So today was our second day at the conference and all is going well! I’m having good fun still meeting with different people and going to the workshops and listening to what has to be said about the youth culture and building bridges.
Today was a little different and we went on the cultural trips – so each group went to visit different projects or cultural things within Pokhara – I went to visit two projects – one called ‘Happy Homes’ which homed children at any age that were struggling in their home lives – to get into the home they had to pass certain criteria. it is funded through different countries – the main being switzerland.
The second project we went to was a child development centre – which was called … which meant ‘Rainbow’ – So really hit home for me (those who don’t know me – (My grandma was a big fan of rainbows!) and this project set up different activities and sports once a week for the children from the area to come play, have fun and learn about God! The building was a little place but had a big area for playing outside and also a hockey pitch – steven would of loved it! (Although it was only just bigger than a badminton court!) So this project was great as very similar to my work – with the younger children they would spend more time doing activities in the project and with the older teenages they would take them out to do things such as climbing and jungle safari.
We then spent some of the afternoon visiting the second biggest lake in Nepal – in Pokhara also – was so gorgeous and the weather is sooooooo warm!! 
I went on a little boat trip (via big canoes) to the middle of the lake where they had a little temple and more lovely views! And the back to the conference for final sessions!
So a brill day – been thinking way too much and too deeply – so all i want to do right now is be at home! 
So will hopefully brighten up tomorrow and enjoy the rest of the trip! x
Todays been an interesting day. The morning worship was, as ever, inspiring and heartfelt. I picked up an Bengali phrase during it: He Probha, Amader Prarthons, Groajjho Kuro. Which means: O Lord, Hear our Prayer. At the end of the interecessory prayers, we were all asked to say the Lord’s prayer together, in our mother tongue. That was awesome! 250 people, speaking in who knows how many languages prayer out lud together, just astounding!
Today we were doing our exposure visits – I’d been hoping to visit a rural Nepalese village and a Buddhist monastary. I’d picked up that we each chose which one we would like to do, and then go from there! It turned out, we were going in our gupsup groups to 2 assigned locations. The group I was with went to an HIV Clinic and a local University campus. It could have been really interesting, but our bus driver got lost and stuck a few times, so we ended up with only 10 minutes in each location. Those 10 minutes were very informative though. At the HIV clinic, we only saw 4 rooms and 4 people – but we had no method of communicating other than our limited Nepalese and various hand signals. And those that we met were so far along with the disease that they barely had energy to talk – although they seemed buoyed by the fact that we wanted to speak to them and that we weren’t afraid to go close to them.
The university was interesting – we had a short tour of their natural history museum (lots of butterflies and stuffed birds – and an incredibly evil looking flying squirrel! The university has 16,000 students – which many of the Asians in my group thought was huge. I think it is for Nepal, but I know nothing about other South East Asian educational facilities!
After these visits, we were dropped at the tourist area at the Pokhara lakeside. Our driver dropped us late and way past the intended area, so Pete and I spent most of our time walking instead of on the lake – but it was great to have the chance to wander down the street and not be distracted by a beautiful view!
The bus journey was intense! Aside from getting lost many times, our bus was overcrowded and transformed into a boiler! Even sitting at the window I was roasting – I’ve never been so glad of a cold shower in all my life! Even those from parts of Asia where it is normally really hot are finding the weather here uncomfortably hot – I keep getting told it must be far too hot for me here!!
Found out an interesting part of Christian life here in South Asia. When someone becomes a Christian, they are given a new Christian name. I hadn’ realised this happened and have been confused a few times when people were talking about not being ashamed of their Christian name – but it all makes sense now!
Tonights talk was about the struggle for identity amongst the youth of South Asia. They pretty much face the same kind of issues that youth do in the west – breaking free of the perception of them as a child, breaking free of culture, independence, struggling to define themselves amongst their peers and elders, struggling to define who they are as a person – often relying on lists of what they do to do the defining for them etc etc. As well as they ‘shared’ struggles, the issue of identity for youth here is further compounded by caste system, tribal systems, a hangover (real or percieved or both) from the colonial period and the culture shock many experience when moving from rural areas into urban life.
After all this, and dinner, there was time for some cultural sharing – people sharing music and dance from their homelands. It’s awesome to watch, to be a part of. Despite all the language barriers, once the beat gets going, everyone is up on their feet joining in! I have the fun job of being amongst the melee taking photos for SACYN to use in their newsletter or on websites or other publications! Don’t worry though, we are taking part! Tomorrow we’re taching them some Ceilidh moves! We’ll be teaching them the Gay Gordons and the Orcadian Strip the Willow! we didn’t bring any traditional scottish music – so I’ve put a requst on facebook for some to be emailed to me. Failing that, we’ll be using Deacon Blues ‘Real Gone Kid’ for the Gay Gordons and a mixture of Chris Tomlins ‘Let God arise’ and Motorheads ‘Ace of Spades’ for the Strip the Willow!
Today was a good day. I love the smell of aftersun on hot skin. The last of the Winter Blues have definitely burned away!
We went on Exposure visits to different groups around Pokhara today. I visited the Child and Women Empowerment Society, which works with sex workers, migrant workers, trafficked or at risk children and people who are HIV positive. By the sounds of it, they do a lot of good and much needed work, but they seemed rather short of money and resources. The government does not appear to view sex workers as a priority, so the work falls to NGOs like the CWES.
After that we went to Pokhara Lakeside, which is the touristy bit by the lake (as if you couldn’t guess). I went boating with a group of Nepalis. It was fantastic to actually just get to know people, and being on the lake itself was incredibly beautiful and much cooler than the city. I didn’t do any shopping – really need to start spending the money I exchanged.
This evening we again had a culture/stories session, which involves people fromn the different countries doing cultural songs and so on. Ordinarily I’d hate that kind of thing, but the enthusiasm is infectious, and we all had so much fun. It is especially nice to see groups from India and Pakistan singing, dancing and laughing together. It’s what this is all about.
