The Hindu holiday of Dassain is begining very soon (or it has already began) and all the kids from the kids home will be going home to spend time with their families or extended families for about 12-15 days.
So today I went by van with five of the kids who were going home. Not only was it a bit sad to see them off but it was also pretty sad to see where some of the kids lived.
One of the girls were dropped off, her family lives in a slum by a river. This little girl who is five, her mother lives in a "house" with a bamboo frame and the walls and roof are made of tarps much the same as the other homes near by. The river they live next to is not by any means clean and the river I was told floods, so her house of course floods and the floor of dirt probably turns into mud. But despite this she had a beaming smile on her face as she was playing with her friends when we dropped her off.
The other kids we dropped off are the older of the kids at the home and they are family (brother and two sisters) and they lived farther off into the country. Their home was much better than the four year old girl mentioned above. The house in the country was made of clay or adobe and the roof was framed with bamboo and the roof itself was made of corigated steel. They had a small amount of live stock and a water pump.
Every kid at the childrens home has a sad or tragic story, I was told about most of their backgrounds and its enough to make you want to cry. But the bright side is that the Esther Benjamins Trust saves these kids from the conditions that they would have almost assuredly been condemned to.
So learning their backgrounds made it that much more amazing that they now have food to eat everyday, a nice place to live and they are being educated, which is so important in Nepal.
The rest of the kids are leaving tomorrow and Tuesday, so its jerks at your heart to see them leave. They are all great kids and I am priveleged to have spent time with them.
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Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteIt's great hearing from you and seeing so much through your eyes. It sounds as though the children are a great joy and that the EBT is doing a wonderful job of working with them.
This morning after church, Laura said to say "hi" to you. Everything is fine here, including the weather. We've had about a week or two of warm days and very cool nights.
MSU lost 33-30 to Notre Dame yesterday. The game seesawed back and forth quite a bit. We were on the move in the last few minutes, but, unfortunately, our quarterback threw an interception and ND simply took a knee to end the game.
Take care. We send lots of love!
Mom