Khumjung Day 2-- Our Big Day!!!

Khumjung Day 2-- Our Big Day!!!, Click for FULL set with captions on Flickr.

Well today was our big day, and everything lined up for us just like the Dream Flags make a long beautiful line.

The sky was bright blue, and it was a sunny breezy mountainy day. Mrs. Crow, Mr. Harlan, and I met with Phurba Sherpa to go over and set up the flags by 7:00 before the festivities of the day started up. I liked all the activities and people for me to meet.

They set up our Dream Flags along ropes on poles that were in front of a gigantic (to me) outdoor stage in front of an even giganticer field with chairs and places for smaller people (or dolls) to sit in the front. Everyone pitched in with lots of friends helping, and the Dream Flags were up in no time. I liked how the ones from Khumjung were in front of the stage and ready to connect with the very long line from so many states and countries that Mrs. Crow and Mr. Harlan brought. Mr. Harlan said he carried them in his backpack all the way to make sure they were OK and because he likes them so much. Mrs. Crow said they brought more than 200 flags from other places, mostly in groups of 5.

When they were all set up, I noticed a crowd over by the side of the field. It was the ending of a race that had started earlier. Boys and girls from the Khumjung School and other schools were finishing a race of about 9 miles all through the mountains. Oh my goodness. Mr. Harlan and Mrs. Crow get out of breath just walking up a hill, and those kids were running all the way! I’m not really a running kind of doll. I like watching. And there was lots to watch.

Some kids were having a volleyball competition in the morning too, and we watched a little. Then it was our turn--Dream Flags time! All of the Khumjung kids were ready with their poems and we had kids too (besides me). My friends Tommy, Kate, Nick, and Daniel were ready with their poems and with poems that kids from other schools wrote too. And Mr. Harlan, Mrs. Crow, and Anne Keiser had more Dream Flag poems to read. I was ready too. My job was to help introduce the doll we were giving to the Khumjung students.

A very nice lady in an old fashioned outfit (like mine!) introduced us. She spoke in lots of languages including English, Nepali, and Sherpa. Then the speeches started (not my favorite part—but OK). Phurba Sherpa introduced Anne Keiser. Anne Keiser talked about the dream of Sir Edmund Hillary to build this school and how that connected to lots of other dreams—like our Dream Flag Project! Then Mr. Harlan and Mrs. Crow sang their Dream Flag Song (I think they sang too loud.) and it all got going.

There was a nice letter from the Head of The Agnes Irwin School, Dr. Mary Seppala, to Headmaster Mahendra from the Khumjung School. Mrs. Crow read it out loud, and Headmaster Mahendra said it in Nepali so everyone could understand. Then the gifts—my favorite part. Mr. Harlan gave Headmaster Mahendra a Dream Flag shirt and a whole bag of Dream Flag shirts as a gift from the Greater Himalayas Foundation (that Anne Keiser and Phurba Sherpa do.) Then my turn! Mrs. Crow introduced me, and the whole crowd made a sound like they liked me. And I had my turn introducing the Agnes Irwin doll that we brought to remind our friends at the Khumjung School of their friends in America and everywhere else! I told everyone her name is Kate, and Headmaster Mahendra smiled a lot, so I think I did OK, but I was relieved when it was all over.

Then poems. I love poems. Kate, my new doll friend, and I sat on the stage while the kids and grownups read the poems. Headmaster Mahendra started with his. One of my favorites was a very long one by a boy at the Khumjung School. We all started clapping because we thought it was over, but then he said, “Wait, I have bit more,” and took another sheet out of his pocket. All of the poems were in English so I could understand them. Sometimes the lady in the nice outfit said some into Nepali.

Then we all went down to the Dream Flag lines and we tied the Dream Flag line from The Khumjung School to the Dream Flag line from the Agnes Irwin School and all of the other lines. I helped. All the kids held onto the lines and so did Kate and me. (We held them for a long time because of so many photos, but it was fun.) Then we were done. Boy, was I tired.

We all had a big rest. I went back to Mrs. Crow’s room. Later we went out and did some other things. I didn’t go, but Mr. Harlan went to the Khumjung Monastery and talked to Peter Hillary there. (His dad was the first to climb Mt. Everest, and he's a big climber too!) He told Mr. Harlan some things about what we can learn from the Sherpa today, and you can even hear him say them if you click HERE. (I like making clicky things!)

Also, all day long the Dream Flags were outside and lots and lots of people were reading them. They were doing their Dream Flag job!

