There is a children's ministry based near us here to the south of Pokhara, and the family who run it have become good friends. Yesterday they held their annual Christmas programme, a day long event that has two main aims: firstly to share the Christmas message and a good meal with around 600 local kids of all ages, many of them very poor and some homeless, but it also marks a bonding and learning opportunity for the team of around 30 teenager volunteers who lead the ministry throughout the year.

They had been practicing music, dramas and dancing for weeks, but preparations for the event started in earnest around 24 hours before the event was due to start when the buffalo that had been bought specially for the event was butchered, and the mammoth task of preparing vegetables went on for most of the night. The children were very well behaved, sitting on the ground during the two hour programme, but you could feel the excitement rising as the time for food came.

The food was all cooked in massive vats on three open fires about 50 metres away from the main meeting ground. The 30 leaders were running backwards and forwards delivering food as fast as they could for around half an hour until it had all gone and plates licked clean – 150kg of rice, 150kg of buffalo plus untold tomatoes and a few handfuls of chillies.

When the last of the children had left, the leaders then got stuck in to cleaning the whole compound, taking down decorations, sweeping the floor and washing up before relighting the fires and cooking their own meal – a hugely impressive group of very dedicated young people.