Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Lots of Tears

We cry a lot these days.  It's so emotional being here with everything that is going on.  Just the magnitude of what I am doing here is beyond what I can express in words.  The pictures probably do a better job.

Today we had a translator at the orphanage and I was able to listen to the words spoken to me by Pukar's Didi.  Yesterday I began to figure out that they had a special bond.  Pukar gets away with more than the other children and is given more attention as well.  I just started to realize how much she loves him.  It's because of her that I am adopting such an amazing kid.  She asked me to please stay in touch with them and to please call and write, that she has cared for him since he was one month old, and she will really miss him.  Then we all lost it.  Joy, Didi and me.  Our poor male translator was caught in the middle.  She ran into the bedroom and was sobbing the deep, heart-wrenching kind of sobs that are so bottomless they can't stop.  After I could talk again, I asked our translator Jayendra, what he thinks of adoption.  He said that ultimately it is the best thing for Pukar because he won't have any opportunities in Nepal.  The most he will be able to do is pick up trash like plastic and aluminum to get money.  That's it.  Not much education and put out on the streets young, as the orphanage can't support the children past 14 years old or so, and even that would be a long time.  It just makes me ill inside thinking that all 5 of those children won't get the same opportunity as Pukar.  They are all beautiful as they have been so loved in this orphanage.  I'm really lucky that by some miracle (which is how it feels), I got a kid in such a perfect situation; loved and cared for since he was little, totally attached and bonded, and really healthy, not to mention adorable.

We are also lucky as after having taxied all over the Kathmandu Valley in the last couple days I am really realizing how awesome it is to be staying in Bhaktapur, which is near the orphanage.  Kathmandu has turned into a hellhole.  It is so unbelievably polluted and the streets are something out of a war zone.  Truly, I thought I had seen it all living in India, but this is a whole new level of chaos.  We wear our face masks when we are commuting.  We took a rickshaw tonight and that was a whole other level of terror, with headlights and horns coming at us in all directions on the round-abouts, and us, with no lights or reflectors.  Fun times.  I rinsed my shirts out in the sink this morning and the water was black.  We were out walking the children today and this well dressed women threw a bag of trash over the bridge into the river.  Well, it's more like an open sewage channel, but still, it was jaw dropping.  The stench coming out of the river, along with the trash lining it's banks is incomprehensible to our western minds.  And I could go on and on with stories just like this.


But there's so much to love about Nepal as well, and the biggest thing right now is this bundle of joy that has found it's way right into my heart, named Pukar.   To view the latest slideshow from Joy's amazing photos click here:   Watercolor balloons  And yes, we brought those pink boots, and imagine, this is the first time they have ever painted.
And for a visual of Bhaktapur:  Early Morning Nepal

1 comment:

  1. He is absolutely beautiful. And I could not agree more, it is heartbreaking to think of the ones without homes. It is more than I can bear.

    Kyn

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