5 am: Time to get up. In the yard, the children are getting ready for their daily walk to a nearby hill.
6.15 am: The tutor arrives to revise the previous day’s lessons and prepare for the coming ones. The children, though they have different classes, share the same tutor for these revisions.
7.30 am: Once the children’s homework is done and they have freshened up, they play in the yard until their dahl bhat breakfast is served. After breakfast, the children place their dishes in a large tub used for cleaning dishes and laundry.
8.30 am: Time to put on the school uniform. After waiting in the yard until everyone is ready, the children line up and head out in an orderly manner to the Shangri-La school. This public school has about 1000 students and classes are divided into seven periods of about 45 minutes each.
4 pm: After school, it’s time to go back to the center. The children head home between 16h and 17h, except Friday when classes end earlier to leave time for the weekly hair washing sessions. Back at the center, the children change out of their uniform and play in the yard. But before long, the tutor is back to revise lessons for an hour in the dining hall.
6 pm: Once homework is done, the children can finally go and relax in the yard, play hide and seek, ping-pong, basketball, etc.
8 pm: Dinner time. The children line up, ranked by age and enter the dining hall after being called by name. At the table, they say a prayer and then tuck in! Meals alternate between Nepalese, Hindu and Sherpa dishes.
9.00 pm: After the meal, the children play a little more in the yard and then go to bed. Once a week they are allowed to watch TV and that’s an opportunity to go to bed a little later…
