Papa's House News & Updates

Wednesday, November 12th

October in Nepal is a time of festivals. Dashain, the first is a time of reflection, reverence and merriment; a fitting time for Papa’s House 1 and 2 to play host to “The Pilgrimage of Hope,” a group of young people from Australia during this time who had come to work and learn about the culture through their own sacrifice. Please learn more about this wonderful organization at www.pilgrimageofhope.org.

We found in each member of the two groups serving at our Homes unique individuals who are dealing with the awakenings of their spirit while serving people in many developing countries. The members were all teenagers who had earned the money to pay for their own trips, and then spent the better part of each day in manual labor in order to improve upon the conditions of others. The groups also took the time to get to know our children on a one-to-one basis; friendships were struck during games, picnics, and quiet talks sharing perspectives on life. Our children were also the beneficiaries of clothes and sports equipment carried all the way from Australia by the children who had to share their own luggage restrictions in order to carry items to give away. Nepal Orphans Home thanks Brother James the director of Pilgrimage of Hope, Peter, the Papa’s House group leader, and all the young folks who impressed us with their compassion and integrity. We hope that 2008 was but the first year of a long-lasting relationship.

Peter of Pilgrimage of Hope observing Gita receiving a new jacket

Brother James (left of center) watching as a new sidewalk is constructed

After Dashain there is a short break before Tihar, another week-long series of celebration culminating in the Newar New Year. Each day honors a different creature ending with brothers, whom many a sister has probably proclaimed to be a creature indeed. On Bai Tika the girls in our Home honored all their brothers in Papa’s House 2. The girls had been honored during Dashain in a similar manner but not precisely by their brothers.

Our girls, Sita and Rokmani (left) and Sangita and Lalita (right) during Dashain

A few of our boys being feted by the girls on Bia Tika

October finishes in Nepal with our borrowing of the Halloween tradition. Last year was our first Halloween party, thrown by volunteers present at the time, and this year the children eagerly awaited the day. Big children and small giggled away many hours in costumes brought by volunteers over the past two years, played many games inside and out, and bobbed for apples in the slightly frigid air.

Ramila and Jeni, watching Susmita dipping her hand in a bowl of worms (pasta) under the sheet held down by Anita.	Sita, all Angel.
Susmita, a Princess Angel.

Peter Hess and his wife Boo made their third trip back to Papa’s House for a month’s stay while Peter is on sabbatical from Davidson College. Peter is the President of Nepal Orphans Home and Boo the accountant. Together they have handled all the administrative duties, resulting in our current 501(c)3 status, and have put together our extraordinary board of directors and advisors. It is their effort which has resulted in our getting on the radar of a few international foundations which we hope will one day bear fruit. The children adore them. Both spend all their time with the children, reserving the necessary administrative work for after the children have gone to bed. The Davidson community has been completely supportive of Nepal Orphans Home since its inception almost five years ago. Peter and Boo bring suitcases full of goods dropped off at their home by their many friends and this year in addition brought contributed funds to buy new jackets for all of the older girls.

Boo here with a few of the girls after taking them shopping at a new Kathmandu store.	Boo with Urmila, Sita, and Rukmani on a picnic outing.
Peter upon a late evening arrival at “Lawajuni” Papa’s House 3 in Narti, Dang.

While here, Peter met with Sanu Kaji the founder of FOST (Foundation for Sustainable Technologies; www.fost-nepal.org) in order to begin a working relationship that will establish the use of these technologies in Papa’s House 3 in Dang, as well as our schools in the district of Ramechhap. Sanu held a very informative workshop at Papa’s House on October 25th. Peter has been corresponding with a recent graduate of sustainable engineering who, along with his wife, will soon arrive and spend six months as a volunteer working with Papa’s House and FOST to implement some of the vast array of technologies created by FOST.

  Sanu Kaji of FOST at the Papa’s House workshop.

Late October also brought back Toni Thomson for her third visit. Toni is the filmmaker from Toronto who has been working on a documentary of Papa’s House for the last two years. She has recently completed her first full-length documentary titled “Leave Her to Die,” about an HIV orphanage in Thailand. The film has been met with wide acclaim at festivals, and has been nominated for best feature presentation at one. Please see more about Toni at www.possibleworlds.ca. As Nepal Orphans Home continues to expand, Toni is finding it difficult to bring the film to a conclusion, but has decided that her current filming at Lawajuni will be a fitting end for this one and a nice segue for the next possible film, entirely on Nepal Orphans Home’s work to rescue Kamlari girls, of which we have 54 to date.

Toni and her helper Saroj, interviewing Peter.

Papa’s House has brought four new girls from Lawajuni to live in Dhapsi. One set of sisters, Binita and Bimala, and then Sita and Gayatri. We now have 13 girls from Lawajuni with us here and attending the Skylark School. These last four, like their predecessors, are very serious about their studies and have started speaking English. They have blended in seamlessly with our other children and great new friendships have been firmed up. Binita has a very problematic overbite and Sushma, also from Lawajuni, a mouth full of very crooked teeth. On the same day that Lila had her braces removed, after 26 months these two had the upper braces applied. We will show you the results in a scant two years or so.

Sushma (left) and Binita (right)	Lila, now without braces
Sangita and Binita (right) at a Temple with Boo

As the cold sets in with the dryness of winter, the children have started to add a few blankets to their beds. The change in temperature brings out the knitting needles as well, and we currently have around 20 girls making scarves and stocking caps after completing their homework at night and on Saturdays. We are currently undergoing 8 to10 hours a day without electricity with a forecast of 14 hours a day beginning December 1st. We have learned to do most everything by candlelight. Winters are long and cold without heat, and we have to bathe in very cold water.

Yet when I make my rounds at night, usually by candlelight, dispensing medicine and sharing time with each child, I find them all full of joy and without complaint about the elements. I am very proud of all our children. I never think about the number of them, as there is so much individual interaction. Last night I learned that in the past week two of our children had displayed the type of character any parent hopes their children will have learned. Rukmani, another of our transplanted Lawajuni children, had found 50rs on the school playground and turned it in to the principal. Then yesterday Depa and Susila found a whopping 7500rs on the playground and turned that in as well. Other children informed me of this, and when I went to the children involved and asked them they very humbly said of course they had never considered not doing that.

Rukmani

I went to Lamahi to Lawajuni last week to see how the cow shed and cows were doing. The cow shed has been completed but the cows still not purchased. The ones in charge sited the month-long Dashain and Tihar holidays as the reason. I have been assured that this week Frank and Neal will be delivering milk to the girls. I will return next week to check on this. We have 43 girls in Lawajuni now, a few more than what we had proposed with our budget. But extraordinary situations call for extraordinary action and the Kamalari system is nothing if not extraordinary. Each time that I am at Lawajuni my heart is simultaneously filled with joy and despair. Joy for the girls present, mitigated only by our inability to presently do as much for them as we would like, and despair at the number of girls we can’t rescue just yet. I am also in awe of the incredible spirit of these girls. We have a volunteer staying there for the next month who is giving yoga lessons early in the morning along with teaching art and English to the girls. We also have one of the most amazing women I have ever met, Sirkka Turkki, volunteering there.

I will devote the next edition of our updates to Sirkka and our amazing volunteers who have been the army of goodwill, education, benevolence, and compassion that helps us to reach out to many children all over Nepal. Our volunteer program has also helped to financially sustain our work here for the better part of the last 12 months. We are anxious to showcase the many superlative folks who have made us proud as volunteers and members of the growing family of Nepal Orphans Home, and will do so very soon.

