A Typical Day In Nepal

L to R:  Sumjana, Rajani, Sharmella, Raju, Pukar

Yesterday we had a really awesome day together.  Joy had left me some money to buy the children clothes as she ran out of time, and I was able to get 4 little sweatsuits:  pants, jacket and shirt all for about $7 a piece.  Here they are!!  How cute is that?  They were THRILLED!  All their clothes are stained and with holes, and surprisingly, this really seems to matter to them.

I then took Pukar to Bhaktapur for the day and we visited my new home to get him familiar with the new surroundings and meet our hosts.  Afterwords, we walked to Durbar Square to play, where there are no motorbikes or cars.  Everyone had a kite since it is almost the Dasain festival and the children apparently have kite wars.  Pukar is crazy about kites ("SANGA! SANGA!" ~ means kite in Nepali), so we bought one for about .75 complete with these very cool wooden spools, and the children in the Square taught us how to fly.  One super nice kid called himself the kite professor.  He would get it up in the air and then give it to Pukar to hold onto.  We only lost one to a rooftop :-).  It's amazing to me how helpful and generous the children are with us.  So willing to spend time to assist us and so interested in this strange mommy and Nepali child.  I didn't take any photos!!!  I'm not used to being the photographer, but trust me it was super cute.  Imagine, these beautiful children of all ages, flying little paper kites in an ancient square with fabulous temples. Neat, huh? 

We had a Nepali Thali for lunch and I'm starting to get him to eat better.  Lentils, rice and carrots yesterday.  Hooray!  He likes it more when he can do it himself and though it makes a horrific mess on the floor, me and him, if it gets him to eat,  I'm in.  He's such a sweet kid and so incredibly easy so far.  He's cautious with people at first, but once he warms up and his little personality shines it's really something to behold.  He talks to me mostly in Nepali still, and I'm learning a little or I ask someone what is trying to say to me.  Yesterday at the end of the day he could see I was packing things up and he told me, "No Janay"... I don't want to go.  That's the best day ever. Even when I took him back to the orphanage he is normally very attached to one of his Didi's but yesterday he was hanging on to me like never before.  It's a good feeling to see that we are making progress that feels really healthy.

Of all the children at the orphanage Pukar is the least clingly.  When I arrive at the orphanage they all come running up to me, "auntie, auntie" with little outstretched arms, wanting to be picked up and held.  I can get two at a time up in my arms, and three when in my lap when I'm sitting down.  It's going to be hard to leave them. 

Right now I don't have internet at my house which is a real bummer, but the walk to the restaurant in the morning where I take breakfast (and has free wifi) provides a great show along way.  Here are a few of the things I noticed this morning:  Men in large groups playing bells and drums chanting, slaughtered buff on the side of the road, head and all, people passing by with red tika plastered all over their foreheads, women in beautiful saris holding offerings of flour and rice to bring to the temples, numerous temples lit with candles and covered in rice, flowers and red tika, life spilling onto the street with vendors laying out their plastic sacks and spreading their wares along the side of the road, putrid smells wafting by replaced by the sweet smell of flowery incense, families of four riding by on motorbikes with their beautiful shawls blowing in the wind, the constant barrage of honking, at least three near misses as cars speed by me (I'm getting used to this), and one man with flowers on top of his head.  Sigh.  This is Nepal.