One of the most famous and beautiful trekking- and mountaineering regions of Nepal is the Solu-Khumbu region in the worlds highest mountain range, the Himalayas. The inhabitants of the Khumbu region mostly belong to the ethnic group of the Sherpa, who once immigrated from Tibet. The main village of the Khumbu region is Namche Bazaar at an altitude of 3450m a.s.l. A little bit above Namche Bazaar the "Green Valley" with the villages Khumjung (3790m) and Khunde (3840m) is hiding behind some small wood covered hills. Above the "Green Valley" the holiest mountain of the Khumbu region, Khumbi Yul Lha (5761m) is rising.
After Sir Edmund Hillary had made the first ascent of the highest mountain of the world, Chomolangma/Mount Everest (8848m) in 1954 together with the local Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, he was so impressed by the mental and physical strength of the Sherpa and so grateful for their great helpfulness, that he asked them what he could give them back. The Sherpa told him what they needed most would be a possibility for a good education. So in 1961 Ed Hillary founded a school with 10 grades in Khumjung, which carries his name since then. As he saw that also medical care would be needed very much by the Sherpa people, he also founded the Hillary Hospital nearby in Khunde in 1966.
One of the first graduates of the Hillary school was Lhakpa Thundu Sherpa from Khumjung. Years later his son and trekking guide Dawa Nuru Sherpa, who was also graduate of the Hillary school, had the idea that the children going to school here for almost 11 months each year, but mostly coming from villages being 3 to 5 or even more dayhikes away, wouldn't just need an accomodation, but also healthy food, care, assisted learning and nurture in a family environment. So in March 2013 Dawa and two friends of him founded the private youth hostel "Khumbi Yulha education center" (KEC). As still being a trekking guide, Dawa invested part of his income to run the KEC, but also tried to gain the attention and enthusiasm of his trekking guests to support "his" KEC.
In the years 2013 - 2016 Anni & Werner Schoitsch from Carinthia/Austria were among these guests several times, and they were very impressed and excited by Dawas enthusiasm for the KEC, and became very good friends quite quickly. They also invited Dawa coming to Austria in summer, and arranged that he could work in an austrian alpine hut, so to have a good income even during summer monsoon.
In April 2015 a big earthquake destroyed Dawas parents house in Khumjung, but the great dedication and support of Anni & Werner for his project encouraged Dawa starting to build a new youth hostel at the place of his parents house by his own. As Anni & Werner had found many benefiters around their home in Carinthia, the new youth hostel should be named "Carinthian childrens home".
But a few months before the opening and inauguration of the new hostel, unfotunately Werner (nickname "SchoWe") died by cause of an avalanche in his beloved home mountains. Dawa couldn't really believe at first this tragic news, but in great thankfulness for the big help of his friend he decided, that the name of the new youth hostel should be "SCHOWE KINDERHEIM", as a lasting memory to his friend.
Three months later Anni had to come without Werner, to inaugurate the new SCHOWE KINDERHEIM. Since then she is going on to support Dawas project as good as possible, together with her son Peter and many friends, who also miss and always will remember their friend Werner "SchoWe" Schoitsch.
In this sense, I dedicate this GeoCache to my friend "SchoWe", and also to the great social work of my friends Dawa Nuru Sherpa and his wife Kanchhi F. Sherpa. I hope this cache will also be a further piece in the mosaic of supporting this work, giving trekkers awareness of this wonderful project.
Dear GeoCachers!
If you come to Khumjung, take your time to find the tricky winding path to SCHOWE KINDERHEIM. As Khumjung is not that much touristic as many other villages along the main trekking routes in the Khumbu region, you may have the chance to see "real country life" of the Sherpa up here. There is also a monastery ("Khumjung Gumba") nearby, which can be visited.
As SCHOWE KINDERHEIM is a private hostel for children, please do not enter the hostel without being invited to do so!
If you meet some children playing outside in front of the hostel, I am sure they will have fun to use their english knowledge, and to speak to people of many different countries in the world, that they may have learned about at school.
The cache box is hidden outside the hostel in a niche of a wall.
To open the lock some skill is needed, so please don't use brute force to open it.
In the treasure box there is a very nice logbook of handmade paper and a pen. And there is a nice traditional bag, including small presents for the FTF, STF and TTF.
The presents have very special meanings in the buddhistic religion:
1.) The "Shrivatsa" - "endless knot" or "eternal knot" is a symbolic knot and an important symbol in Buddhism and one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols.
2.) The "Dorjee" in Tibetan Buddhism represents the thunderbolt of Guru Ringpoche, with which he scraped the deep scar into the south face of the holy mountain Kailash (Kangringpoche).
3.) The "Buddha Eyes", also known as Wisdom Eyes, are looking out in the four directions to symbolize the omniscience (all-seeing) of a Buddha.
Additional informations:
The reason for the D-rating of 3 is, that the way to the hostel is not so easy to find, and that it is a bit tricky to open the lock of the cachebox, so some skill is required to get into the cachebox.
The reason for the given attribute "seasonal access only" is, that it is not recommended to go for a trekking tour in the Khumbu region during the summer monsoon season (a lot of foggy and rainy weather) or during the winter monsoon season (cold temperatures and strong winds). Time and duration of the monsoon seasons can vary from year to year. In recent years, the summer monsoon in this mountain region mostly lasted from July to mid-October and the winter monsoon from late December to mid-March.