Fly Like A Bird With Julia and Elaine Hanowell

November, 2019.

Our hostel and school in Simikot had two dedicated volunteers this fall who stayed for 7 weeks and taught

English, music and art classes to the girls.

Elaine Hanowell, a visual artist from the Pacific Northwest whose artwork is featured in Cora Edmonds’ ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle, and her niece Julia Hanowell, a teacher and musician traveled to Simikot in September 2019. They found themselves welcomed with open arms into a large and wonderful family at the hostel.

They quickly connected with the girls despite the language barrier and were soon dancing together, playing games, going on long hikes, and learning from each other’s cultures. The volunteers instantly felt at home in the beautiful mountains and enjoyed the delicious food cooked by the sweet staff members, Ganga, Basanti, and Badam.

Elaine brought a large bag of art supplies and instructed an hour of class each day at the school. She worked on teaching sewing skills, drawing pictures, and painting on felt fabric that culminated in each girl creating their own colorful bird puppet. The girls also loved to embroider their clothes with string that Elaine supplied.

Julia taught English, computer and music class using two ukuleles that she brought to the school. The girls took to the ukulele quickly and loved to play while singing Nepali songs. Julia and the girls also wrote songs together about Karnali Academy and made bird puppet music videos. 

Julia and Elaine were both blown away by the strength, resilience, drive, and love that the girls showed. They were amazed watching the girls wash their own clothes each Saturday at a nearby waterfall with freezing cold water.

They were happy to see how self-reliant the school was and how the students and staff worked hard to plant, harvest and prepare their own food. Julia was particularly impressed with how inventive the girls were with creating games out of stones, rope, rubber bands, and dirt fields that provided endless hours of entertainment. They said goodbye through many tears and Julia has already promised to return next year!