Just over a week ago we had a final pancake with Tashi and got into the car for the last time to head to the nepali border. It was only 7 km down the road through road works where the whole thing was completely dug up- of course this didn't bother Nam-Tso a jot as he carried on with his hand permanently on the horn. The border is a bridge between the 2 countries with a red line painted down the middle. Lots of straightbacked very serious Chinese army on one end and absolute chaos on the Nepali side. By the time we reached it we were all in tears. I cried for the rest of the day nearly- partly because it was so sad to leave the most beautiful place I had ever been to but also for the Tibetan people- oppressed in their own country and unable to speak freely or communicate their issues. As we waved goodbye we walked over the bridge from the calm to the frenetic activity, shouting a "Free Tibet" when we got over to the safe side. I think they'd heard it before as there was little reaction... When we got there our tour took a downwards spiral. Before leaving for the drive to Kathmandu however, we had to get a Nepali Visa. We were given forms and told that we had to have a passport picture. I, Of course, had lost the ones I brought with me, however this just meant that my Visa cost $5 extra. Not to have a picture taken or for any other reason- my form just went in with no picture but I was $5 lighter.
We then went to find our lift to Kathmandu- we were told it was about 3-4 hours away. We had walked across the border with two very annoying Americans (mostly annoying due to their horrendous insensitivity about the issues in Tibet despite them being there for a week.) Anyway we were pleased when the Nepali guide said Americans this car British that one. We saw the Americans climb into a 4x4 and turned to face our rust bucket. A car type that even Charles didn't recognise (and he is expert at these things) with an old carpet in the back instead of seats. Why did the Americans luck out? Not sure what we did to deserve that one. Anyway despite us paying for a trip by ourselves in a 4x4 a Nepali guy with a lot of baggage climbed in to our heap of junk with us and we proceeded to bump of very very slowly down the pot holed filled road with him chatting away to the driver. On and on we went through winding roads passing houses and lots of goats, a lot greener than Tibet and a welcome absence of Chinese flags everywhere although we could still see the hills from where we had come out of the other window for quite a while. We progressed very slowly- huge buses were overtaking us as we went painfully up the hills. After just under three hours the driver pulled over and spoke to us for the first time as he turned round. "I eat here." We countered that we would rather just get to Kathmandu- we felt filthy after no showers for 4 days and were already pretty hungry already. "no" he said starting to get a bit angry "I'm hungry and he is hungry (pointing to uninvited guest) we eat here" and out he stomped to sit down at a roadside stall for our lunch. We had no choice but to get out and sit down also so sat there for half an hour as everyone stared at us.
After they had eaten their fill the men got back into the car with still no acknowledgment of us and we set off again at snails pace crawling along. It seemed completely contradictory that despite it not being that hot and the car not doing any work it managed to overheat three times on the way between the lunch stop and the city. The driver made the mistake of opening the wter and having it explode all over him once which was great to watch but apart from that just collected all the water bottles in the car to replenish it. Eventually 5 hours later we reached the edges of Kathmandu where the driver suddenly seemed to perk up a bit. He started to wildly overtake seemingly purposefully into oncoming traffic with his hand constantly on the horn and shouting. Luckily we didn't kill anyone and then pulled over to let our passenger out. He then paid the driver- winding us up even more. When the driver got back in with a grin on his face he decided it might be time to do a bit of charming. "Temple on right" was about the extent of him pointing out the sights and shortly we managed to find our way to the hostel despite never having been here before and the agency saying they knew where it was. We pulled in and grabbed our bags out the back as the driver leapt out and stood to attention by the door. "Some Teeips?" he enquired hopefully at us. We had to laugh to stop ourselves killing him and informed him he had got his "Teeip" from the uninvited guest. He huffed off and we begab climbing the 4 flights of stairs to where we are staying.
As I said at the beginning that was just over a week ago. Since then we have stayed in Kathmandu and have been going every day to volunteer at the Disabled New Life Centre (http://www.disablednewlifecenter.org/). The DNC was was established in 1998 with the purpose of providing support to the physically challenged children in Nepal. The objective is to give these children special attention in the growing years with the required care, medication in the form of corrective surgery and support in the form of education and accommodation. Traditionally in Nepal, disability is considered a curse of God and there is widespread belief that disability is linked to "bad karma". Few believe that disabled people can be equally functional and can become productive members of society. As a result, children with disabilities often have low esteem and may suffer discrimination. We have been going every day for when they get back from school to help the kids with their homework which has been just brilliant. The kids are super bright and are doing work in English (obviously a second language) which I doubt kids of the same age would be doing in their first language in the UK. They love having people to sit with them an pay them some attention- mostly just to be excited with them about the number of stars the teacher has drawn in their book (of which they have lots and love to count them.) We were actually going to just do a week there but then the kids couldn't stop talking excitedly about Holi which was coming up on Sunday. We did some research and learned that it was the Hindu festival of colours where everyone throws water bombs and coloured paint at each other. The kids really wanted us to celebrate it with them so it was with trepidation that yesterday morning we put on some clothes we felt were dispensable and headed out the door.

We went to go and meet Michael who is one of the trustees for some lunch at his favourite cafe down the road from our hostel. Unfortunately that road ws the subject of some filming about Holi an there was no escaping all the kids that bombed us and ran up to us to smear red paint on our cheeks. The phrase "happy Holi" is always gleefully chanted after the bombing/ smearing/ soaking/ missile has hit you which really adds to the comedy of the situation. After a bite to eat feeling like we had been got we jumped in a taxi to take us to the centre. Nothing in the street could prepare us for the fight that was going on at the centre. Within seconds we were absolutely dripping wet and covered in red Tiki or paint. The battle went on for over an hour with everyone filing up everything they could find and soaking each other from rooftops and arm to arm combat. Everyone was involved and it was really good hearted- even the strict housemother and cook both got me with the red paint smearing! Before we left our hostel we had said to each other that we bet there would be a lot of tears but in fact the only ones came when the children were shoved under the hose one by one to get the stains off! We didn't envy them being scrubbed- it was hard enough to get the paint of ourselves with hot water, soap and a lot of applications let alone in the yard under a cold tap with loads of other kids still bombing you. So here we are- our life is a pattern of waking quite late, getting some food and then heading to the centre and we will continue doing that for the next few days before we head to India on Saturday.