tiny 13-year-old Srijana thought her way up (she also happens to be the Chess Champion of the house). Then Bob G. took us out for pizza and momos (Tibetan dumplings) and a good lunch was had by all.

As if that wasn’t enough action for one day, we continued on to Kopan Monastery, where Bob G. is living. We took a nice hike around the forested mountainside, fluttering with prayer flags, to see the views of several monasteries, before the Head Lama at Kopan gave us our private tour.

Kopan is as serene and lovely as any Hollywood fantasy of a monastery, with an intricately beautiful Tibetan chortan as the center of its lush garden. The kids rolled on the grass and played like puppies – then they ran around pushing the giant prayer wheel as fast as they could – laughing and shouting. This brought only benevolent smiles from the Lama, who believes that children should enjoy the monastery and not be intimidated by the accoutrements of their Buddhist faith.

And then, amid shouts of “Thank you, Bob Uncle!”, a tired but happy group descended to Ama Ghar and home.