Visitors Words

Namaste!

My second visit to Sunrise Academy has been just as rewarding as my first. The school is now built and functional with ample space for the children. The future plans of the school are also very promising with the potential to provide basic needs such as breakfast, lunch and dinner to the children staying in the future hostel. As for the future visitors quarters, they too are surely going to provide increased opportunities for the school to generate essential income for the schools development. For all these dreams, I have much faith they will prevail with MK as the promising leader of the school. MK – I wish you all the best with your decisions in the future and these dreams!

It has been sooooo nice to see the children again, the many smiling faces, the many shy smiles and the 110 “good morning sir”’s you get first thing when you arrive. It truly puts the biggest smile on your face for the start of the day which is warm to the heart and a gggggggggreaaaat way to start your day! To all the children, thanking you for having that burning spirit that brightens the lives of those with whom you interact.

The children’s English has considerably improved since my last visit, part to play with them probably being less shy with more visitors now having visited, but also and more importantly to the impact the visitors have had teaching the children during class time. To the teachers as well who continue to teach in English although it is not their first language, and who volunteer their time with little or no pay, THANK YOU!!!!

Each day continues to be a magical day in the rural, beautiful village of Begha, where time is of little importance, family is of big importance and nature’s finest is recognized every moment you look around. The mountains are amazing, the sunrises from the viewpoint over Kachendzonga (3^rd highest mountain in the world) at 5:30am are incredible and the many flowing streams, birds and crickets (at this time of year) play nature’s finest tunes all day long…not to mention the many blossoming flowers at this time of year…although it’s autumn.

The school teaching day is short for visitors (9:30 am – 1pm) which leaves ample time to relax, discover, and enjoy what ever interest you may have. It really is the cheapest holiday you could ever have, and you also get to support an off-the-beaten track village in what is known as “god’s country.” When you visit you will know why….it truly is an amazing part of the world!

Being able to experience the homestay again continues to provide insights and learnings beyond my expectations. Not only have I been welcomed as part of the family again, but am treated with so much respect and everyday laugh during meal times. So many simple jokes, so much friendly banter, the occasional Nepalese dance and so much tasty food. Ama Gurung your food is amazing!

So to put all that in a few simple words…YOU MUST COME VISIT! It’s an experience like no other, in a place that few westerners will get to experience. It’s still raw, it’s still tied to the earth and it’s still untouched by development.

To everyone who made this experience more special that the last, MK and his family, the teachers, the children and all the Gurungs, I send so much love and will see you soon.

Lots of love,

Paul “Jetta” Crebar

October 2011

Ahhhh hemmmm.... Well well well..... Five weeks comes and goes so quickly! From the smiles I’ve seen and mine I have shown they will around for a lot longer!!!

Beautiful Begha, nestled among the Himalayan hills of sensational Sikkim, what a joy it has been to spend the last month in the most beautiful place I have ever visited! From the students, the teachers, MK and Phullmaya, the Gurung family and the wonderful community of Begha, I can not thank you enough for making me a part of your community, your school and your family!

Waking up in the clouds, only to see them clear and allow the sun to shine brightly upon these children who in themselves bring light to the day does nothing but make me smile. I month a smiling gives you very sore cheeks! But what memories it creates!

The school, the community, home-life, living, so raw, so beautiful, so honest, so lovely! My advice, get yourself a toppy (a Nepali style hat), learn compti (a little) Nepali, place your hands together and ‘Namaste’ to everyone. This I assure you will bring much joy to you, and the people of this wonderful village.

Before I came to Begha I tried to visualize what it would be like, and after my first day all my created imaginations were gone! Coming to Begha has completely blown my mind and has without a doubt has been the greatest experience of my life. I could ramble on about my experiences, but lets be honest, yours will probably be different. But what I can promise is that, keep your eyes open, your smile wide and your Namaste’s going, and you are bound to have an amazing experience.

So, thank you to everyone! MK - you have a heart of gold, and your devotion to this project will change these children’s lives. To Paul, thank you for making the visitor program possible, without your work this experience would not be possible. To the Gurung family, thank you, I can not express enough, how welcomed they have made me feel. Allowing me into their lives, into their home, and into their culture, you too have hearts of gold, and without you the visitor program would not be possible. And to the student, WOW! You little monsters have so much energy, joy, enthusiasm, questions and “yes sir!” in you it is ridiculous. Please don’t ever lose this. You are amazing, your spirit is strong. Thank you for feeding light into my life.

So I think that’s about it from me, thank you to everyone involved for making this experience, not only happen, but be such a wonderful experience.

To future visitors, look where you are, smile and enjoy! This place is amazing! Until my next visit, farewell Begha.

Daneeabad! Namaste!

With love,

Ed ‘Gurung’ Crowthers

October 2011

hey, Hej, Hello and Namaste!!

