Papa's House and Lawajuni

I was adopted a few days ago. Little 10 year old Sita now comes running to give me a hug whenever I arrive at Papa's House 1 (the girls home run by Nepal Orphan's home in Kathmandu) and puts an arm around me and walks me to the gate whenever I leave. Even though her English is pretty good, we don't have extensive conversations. She seems happy just to have me with her. When I have to go, she never clings to me or pleads with me to stay as American children often do. She just hugs me and says "see you tomorrow".

As we sat on her bed, watching her three tiny roommates playing Go Fish! on their concrete floor with a deck of old, bent playing cards, noses running and not a tissue in sight, Sita turned to me and said "I am always so happy whenever I am in my room". About thirty seconds later, she smiled and added "Everyone is happy in this hostel".

To a middle class American looking around at the houses in which NOH's children live, it appears that they have almost nothing and it is easy to feel sorry for them. As we all know, however, appearances can be deceiving. A few days ago, Sita let me know that, in fact, these children have everything.

Nepal Orphans Home was founded and is currently run by Michael Hess, an American carpenter who came to Nepal for a volunteer vacation about 4-5 years ago and decided to stay. He started with two orphans who captured his heart and soon took over a decrepit orphanage in which the 12 charges were being exploited and left to live in squalid conditions. Today Papa's House 1 houses roughly 50 girls and Papa's House 2 houses 24 boys. In addition, Lawajuni ("New life") in Narti (about a 10-12 hour bus ride from Kathmandu) houses rescued kamlari girls. Kamlari is the practice of parents selling their daughters into slavery -- usually as domestic workers -- until they are 17 or 18. When they are finished being kamlaris, the girls are usually sold into prostitution and taken to India, where they are imprisoned in brothels. I'm not sure exactly how many rescued kamlari girls NOH has now as they recently added more, but I think that it is somewhere around 70. If all goes well, 25 kamlari girls will be moved to the new Papa's House 3 in Kathmandu on Saturday.

The three houses are run like family homes. The children are sisters and brothers, they are all fed, clothed, bathed, and sent to school, and, most importantly, they are all loved deeply by Papa and others. Every morning Papa and Anita (a former charge who will soon be managing Papa's House 3) spend two hours weaving two braids on every girl's head in order to comply with a school requirement. At Papa's House 2, "Daddy" (Vinod) gently fixes collars on the boys' school uniforms and routinely attends to scraped legs and other ailments common to active boys. A couple of months ago, Daddy got his kids a small dog, which the boys named "Snowball" after a vote. Some of the boys are learning to cook (though all that is served in the homes is rice, vegetables, and lentils) and a group of boys and girls takes karate lessons.

In my 5 days here, I have never heard anyone yell (just a stern "I mean business" tone now and then), never seen a child hit, and never witnessed a "time out". Yet the children at Papa's Houses 1 & 2 are better disciplined and more well-mannered than any American children I have ever known. On my first morning, I ate breakfast at Papa's House 2 and watched in awe as Daddy uttered a few words and silenced a group of chattering boys almost before the words were out of his mouth. I asked him later what he said to them (he was speaking in Nepali) and he laughed and told me that he said "you forget the rules". The boys are not permitted to talk while they are eating and a simple reminder in a serious tone was all it took to silence every single one of them in an instant. When it is time to go to school (or home), the children quickly line up single file and walk down the street in a smiling procession. The boys, dressed in their school uniforms, run around playing while Daddy stands by the house gate, warmly greeting neighbors who are walking to work or school until he sees the girls procession coming down the street. He then calls out to the boys ,who fall quickly into line, ready to go as soon as the girls arrive at their house. If I stand in the street as they walk by, the kids smile and call out "hello sister" or stick a hand out to touch mine as they pass by. A few of the boys are not permitted to enroll in school until the next term. There is not a hint of envy or sadness when they get left behind at the house. They just throw an old ball through a netless hoop until the tutor that Nepal Orphans Home provides arrives.

I witnessed a tiny squabble today -- really just a little girl annoying a boy slightly. In general, however, I see no fighting, hear no whining or complaining, and have yet to encounter a tear rolling down a cheek. Roughly 70 children and all I hear are laughter and occasional shrieks of delight and all I see is playing, tickling, sharing, hand-holding, and children looking out for each other. Yesterday, I joined a small hike with the older girls. One girl insisted on carrying my jacket, another carried my water. When we were walking up a steep hill, two hands grabbed mine to ensure that I would not slip. When I was a little unsteady while walking on a narrow, inclined plank in order to cross a little stream, a voice behind me called out "Don't worry, sister, I will catch you". The girl who carried my jacket eventually asked Anita to take it and the girl who carried my water also drank all of it, but that just shows that they are well-mannered children, not stepford children.

On Saturday, I opened a box of WIKKI STIX "twistable, stickable, buildable, playable, creatibles" that Omnicor, Inc. generously donated and shipped to Nepal at my request. If you have young, creative kids, please consider ordering some of these fun, wax-impregnated yarn strands to support this small company that immediately responded to a totally blind request for a donation. www.wikkistix.com The company sent a bunch of connect-the-dot drawings on which the kids used the waxy sticks to connect the dots. After they finished all the drawings, they started using their creativity to make their own things -- a coiled snake, flowers, lollipops, figures, etc. Sometimes they made one thing, then took it apart and made something else. I limited the amount that I gave out because I want to bring some to the girls at Lawajuni and, when I told the kids that there were no more, there were no complaints or signs of frustration whatsoever, even though some kids had gotten several sets, while others who arrived later only got one. In fact, when one child found an extra unopened package, she brought it over to a girl who had just walked in and hadn't gotten one. These kids always look out for each other! Thank you, Omnicor for giving the kids a fun Saturday art project.