A Day of Grantee Visits

We enjoyed a late start to the day.  

Ahhhhh. No need to get up early and rush out.

After a leisurely breakfast we all met at the conference room in the hotel to hear from two speakers from Blink Now - a former Together Women Rise grantee.

(Their site is too far to visit from where we are touring in Nepal so the speakers came to us. So glad they did. We met 2 more amazing women.)

One worked with the organization, and the other is a young woman who was a "family member" and participant in the Blink Now program. 

This young lady is going to set the world on fire!

 

 

 

What is Blink Now?

 

 

How do they do it?

 

The story of the founding of this organization is incredible.  You can read about it in the book, Between the Mountain and The Sky by founder Maggie Doyne.

 

Even more inspiring are the children who have overcome incredible hardship through this program. 

 

I was so fortunate to be one of the people lucky enough to enjoy lunch at the same table as these ladies.  

We chatted about life and the challenges of being a woman

 – in Nepal and in the US.  

Serious stuff but we laughed our way through the conversation.

 

After lunch the group filled the coach and we headed to another grantee organization, Sunsar Maya.

 

 

They strive to empower through after-school program, teacher training,  a Women’s literacy program, and emergency relief projects.

 

Their director is a DYNAMO!  Her enthusiasm was palpable and her passion relentless.  Plus, she had a smile that lit up the room.

 

Once again we were greeted so warmly.  The kids and adults went out of their way to make us feel special with Namastes, Tikas (these were with rice) and flower garlands.

 

Not a good look on me 😂😅

For the record, Nepali women do not wear these hats. 

The organization just wanted to offer us traditional items.

 

Vicky (top) and Andrea tied in the “actually looks cute like this” contest.

These smiling faces greeted us in the courtyard upon our arrival.

 I noticed many children throughout our touring wearing a watch like this.  

And yes, the kids put on a program with wonderful dancing and singing and beautiful traditional outfits.

 

All of these traditional dances and performances got me thinking, "What is American?  What performances would we do for visitors from another country?

This boy performed a solo dance.  He was so cute.  

As the song went on he kept getting more and more into it.

 

 Her smile was contagious.  She was equally upbeat in the classroom.

 

This was an after-school program.  

We popped into different classes to see what the kids were doing – 

art, dancing and science.

This could be any after-school program, anywhere in US.  So cute!

Don't think we would see this in the US, though.

      They were making mini-fans.

Art class.

The only person I saw wearing braces anywhere we went. Adorable!

This was her artwork.  

The kids were given materials and they could make anything they want.

Music and dance.  Yes, I got in there, too.

Is this a precious picture or what?!?!?!

And yet again, we were treated like royalty 

and served an entire delicious meal.  

The outside of Sunsara Maya.

 

 

And the sweetest part of the visit … after we had all loaded on the bus to depart an adult ran to the door with this boy.  He was upset that he hadn’t been able to attend the program and he wanted to see us.

This picture right here 

captures the enthusiasm with which we were greeted 

at each grantee organization.  

OMG – precious beyond words!

Also, very humbling.

Around the village - rice fields galore. Rice is an absolute mainstay in their diet.

Rice field.

Rice drying - after the harvest.

Another day done!  More wonderful memories of very special moments.