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Belle's Tales.
Don't believe the hype.
Today has been kinda busy and unusual, Joseph and I went to GPPM,a fairly long walk, (for old school volunteers its about 10 minutes from charity nepal) and in the baking sun, we looked like we'd just stepped out the shower by the time we negotiated all the hills and arrived, least it hadn't been raining so no mud slides to contend with. Joseph has been with the boys for a while now, he's a nice guy from New Zealand and spent some time in India before coming here.
He lives with a host family a stone's throw away but takes 10mins to get to due to paddy fields in the way. He was wanting to move into the orphanage which was supposed to be sorted but hasn't happened yet and now I have arrived, planning on living in the orphanage so we'll sort some arrangement in the next few days.
The boys...... what can I say? They are as handsome and mischievous as ever. When I went to the orphanage they had such a blank look on their faces, I think they were a wee bit suspicious and definately shy, however that didn't last before long it was cuddles and simles.
Several things stood out this morning, mainly the boys have not grown much, if any. I was really hoping that they would of after hearing proposals and such like but this couldn't be further from the truth. Taj is still by far the most malnourished, vegetables are optional for the boys on the days there are no volunteers to enforce the fact they need vegetables (Joseph was filling me in on this, he ended up at GPPM because they had fallen behind and needed help again)Mingmar has actually lost weight, his face is thinner and Tanka who should be putting weight on and growing as a 3 year olds should be looks the exact same. In fact a few boys look as if they have shrunk. Word on the street is that ISIS are now involved with the food leading to regular food as not too long ago they ran out. So ISIS are involved not ONT as had been believed.
As for the house.....in all honesty, there are some things about it that are better but it's not what I imagined. It looked a decent size in photos but it is smaller in real life. The boys dont have a bed each and I doubt there is room for 14 beds in the house, apparently some of the kids are sleeping on the floor again, which is believable due to the ratio of kids:beds. At least their toilets are inside instead of outside but the volunteer room definately needs a scrub. It is quite small and only has room for one volunteer, which can get a little lonely. The boys eat their dal bhat on wet mats in the kitchen floor, I don't know if the mats are wet all the time but I had dal bhat with them this morning and my spot was definately soggy.....ewwww. They have a play room/homework room but there is a tv in there (?!) not exactly beneficial for the ones who have to study whilst the others watch tv so I think some sort of arrangement will need to be made resulting in a few tantrums and petted lips.
As for playing space...... what space? They play football on the roof of the house (not reassuring for the superman wannabe kids) but there are paddy fields surrounding them and often the ball goes into them irritating the owners. If they want to play they have to go to Charity about 10minutes away, again forseeable problems with include keeping track of the kids so seeing as this is the only place they can run around properly we'll need to come up with something better than passing on a message because from past experience the message doesn't reach you until you are freaking out about the lack of kids.
I'll hold my hands up and say maybe I am biased as I loved their old house and would have preferred to stay there and fix it up properly, I don't know, its just the size issue and the guys seem restricted because of the space. I took Joseph a detour on the way there this morning to show him it, it has grass, sorry, weeds everywhere now I think it is deserted? But drawing on what I had been told the house just didn't match up. (Poor grammer starting a sentence with but, but I couldn't help it.... I'm such a geek sometimes)
The boys are taking more responsibility though and washing their plates, sweeping up a bit. Ended up staying longer than planned as Joseph had to go to his family for morning dal bhat so I supervised feeding time at the zoo. There is a guy there who cooks the dal bhat, so there were vegetables this morning dal is still pale and watery but hopefully that will change if ISIS are involoved as there is no way the kids are getting any nutritional value from it. I want to start Taj on vitamens again to try boost his system as after I left last year clearly this wasn't kept up, not exactly a lack of vitamens and they dont cost much.
Didn't expect to start working this morning but Passang was unwell. He had a fever and wasn't eating just whimpering and snottering so I ended up looking after him. He's changed in that last year he would just want to be left alone but this year he let me cuddle him and even fell asleep on me. Half a paracetemol later his temperature was better a simple combined effect of the medicine and rehydration. He managed a little dal bhat later on but only if I was feeding it to him (no worries I used a spoon not my hand... jhuto!) at least he ate though. After which he went straight back to sleep, letting me leave!
After walking back ( I was determined not to be lazy and get a bus) I stopped in at VSN and met Kamaal, Devendra and MB again which was cool, Kamaal has little blond highlights in his hair! So i'm off to grab something to eat, maybe get a henna tattoo, me and another girl sue who works at vsn are going. Feeling pretty girlie today despite the dirt, I'm even wearing a skirt, ankle length of course!
so take care everyone and keep in touch,
much love
Lauren
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