Skis 4 Kashmir

Hello all!!! This week has been flying by.  The kids are great, their English skills are much better which makes everything easier.  We had them stopping and beginning to turn on the first day.  I’m amazed.  I have been giving lessons to instructors from across the valley because they are so impressed with the speed in which our students progress.   It makes all of us feel really good.  Today (Wednesday) we began on the beginner slope but the students were obviously looking for more of a challenge so we moved them over to the intermediate hill for the afternoon session, they were pumped.  Some of them were intimidated because the Indian national team was training there all it took was a few falls from the “pros” to make them comfortable.   Their smiles grew; and, as their smiles grew their energy faded. This afternoon, as with every afternoon, we went up to their hut to watch movies and learn about each other.  They have so many questions about America and the world in general.   None of these kids have ever left Kashmir so our conversations can go on for hours. Today we showed them a ski movie and some pictures of Ireland and Colorado.   All of them want to learn how to ski powder; we also discovered that there is a huge market for reggae music.  It’s really cool.  I’m not looking forward to the end.  We have had so much fun with the kids, I can’t wait to get back here and do it again.  Everyone is doing well.  Max and Steve took the afternoon off to recover from a bout with a chicken last night and from all I can tell they are winning.

Love

Charlie