Today offered a distinctive contrast to yesterday’s orphanage - uniforms, a playground, classrooms, a trophy room! All children have a right to play, none more than any others, but it was still impossible to ignore the different levels of access between one group and another.

Today was special because, for the first time, Deneen took the lead and ran the PLAYshop all the way through and, Jonah here, she was excellent. I couldn’t be prouder. She had their undivided attention from the moment they entered their playground and she held them to the end. A highlight video is posted on Facebook (or below?) wherein she divided the group in half and one side yelled, “Boooo!” as if surprising the other side and scaring them. The other side yelled, “Aaaah!” threw their hands up in the air and were physically blown back by the energy of the “Booo!” We could have done that all day. It was hilarious.

When we finished, just like yesterday, it started to rain and we retreated inside. We had hoped to do a few more playshops but will have to return for more groups later this week. Later in the afternoon, we visited two very special world heritage sites, a Hindu temple called Pashupatinath where we met some very special Sadhus and some very friendly monkeys, and a Buddhist Stupa, the largest I’ve ever seen, called Boudhanath where we walked around the giant structure spinning prayer wheels.

Tomorrow we’ll meet with and train the group assembled by Childreach Nepal. We’re all looking forward to the exciting opportunity to share PLAYshops with adults and build more capacity on the ground.