'Keep Bandipur Clean!'

With the help of Ramsaran, the amazing manager of 'The Old Inn', the hotel which looks after my dietary needs and general wellbeing including the use of the showers and the most important of all their great company and friendship, I have set up a 'Keep Bandipur Clean' campaign.

Well actually Ramsaran and I discussed it a few weeks ago and it's only just starting to develop, but I'm hoping for it to grow and have an impact, I'll at least try my best. The idea came when I mentioned to Ramsaran that Bandipur has one of the cleanest High Streets in Nepal(See picture above during the recent Tihar festival), but as soon as you leave the High Street towards many of the different scenic routes, rubbish litters the paths everywhere. So I said can we get the kids involved, and he said yes. And when I looked at their computer class schedule and saw they were in their 6 days a week, I thought it would be a great idea to break up the week. So Wednesday, being the middle of the week, has become the 'Keep Bandipur Clean' day.

Actually, we start at around 7am armed with big empty rice sacks and go and find a route to clean. I am amazed with the turnout, some of the children are very enthusiastic. Today was the 3rd time of trying and so far we gone from 12 children on the first, 15 last week and 21 today out of 29 children I teach daily, which is great. As a thank you, they are served Nepali tea, some bread, a banana and a chocolate éclair afterwards :)

You can see a photo of today's gang above, just finished cleaning a beautiful hill spot called Thani Mai, it has a small Hindu temple on top and has panoramic views, where most of my view pictures have been taken.

Finally, I'm hopefully going to make a website for the campaign and start trying to raise money to buy more bins, create signs, buy gear and keep the children happy :) I will give you more details sometime in the future and hopefully you guys can contribute :)