All from our early morning Yoga class at Lawajuni

We have just received our certificate from the Ministry of Woman and Children stating that Papa’s House is an official adoption center, one of 34 in the New Nepal. We are very proud of this and hope that the obvious good suggested by this will manifest itself in the future.

I leave you now with some random photos and sincere thanks for your support through out these troubling economic times.

Namaste
Papa

Picnic fun a few Saturdays ago	Asheka on her birthday
Sangita, from Lawajuni. Passed her first term in Skylark all in English.	Apsara, who on November 23rd will undergo extensive skin grafts. A very sweet girl.
Bimila, one of newest daughters from Lawajuni. Always reading textbooks.	Urmila and Gita, also from Lawajuni
Susmita, curious, comical, and loves playing with her doll.	Sangita, Lalita, Parmila,Sushma, and Binita, at a temple outing with Boo.

Friday, October 3rd

Nepal Orphans Home is very proud to announce that our Cow Fund has been met and exceeded by the last donation. We have been generously given $1650.00 by a combined effort of eight donors. The construction of the cow shed has begun, and upon completion we will buy the two Jerseys. Photos of each event will be posted as soon as I can get to Papa’s House 3, Lawajuni, and take them. I will be posting the names of the donors after permission to do so is granted. However the names Frank and Neal will be spoken by the girls of Lawajuni as they milk our new friends.

(File photos, not Frank and Neal.)

With the success of the Cow Fund and with extreme gratefulness for that, we would like again to post a present need. As mentioned in the write-up about our desire to make the purchase of the cows, we hadn’t done it in budget due to the emergency rescue of several new girls, also shown in the same update. If anyone would like to contribute to our cost of $800.00 (in this first year) for each girl rescued it would help us immensely. We will post a profile and photo of each new girl as soon as our goal of $800.00 per child is met. With your help we can give the gift of freedom, an education, a sense of worth, a life free of fear, full of laughter and hope in the warm and embracing family in Lawajuni.

	Sunita Chaudary, rescued March 2008

Thank you.

Nepal Orphans Home, Inc.

Friday, September 26th

I have just returned from Lawajuni, our Home for ex-Kamlari girls in Lamahi. We have recently rescued some more girls who were found to be in very desperate straits in their servitude. SWAN, our local partner in Lamahi, monitors all the girls who have been sold from Dang district and have a well-developed network to inform them if a girl’s health is in jeopardy or she is being severely abused by the people who have purchased her. Out of the hundreds who need rescuing a list came back with over thirty who made the cut for needing immediate rescue.

Nepal Orphans Home is very pleased that we are there to provide a home and support for some of these girls. We are troubled as always that we are unable to do more, and our clear objective is to one day insure that the Kamlari practice is ended forever.

11 of these girls have been recently rescued

Lawajuni is a place of extreme joy. The girls are flush with freedom and excited for their future. They quickly acclimate in Papa’s House and set their sights on school. They perhaps talk occasionally with one another about their past, and with me they have detailed a rough history, but they choose to put it behind them. They laugh, play, and study with a great reverence for the freedom to be able to do so. The eight girls whom we have moved to Papa’s House in Dhapsi might be found at four in the morning already studying, having risen on their own. When the power is out, which is currently five hours a day, they use small thumb lights to read and write by. When a new girl is rescued the others warmly embrace her and help her begin a new journey, one that will be supported with love and care by Nepal Orphans Home, but determined by their own abundant strengths.

These girls are a large part of the solution for this wretched practice. They are not going to rest upon their own freedom, they are dedicated to becoming actively involved in the freeing of all their sisters, and insuring one day that the last chapter is written by them.

I leave you now with a few random shots from earlier this week.

Namaste
Papa

Wednesday, September 17th

Last Sunday we celebrated children’s day in Nepal. The school we attend, Skylark English, had given the children free reign to produce a day of programs. It was a fun day attended by all 69 of our children in our two Dhapasi Homes.

Sam Isherwood is one of our current group of volunteers who has made a big difference in the lives of our children. Sam has established a great rapport with the children by simply being present and available, talking, joking, playing basketball and other games, helping with homework, and listening, encouraging. Sam works for Mount Baker Ski Resort, which very kindly provided us with over 100 t-shirts with the Mount Baker logo. These are very high-quality shirts that look great on the children, and it is the first time that we have all been able to wear the same shirt. We have a size for everyone and enough shirts left over for me to take to Lamahi for our 30 girls there, and the three didis as well.

Rosan and Susmita	Puja and Anita
Blanca, a new volunteer, and Sangita #2	Small Sangita and Mary

Each morning in our school there is a short program where children are given the tasks of presenting national and international news, delivering poems, jokes, or stories that they have found moving, sharing little-known facts in a quiz, and offering self-written speeches on a variety of subjects. It is a time also when the school recognizes students who have achieved in extracurricular activities and are applauded by the student body and teachers alike.

Two weeks ago Lalita, Sangita, and Pramila, three of the eight children we brought from our Home in Lamahi to live in Papa’s House, were honored for their effort in school. The Kamlari girls came to Dhapasi with a very limited ability to speak Nepali, and without a clue about English. I have never seen individuals work so hard to overcome these obstacles. They never sit idle; all of their time is spent struggling to read English, pronouncing words over and over again, and then on to math, science, social studies. All of these courses are written in English, and their classes are all being taught in English. They rise early in the morning and stay up late, whispering their lessons alone or to each other in an endless quiz. We have had a tutor come each day after school for them and I work with them for about 30 minutes at night while doing my rounds.

Lalita

Pramila

I was very moved watching these girls speak. It wasn’t so long ago that they were slaves, living difficult, despairing lives in ragged work clothes, without friends to socialize with, and at the mercy and whim of their owners. In their young lives they suffered the loss of their parents and then were sold to strangers and moved far away; or in the case of other Kamlari they are sold by their parents because they are girls, and on what little people have to live on where they are from, girls are an unnecessary burden.

As they stood before the crowd of 400 students waiting their turn to speak I would catch their eye and they would smile shyly; their pride matched by their nerves. When Lalita was introduced, the first of them to speak, my breath caught, and my heart pounded. Lalita stepped forward, looked at her script, then up at the student body, paused for a second that seemed eternal, then spoke firmly and with conviction, her head high and eyes locked into the crowds. She spoke unfalteringly, and then said thank you and merged back into the others. She and our other Kamlari girls became one that day with the students at Skylark, but they are separated also—by their past, and by what has ignited inside them that has set them on a trajectory of high achievement one day.

We took advantage of a sunny Saturday recently to go to Tolka; an opportunity for new volunteers and our children to have a nice long walk together to an extraordinarily beautiful area where we picnic. We pack lunches, drinks, balls and Frisbees, cards and books, and descend into the valley along a very narrow path winding its way through rice paddies, then up the other side and into a pasture where the hilltop has sprouted a collection of gnarled pines that filter the sun in a beautiful mosaic. Sheep and cows are brought there by old woman and young girls with only a small stick to guide them. The old women pay us little attention, but the young girls in their old clothes cast long and thoughtful gazes at our children.

cow-herding young girl	Mary, Depa, and Pramila
Hikmat	Kabita,Lalita,and Mary
Binu and Bhumika	Urmila-ex Kamlari
Roommates	Sangita and Saroj, brother and sister
Chham

We have three different teachers employed to give homework help to the children after school. One of them is a teacher at Skylark whom all the children love. On Fridays Ranu Mam checks their homework quickly and then has all the children assemble on the rooftop, where she and her talented daughters teach the children new dances. Fridays have become a favorite in our home.

