Gathering Photos & Letters! 2nd Nepal Update 2014
Handing out letters
Morning at the hostel. I wake early in the little hobbit hut I am sleeping in and lay with eyes closed listening to the bird voices spiraling up into the cool morning air. I hear village sounds drifting up from down valley...cows and faint voices. Now I start to hear banging doors and the slap of too-big plastic flip flops as the kids start to move around and start their day. I watch the golden light spread across the millet fields and the half-harvested potato patches on the hillsides. Soon the redolent smell of burning juniper reaches my small window. Kinley, the school Principal is making his morning offering in the incense burner on his stone patio.
Yesterday was a school holiday. Lucky for me. It meant that all the kids were home all day in the hostel and I could hang out with them. It was a hot day. There was a lot of clothes washing and hair washing going on..the clothes spread on rough clothes lines and on bushes around the dorm. I ask at the door of the girls dorm if I can come in. Are you kidding?? A swarm of little and medium sized girls are tugging and talking at once, pulling me in. Everyone wants me to sit on Their bed! Some of the older girls are studying. I'm impressed. Amid all the hub bub, the books are open and they are very focused. I get shy smiles that melt my heart when I compliment their hard work. We chit chat like females do the world over. Thrinley shows me a sweater she has knit. Wow! It's amazing, with cables down the front but she is a little embarrassed because it is too small for her. I explain that she can wash and block it to size. Really? Great! The smaller girls knit little bracelets for themselves or to give. I am presented with a purple and white band. It fits perfectly and the little faces just glow with pleasure to be able to gift me something.
Later I have another round of photos. It's incredibly hard to round up all the kids and get everyone's photo. Like herding the proverbial cats. I enlist a few girls to help. I read them the names of those still missing. They are fascinated by my list and ask questions about the various notations I have made..who has given me a letter for their sponsor, who not..who has been photographed, whose photo has already been emailed to their sponsor. I let one girl hold the list and tell her she is my assistant. She takes this seriously and when I say who we need to photograph she springs into action, ordering a small boy to go get Dorji. Loud screams of " Dorji! Bring Dorji ! " echo imperiously down the hill to where the boys are playing soccer in an empty, dusty field. This small assistant will be obeyed!
Apparently an appointed posse of kids are now helping gather the needed children. Like a small army of assistants. Photos are a group affair. One child being photographed and all the rest crowded tightly around me, jostling and talking loudly. I have to gently move them back from time to time so I can breathe. They are just so curious and vastly entertained by loudly and hilariously trying to make the photo subject laugh! This is a big game. They tease, they jeer, they make faces, trying to get their friend to crack up.
Actually it helps me to get some smiles. Nepalis do not typically smile in photos. You ask to take someone's picture and that person stands up tall and rigid and gets a very stern, serious look on their face. Huh?? Oh, I get it, you feel this is more dignified. I have spent almost twenty years trying to get Nepali friends and sponsored kids to smile for photos. They are slowly getting the message. Now I tease the kids and ask them if they will smile if I pay them 5 rupees. No? How about ten rupees. I get a tiny crack in the veneer. Ok! So give me the big 50 rupee smile!! Now I get a smile. They know I'm joking and we all get a kick out of it.
Well, I have only a few more days here in Nepal and if I stay focused and get my little assistants to help, I just might be able to get every child photographed. I’ve been working on it for almost a month. Whew. It takes real stamina. Every time I think I've done it, I realize a couple are still missing. Same with collecting letters. With ninety kids, some of whom are boarders, some day-students and some at "college" (Class 11-12 ), it’s a real challenge. Someone is always gone for one reason or another. Or elsewhere at the moment, or forgot to bring their letter, or not yet finished. Herding cats indeed.
I've noticed, though, that they are starting to get the hang of letter writing. It used to be that every letter was pretty much the same, year after year. Slowly I have been teaching them a little about what letter writing is. They have never before had it in their universe. Just last night at dinner I was explaining that it’s like a conversation with a new friend: an exchange of information about yourself so that the two people learn more and a friendship grows. They seemed surprised when I said their sponsor was curious about them. (although i have said this many times) Really?? Yes, it's true. Your sponsor asks me about you. Many sponsors ask me, " please take lots of photos and send them to me". Really? I watch a lightbulb go on in their minds. I guess they just didn't really believe it before.
Well, I have had my tea and I have to get dressed. I am riding the school bus with the kids, down the incredibly rough, rocky dirt road from the hostel and into town to school. Incidentally, that road floods in monsoon, becoming an impassable muddy quagmire. During rainy season the school bus can only go partway up the hill and the kids have to walk the rest of the way. But today is no problem..only clouds of dust! The kids are excited that I'll be joining them in their daily commute. Me too!