Reunited at the Contact Center
Today Rick and I met Aleesh, BSF’s Program Coordinator, at our hotel and took a taxi to the Contact Center. The 20 minute drive was mostly on Kathmandu’s ‘ring road’ which encircles the city. Rain in the morning meant that the dust was greatly reduced and the weather was cooler than yesterday, so we could clearly see the chaotic traffic around us! It really was something to behold! This road was packed with cars, trucks, motorcycles, pedestrians, and the occasional cow.
Mitrata children enjoying a snack of tea and donuts at the Contact Center
Once we got to the Contact Center, we met some of the staff and Susmita, who is a program coordinator for BSF like Aleesh. We setup our cameras and began our meetings with sponsored children. First, we asked each child to write their name on a magnetic board and took a picture of each child holding the up their name. I was very impressed with the penmanship of the Mitrata children.
Then, we recorded a short video of each child responding to questions about school and their favorite color. We gave the child the letter from their sponsor and took a pictures of them with these letters. Each of the children were so excited to receive their letters and learn more about their sponsors!
Sponsors often send pictures with their letters (funny hats optional)
We saw 27 children today, and I really enjoyed meeting every one of them. The younger children are very cute and sweet, and the older kids are exceptionally polite and quite charming.
Rick and Jim with two of Mitrata’s sponsored children
The highlight of my day, however, was seeing Sushmita again. I’ve sponsored Sushmita for over 12 years and first met her back in 2011 on my last visit to Nepal. She lives not far from the Contact Center and walked over to visit after we’d finished our work for the day. There really are no words to describe how it felt to see Sushmita again, but I think the picture below really shows just how happy and excited we were.
— Jim Craig, Board President
Sushmita and Jim