At the very end of the day, there was a big big party in the gigantic field, and I think everyone in Khumjung was dancing under the beautiful mountains. It looked a little like this:

Party in Khumjung! from Dream Flag Project on Vimeo.


I bet you can guess I slept really well.
Well, if you’re still here, thanks for reading this.

Khumjung Day 1--Start the Celebrations!

Khumjung Day 1--Start the Celebrations!, Click to see the FULL set wth captions on Flick.

I’m just writing a little on this day to catch up.
First Day in Khumjung

After all that flag sorting, I sure slept well, and guess what? The next morning there were real yaks outside our hotel, just standing around and nibbling little plants. They were so furry, shaggier than any animal I ever saw. Some of their fur was as long as the hair of some girls at my school.

When we were looking at the yaks, we heard music coming from the celebrations area and went down to see what was happening. It was the beginning of the big celebration for the Khumjung School! Mr. Harlan told me that 50 years ago, their school got started by Sir Edmund Hillary and it's going better than ever! After some speeches, there was a big parade with everyone in town—boys and girls from the school, men and women, visitors--everybody. They marched and chanted and some played instruments like cymbals and drums and we all joined in. You can see the pictures and how happy everybody is to celebrate this big birthday for the Khumjung School.

After the parade was over we watched volleyball. Lots of teams had come from other schools, and they were all trying for the championship. Mr. Harlan held me up so I could see over the crowd since there were so many people.

We also got to see some of the school, like the new dining hall and its kitchen. Science rooms too. Their kids study the human body, just like my friends in Pennsylvania! And we saw some Dream Flags that Mrs. Crow sent them two years ago so they could see what Dream Flags are. They were hanging in a gallery along with some beautiful ones with paintings on them that some Khumjung School students made. We also found out that tomorrow was our big day for Dream Flags. So we did a little more getting ready and went to bed early. I was a little nervous.

Day 3 of Trekking--To Khumjung At Last!

Day 3 of Trekking--To Khumjung At Last!, Clic to view FULL set with captions on Flickr.

I loved Namche. It was all hills and houses and markets with lots of wonderful colors , just like my colors. We didn’t even have to wake up early, but got up and got going around lunch! We packed up and said goodbye to our new friends at the Namche Hotel.

Then Phurba took us to a new museum all about Sherpa culture. It had just opened the day before, and our friend Lhakpa Sherpa helped organize it and open it for everybody. There was lots of stuff about the old Sherpa ways he writes about in Through A Sherpa Window, so I knew some already. I liked the gigantic horns there and the great big cymbols. (I’m sorry it was a "no pictures" place so I can’t send you any.) It was in a monestery, though, and I have pictures of that.

Next we went to another learning place. It was the big center for the Sagamartha Park (Sagamartha is Mt. Everest in English), and there was a new special part all about Phurba Sherpa’s husband! Phurba has been our class friend at The Agnes Irwin School where the 6th graders have learned all about the Sherpa and me! When she was a little girl, she lived in Khumjung, and now she lives near Washington, DC in the USA. Phurba’s husband, Mingma, was in charge of the whole Sagamartha Park and helped make the park clean and healthy for everyone. Then he helped people all over the world learn how to do that in their parks too. When I grow up, I hope I can do something really helpful like Mingma Sherpa did. (I’m sorry he died about five years ago, but his teaching is still helping people today.)

Mrs. Crow took me to all these places with the group, but Mr. Harlan went a different way. He told me he learned some things too, though. He had his lunch in a place with cooking in the old Sherpa way and said it was very tasty! (I think he likes food a lot.) He said he had a potato pancake with yak butter and onion sauce. The place where he ate it looked like this:

Untitled from Dream Flag Project on Vimeo.

All of us had to go up and up to get to Khumjung, though. I was really glad Mrs. Crow carried me so cozily. I still felt tired when we finally got there. It was so amazing to see the school I’ve just heard about for so long. It was right there when we walked into the village, and I saw kids practicing flips on the grass with a really nice man who’s a circus performer. He came for the celebration just like us!

Walking into the village, we went along the school grounds, and Mrs. Crow introduced me to lots of kids. They were so friendly and liked to hold me.

Then we walked along a big big row of mani.  (Mani are stones carved with prayers for good wishes from the Buddhist religion that most people here have.)

It was so great to get here. Phurba went to stay at her mom’s and we got settled in our nice lodge. It’s called the Ama Dablam, and that’s the name of a gigantic mountain right near the village. The mountains here are everywhere. I made new friends while Mr. Harlan and Mrs. Crow got the Dream Flags ready for their big day.

Sorry for the long entry—so much to tell! See you later.