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This was written 2 days ago but with no wifi at the flat and none at Gaia (our cafe) we have had no chance to download it to the blog.
We've now spent 3 days at the Disabled Newlife Centre (DNC). Dealing with 25 or so children (they don't stay still long enough to count them) is very hard work. We are trying to learn their names. We've helped with reading, played some games, taken a lot of photographs - the older girls love having their photos taken. We wonder how successful our efforts have been because we only help one or two at a time and we'd like to help them all.
Yesterday, Wednesday, was a national strike so we had no means of getting to DNC. So it was a convenient day for both of us to be struck down by a stomach bug. The last 30 hours has been spent in bed. Kath has gone off with our taxi driver to a clinic for better medicines to cure Nepali bugs. The immodium doesn't seem to work well. We won't go to DNC today either. On Tuesday we spent nearly 5 hours at DNC, non-stop with the children. They spend most of their time on a south facing veranda and the weather is very hot - for us. So we wonder whether we got a bit of sunstroke and we certainly got dehydrated as we took far too little water with us.
Enough of this negative stuff. What of the children? From out of what we see as chaos much good must come as the older children, some of whom have been at DNC for up to 9 years, are polite, charming and personable young men and ladies. How do just 3 or 4 permanent staff manage them all and achieve such results? Partly because the older ones look after the younger ones. They all muck in to help each other. Several of the younger ones latch on to us and hold on to our trousers or try to climb on to our laps, particularly Jevika and Tika. What they need is a good cuddle but we are reluctant to do this because we are only here for a short while, and then what. Others are dominating and want our attention at all times.
Perhaps you will get the best picture of life here from a few anecdotes.
Faux pas of the week: Sarsoti is struggling up the stairs carrying a bamboo zimmer frame. I offer to help by taking the zimmer frame up for her. Then she's stuck because with only one leg she needs the zimmer and the banisters to be able to get upstairs. There are only 2 zimmer frames and one is partly broken so I will buy some tape to mend it.
Babulal always wants me to read Noddy to him. Perhaps it's the only book he has. I read one page and he reads the next and he can read the words well but doesn't understand it. He misses words and whole lines but does not know it. Lalit is continuously transcribing books in excellent English script but doesn't understand it. It seems that this is how they learn at school - by rote. Endless transcribing so they can copy the words and know the alphabet but can understand very little. Lalit's a new boy so can't be got into school this term. And their pronunciation is poor. So here are areas where we can help and the older ones are keen to practice with us. Kath sits and reads with Sanjay for half an hour as he wants his pronunciation improved.
On Monday we got to DNC early to try and help the little ones who don't go to school. Bimala, who is 14, was there looking very depressed. We tried to ask her why she was not at school and why she was unhappy. We couldn't understand her so we pushed the point. We eventually discovered that they had taken her legs away for repair so she could not go to school.
Bikash always wants me to take him for a walk across the next door field and up the other side among the trees. I take 3 boys but Bikash obviously goes there a lot as he knows everybody and knows all the gossip. In the next couple of years all this area will be developed as Kathmandu sprawls out as it grows endlessly.
Lalit's feet are deformed but also have sores on them which a previous volunteer told us to be worried about 3 weeks ago. We ask if it is painful and he says it is but doesn't complain. We ask about his sores and they are treated by squirting iodine solution on them. We suggest they should be washed first but we're assured the treatment is working because they are a lot better than before. He had some sort of parasite and then the wounds got infected. Sabina has small useless legs and sits in one spot all day unless she is put in a wheelchair. She's happy and smiles whenever we look at her. Despite being 11 she is in nappies and she was rolled over to have her nappy changed. Her bottom is raw and was treated in the same way - squirts of iodine rubbed in with lint. It was obviously painful but she didn't cry. She doesn't go to school and may have some lessons at DNC but we'll have to find out.
The group of 13 year old girls has changed out of their school uniform and want their picture taken. No picture suits them. This is the wrong angle. I'm not smiling nicely. My hands aren't showing. I don't want my wheelchair in it. It dawns on me that 13 year old girls are the same all over the world and I've had this sort of experience of them at St Peter's. I'm being strung along so I tell how lovely they look and call the photo shoot to a close.
Close of blog too, till next time.
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