We meet a Tibetan refugee and go to a blind cricket match

Right...so... just after our last post, we ran into a Tibetan refugee named Yudon who we'd met on our way back from the temple. She was ever so nice, and we'd promised to have a look at her wares; lovely handmade bracelets and necklaces. We sat down with her and had a chat. Her family came here in 1959 to escape the Chinese who now have posession of her country; she hopes they will give it back someday. She lives outside Pokhara in a refugee camp. Looking at the jewelry took a while as it was hard to choose, but, eventually, 10 bracelets and a necklace were chosen... some for us, some as gifts. She seemed surprised at how quickly we came to an agreed upon price, so perhaps we "overpaid," but the conversation with her was beyond a price tag, and we were quite satisfied.

Class yesterday and today went very well. We are definitely getting into a groove with it; Andy is developing creative ways to describe strange anatomical terms, and Evan enjoys planning the lessons and watching the students "I get it" faces. Good progress being made in both theory and practical work... though lots of work yet to do.

This morning was brilliant! We got up at 5:30am and met one of our students outside the clinic. On his invitaion, we were joining him to watch the womens blind cricket team of Pokhara practice. There are 9 countries involved in the league, both men and women's teams. The women have a tournament coming up in a few days. They play with a ball that rattles, and it is amazing to see how they bowl, hit, and trap/catch the ball. We were really honored and moved to be invited, and thoroughly enjoyed not only watching practice, but being guided by our blind student on the public buses of Pokhara. We met the association president, vice president (our student), and men and women's team captains. We donated some of the funds given to us by people back home (US/England) to support this as a recently planned national tournament was cancelled due to lack of funding. There is very, very little support for the blind here, and this is so important to them... they were all obviously taking a lot of joy from playing the game.

As a side note, our Nepali practice with the students and staff at the clinic is also progressing... also with lots (and lots) of work yet to do.

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"Life is not holding a good hand; life is playing a poor hand well." (Danish proverb)