Ramila and Anita	Big Bhumika
Group	Gita, ex-Kamlari

Skylark School asked Vinod, the Boy’s Home man in charge, to organize a basketball team quickly so that they could enter a tournament of local schools. With very little time Vinod was able to have a group of boys ready in spirit, if not ability or a remembrance of rules, assembled. They lasted five games, dominating the first two and then succumbing in the last three, but playing admirably and honestly. Vinod intends to have Skylark School a force to be reckoned with next year.

Vinod

Chham

Dashain is around the corner; October 1st is our last day of school for a two-week break. Of our 69 children in Dhapasi about 25 will have a chaperoned trip back to their village to celebrate this very highest of the Hindu Holy occasions. It is a quiet time, certain days marking different ways to show your respect. A lot of candles and quaint beliefs, a lot of profound good feelings with conditioned reverence.

It is always difficult to see the children walk out the gate; they leave with a guardian next to them, but they turn many times to smile and wave again at the assembled brothers and sisters seeing them off. With each child goes a little bit of what makes our family whole, but we keep them warm in our hearts with memories of them shared by those left behind, through the days of absence.

The doors to their rooms closed, the inside feels hollow, unsettled, and too quiet. We have fun but we are always mindful of the days yet to be spent before the return of the many pieces of our collective heart.

That is it for today.

Namaste
Papa

Puja and Bipana	Sangita and Saroj
Anita and friends on Teej

Monday, August 18

Everyday for a month now it has been my intention to compose this update. I have just turned off my phone and locked my door. It is three o’clock, the children and I will spot one another through the large window in front of my desk in another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Then, until the last is put to bed at 9pm I will have to once again forfeit any idea of completing this.

I returned home at 1pm from completing a list of meetings and errands, prepared a little lunch, organized a few thoughts and pictures for this when my phone rang. Kabita Karki was not feeling well and wanted to return home from school. Vinod brought her to the gate where I met them, and then put her to bed with medicines while thoughts of the God’s toying with me seems to be getting a little excessive. She is resting now.

So, to begin. Sickness has been almost plague like in our home for the last 6 weeks or more. We began innocently one morning with little Yeshorda waking to a slightly swollen gland in her neck, and fever. The mumps had set in and moved rapidly through our house like a virus wild fire, scorching room after room. In all only 7 or 8 girls became victims while in the boys’ home two. Softball-sized glands pushed tightly against the slight necks of the children, hugely distorting their wholesomeness. I was able to keep them comfortable and entertained, yet boredom took its grip and they longed to return to school. The cases presented a few days apart usually, those on the mend antsy while the new cases quiet and a little anxious.

Mumps gave way to the chicken pox, back-to-back epidemics. As of this writing we still have 5 children bearing residuals of our last battles. The chicken pox started with the child growing a little quiet and if near leaning against me for the comfort of the long arm and large gentle hand they know will smooth their backs. A general malaise turns into blistering temperatures that force eruptions of the pox themselves, a small peppering here and there at first, turning soon the body into a Jackson Pollack canvas of red and opaque hues.

Some of the 18 or so girls affected had blisters upon blisters, inside their mouths, on their eyelids, their scalps bumpy and tender. Our nearby medicine seller has done good business while the village of Dhapasi fell tightly in the grip of chicken pox. We easily went through 150 bottles of calamine lotion and nearly an equal amount of Ibuprofen and Paracetamol solution. A cotton farm somewhere was rejoicing in sales. This is an illness that is intensely laborious for the care giver, an hour minimum for each patient in each 17-hour day. At its zenith we had 7 at one time. With each of your children you run the gamut of emotions when they are feeling so sick, as well as looking as grotesque as ours did. There are many moments of extreme empathy and tenderness, and as they start to turn the corner and feel better, just look hideous, there are many more moments of laughter. Little treats to eat and coloring books, stories read, time talking with a relaxation not generally enabled when all the children are at home are the medicines that relight their spirits once again. Some of the times that bring us closer are those spent in sickness. The depth of love and security in the children’s hearts always grows when they are nursed round the clock back to health, when tousled haired Papa’s magically appear in the night, responding to the fever burning their bodies, and sitting with them until the medicine douses the intensity of the fire and they slip off into the stream of sleep. We are not a group of children and a few adults living together, we are a family, and each child feels like a very special daughter or son with many brothers and sisters. It is not the clean clothes, and single beds, the good education, the certainty of a meal that smells as delightful cooking as it is in eating, it is not all the little things in a child’s or adolescent’s life that are important and here as consistent as the northern star; thanks being given here to many who have felt this and helped pay for it; it is rather a very unique and unexplainable phenomenon that has brought us all together, lost little people in a world of chaos and deprivation have all been guided to us and each complementing our unit, our strength, with their own offerings of love and need.

The other morning Gita, the young lady who has been the big sister here from 4 years ago, and I were braiding hair and getting the children ready for school. Standing in the midst of a sea of heads, Bipana, now 15, suddenly stated to all and no one in particular, “Didi, you are the Moon and Papa is our Sun.” Smiles flashed about like heat lightning on a warm summer’s night as we continued quietly braiding as we have each day for over four years now.

The boys’ house has long been much better at celebrating birthdays than we have. Vinod really likes to make the occasion festive, and with the volunteers living in the boys’ home they have all been found to wanting to kick things up a notch as well. My nephew Jamie, who, like all volunteers, has left an indelible impression upon all our children, took it one step further. He brought to Nepal the “Macarena,” and left the music behind. Talk of wild Macarena fest would meet the girls and I the morning after, when we collected the boys on our walk to school.

So we decided that if on birthday nights the sky would be rain free we would celebrate on our roof and the girls would sing and dance. Eight of our girls have had birthdays since my last update, and on two occasions we have been able to have the party on the roof under the evening sky. Our girls are great fun to watch as they laugh and dance together while bright pinks and oranges scratch the darkening horizon.

In Papa’s House 1 we brought 8 of the girls from our Lamahi Home to live with us. In their wake we rescued 8 more girls to take their place. In addition we brought Ram Chuadery, the incredibly sweet and sincere 11-year-old brother of Sushma and Karmu, to live in the Papa’s House 2, keeping the parentless children together. Our work in Lamahi to rescue girls from indentured servitude has a depth and resonance that is felt with each beat of my heart, and likewise helping to bring this centuries old practice to an end has become a new calling with each board member and volunteer that has had the pleasure to spend time in Papa’s House “Lawajuni” in Dang.

We have rescued 35 girls thus far. SWAN, the local Tharu organization that we work with, has a list of over 100 girls who live each day in the grim reality of being overworked in freedomless abuse, lacking human warmth and kindness. These girls could be rescued if only they had a place like ours to go. We have room for maybe 15 more in our two buildings that make up Lawajuni, but we are without a budget for rescuing more at this time.

