Achieving personal goals, new looks and school visits

Greetings from Kathmandu!  Life has been rather busy in the last few weeks with our EBC team successfully all getting to BC and even having an afternoon cuppa with some Lhotse climbers in their tents at Everest Base Camp.  For some of our trekkers they have worked extremely hard to overcome many physical challenges to make this happen and we are so proud of them achieving their goals. Most of this would not have happened if not for our team leaders, Gavin and Ganesh who guided and cared for our group the entire journey.

It was also exciting moment for our board and members of The Umbrella Foundation Australia as our EBC team finally launched our new ‘Nepal’ Logo!  This has been in the planning for some time as TUFA are now officially a separate entity to Umbrella Nepal/Ireland.

While TUFA will still operate with the same Australian branding it was decided we would have a fresh, modern and exciting new look for our Nepal programs.  Special thanks go to Jennifer Nash from Nashifruit Designs for her amazing design, if you are in need of a great designer go to: https://www.facebook.com/Nashifruitdesigns

In the final few days on arriving back in Kathmandu we ventured out to Sindhupalchowk and visited Shree Bhimsen Secondary school and were given a warm welcome by the teachers and students. Our youngest trekker, William had the opportunity to pass on letters which were written by his fellow students in Australia.  William was given letters and photos from the students at Shree Bhimsen School which will be passed on to his school mates in Maitland NSW.  

The students all introduced themselves and it was a wonderful experience for William to share some of his culture and time with the students. 

The final day of the adventure was spent on a city tour where everyone visited Boudhanath Stupa (the largest stupa in Asia) and Swayhambunath  (the Monkey Temple) with magnificent views of the Kathmandu valley….as well as many monkey’s!  No trip to Swayhambu is complete without a visit to Fine Grains Bakery for chocolate lava cake, some of which has journeyed back to Australia. 

Everyone agreed it was a wonderful adventure and on the last night at our cultural dinner plans were already happening for next year…..apparently Annapurna Circuit!  Photo credits - David, Kristyn, Gavin