May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012
A few photos from “HOLI,” the festival of color celebrating the triumph of good over evil.
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Friday April 13th was New Year’s day in Nepal, the year now 2069. 2068 was a good year for Nepal Orphans Home (NOH). Our children are growing into impressively strong young people, and twenty new children have joined the family. One of many touching moments came with the reuniting of sisters after an eight-year separation. At Skylark English Medium school our children continue to receive praise for their wonderful personalities and top academic performances. We have bid farewell to much-loved staff and welcomed new, while our family dog (now fixed) presented us with five puppies early Christmas morning. And in the interim between New Year’s and now, we have opened a new home and a small home school for accelerated studies; one child has entered the job market while another attends college. Our food support of a small orphanage near us continues after one full year and the educational support and hot lunch program of a remote Dalit village entered its fourth year. A small and heart-filled Tibetan school near the Bigu Monastery continues to receive our volunteers and periodic financial support, while back at home, as we have since our inception, we helped support the education of 35 local children in order that they attend Skylark. These are but a few of the ways in which NOH has been able to lend a helping hand due to the kindness of many.
Sherpa School (left two photos) and our program at Dumrikhaka (Dalit Village)
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Anisha, September 2007 and September 2011
Let me begin this update with what occurred on the afternoon of February 26th. Anisha, seen in the top two photos, came to our former home Lawajuni in the Dang district rescued by SWAN in late 2007 and transferred over to Dhapasi the next year. She has been a model child who has learned English quickly and made great strides at school, always finishing near the top of her class and jumping grade levels. When Anisha was 7 she was separated from her sister, who was also sold as a Kamlari (indentured servant). She has had her sister Sima in her heart and mind every day since then, but on an overcast afternoon after eight years apart, they were reunited at the NOH Imagine House in Dhapasi. After a three-month search by SWAN, we one day received word that Sima had been found, and we sent Vinod the next day to rescue her. After a brief but firm discussion with the woman with whom she had been a servant for eight years, Sima, allowed only what she was wearing at the moment to be taken, walked away from the house and into freedom.
At 4 p.m. the following day Vinod called me from a taxi and said some of the sweetest sounding words I had heard all year: “Papa, we are in Dhapasi.” With that I called Anita while tying my shoes on the run; I made it to her house just moments later. The children surrounded Anisha and anxiously stared down the road. A minute later the little white taxi appeared, our children started applauding, the door opened, and Sima rose from the back, out of a group of thirty girls her eyes immediately connected with her little sister, and she shyly folded into her embrace.
Sima and Anisha a nanosecond after arrival, and a few days later with Imagine House manager Anita.
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We have reunited or ensured the togetherness of 19 sets of sisters at NOH, two sets consisting of four sisters each, one set of three and 16 sets of two.
Sisters Asha, Gita, Srijana and Bimala Sisters Lila, Rogina, Yeshordha and Susila
Sarita, Gita and Sapana
Asmita and Asha; Minakshee and Gayatri; Anu and Anita;Juna and Kamana
Pushpa and Anita Muskan and Manisha Nirmala and Sharmila
Apsara and Kabita Srijana and Punima Anita and Sunita
Kamali and Lalita Isha and Bhumika Sushila and Kamala
Aliza and Elina (left and right) Sima and Anisha
And we have three sets of brothers and sisters:
Deepa, Cila and brother Roshen Ram and his sister Sushma
Saroj and his sister Sangita
And two sets of brothers:
Sandesh, Sujan and Maila (Dawn Kumari’s sons); Dhiraj, Rajan and Ashok
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Our newest garden:
The last harvest before preparing the ground for our spring crop.
The ground we leased next to our cottage has responded well to the children’s efforts. Pratap, our Possibilities Boys’ House dad, has taken the lead in teaching the children how to grow crops and manage the land for future yields. The boys have moved into a new home now which has space for a small garden so the daily labors of the garden shown above will fall to Papa’s Harmony House girls under Dawn Kumari, whose skillful guidance in our old gardens have kept fresh spinach, lettuce and vegetables on our plates year round for many years.
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As mentioned we have opened a new home for girls this month. We found a wonderful home for lease not far from the Skylark School. One Saturday morning Pratap and I, along with several of the children, went for a walk through the home before signing the lease. The boys fell in love with it, and, as it was large enough to accommodate their existing numbers and more, we decided to have them move into it, and the new girls would take over their home.
The boy’s new Possibilities Home View from the balcony
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One week after we got the boys settled, we welcomed the first five new girls into their new home. Anita Mahato’s twin sister Sunita accepted our offer to manage the new home. Sunita had been handling the cooking and cleaning responsibilities at the Imagine house since we opened it. Sunita, like her sister, is adored and brings to the new home a gentle loving firmness and precise scheduling. The new children will fill the house in stages roughly two weeks apart.
Front to back and left to right: Sita holding “Lucky”, Bajan, Anupa and Nirmala; Back row: Ratan and Sunita
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On the evening of April 3rd Vinod boarded a plane bound for America; this has been a dream he has patiently waited to begin for several years. Our children and his family who had arrived from their village sent him off to his new life with love and happiness. I offer a reconstituted summation of the journey in which Vinod spoke of the tears he experienced going through security and waiting to board the plane in Kathmandu. In the first leg of the journey his feelings of aloneness and loss as the miles sped him away from the only life he knew and cherished so much were more painful than he had imagined.
