FROM MY NEPAL JOURNAL #2

Salina, one of the heroines of the story. She is new at Pegasus. One of our recently sponsored children. She is cute and strong willed and a real character.

This morning all the hostel kids are taking their Math exam here (rather than take the school bus down to school). They had their morning assembly on the rough basketball court, sang and said their prayer before going in to take their exam. There was a little meltdown when Salina was carried from the exam room by one of the older boys, crying and sobbing. I asked what was going on. I was afraid she'd fallen and hurt herself. He said she wanted to "take the exam" with her older sister (Salina is in JKG or junior kindergarten..so she was not taking a Math exam). She wanted to take part but had been distracting and disturbing her sister, so they were taking her out of the classroom, to her great distress. I went into the girls dormitory room and sat with her on the floor while she sobbed and sobbed as if her heart would break. I don't know if it was frustration that she is not old enough to  be included in this very fascinating event or if it was sorrow at being separated from her sister. They are new here and it must be hard to be in the hostel at such a young age.I've seen this before in very small children who come from the village to board. They often have this same disheveled, unhealthy look...slow to smile and very scruffy. A year on, the transformation in those same kids is amazing: a healthy glow, neat, clean clothes and they are happy!

Anyway..I sat there on the floor and wiped her tears and patted her back for a while as she cried..hugged her and spoke soothingly- even though she could not understand my English..but I guess she got the gist because she let me comfort her. As her tears eventually began to slow, I pulled out my camera and began showing her photos I'd taken. That finally did the trick! Afterward she got up and made quite a show of searching for a school book among a big pile of bookbags and then sitting with it and slowly turning the pages (which she cannot read yet) as if to say, "See? I'm studying like the big kids."

(later...)When I awoke this morning in my room in Kinley's house, I could hear the children's voices below me.The Principal's family house sits on the hill directly above the hostel. I can go out onto the balcony and call down greetings to the kids and they look up, wave to me and call out, "Good morning, Pam Didi!" I can watch them playing and having breakfast and getting ready for school. I watch the small boys playing a game with tops. They wind a long string around their top and with an expert flick of the wrist send it spinning across a concrete slab table in the yard. Whoever keeps theirs going the longest, wins. There is quite a raucous competition going on with plenty of loud commentary by small spectators.

Other kids are eating breakfast. They fill their tin plates at the kitchen hut and take it wherever they like in the yard, where they perch and eat..alone or with friends. Some kids are washing their dish ..others are walking around brushing their teeth. I watch two small boys primping for ten minutes in front of a small cracked mirror, trying to get their hair to obey, apparently without success. They seem to have strong ideas about what they want. One is spraying, spraying, spraying something on his hair and then smoothing it and smoothing it, smoothing it down with his little hands...looking to see if it is just right.  

I notice in morning assembly that with the donning of school uniforms the kids have taken great pains with their appearance. Many of the girls who were uncombed and scruffy yesterday in their play clothes now have neat braids, pigtails with bows or smooth french braids (earlier I saw some of the older girls combing and braiding the little ones). The boys are washed and combed. Some of the older ones have obviously worked on their hair styles which are oddly pouffed up down the center..like a short, fluffy mohawk. I guess that this is considered Nepali cool. The uniforms are an assortment of too-short pants, missing ties, washed out shirts and tight belts cinching in too-big waists in the small fry. It's clear that some are hand-me-downs. That's fine. The kids look proud and happy.

Now quietness reigns as the children take their exams. Now and then the voice of one of the nursery kids can be heard as he or she skips across the yard but otherwise I hear bird song, the rustle of the breeze in the trees of the surrounding forest and a distant radio program drifting up from somewhere in one of the villages down the hill. Blessed quiet (rare in this part of the world). I have a cup of tea. Kinley's household is also oddly quiet. His daughters are at school. He is in town with the Class 10 kids who are taking their national SLC exams (school leaving certificate exams).The dogs are sleeping (after barking all night) and their house-didi is ironing pillowcases on the living room floor....