Aurora, CO - Nepal Pen Pal Project

Students at Laredo Elementary School in Aurora are anxiously awaiting word from their new pen pals in Lamidanda, Nepal.

One hundred eighteen letters were mailed from Aurora, Colorado to a village school in the Himalayan country whose mountains are called "the rooftop of the world."

Laredo Elementary School Principal Quinn O'Keefe says this outreach between the two schools benefits the Laredo students in many ways.

"The Nepal Pen Pal Project is a once in a lifetime experience for our students. We know that children learn best from what we call 'authentic' or real life experiences. What better way to practice writing skills than to have to think about the unique perspectives of an audience that lives in vastly different circumstances on the other side of the planet? Moreover, our students have a terrific opportunity to think beyond their neighborhood and home state to develop a more global view of the world outside of their immediate boundaries," O'Keefe said.

So far the pen pal letter writing has been a very positive experience for the elementary students. It has taught the students how to be more effective as writers.

"You can write a letter but then you have to wait for it to be delivered and return with a reply over the course of a lot of time. It's not that instant gratification. So you really have to carefully choose your words, carefully choose how you are going to communicate your thoughts," O'Keefe said. "It forces the students in a good way, to think more deeply about their writing."

The Nepal Pen Pal Project started in November 2006 when Aurora residents Chris Bauch and her husband Brent Blake, personally carried the first set of letters from the Aurora elementary students to school children in Nepal. The couple trekked into a remote mountain region in western Nepal with the help of Nepali guides.

"We had to walk for three days to reach the school, before we could deliver the letters," Bauch said. "There was no regular mail service to this area."

Pictures and letters from the students of Laredo School were greeted with surprise and delight by the Nepali students.

"No one in this region had ever heard of Colorado, USA. And most students in the school weren't even sure of which continent we were from," Bauch said.

The village school in Lamidanda is accessible only by foot over mountainous terrain. The trek began in the western provincial town of Gorkha Bazaar where the group hired porters to carry their packs, including the 118 letters. From the town of Gorkha the trekkers descended into the Daraundi River Valley, crossing fertile rice patties before climbing up to the Shirandanda Ridge topping out above 6,000 ft.

"From there the views of the Himalayas were spectacular." Bauch said.

The trekkers then descended another 3,000 ft to reach the remote rice farming community.

Bauch says that when she and her husband first conceived of the pen pal idea they assumed they would have to spend several days in the village school helping the students read and respond back to the Aurora school children's letters in English.

"Once we handed out the letters," Bauch said, "we were amazed to see 8, 9, and 10 year-old children immediately opening the letters and begin reading the letters out loud to themselves in English. They were so excited to receive the letters. We didn't have to help them at all."

It only took the Nepali students overnight to write their letters of reply back to the Aurora students.

"The teachers assigned the letters as homework. And the Nepali children went home to their mud huts, without electricity and wrote beautiful letters in English and brought them back to us the next morning," Bauch said.

During the spring of 2007 the Laredo students wrote their second letters to Nepal. The letters were then mailed back to Nepal over the summer.

"This will be the first time we have relied on the postal system to see if the letters will actually make it all the way," Bauch said. "When I decided to try mailing the letters back to Nepal, I went to the local post office with the Laredo students' letters all in a package. The postal clerk asked me if I wanted guaranteed delivery. I asked him how they could guarantee delivery to the village. He said they could turn the package over to UPS. I told him I didn't think the UPS driver would walk for three days to deliver my package. So I chose the regular mail delivery option."

Chris Bauch is currently working on a documentary about the children's experiences with the Nepal Pen Pal Project.