We have tried to put together a “Trek for Freedom” for this October, an amazing 15-day trek to the base camp of Everest, which was to provide enough funds to rescue 20 more girls. As the deadline for the deposit for the trek approached we lowered our sites to 10 girls; each trekker would provide the capital for us to rescue one girl and cover her cost for a year. To date we have had limited response and not a single deposit made. From the advertising we have however spread awareness and received quite a few letters of interest in our work; so this is good. We are also considering starting our own trekking business to help us subsidize our Kamlari work and our Dhapasi homes. This coming January another sale of girls will take place. In Dang where SWAN and our work for rescuing the girls is based the numbers will be way down, but still maybe in the hundreds. SWAN has made enormous progress in shaming those who buy the girls through relentless advertising and campaign work.

Understandably, with the world’s economic environment soft, with people in the US losing their homes, jobs, or simple unable to fuel their cars and stomachs both, donations are way down this year. During this time we have been called upon to increase our support of children in need in Nepal. The economy in Nepal, already one of the poorest countries on earth, has grown much worse, and people are starving. We help when and how we can; we can’t always say no with our one eye on the future, we sometimes have to have faith and act now when the cry is before us. Even if you are unable to send a donation, to pass along our web address would be a great contribution. Eventually our address finds its way into the hands of grant writers, or the benefactors of a foundation with funds earmarked for our type of work.

Recently, the Ministry of Woman and Social Welfare recognized Nepal Orphans Home Inc’s contributions to Nepal. They have sent a team of 6 to inspect our homes, interview our children and staff, neighbors too. They have accepted us as a member in good standing, and honored us by allowing us to be a partner program in the adoption process of the New Nepal. The training and implementation of this is yet to come, but with the swearing in of our new Prime Minister today, and the new President two weeks ago, things will hopefully start to happen. We are very excited by the honor and hope that it will translate into helping other adoptable children find loving parents to spend the rest of their lives with.

As previously mentioned, our volunteers have been terrific. This year has seen a healthy increase in numbers, and at a time with the drying up of donations, it is this program that has kept us going. Ninety-five percent of the volunteers are profoundly affected by the experience. It isn’t the reality of life they see in their placements, the hardships that people endure here simply to live another day with a belly not aching through the night for lack of rice, that moves them the most, it is the spirit of the Nepalese people, their humor, and ability to smile at the good things they see and feel each day that stick in the minds and hearts of our volunteers, and make them go home committed to doing something to continue in their own ways to help us help others.

Please read the journals of some of the volunteers at our www.volunteernepal.com web site, and consider experiencing it yourself.

With hope for the next update to be written much quicker than this one, I leave you now with some random photos of our family.

Namaste
Papa

Lalita	Lalita and Sangita
Group shot with volunteers	Sabina
New girls in Lawajuni	New girls in Lawajuni
New girls in Lawajuni	New girls in Lawajuni
New girls in Lawajuni	New girls in Lawajuni
Anita’s birthday	Best friend Ramila
Gift	Lamahi girls at our Dhapasi school
Ram, Karmu, and Susma	Puja on the mend
Boys’ Home birthday party	Susma’s birthday
Macarena	Macarena
Macarena

Tuesday, June 3

It has been almost a month since our last update. We have had a busy time with quite a few volunteers coming in and out of the volunteer house during breaks in their placements.

Last Saturday morning we had testing for our Tae Kwon Do children. The last test was about a year ago, it was the first test for the children after almost many months of steadfast practice four early mornings a week. I had initially put it off due to the high cost of the exam for our 14 children, but the children never uttered a single complaint in not advancing and I relented. After that exam I had told the children to learn the martial art for sake of the knowledge, not for the acquiring of higher belts and they said fine. A year past, four children dropped out in favor of their studies and the remaining 10 continued to rise in the cold and dark. I felt the time had come to reward them. Tom Gilbert, who I will speak more about in a minute, and I stood watching the children being tested and concluded security will never be an issue in our homes in the near future. Chham and Saroj in particular are two gentle souls with an arsenal of quick and powerful moves mastered.

Chham and Saroj	Saroj
Nirmala

Tom and Fiona Gilbert were here earlier in the year for a month and formed a very loving relationship with Kabita and Apsara. They have come back after doing their due diligence with the laws on adoption with the intent to make it happen. As I write this they are hiking to the girls' birth village, with the girls' mother, in order to get the VDC to attest to some documents. They have met with government officials and advocates here and in the States in this pursuit. It has been heartwarming to watch this family in the making working so hard together, on the emotional rollercoaster ride through this maze. Kabita celebrated her 14th birthday on May 30th with Tom and Fiona paying for our extended family of 60 to swim for three hours as part of the celebration. Our volunteers are simply the best, and the four or five present from their assignments elsewhere spent the day with the children with seemingly inexhaustible energy.

Tom, Apsara, Fiona, and Kabita	Oli
Kira	Ann
Amy	Gwyn and Ramila
Kabita, Anita, Karmu, and Sunita

For Kabita’s birthday cake we made chocolate fudge sauce for the pound cakes and then smothered it with fresh mango and shaved (melted, warped, and hardened in transit) Easter bunnies brought from America by Tom and Fiona. Depa and Anita have been my apprentices for awhile in the cake business but I found on this last occasion myself being nudged out of the way. Kabita Mahato celebrated her 13th birthday shortly before with a fresh design and taste by the girls.

Kabita's Birthday	Kabita's Birthday
Kabita Mahato's Birthday

Our 52 children and a few poor children in the village whom we have educated for years now attend the Skylark School here in Dhapasi. This is a very demanding school, English medium that will not allow Nepali to be spoken except in the children’s Nepali language class. It is a day and boarding school with two homes full of boarding students who on average have been there for a few years. Our children entered the school the first day wide eyed and a little intimidated. In our walk to school in the past year we would meet the Skylark boarding students at an intersection. Their line would sail past ours; the children seemed large, and smart, all speaking English, and all barley glancing at our line. I would watch our children look at them and then at each other and chat in Nepali in awe of the line of Titans passing by, casting long shadows upon us.

Because we are the only other group attending the school, the teachers, for reasons of their own, started to cultivate a little academic competition between us. When I heard about this I was annoyed and feared for our children’s self esteem; but I vowed to hold my thoughts for awhile. A weekly exam was to be held on Friday and all our children would tell me at bedtime that the teachers were making comments about how great the Skylark boarding students were and used them as examples for others to try to rise to. There was some arrogance and chest thumping by the teachers that I found unsettling and decided I would speak with the principal about it. Our children, I was prepared to say, had mostly been deprived a decent education prior to joining our family; and though they work very hard to make up for lost time, it wasn’t acceptable to promote this type of competition; it was reminiscent to me of our Olympic Hockey team made up of college boys having to take on the professional superstars of the Russian government.

The children returned from school on Friday and said the exams were rough. They were pretty quiet on Saturday, mostly reading and practicing their lessons. On Sunday our long single file line walked quietly to school absent the usual banter. Results were to be known and the kids felt much crowing would be done by the Skylark boarders and teachers; it looked to be a long day.

I watch the children enter our gate after school each day from the balcony outside my room. They always wave when they turn the corner and first see me, and when they enter the gate they call out my name as they break the line and rush inside. On this Sunday when they first looked up I saw smiles on every face and then I saw raised thumbs of victory held still, strong, and proud, if only for a moment. We had risen to the occasion and took top honors (in average scores) in every class; all the teachers  bestowing the praise our children deserved upon them. Our four Kadkha sisters, Depa, Binu, Hikmat, the three Kabitas, Puja, some of our new children from last fall Sabina, Yeshorda, Ashok, Ishwor and others quietly showed what we are made of. After this the tension at school was lifted and new friends were formed between the students drawn into unwitting combat. Now, the boarders do not seem quite so big, and they smile freely and call out the names of our children when we see them on the walk to school; as it should be.