So, where do i have to start this little story of 3 weeks in Begha? First of all it has been one big experience in my life. To be this privileged you letting us, me and Cecille stay in your village and being open minded and caring.

Our stay here is meant for teaching at the Sunrise Academy, being a part of the children’s life at the school, experience the culture of Sikkim, and the other values of people’s lives, different from our own in Denmark.

Definitely it is sometimes difficult to meet other cultures and try to be part of a new one, and it has been a few times especially when the monsoon showed itself to us with a lot of rain and thunder, but otherwise being a part of the Gurung family made everything easier. They have showed us how it is to work, relax and be social in their everyday life. Go to bed at 8 in the evening and be up when the sun rises at 5am can be a challenge but within a few days you get use to it and I like it. The mornings get a lot more easy when there is time to prepare things for school and eat breakfast without hurrying as we do in Denmark. I will try to bring that experience home.

The children and teaching at the school has been a part to remember and bring home. From the first day the children have been very kind and friendly. Their curiosity to see who we are and where we are from has been big. After sometime you get use to their staring. They have to get use to us as well. It has been a little difficult to know about the children’s level of English and it took us sometime to prepare ourselves in teaching and they are very good drawers!!! The students are very happy to show up and always learn. Even on a very rainy day. Their happiness is not to forget.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to let us visit your beautiful village, the school and the Gurung family.

All the best,

Camilla Aggerholm - 29/9/11

Dear Sunrise Academy, MK, the sweet Gurung Family and Future Visitors,

I am happy to be one of the lucky visitors who are getting the opportunity to write on this website. It has been amazing!

I as well as all the other former visitors  have to say thanks to every single one of this whole community for making this stay as unique and special as it has been. Never in my wildest dreams I could have thought it would have been so good!

Beside from that, I can only supply Camilla (my friend and traveling partner) with some advice:

Get some slippers and am umbrella right away (at least during the monsoon. And a flashlight!)

If you want to buy a Nepalese/Indian clothes - then do it before it is too late. It takes about a week for the tailor in Dentam to make it.

Start playing Caram Ball straight away, the better you get the more respect you get from the locals, as well as the students.

Some of the best ‘presents’ are ketchers and other playing equipment (both in the school) but also in the family.

Thank you all for everything!!

Daneeabad!!!!

Cecile Linding (Denmark) 29/9/2011

I have great admiration for MK and each member of the school staff, for the dedicated work they are doing at Sunrise Academy. They are making a marked difference of the lives of a number of children of Begha. I have been impressed by the abilities of the children in Classes 2-5. They are diligent, attentive and very motivated to learn. Though shy and somewhat hesitant to speak freely to me - with exceptions of the walk to and from school - the children have written some wonderful stories that we have published in book form. Each lesson aI have read a story and children are able to retell most of the details. Music activities have been enjoyed by us all. The children sing cheerfully and have a very good sense of rhythm. My host family have been so very welcoming, marvelously generous and hospitable. The villagers have shown friendship as well. I have gained so much enjoyment and knowledge from being here, I am much more aware of the hard and constant work necessary to keep a farm productive. I have observed the preparation of cooking of meals and the hospitality that abounds. I have had lovely walks with children to special spots around the village and enjoyed tea at some of the children. The simple, natural and non-materialistic lifestyle I have certainly appreciated. The building progress of the new school is heartening to see and I hope I might return to see it completed and the classrooms occupying light and airy rooms. Fancy a library and a computer room as well.

Karen McCrone - Australia - 12-10-2010

What can I say about Sunrise? I guess, firstly – I can confirm that everything that has been said on this website about the children, the surrounds and the warm, effusive nature of the people living in Bega are one hundred percent true. The family I stayed with (Kamal, Chandra, their son Gajen and nephew Nikkas) were the most kind, generous, happy people I have had the pleasure of meeting. And funny too! – watching Kamal, a forty eight year old man unexpectedly do the chicken dance in front of the entire room at dinner was one of the biggest belly laughs I’ve had in a long time.

Waking up in Bega to epic lush green mountains just outside my window every morning was an incredible experience. Villages are literally cut out of the side of these formidably vertiginous inclines, so that every day, wherever you are you can’t help but see the incredibly beautiful landscape around you.

Last, but by no means least – the children are the lynchpin in this experience. Their infectious positivity and toothy grins get you smiling like an idiot. My walk to school every morning was hilarious – as I followed Nikkas down the precipitous village path to school, every fifty metres or so we would stop, only to be joined by one or more little 4 foot ragamuffins holding little bottles of warm milk and chatting animatedly in Nepalese. By the time we arrived at school I was rolling with a group of about 30 little rascals.

All in all – an incredible experience – one which I will be forever grateful for, and one which I hope I can repeat!

-Joe Greathead

I was easy to spot I guess, when I arrived in Jorthang – a suitcase, a backpack, a box of books, a parcel of board games and a drum. So I was quickly befriended by a jeep driver who knew exactly where to take me!

