My Boy

Today we got invited to a fancy place just outside of bowels of Kathmandu for a Kids Day.  There were many, many parents and children from lots of different countries all living here for one reason or another.  We gathered together to share the day in a nice place, with actual trees and the sense of fresh air.   We did some kiddy horseback-riding and had lunch on the lawn, while the kids played and fought with each other.  Pukar was not in the best of moods today, so we left around 2:30 for a long nap, but you wouldn't know it from the photos.  Enjoy.

He was the ONLY kid who didn't need his mom beside him... he was STOKED!  Bye mom!

The analogy that popped in my head today is this.  The lotus flower blooms on top of the water, but it's roots are down deep in the mud.  At the bottom of the pond, amidst the muck and darkness is where this beautiful symbol of spiritual enlightenment begins it's journey towards the light.  Kathmandu is the bottom of the pond.  I am living in the muck and darkness, in the cesspool of decay where the soil becomes rich with nutrients to fuel the beautiful lotus to move toward the surface, and bloom.  I am moving toward the light... being filled with what I need to carry me towards the light.  We will make it to the surface, one way or another.  It is our destiny to bloom. 

Women on the Frontline, Nepal:  with Annie Lennox.  (click to view)  Great video to see one of many issues in this country; trafficking of young girls to India for prostitution.  It also gives a good look at the country and it's dismal statistics.  The longer I stay here, the more horrified I am at the state of affairs in this country.  Imprisonment for 12 years is the price you pay for abandoning your child.  Yet, it is still common for honor killings, death by stoning and/or beheading if you dare to have a child out of wedlock or worse, out of caste.  Do you think parents want to be found?  This is what the State Dept is asking us to do.