Namaste! Well, where do I start with the latest entry....? Things at the orphanage are alright, the boys health is pretty good, Joe and I have been checking their health everyday and doing regular combing trying to keep lice to a minimum. We are having a few problems with the dal bhat Uncle ( as ever), basically the kids get 2 pieces of fruit a day from a donor, however this is delivered to the shop near the orphanage and not the house itself, cue Dal bhat Uncle dipping in and out resulting in not enough for the kids. Also , again, we have run out of rice and Laxman the chairman refused to buy any, he simply doesn't care anymore and was so blase when he said, 'No, i don't want to buy any'. Eventually he said he would bring rice round at 4pm which of course never happened. Having had enough of the inaction I decided to go to Laxmans house and I wasn't leaving until he either gave us the money or gave me a sack of rice and how conveinient.... he was out. Undettered I told his wife and son that it was ok, I didn't mind waiting.... and so his son phoned him and lo and behold he would be back home shortly. Joe and I had a chat with Laxman and found out he wants to leave, this is problematic in terms of we don't know who has guardianship of the children, if it's Laxman and he leaves.... where does guardianship go? (I'm a big believer in it remaining with Nepali's although this time last year I was singing a different tune when I was dealing with Ram!) There is also rumours that Gita, one of the better board members and a HUGE contributor is leaving as she is sick of the chairman paying for nothing and leaving it all to the women, which to be honest I see her point and don't blame her. Communication has broken down between Laxman and the women so I have approached VSN and we are having a meeting next week( Don't worry Dad, more of a discussion, I won't go steaming in or get heavy handed.... yet) to find out what exactly the current situation is, who is leaving and also the (never-ending) problems with dal bhat Uncle who announced that as of the 20th of October he will be on the board (he's not right in the head), he may be chairman (I highly doubt it!!!!) and that 3 of the boys have to leave, the rest must pay him 1000 Rs to stay. Luckily for him I laughed til tears spilled out as there is NO WAY he will be on the board. However it is best to catch this early and make it clear that this will not happen and that pretty soon his connection to GPPM will be severed. So that has been this week, coupled with me catching the flu then a stomach virus (Sue at VSN thinks my family accidently poisened me by leaving my dal bhat out as rice that has sat too long brings on very quick and severe vomiting which is what I had!) resulting in a few very sick days, I think Laxman had it easy from me as I was too sick to properly push him about neglecting his responsibilities. One other latest development that I discovered today was that most of the orphanage managers are part of some 'federation' (far from formal) where they basically swap stories about what's going on at their orphanage and how to back us into corners. The potential for vsn and volunteers to get really screwed over is big, if they are clever enough which does actually explain some of the recent behaviour in orphanage managers we've experienced, i.e. demanding certain things and knowing that another orphanage is getting this type of support etc etc. In other words quite dodgy! On a lighter note I'm splitting my time between GPPM and Charity school where I teach during the day, hats off to Jason and Dan the new volunteers and Charity and the teachers there they are doing a great job, 7 hours a day in those shacks, (I only teach a few hours because of my GPPM commitments and that I live a half hour walk away) so watch out for those pictures! Ok well its getting late, I have my clean laundry so I'd better be heading back out. Hope you're all well, before you (and I ) know it I'll be home. And I booked the bunjee for next saturday :) after meetings and hospital visits I reckon i'll need the release! Much love to everyone Lauren xxxxxx Lesley-Anne, if you want you can scan some photos and I can print them off as the boys LOVE pictures! I'll email properly within the next few days!