Summer is here and I have honored my promise to the children to never complain about the heat; this made when winter seemed to never end and my bones felt cold and brittle. With the power outages stilling the small relief that our fans offer I told the children they could all sleep on the large balcony in front of my room. They love the feeling of darkness closing in around them while a slightly spooky breeze rustles through nearby trees. They spread blankets and watch the stars with excited chatter that by the hour starts to dim until they are fast asleep. The rains will come soon, but for now this is great fun, and relief.

Sleeping out	Sleeping out
Sleeping out	Sleeping out

In Lamahi we have four new girls. We sadly have lost two, both being called upon by ailing relatives to return to their village to care for them. They sell the girls, but they don’t hesitate to call upon them in their hour of need as old age and poverty leak the life out of their tired bodies.

Mina, 13

Mahima, 12

Susila, 16

Nirmala, 11

I spent three wonderful days there last week. There is so much we need to do to make things better for the girls, but it will have to take time. I brought Gita back with me to live in our Papa’s Girls House in Dhapasi. Gita hasn’t a trace of family anywhere and a smile and heart that never fails to move one's soul. In another week we will be bringing four or five more girls in order to take advantage of the school system here, as the government school in Lamahi is clearly broke. These girls are older with great potential. The younger girls we have a little time with and I hope we can start to concentrate our wonderful flow of volunteers there to teach. Once the girls move in we will absolutely be at capacity and further considerations will be impossible. In Lamahi we will replace those who have come here by having SWAN rescue others.

Anu Maya and Gita

One of our little daughters in Lamahi, Sunita, spent some time talking to me about her little brother. She is 13, and he about 11 from what she figures. He is all the family she has, but he has been forced to live on the streets of Lamahi, nine kilometers from our Home.

He is not doing well and she fears for him, and is sad that she is safe, warm, well fed, and being educated and he is alone, begging for food. I asked the staff at SWAN what we can do, but they said “sadly nothing.” This is not part of their charter and they are very underfunded as it is; his case isn’t unique they claim. Sunita was hoping our Papa’s House Two might provide a bed for him, but we are maxed out there as well. I would like to try to find foster parents for him in Lamahi if possible, and will look into it upon my return.

Sunita

I bought a bicycle for the girls in Lamahi and rode it home against a strong head wind. The villagers working the fields along the way all had a good laugh to see me ride by. The bicycle is the most common mode of transportation after walking, in those parts. This will help the didis with going to market.

When I finally reached our compound the girls were all inside. I rang the little thumb bell on the bike as I wobbled the last few yards to the door, my legs shot. The girls were surprised and excited to see me. I enjoyed the balance of the afternoon with my back against a birch tree watching them ride around the field. Seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter filled my heart with gratitude towards our board members and the several wonderful people who have read about our work in Lamahi and have sent donations to help make it a reality. I am convinced that there isn’t a person on earth who, given an afternoon with these girls, wouldn’t find themselves reflecting on life and its purpose, and dedicating themselves to wanting to help others.

New bike	New bike
New bike	New bike

Karmu finally will go under the knife tomorrow afternoon. After scheduling problems with more operations than the staff can handle and bundhs on the other occasions, we were admitted yesterday. She will be the last to be operated on, sometime late in the afternoon. This was our third trip there. Soon Karmu will begin the rehabilitative work to bring her hand new function and appearance, and her new life will continue.

Thank you to all.

Namaste.

Papa

Tuesday, May 6

While the country of Nepal forges ahead with remaking itself—with petrol shortages, cooking gas shortages, electricity shortages, water shortages, school book shortages, food shortages resulting in starvation in many corners, food prices rising 35% higher than a few months ago—Papa’s House One, Two, and Three remain sanctuaries of joy, security, fun, and hope in the dreams of 78 children.

Since our last update we have celebrated seven birthdays in Papa’s House. We continue to glue together pound cakes with our own fudge sauce and cover it all with a variety of fruits, chocolate bits, and peanut butter. For Kausila’s recent birthday we found individual unfrosted fruit cupcakes that we smothered in fudge and capped with fresh strawberries.

Anu Maya	Sangita's birthday
Anita and Sunita's 18th birthday	Rogina
Karmu and Sunita before her party	Kausila's birthday

Karmu, shown in her birthday photo with Sunita, will be entering the Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children on Monday the 12th of May for surgery to rebuild her hand. Karmu is one of our Lamahi daughters and has been living in Papa’s House for the past month. Karmu and I have made two trips to the Centre for evaluation. The surgeons are optimistic that they will improve the use and appearance of her hand enough to warrant the procedure and three weeks of rehab after. The Centre is 90 minutes outside of Kathmandu in a quiet mountain-top retreat. I and our didis will be sharing rotations for the required guardian's presence 24 hours a day. The cost and shortage of petrol will require each of us to stay a few days before being relieved. We are fortunate that a new volunteer, Tracy Pursel from Alabama (who happens to be a very experienced physical/occupational therapist), will be arriving soon after the operation. We are hoping that with Tracy we might be able to spring Karmu a little early from the centre. In addition we have a little girl with CP, and another with severe burns who Tracy is interested in working with.

Volunteer Janette	Volunteer Zoe
Volunteer Pontus

Volunteers are very important to our work and finances. We have been blessed with some of the most wonderful and caring people on earth who have traveled far to bring their special talents and zest for life to the many projects that Nepal Orphans Home operates. The fees that they pay help to cover the great expense we face in rescuing and educating so many children, but as important, their presence here expands the universe for all the children, offering them a new set of dreams and horizons. The children and volunteers make personal connections that they keep alive through e-mail exchanges. Gwynn Alexander, one of our recent volunteers who I wrote about in an earlier update, mailed me a few weeks ago and said that her two-week vacation is coming and she wants to use it to fly all the way here from Canada to spend it with the children. She eased the transition into Papa’s House for Ramila and Susmita who had both freshly arrived when Gwynn was here. Ramila is a very precious and shy little girl who tries so hard to learn English. At bedtime one night I asked her if she remembered Gwynn. She looked at me, her eyes wide. I said that Gwynn misses her very much and sends her love to her. At this, tears started rolling down her cheeks. Our little Anita was next to her watching and she suddenly started crying, both girls' chins quivering and tears streaming, silently crying. I asked Anita, “Why are you crying, sweetheart?” and all she could do was point at Ramila. I have not told Ramila that Gwynn is arriving soon, but I can’t wait to see this reunion.

Ramila

Susmita

In about five weeks Marcie Westphalen will be returning for a visit in the company of her daughter Alecia. The children are anxiously awaiting this. Just mention her name and smiles appear. Marcie has joined our Board since her last visit and has dedicated much of her spirit to our work here.

Tom and Fiona Gilbert are also grabbing three weeks out of their very busy professional lives to surprise Kabita and Apsara Basnet on the occasion of Kabita’s 14th birthday on May 30th. They as well are members of our Board and have brought a fresh wind to the sails of the vision started four years ago.

