The last day of business in Kathmandu

Yesterday morning I met with Kumbeshwar Technical School (KTS) in Patan. It is an organization that works with the lowest of the lowest casts, people who are considered untouchable.
When they started the organization in 1983 they found that 90% of the members of the lowest casts did not even have names. No one could read. Some orphanages would not even accept orphans from the lowest casts.
The situation is still terrible for most of them, specially on the country side. But organizations like KTS are making a real difference.
The organization has 479 people in its programs and I was very impressed with what they showed me. Since 1994 the organization has been self reliant, so they don't need any external money other than what they make by selling crafts they have produced.
I visited their school and it really made my heart melt to see the children. They were all so cute and so happy to be in school, without KTS they would probably have to turn to the streets...

Yesterday I was contacted by a Swedish man called Claes who works an organization called Namaste Nepal. They have a training program to teach women tailoring and he has a program with 70 women in the south of the country.
He knows both Tirtha and Björn well, so we will be in contact again when I get to Sweden. Maybe we can work together.
Björn is by the way quite ill, Tirtha told me last night that he has some sort of typhoid and that he is in the hospital.

Last night I was invited to Tirhta and Poonam for dinner. It was really nice to see their home and learn more about the way of the country.
I'm looking forward to get The Fair Tailor up and running so that we can start working together for real.

By the way, a taxi driver told me that the road between Pokhara and Kathmandu would not open until 6pm yesterday. That means that maybe the biggest road in the country stayed closed for more than 30h. It seems I was lucky to get through to Kathmandu.

I have a long trip ahead of me, I suppose that it is about 40 hours until I will be back in my own bed...