Vinod with his sister Anita at his farewell party.
But then, several hours later in Doha’s terminal, his thoughts gently turned towards the family awaiting him in America, picturing their preparations in meeting him in Washington, and he smiled, knowing his life together with Alecia was at long last about to become no longer separable by governments, and that reality brought him comfort. Many long hours in flight and then in Germany an interminable layover finally passed with e-mails written to his future and past, his past deep in sleep while his future family awaited in late morning America. He boarded the last plane with his thoughts having lost their tether, like tumbleweed blown across a barren desert, and settled anxiously to pass another twelve hours.
At last, dazed but wide eyed, his plane touched down in Washington; he queued properly and with exhausted, fearful reticence he handed over a thick stack of documents to the immigration officer, whose serious demeanor kept Vinod’s breath at bay for many minutes. Then the officer’s stern face softened into a smile as he looked at Vinod and said, “Welcome to America, Son.”
Vinod found his cuffed-up suitcase in the carousel, and with his heart pounding walked through the last set of doors separating him from his Alecia. Finally being in America he did not want to bring any attention to himself lest he feel that long umbrella handle of fate come around his neck and yank him back from where he came, but his legs did not listen when Alecia appeared in the distance and he broke into a trot, oblivious to the stares around him, and finally into Alecia’s powerful embrace; he was home.
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We are fortunate to be joined in the Volunteer House by Yem (the “Y” is silent) Mahato, Vinod’s cousin. Yem had come with Vinod’s parents and sister to say goodbye and I saw a remarkable similarity to Vinod, Anita and Sunita in him; he has a wonderful work ethic, he places integrity and character above all else, and he smiles from the heart. Yem will be taking on the vacated role of Volunteer House Manager for Sam, who has asked for up to a year’s leave.
Yem, the new volunteer Nepal house manager, and Sam teaching some basketball moves.
And Hari, shown above, a young family man with Dhapasi roots for several generations
and a friend of mine for eight years, will be taking Vinod’s pivotal role as coordinator under Christina.
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At the beginning of this update I mentioned that we have started a new school here at home. The school came into being to serve new children who have previously been deprived an education; the idea is to accelerate their ability to communicate in English and get their math and other matriculating subjects up to par all in one year. At the end of the year they will have the option of joining the others at Skylark or continue to work with the new school’s superb staff and further catch up or leap ahead of their peers, as the case might be. My belief is that with concentrated lessons taught individually by wonderful and compassionate teachers most all children will show incredible results. At this writing there are only eight students in the program, but that will increase a little bit over the next month.
We have one excellent full-time teacher in Mrs. Sunita Pandey, and with her a teacher’s helper in our own Kabita Karki, who has a three-month wait for the results of her School Leaving Exam before she can begin college. Volunteers come from our Volunteer Nepal department, some of whom have teacher training, and they offer one-on-one help to the children.
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Meanwhile at the Skylark School...
Mina, Principal Sangita Rai, Chiaya and Srijana; and Asha, Anisha and Gita
The end of the school year’s results and awards ceremony was held on April 12th at the Skylark School. The children of Nepal Orphans Home were well represented there, receiving First, Second and Third in their classes above.
Pinky, above left, was 100% all year; Saraswati above was #2 in her class;
Apsara, Yeshorda (missing) and Sangita Kumari received 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in their class.
Asha, Srijana and Kushbu 3rd, 1st and 2nd; Ishwor, far right, was 2nd place in his class
And below, honored at our own ceremony for maintaining over 90% through the year, are:
 Samjhana |
 Yeshordha |
 Asha |
 Tilak |
 Sapana |
 Anita |
 Sunita |
 Purnima |
 Mankumari |
 Pushpa |
 Sandiya |
 Kailashi |
 Anu |
 Anita |
 Apsara |
|
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Today is May 1st, a holiday here to celebrate Labor Day. As I write this it is 5 p.m. and we are all inside; the electricity, which should be on for another hour, has been lost to a tremendous wind storm. Looking out my window debris fills the air; a tin roof over part of our cottage has become partially unfastened and yawns wide towards the neighbors with each gust. The NOH banner on our house took flight while some girls and I watched from their window, its 6’ by 8’ canvas cart-wheeled taut through the sky until sheered down by headwinds. Gusts come and make the curtains breathe and dance ghost-like, while the pressure against the glass is as tense as the girls’ expressions. I ran into our yard to retrieve the banner under the pensive eyes of our children, who then smiled at my pretending to take flight myself in pursuit of the skittering banner.
The steady gale is slowing now, and in between loud gusts pushing the storm away, we relax. Our dogs frolic in the yard, chasing large flying rice sacks. My desk and computer are covered in a fine powder of dirt as dust now settles in the calm. This is spring in the Kathmandu Valley; we live on the very precipice of a large valley and we are the first line of defense for the rest of the city against these winds blowing in from Sagamartha. It is the least we can do.
I hear the children now laughingly recounting the storm and their fear; it is the way of our children, as I have learned in listening to them talk among themselves and laugh away the storms in their earlier lives.
Thank you to all of you who have helped us to allow these children the opportunity to have a good life.
All my best;
Namaste
Papa