It was great to meet up with MK and his family again.  ( it was sort of like a time warp – more than a year since I was there before, but seemed like no time at all – very strange. My host family – MK’s brother and his wife – were so kind.  I was very comfortable, and so well cared for.

At school I worked with classes 2,3,4,5 each day.  My lessons followed a fairly set format – I would read a story - mostly folk tales – after which we would talk about the illustrations and the story line.  I did find that I was often doing most of the talking as the children are naturally somewhat shy and hesitant to speak out.  This was obviously a new type of skill expectation.  A language or memory type game was interspersed with some revision from texts, in preparation for the end of year exams.  The main challenge that I set the children was to write a story from their own imaginations.  These, we published in small books that we made – sewing the spines, designing a cover etc. The results were truly amazing and very charming.  At the beginning, I had asked the children if they would agree to let me show their work to friends in Australia.  Everyone to whom I have given a book has been so delighted and amazed at the skills that the children have displayed.   This of course is due to the wonderful work being done by the delightful and dedicated staff of the school.

Working with the children of SRA is very satisfying because they are motivated to learn and diligent in their attitude to study.  They are delightful personalities and so responsive to ‘new’ ideas.  Everything I introduced was readily accepted and so quickly learnt – whether it was songs, games, knitting and weaving or playing the recorder.

The rate at which the new school building is taking shape is so commendable  - many days MK was working alongside the carpenters to add to the progress of the upstairs framework.  The roofing iron was about to be put on as I left.

My out of school hours were well filled, with children taking me on excursions to the local nursery, the sheep farm, the border patrol post, the valley viewing spot, the village tailor, hot-houses and creek explorations.

-Karen  (October 2010)

More than anything the visit to Begha gave me perspective and understanding. Perspective in the sense that we really are priveleged being born into wealthy nations and have to open our eyes and see that there are so many less lucky than us. Understanding in the sense that our value system is flawed in almost every way but one: our focus on education! 
The Sunrise Academy offers the children of Begha the best quality of primary education in Begha. It teaches them that they will have more chances in life, better opportunities for finding work and escaping poverty if only they study hard. And they do! Teaching the children of Begha is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. Their cheerfulness is contagious and their eagerness to learn admireable. These children, whose parents are mostly illiterate and who are brought up in poor and sometimes taugh unfavourable conditions, simply love going to school. The people of Begha master the tough life in the remote mountains of Sikkim without the slightest sign of discontent. I would like to see a British students walking downhill for an hour every morning to go to school and return in the evening, after climbing back up with a smile on his face, whisteling a song. 
They will teach you to be greatful for the simple but more essential things in life. When leaving Begha, I felt a pinch of bitteness that now I will have to go back to a place where people judge each other on the basis of appearance, social status and material wealth. When looking back at my time in Begha, I feel like MK Gurung, the Sunrise Academy family and the people of Begha should come and teach us how to be more appreciative (and how to cook the delicious food they eat everyday!!! :)

-Tim and Christin  (September 2010)

My visit to Sikkim was a magical adventure in to the unknown! It consisted of music, dance, teaching, eating (plenty!), learning to cook and learning Nepalese. It was the most fun, the most relaxing and the most educational time of my life. The opportunity opened my eyes up to a world where family holds more importance than anything else, and that included me as part of the family.

As we bumbled up the rickety windy roads, alongside the plush green Himalayan countryside, I felt small pangs of worry; the nearest town 'Dentam' that GS pointed out to me seemed to be drifting further and further away. The rain was pouring down and our jeep driver seemed to have a mad method (but an effective method) of driving. 20 minutes later the jeep stopped at nothing! Everyone jumped out and dispersed in various directions into the plush green nothingness that surrounded us. Helpful men picked up my bags and we all walked single file to our destinations, mine being a country style house belonging to local family.

The house was just perfect, wooden and bamboo structured rooms with a beautifully simple clay hob (a big hole and a little hole for a hotter or a cooler flame) to cook on. The bedroom was perfect with an incredible view of the Himalayan mountains one side and the cow shed the other, and organically grown vege’s as far as the eye could see!!

Next was to visit the school, the children and the teachers who were all more than accomodating for our arrival and made my stay warm and comfortable. Morning prayer, a few lovely lessons with smiling children and then an absolutely delicious lunch; Khana and subji (rice and vegetables, oh, and dahl......you can't forget the dahl)....each and every day was an exciting experience and watching the children grow and learn each day was AMAZING!!! It really felt great to be able to share my knowledge with these children!

If you are interested in helping these wonderful people, whilst enjoying a peaceful, tranquil and relaxed getaway in an amazing part of the world, then you have to visit Begha and Sunrise Academy!!! I would highly recommend it to anyone.

-Sophie Walker (July 2010)