The following is a team post, written by Mike and Daniel:
Last week, when we talked to John about our ideas for projects for the last two weeks, I knew I wanted to find something that I could invest in emotionally. Something that may not be extremely productive here and now, but something I would remember, a project that would, hopefully, motivate me to do work and still care when I return home. As Daniel explained in his blog earlier, we were asked to take on the documentary project, meaning we’d have to revisit every childrens’ home, interview every child, and gather footage of every household. So here we are.
Revisiting the homes did not mean a lot of difficulty for the first few homes, since they are within walking or tuk-tuk distance of our hotel in Kathmandu. For the other half of the homes, though, we have had to pack our bags, buy a bus ticket, and say sayonara to our group for a weeklong journey south to Chitwan then up through the center of Nepal to the popular tourist town of Pokhara. There are three children’s homes in this area, and so we’ve temporarily gotten to settle down in a hotel with a phenomenal view of lake Fewa.
What Daniel forgets to mention, however, is that despite making it to the “hotel with a phenomenal view,” we did not get here flawlessly. The plan started with us taking a very small microbus from Kathmandu to Chitwan very early Monday morning. We got to the bus park after waking up a sleeping taxi driver, paid a guy on the corner to take us to the bus (crossing our fingers we didn’t get scammed), and packed into the corner with 3 bags and a little girl who tugged at Daniel’s “beard.” Once we found a rickshaw driver, he took us to the bottom of a hill, and then told us to get off. I believe he wanted us to walk next to him while he walked the rickshaw up the hill, but instead we paid him and bee-lined the top of the hill (thank you, Daniel). In addition, we overpaid another rickshaw who was potentially 85 yrs. old, got led to the telecom center of Chitwan instead of a place to buy a sim card, found Salvation Home by luck, missed our bus to Pokhara, and stayed at a random hotel in Chitwan until we could leave for Pokhara the following morning.
Okay, Benedict Mike-nold, I figured that people don’t want to read about the tiny obstacles and misunderstandings that we easily overcame throughout our travels. Also, you accidentally put quotation marks around beard (maybe you meant to underline it??). The point is that we are here, we are happy, and we are getting a lot of opportunities to build relationships with the children and parents of Holy, Beloved, and Paradise home. We have gotten a chance to meet up with Kara and Katie, who are also doing a project with the Children’s homes- a family photo album project. So in a joint effort, we are throwing a pizza party (Kara and Katie’s idea) for the children before we return back to Kathmandu (a 7 hour bus ride).
Nope, I had to put quotations because I couldn’t think of another word for…whatever that semi-red, fully-scraggily, unsightly thing is on your chin/neck. Anyways. Like he said, we’re almost done with the filming part of the project, and we’ll be left working on editing for the rest of our time in Kathmandu. To be quite honest, this project has been an utter surprise for me. In the beginning, it seemed like we had so much work for the amount of time left, and having had been to every children’s home I worried that it’d seem repetitious and potentially invasive. But every home we’ve been to has been extremely welcoming, willing; and being able to spend more time with some of the most mature and loving kids I’ve ever met has been a blessing to say the least. Not to mention it’s meant being able to go on an adventure doing a hobby of mine with the friend I discovered this hobby with.
My beard is not unsightly, you jerk.
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