The Hindu New Year took place in April. I had a trip planned to Lamahi to collect Karmu, unaware that it was New Years. I felt very bad that I would not be with our Papa’s House Dhapasi children during this rather mild but celebrated occasion; but in turn the girls in Papa’s House Three were thrilled when our oldest child Anita and I showed up. I am more impressed with these girls with each visit. They are clear eyed and focused on their new life of freedom. They do not waste a second in anger over their past. The energy and excitement they exude really fills the heart. Anyone in their presence is going to be thinking about how they can further help us to rescue more girls. We celebrated New Years with a picnic. To see the girls quietly go about all the work necessary to putting it all together, from collecting fire wood, to cooking, and to my troubled eyes the executing of two chickens brought squawking along with us during our 20 minute trip to the chosen picnic grounds, was very impressive. During the day I was given the opportunity to share quiet conversations with many of the girls, not easy with my limited Nepalese and Nepalese being their second language, but we managed. I am hopeful and touched by them all, each unique in their soul. But one little girl Gita, shown here in two photos, one with our Papa’s House daughter Nirmala, and the other alone, has taken up permanent residence in my ever-expanding heart. She is a quiet observer watching from the outside of a group with dazzling smiling eyes. Gita I learned has no family at all. Most of the girls have no parents, and those who do have been shunned by their parents, but they all have some distant relative, some piece of family somewhere. Gita has none. Her smile, like Helen of Troy, could launch a thousand ships. It is easy to say about this little girl that she is an old soul, her eyes have seen so much.

Gathering firewood	Our Anita and little Sita
Our new Sangita	Our Nirmala and Gita
A very special girl, Gita	Home and School grounds
Three of ours in class

Since that trip I have made one more to Lamahi with Nirmala, Anita, and Samjhana. Samjhana, who has been with us for close to four years, has taken on the role of big sister, and buyer in the Lamahi house. She controls all the money and has tightened up on everything from too much food getting cooked to too much free time. She has started a regiment with early morning exercise for the girls to after-school homework help. She is currently laying out a huge garden that will help us to feed everyone as well as giving the girls a few chores to do. Samjhana is definitely one of our early success stories. She will also continue in her studies at the same school the girls attend. She is a natural leader with a charisma that entices a happy following.

Back home in Dhapasi our two homes spent a lot of time together in the 10 days of school closings during the election period. One day we had scheduled the use of the local pool for the morning shift. It was the only morning in memory when it rained; but wet is wet and the kids still had a ball playing in the pool, jumping out and shivering warmth back into their bones and repeating it all again.

Swimming	Swimming
Swimming	Swimming

During this time a consensus was reached that Papa’s House Two would become the boys’ home and Papa’s House would be the girls’ home. So with able precision we advanced the idea one morning and had everyone moved before a shared tiffin in the girls home. We gained six new and wonderful little girls while loosing five very loved and special guys. We are still together on Saturdays and holy days, and the boys still come for karate in the mornings. Vinod, who is running Papa’s House Two, does a superlative job with the boys. They love him to pieces. He has them up early for a run and exercise and is completely devoted to their needs. After school he works with them on their homework until dinner, and after dinner they play as a group, tell stories, and just hang out together until he puts them to bed. Papa’s House Two is also the Volunteer Home and those Volunteers there briefly during their training and those who stay to work in our Homes comment daily about what an exceptional young man Vinod is.

The power has just gone out yet again and my laptop batteries are getting low so it is time to close. If you are a new reader with some vacation time coming, please take a look at www.volunteernepal.com, our volunteer website. There is not a more meaningful way to spend your vacation time than in a very unique culture helping beautiful children get a hand up in life. You will never forget it. And on a personal note, Liz and John Mitchell, please e-mail me. Your address has stopped working from some time ago.

To our readers and supporters from our 78 children and loving staff.

Namaste!

Ashika

Monday, March 24 – Special Update

What is the look of a little girl who has been sold into indentured servitude? I thought mostly about this during the long journey to Lamahi in Western Nepal. What would I see in their eyes; would there be life in them, trust, hope, bitterness, fear, resentment? Selling humans, little girls in this district, boys in another, what is this all about?

I was about to find out that slaves—I have no desire to use a gentler term—looked like these 25 young girls, and sadly around 375 more this year alone, just in this rather large district. These 25 we were able to free. Take a slow look into their faces.

When I arrived the girls were waiting under the shade of lovely white birch trees. They put “Tika” on my forehead, and handmade flower leis around my neck, and smiled shyly, some giggling, some squirming in excitement. I had asked that no one in Lamahi know me as anything but a simple volunteer; but word leaked out that I was “Papa,” the luckiest guy in the world to be able to represent Nepal Orphans Home and experience first hand the love of so many wonderful children.

I spent four wonderful days getting to know these soft-spoken, sweet children who are full of grace and resilience. Through SWAN, a local Taru Community organization made up of former Kamalari girls and a few compassionate social minded local Taru men, we agreed to rescue these 25 girls. Two buildings that were in ruins were chosen for us to rehab. They are on the expansive grounds of the very poor local government school 9 km outside of Lamahi, in Dang district. The school operates out of two old buildings about a par 4 shot from our two buildings. The clearing backs up to jungle. It is a lovely and peaceful setting under a mix of Birch and oak trees, the ground a soft carpet of wild pale green turf.

In addition to our 25 girls, we have hired two former Kamalari girls as Didis to care for the children. SWAN staff stops by on a regular basis to make sure the girls are well. At our estimated cost of $800 per child for this year we have been able to fix up the buildings and stock them with all the required furniture, outfit the kitchen, take care of all their medical and dental needs, their clothing needs, some sports equipment, birthdays, a few personal items, and anything else that a growing child might need.

Water is fresh, drawn from a nearby well. We do not have the money in the budget right now for a security fence but this is something that needs to be attended to as soon as we can. People and wild animals are free to approach the buildings. We have installed electricity for lighting and are in the process of installing fans. Dang is in the lower part of Nepal where it is quite hot all the time. We built toilets inside the buildings but bathing remains to be done at the well outside. It is still a very spartan life, but the girls are free and they are being educated. Even our Didis have become inspired to join the school, their own education having stopped when they were quite young.

These girls, sold by their families in a practice that dates back hundreds of years, were rescued by members of SWAN and brought from many places all over Nepal just days before I arrived. They were still learning about one another and sharing their thoughts and concerns as to what now the future might hold, if it could be trusted. I noticed a lot of bonding taking place, a lot of sharing of stories drawing these simple human beings close together.

SWAN is aware of most if not all the girls sold over the years in this district and they try to find sponsors like us willing to take on the care of the children. It is a very long term commitment. Most of our girls have no parents anymore, and no relatives that could care for them. Still, some other Kamalari girls have parents, but if rescued the parents refuse to accept them back. Girls are worth very little to the people in this ethnic group, they represent a financial burden that never gets paid back. So they sell them, and it is over.

We will be educating and training these girls to become independent and strong. They in turn will fight for the cessation of this unquestionably horrific practice. Looked at from a business standpoint I think it is entirely possible to bring it to an end, and at a tremendous savings over waiting till after the fact to rescue the children. Please feel free to write to us if you would like to know how you could help.

Please take another look at these beautiful little spirits and think about the gift of life.

Gauntlet of affection	Maya & Sangita
Ram Kumari	Manthara & Kalpana
Manisha & Sita	Sita, Manisha & Siukuimer
Lawajuni means "New Beginning"	One of the two buildings we refurbished
Maya, Yougmaya & Parmila	Gita, Gayatri & Sita outside the school building

Namaste.

