Elephants and Orphans in Nepal Part II – I Lop You

Back in 2018 at the beginning of my world travels, I spent a month in Nepal. It was quite the adventurous time! I did a week-long trek from village to village in the rolling hills outside of Kathmandu and went paragliding over Lake Phewa in Pokhara (where I met the infamous Frenchman!)  Although I ran out of time to stay in Nepal on that trip, I knew I would return. I was interested in visiting Chitwan National Park, an iconic jungle reserve in south Nepal, near the India border.

This park had rare Bengal tigers, an elephant nursery and breeding center, and the rare one-horn rhinoceros.  So, the following year, I met up with Piu, the Frenchman in Pokhara for a few weeks and then I headed to the south of Nepal on my own, to check  out this natural reserve.

I found an amazing volunteer opportunity on Workaway (a fabulous website that offers room and board in exchange for your time, energy and skills – read more about it here ) in Sauraha, the town next to Chitwan.  Assisting each day at a children’s home in the mornings and in the evenings, I would be free to explore, go on safari, hike and check out the villages and sites surrounding the orphanage while the 11 kids were at school from 10 am to 4 pm. This sounded perfect!  I committed to volunteering for 2 weeks and hopped on the bus from Pokhara to Chitwan paying 700 Nepalese rupees (approximately $6.50) for the 6 hour, 50 mile road trip. (Yes. You read that correctly. 6 hours/50 miles. This ain’t the USA!)

Hera, Sushila’s husband, met me at the bus station in Sauraha and gave me a ride on his scooter to the orphanage, about 10 minutes away. After showing me around the “compound” as they call it, he walked me over to my room for the next two weeks.

Located in a blue concrete building just a 3-minute walk from the orphanage, I was offered a simple room containing two twin beds with mosquito nets, a ceiling fan, and a basic bathroom (with a Western toilet, thankfully, and not a “squatter”).  There was no one else volunteering at the moment so I had the room to myself. I would be helping with breakfast, homework, dinner prep and whatever else Sushila tasked me with.

On the first day, the kids were all at school when I arrived, so she asked me to paint “no smoking” and “no photographs” signs on the front entry gates.  My long latent artistic abilities were finally needed… 🙂

When the children returned from school around 4 pm I was introduced to each of them, and they crowded around me – not because I was so interesting or amusing – but because I had brought candy.  I’m no dummy.  I brought Blow-Pops.  Blue raspberry lollipops with bubble gum inside.  We all giggled and laughed at learning to say the words “bubble gum” and they enjoyed having bright blue tongues from the candy and tried to blow bubbles using the gum inside.

 

I spent the next two weeks trying to remember each of the childrens’ names, weeding the garden, peeling approximately 2000 tons of potatoes, walking the younger girls to school each morning, eating dal baht twice a day everrrrrry day, watching Bollywood soap operas, “India’s Got Talent” or ‘WWF’ -American wrestling – together in the evenings after dinner before everyone’s bedtime, listening to the kids sing-song study for their exams, learning the proper way to de-string stringbeans and chop cabbage into the correct size while being scolded by Asmita, the 9 year old wielding the extremely large vegetable chopping knife.

We read books together, played ping-pong on a cement table with a concrete net, bought grapes, eggplant, tomatoes and bananas from the nearby fruit stand,

washed our dirty clothes at the pump, and sipped Starbucks instant coffee together made with boiled milk and too much sugar.

I shared Smarties and AirHeads candies, and donated books I brought with me from the USA.  We made silly videos, used the goofy filters on Facebook messenger,  took about a million pictures with my phone and listened to bad American pop music (Justin Beiber, you’re a “thing” in Sauraha Nepal!!)

Allow me to introduce you to some of the amazing, amusing, adorable young people at Sushila’s home for these kids – more of a foster home than an orphanage.

