Hello again!  Today is Friday and I am in town as we listened to a very interesting speaker this morning on the subject of "Unequal Citizens."  The caste system is very hard for me to understand and I will share more on that another time. 

I am staying at Ama Ghar which means Motherly Home in Nepali.  It is located outside Godavari, which is south in the Kathmandu Valley if you are looking at a map.  It is amazing! 

Last Sunday evening I arrived and was greeted with a red dot blessing in the middle of my forehead and flowers placed in my hair, along with tons of "Namastes" and smiles!  What a welcome!  This home has 36 children, 6 full time staff members, Bonnie who is the Managing Director, and Tommy the dog.  There are two ladies visiting, Anna Marie who is a kindergarten teacher in California, and Christine who was recently hired as a fundraiser for the foundation and lives in California.  They are all great!

All the children are in school Sunday through Friday so we are busy in the mornings, late afternoons and evenings.  Time with the children includes a variety of activities - for example one morning we made "Happy Feet" penguins out of construction paper which are now proudly posted all over one room, we have had yoga classes at 6.15am for the older children and again at 8.30am for the younger ones which Christina taught, we have had wonderful performances as the children acted out the stories of  "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "The Billy Goat's Gruff" (I so wish I had a video recorder for that one!), lots of reading story books, playing frisbee (Baird frisbees rule), running around outside, all the fun things children love to do!

I know you will not be surprised, but the most challenging for me is reviewing their homework!  Just trying to figure out what the workbook is asking!  I can help with some of it however it has been difficult.  The children have to use a pen for all their homework, no pencils, and they have to rewrite every question before they can answer it.  They can use up a pen in one day and often do!  When is the last time you used up all the ink in a pen in one day!  Crazy! 

My other challenge is to talk English instead of American.  "We are going to head into town" doesn't work.  "We are going to town."  I am working on it. 

You would fall in love with all these children.  Bonnie and her staff have been able to create a true family.  The children are well taken care of, it's a home filled with chatter and laughter, they receive nutritious meals, are all in good schools, taught hygiene, are respectful, speak every time we come in contact (they all speak English and Nepali), they love and help their brothers and sisters, and are really a joy to be around.  And with any family, you have issues that need to be dealt with, especially as these children often arrive without knowing all their specific background or their family history.  Many were left with a grandmother who could not care for them, many have families who are too poor to care for them, and many are orphans.  I understand that many uneducated women can only survive if married.  If there spouse dies, they need to remarry and the new husband won't accept their family, so they abandon or leave their children with a parent or another family member who usually can't support the child.  It is hard to understand all that I am learning.    

The other night, there was a buzz among the children and Uncle (one of the male staff members) told us to go up on the roof top.  So we all headed up to see a beautiful clear night sky with a very bright venus star right in front of the moon - it was really neat!  And we were told that at 8.45pm it was to shine the brightest.  So we hung up on the roof and talked about wishes and decided to all make a wish at 8.45pm.  Exactly at 8.45pm we all made a wish (while a huge cloud covered the moon and venus) and similar to blowing a kiss, sent our wishes out into the night sky.  Immediately following, one of the boys said, "Look Auntie, our wishes are flying to the moon!"  We all looked and there was this huge bright light flying across the sky!!  It was beautiful!!  And they were so excited!  And so was I! 

I want to tell you about each of the children and will mention a few - PoPo loves clothes and dressing up and probably will end up in fashion, Sanjanath loves to sing and she will probably win Indian Idol (yes, a take off of American Idol which they love!), one of the young boys wants to be in the army to protect his country, Benita is studying to be a nurse, Sardeka wants to be a doctor and she asked me to read her letter to request a grant to continue higher education and she will be a great doctor - they are just like our kids.  I will share pictures and more in my next post.  All is going very well.

Comments

[Lisa]

Hi Rita! Please give all those kids a big hug from me! They should be proud of all their hard work. School from Sunday to Friday? That's impressive. Take care of yourself!

[Yui Chan]

Whee! Sounds like you’re having a blast with the kiddies! You know what Rita, maybe you should inquire as to whether Ama Ghar will take you in permanently as the 37th kid! I bet you’ll fit right in there - except you won’t be able to complete your homework and the other kids would have to help you instead! Ha!

What are the criteria for taking in a child at Ama Ghar? What happens to the child when they get too old to stay at Ama Ghar? How is Ama Ghar funded? Just curious…….

[Jodi]

Rita:

What a joy! The children sound absolutely wonderful, and you can tell you receive such fulfillment working with them. Take care!

[mike]

Rita,
I saw an aritcle in a local paper about your travels and found this site. It sounds great and I am so filled with pride and joy knowing that these children can share your joy of living. Take care and we miss you.

[mike]

Rita,
I saw an aritcle in a local paper about your travels and found this site. It sounds great and I am so filled with pride and joy knowing that these children can share your joy of living. Take care and we miss you.