Papa

Monday, March 3

Spring has come, and its first gentle rain has cleaned the dust from the many dogwoods in blossom. We made it through winter, our chilblained hands quickly healing; days are warm and full of promise. Nepal has done an extraordinary pivot in this past week. We have gone from a 16-day bloody impasse in the Terai that dried up the availability of all products across the country, a time in which business and industry sputtered to a close, schools were disrupted, transportation was non-existent, and tempers flared in the rope like veins of street protesters citywide. The overwhelming consensus was imminent civil war, with the failure for the third time of elections. Scott Purdey wrote to me from Los Angeles and said he would be arriving in a few days, and I wrote back advising against it. He replied that a full moon was going to usher in a new beginning and not to worry. I do not know what happened, but the country has been signing peace accords left and right over the last week, supplies are raining down upon the country and for the first time in two years a sense of optimism and good cheer is thick in the air.

Scott arrived to the delight of all. He has come for the second time in two years, encouraging the children's wonderment of our universe with more photos from the Jet Propulsion Lab of our cosmos. He also made it in time to celebrate Bhumika's birthday last night. It has been a busy few weeks of birthdays, with Mary and Nirmala's waiting in the wings this week.

Cila's Birthday	Ramila's Birthday
Bipana's Birthday	Bhumika's Birthday
Scott and Kabita	Roshan & Scott's gift

Last Thursday my friend and our Principal Milan Godar celebrated an important event in his young daughter's life; her first solid food. In the day-long ceremony family and friends arrive to give blessings to his still unnamed daughter. For lack of cooking gas, as the strike was still in full bloom, all the food had to be prepared over a wood fire. Neighbors step in to handle these things, allowing family to be free to receive others. Milan and I have been going through some difficult times these past few weeks concerning our school and its future. As with other events changing so dramatically our situation also caught a strong tailwind and Papa's Trinity Academy is now in gear to open for its third official year with the addition of class 8.

Milan and his daughter

Volunteer Nepal has enjoyed a steady flow of wonderful people coming to help. I wrote last time about Gwynn Alexander, shown here with Susmita and Ramila. Gwynn is, simply put, a neat person who has led a fascinating life. She gave her time here with an abundance of love, constantly and quietly. We had a few new children arrive during her stay and she was the greatest single source of security and comfort for them during their transition to a new life.

Gwynn, Susmita & Ramila

This coming Saturday we are losing MaryKate Catandella. Five months when it begins seems like forever, but it too has passed. There isn't enough ink to express our gratitude to her; she came when we had just discovered the plight of the children in that small home, scheming to run away as a group one night soon for lack of love and care. Along with Vinod she spent her days at the home, encouraging the children, letting them know they were going to be spared any further abuse. She was instrumental in our setting up the new Home and has given new life to the 12 children we moved into it. These kids are all speaking some English now because of her daily teaching, they are off and running, healthy and strong, happy and secure; their hearts full. We hate to have her leave, but we understand how missed she has been by her friends and family in America.

MaryKate, Jiny, Sangita & Apsara

Vinod & Small Bhumika

Two new volunteers left a week ago for their chosen placements, one of our village schools in Ramachhap district. Pontus and Stacey, a social worker from Sweden and a policewoman from the UK, shown here along the difficult trail to the village. I will have further updates on them as time passes.

Pontus and Stacey on the trail to their placement

At Papa's House we have started a new class on Friday afternoons. A local beautician arrives at 2pm; Friday is a half day at school, and she instructs some of our girls. Each Friday different children in the house will have their hair worked on by the students and each other under the master's professional eye. This class has brought a lot of excitement to all the children in the house in addition to those picked to attend the class. This makes the third profession that our older children will be prepared to go into should they choose.

Our new hair class

Last Saturday morning after tea I took Chham to the yard along with our football and tee. I set up the tee and told Chham to go to the other end of the field and await my kick. He was to catch the ball and try to run past me to the wall without my touching him first. As my kick unintentionally went nowhere near him I was able to reach him at about the time he got the ball in hand. Then I said that he would have three tries to reach the wall; if he failed it would be my turn. Soon, many of the children came out to watch. I suggested no other rules but asked for teams to be made. I then went to the sideline and watched before my eyes the evolution of football. These children did not know anything about American football; yet, they started developing plans and strategies, passing, lateralling, plays involving running and blocking, all on their own. Football was born again with a remarkable resemblance to today's game.

Chham and the boys

In closing I want to announce that Nepal Orphans Home, Inc, under the very diligent care of my sister in law Boo, has been given 501(c)3 status by the federal government. We now qualify to seek grants to enable us to sustain our programs and with success in receiving them to expand our reach.

We are very proud and excited by this. It certainly doesn't guarantee an easier time of paying for our Homes and School, but it might open some new doors. Now, as in the past, we are still very much reliant upon the goodwill of those who learn about us, to help save these children. Each of the past two years has seen an increase in donor support, which we are heartened by; but it still falls far shy of our cost. To those who have been constant supporters in the past we are eternally grateful, and to those who might consider charitable donations I assure you that your investment in these children makes a 100% difference in their lives, and in time the welfare of Nepal as a whole.

Namaste
Papa

Thursday, February 21

I would like to introduce our two new daughters, sisters Sangita and Susmita. They came to us two weeks ago by way of parental loss and were living in extremely poor conditions with grandparents. Their village is much like what you will see further along in this update—isolated, without power, and where the villagers scrape the earth to get by. Until April Sangita and Susmita will attend school at our other home. Each morning our four newest girls walk in line with all their new brothers and sisters to where the road wishbones; the four of them turn and say goodbye, one by one, to the others before proceeding on to the new home. When the gate opens Susmita and Ramila scan the yard quick for Gwynn Alexander’s waiting lap. These are two very quiet little girls who (along with all the children) adore Gwynn. Once settled side by side in her warm embrace they simply beam, resting securely against Gwynn while watching the others play.

Susmita (5) and Sangita (10)

Gwynn is a volunteer from Alberta, Canada. She is in Nepal for the second time after a long intermission, having decided to return to further her interest in the collection of histories of the Ghurkhas. She planned to stay in a small village a three-day hike from the road, but after meeting our children she confessed she would be ecstatic to stay and help us instead. When you see the look on the face of the children she engages, you are given a real treat.

Sangita and Apsara Nupane both enter the gate and get swept up in a fast game of bean bag tag, the game of the season. Both of them fresh from one of life’s more absolute tragedies, they are soon giggling wildly in play, their young faces serene, eyes sparkling.

Nepal Orphans Home has taken on a couple of other projects. Though we remain unsubsidized while awaiting our 501(c)3 status, and our coffers do anything but suggest the taking on of other projects, sometimes you just can’t say no. Papa’s House 1 and 2 and Papa’s Trinity Academy will always be the main focus of our organization, but some of the situations in Nepal compel one to say yes and simply start to do what is needed. There are around 400 girls who were sold into slavery this year in this one district. We wanted to do something about this but at a minimum cost of $800.00 per girl, our board said this year we simply can’t do it. Then one 11-year-old girl hanged herself after being sold, and that was it. We are opening a Papa’s House 3 in the distant village of Lamahi.

I will be speaking more on this in the next update, but we are refurbishing two small buildings and getting them equipped. We have saved 25 young Taru girls from a life of indentured servitude. We have reached an agreement with another organization who will pay for their education while we provide them a home. The girls will soon move in, and in the next update I will present them to you. We have received two donations totaling $5000.00 to put towards this project, and we have a lead on a foundation in San Francisco that helps organizations that help woman and children. We will be writing to them soon to see if we qualify.

