Where to begin?

First, huge mazal tov to Eliah and Inbar, my two mud hut-mates who are now ENGAGED. (Yes, they got engaged IN NEPAL).

This is our last real week of work. As such, it's been crazy. My girls really stepped up their game and created a group name, slogan, symbol. Even a song. Not to mention we now have a President, Vice President, and Secretary. (By the way, can I just say- voting in Nepal- not so pashut...)

Our sports field is nearly ready to go. It took A LOT of work this week but everyone helped out- even the child clubs came to level and clear the field. (Awesome as their participation was, seeing 7 year olds working with serious tools isn't the most heartwarming sight...but is also totally normal here...) Monday, we're having a giant Fun Day to officially open our sports field- consisting of a relay race/carnival/performance thingamajing for all the different communities. It's taken a lot of planning but it's pretty amazing what carnival games you can think up when all you have is rocks and dirt to work with...

Also this week, I had an Australian physical therapist who is working for TBT come to the school to assess one of the students I work with. This girl, Sambreede has some very obvious delays, she can't read or write (the rest of her class can) and she has coordination and movement issues. After the assessment I wrote out a list of therapy suggestions for her family and had Prakash translate it into Nepali. Ram, her father, was so thankful when I gave it to him, there were nearly tears in his eyes. Hope it helps her...

I guess I'm nervous and excited for this week. I don't really know how to say goodbye...

One last story. This was one of my favorite moments so far.

Tu B'svat is a really meaningful time for me and I had planned in advance to have as many of the shivat haminim at our seder as possible (Not an easy thing to do in Nepal). But, I had already gotten a wheat plant special from our farm, olive oil and dates straight from Israel, and dried figs and fresh pomegranates after some searching around in the city.

I was walking around Madabesi on Tu B'shvat, thinking about what we were missing (barley and grapes). As I was walking around the bazaar what do I see in front of me?A fruit stand.

Selling green grapes.

I had only seen grapes once before in Nepal.

And I had never seen them in Mahadabesi.

But here they were, on Tu Bshvat, just waiting to be bought.

And they were delicious.