“Auntie” is what we all called the young woman in charge of the kitchen.  She was the maker of the twice daily dal bhat, the boss of the potatoes, and the washer of the pots and pans needed to cook every day for 15 people. I’ve never seen anyone work harder than Auntie!  She toiled all day long – sweeping all the concrete floors with a tiny straw broom, cleaning the counters, peeling, hauling water, washing, building and tending the fire, sitting in a minuscule plastic stool at the fire and scooping the rice from a gigantic pot and lentil soup from the pressure cooker for each and every one of us for breakfast and for dinner, making a snack after school, and brewing sweet black tea for the mornings and afternoons for everyone.  And always with a smile on her face and a musical giggle.  She has been working at the orphanage for the past year, living with her young daughter Ritu, while her husband finishes building a new house for the three of them. Sort of a workaway exchange program for Auntie, if you will.  🙂

The three “little ones” are Ritu (Auntie’s daughter), Asmita and Sabina.  They were quick to hold my hand, climb into my lap, pose for pictures, play with my hair, try on my sunglasses, bring me flowers, refill my tea, give me hugs and generally be lovable and cute.

The “four big girls”.  Melina has read every single book in the orphanage.  And there are probably over 200 books, including Anne of Green Gables, The Book Thief and all the Harry Potter books.  She wants to be a teacher when she grows up.  Swastika, Savaswati and Aashika – these girls were always smiling, giggling and singing Indian pop songs while doing their homework and studying hard. Not too old or too cool that they wouldn’t hold my hand while we walked to school… ❤️

Savaswati was artistic, Swastika loved doing glamour pix on my phone, and Aashika wrote in my journal:  “I like Cinday because she is good and kind. She have short hair. We will never forget you.  We lop you. We will always be happy never be sad in this orphana home for children”.  I absolutely love the way she started to write “orphanage” but stopped, crossed it out, and wrote “home”.  That speaks volumes about how lovely this place is, how cared for these kids are, and the wonderful safe haven they are in.

The 3 boys – Sahoul.  Loved to steal my phone, always teasing me. He kept whispering to me to buy him 6 tubes of SuperGlue and 2 rolls of duct tape so he could make a car. (?)  He was great with the little girls, helping them get their backpacks ready each day, carrying them around and playing silly games to get them to laugh.

His brother Rahoul pretended my phone was HIS phone and he was just letting me borrow it each day. This kid could cook – he was in charge of the chicken dinner one night – he chose a chicken from the henhouse, killed it, plucked it, chopped it up and mixed a paste of seasonings with the mortar and pestle using fresh ginger, dried red chili peppers, sugar, salt and garlic and then cooked it over the open fire. 

Som is the most dedicated student I’ve ever seen – he wants to be a doctor. Each evening when all the children shuffled off to bed at 8:30, he lifted the kitchen clock from the wall and brought it to his room.  Then Som stayed awake until 11 or 11:30 to study, and woke up at 4:30 to start again.  At 7 am, he returned the clock to the kitchen wall. He also was anxious to get back to studying when we all went into town for ice cream one evening, asking us to hurry up or to eat our ice cream as we walked back so he could resume studying. That’s dedication.

 

These kids are most likely not getting adopted – it’s more of a foster home situation for them.  Some of them are here because of abuse, or a parent in jail.  Some will return to their natural parents, others will not.  During my stay, I asked my friends to donate to this amazing place, and was able to raise 1200 Nepalese rupees – nearly $1200 US.  I was humbled by everyone’s contribution, but none more than my friend who donated $500 because she too, was an orphan, and wanted to give back.  How amazing is that?

I learned a lot, and was grateful to be able to help in the little ways I could during my stay at Sushila’s.  The kids were funny, smart, affectionate and definitely focused on being the best students possible.

If you’re interested in volunteering at Sushila’s, please let me know and I’ll contact her – I promise you won’t regret it.  It was an amazing, fulfilling and beautiful experience – one I’ll likely remember always.  I lop these kids!

 

 

As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly – you leave marks behind – however small.  And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you.                                  Anthony Bourdain