What I would like to share at this time are the very heartwarming projects that we have initiated in two remote villages. In the hilly region of Nepal people seem very much forgotten. Their villages are not on any power grid and thus seem disconnected in total. They fend for themselves. Each village has a community school, but to call them schools is pretty misleading. The villages are about nine hours apart, each in a different direction from the district seat Manthali. One has 40 students and the other 102. They both have a building, and that is pretty much where it stops. The teachers are locals who do their best. Both villages primarily consist of Dalits, the caste otherwise known as untouchables. Dalit children, like the Kamalari girls, are where we would like to focus our help when possible. After several trips to the villages we were convinced that these folks had a genuine interest in educating their children; they simply lacked the money to do it. We have provided all the necessary supplies to equip the schools, commissioned uniforms for the children to be made by the local woman, set up a school lunch program in each village that insures a hot and nutritious meal per day for the children, and are supplying salaries for hiring teachers, small salaries for women to help at the school and for those who will make the difficult trek into Manthali for supplies as needed, and all the cooking and serving utensils. In addition we formed committees to help run the school, monitor expenses, and monitor supplies and food. We found something for each parent to do concerning the school.

The love and affection that these folks showed, their excitement, humor, and gratitude, their sense that maybe Nepal doesn’t know they exist but God must, has combined to make this a truly rewarding effort.

As we are able we will do more there. The school buildings lack windows and doors and need interior renovations. But they have school supplies, all the books they need, globes and maps that show them the world and will inspire them beyond their humble little valley.

Village elder handing out supplies		Some of the moms
Woman teaching child to eat with a spoon		Mom and daughter
Mom and children		Hot lunch program

That is it for now.

Namaste
Papa

Thursday, January 31

I have been looking back over this past year and find it remarkable that all those events were as recent as 12 months ago. Just before Christmas last year our family was joined by Rasmita, Mary’s little sister, and by Kausila and Bhulmika, also from the same desperately poor village. Counting them, we have increased our fold by 25 children. It is a tough idea to grasp, that so many children need us. In reading the updates from 2007 I find the change and lack of change interesting to note. My comments on the political environment so dire at time, and yet so little altered; the inertia of the country stubbornly mired partly by the goodwill in financial support by donor nations. The threat of collapse ever present, people have learned to simply live with it, showing no more anxiety than they would a forecast for inclement weather.

In January of 2007 we were anxiously watching the completion of our new school building for which we had agreed to take on a three-year lease. At that time I sent a message on our updates that read,

If any teacher reading this is interested please e-mail me. We have 14 wonderful Nepalese teachers, but I want to introduce more international exposure to the children. We are an English medium school, so language is not a barrier. I am only looking for four teachers for this year, preferably on a 1-year contract, but I will accept volunteer teachers on a 1 month minimum basis. The pay will be the same as what our Nepalese teachers receive, on average $71.00 per month, which is above the standard. For further inducement I can offer room and board. We eat rice and vegetables twice a day, we have no heat, and the water is always cold. Our water comes from a well, and one must remain vigilant in their fight against skin infections. The power goes out frequently, the nation is trying to form a new government and meanwhile we cope with protests, closures, transportation strikes, and shortages on a daily basis. However, if you ever wanted to do something in your life that may allow you to discover the meaning of love, then you should contact me.

Well, only one answered the call; her name is Kira Schlesinger, a dynamic young woman from South Africa. It has taken Kira a year of traveling through India to reach us, but she has settled in now and started teaching last week, to the delight of our students.

In February we welcomed Sarah Redford, a volunteer from Ratclif, Arkansas. Sarah was a steady and pleasant presence, always available and chipper in her room on the girl’s floor. During that time I wrote,

We still have two of our girls unable to make it back to us. They had gone to their village in Eastern Nepal during our winter break. Just after arriving, the area erupted into violent protest against the interim government. The people of the Terai amount to over 40% of the population of Nepal but are completely ignored in the representation in parliament and so have taken to the streets. There are curfews and complete bundhs, or forced closing down of everything. In this case all vehicles are torched if found operating. Nepal relies upon this area, which borders India, for all our supplies: petrol, food, raw materials, etc. So even in Kathmandu, business has been crippled, and shortages have driven prices way up. The good thing is that it also limited transportation, so things are much quieter and the air much cleaner. I have spoken to Anita by phone and she said they are okay but scared. The situation isn’t good as houses are being invaded and then torched by mobs as well as by the “security forces.”

The girls did make it back, but the Terai has disintegrated. It is completely lawless with roaming gangs. The Terai has formed its own militia and will be a formidable force in keeping the country out of balance and the third attempt at elections doubtful. Unreasonably nothing is being done to address this. The girls have never gone back, and they now occupy the room where Sarah once was.

I also wrote at that time about the load shedding:

On the 13th they have said it will increase to 7 hours a day (we are doing the same again this year). The other evening, I was talking with Puja and Anu Maya, roommates in the first room of my rounds each night. They share their large room with Anita and Sunita, the sisters still in the Terai. I was holding a small flashlight that illuminated the two girls sitting together on the top bunk. Puja was suggesting that they sleep with some other girls that night.

I asked her why and she said, “Because Paaapppa, last night a ghost came to our room.”

Puja now talks more like Katherine Hepburn in later life than Katherine Hepburn did.

“Are you sure?” I asked, and she said, “Yes, and he spoke to me.”

“What did he say, Puja?”

“Well, he said”—she lowered her little girl's voice into a growling baritone—“WHO ARE YOU?”

“And then what happened?”

“Well, I said my name was Puja and he said 'WHO IS THAT NEXT TO YOU?' And when Anu Maya didn’t answer the ghost did this -- ” and with that, Puja grabbed Anu’s pony tail and yanked it back. Poor Anu maybe hearing this account for the first time was already a little wide eyed, and then to hear Puja in her ghost voice and snatching her pony tail started the climb down the ladder with her doll and pillow in hand on her way to another girls bed, a big girl too. Puja remained for a moment, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

Anu Maya and Puja, still close, have since separated and now occupy different rooms. Anu has taken a new girl, a few years younger, under her wing, while Puja has shifted into a new room on the second floor that she shares with two girls who are also new. They are both taller and a little more serious and yet still have the same impish smiles and twinkling eyes.

Also in February, I wrote,

It is very cold today; the sky thick in dull grayness, the wind blowing in fits and spurts.

It is tiffin (lunch) time and we have maybe 60 cold immune children running around on the playground below in stocking caps and sweaters. I am looking out and I see the mother of one child walking unobserved by the children, including hers, on the dirt road that passes by our playground wall. The wall is high from the roadside. She is wearing the large porter's basket strapped across her forehead, the load pressing her bent back low.

How different things are around the world, and yet how similar people everywhere are. She is likely the sole breadwinner in the family; doing man's work, bending her skeleton, wearing her body out, though she is maybe only thirty. As I type she passed by again and I wonder about her thoughts. Her daughter is in class now, out of the elements, doing her job; getting an education, learning a little more than the next child in hope that she will one day be the source of her worn mother's comfort. The odds are good that if our school did not exist her daughter would be beside her, in rags, carrying her own load under the peels of laughter and freedom of the children in anothe