Hearts in Nepal-Part Two

If you haven't read part one,you might want to pour some milk tea and catch up! It's a story worth taking a tea break for, and in this part of the world, Nepali spicy tea sweet wtih sugar and cooled with creamy milk is tops.
Got your hot tea?Cell phone off? SO there I was in Dharka, hot and sweaty but filled with happiness that our school stood before us, nearly finished when just less then a year ago, Danny and I had walked this area of terraced hillsides trying to imagine how they would fit a school on the shelf of land. But it was not as difficult for the villagers to visualize, those strong, kind hearted people who work this land with such determination to makea good life here, as they have for centuries. The children lined up with the help of adults who stood them from smallest to tallest, each child had in hand a necklace of hand strung flowers or a white kata ,the traditional Buddhist blessing scarf. Rajan, cheerful as always but even more so today, told us that we were to proceed between the two lines of children, bowing and saying our "Namastes" to them as they carefully placed the adornments over our heads and said their greeting.I could not help but claps my large old hands around each pair of sweet small hands and treid to match their innocent stares with the love I truly felt in my heart. I hoped they sense the swell of admiration I felt for how hard the villagers had work to make the school happen, and for these, their wonderful children. The children here in the village are so polite and so amazenly kind to us strangers-it is enogh to fill your heart over and over. They come up to you and "Namaste" with the most beautiful smiles, and observe all the correct protocol in ceremonies such as this.
AFter we walked the line of children,bowing and namasting, we light a candle that made up a small alter, with flowers and fruit. I presentd the villagers and children with my sheet I had brought, where I had painted a crude map of the world with a rainbow linking California to Dharka,and had had my own students in Guadalupe press their painted hands around the border,and now had paint to do the same with the Nepali children. Our cultural connection had begun! Rajan then gave me a tour with our project manager Protap, and I stared in wonder as we went into each of the 4 rooms and aborped the light and fresh air coming in from the doors and windows. The view was the most stunning of all. Right out the front doors of each four rooms spreads below the valley and river, with mountains and green jungle below. Way off in the distance are the towering peaks of the Himalayas, and of course the peak of Ganesh Himal overlooking all. How inspiring!
Rajan then told us we would have a ceremony and many speeches, and a table,bench for honored guests and straw mats for others, were brought into one of the classrooms. There we sat listening to village officials and those involved in the project making heartfelt speeches, that despite the communication gap,I felt deeply each carefully chosen word. Then is was Danny's turn to speak and the audience gave him thunderous applause, then me, "Amma" tried to add some words of wisdom and speak from my heart, and then Rajan gave a wonderful speech that went fromhumerous to stern to serious to funny,keeping all attention,even the smallest inthe crowd, listening intently!