One our first night here, I sat down for dinner next to a girl named Kabita. Her first question to me was "Do you know what caste is?", followed by "Do you have caste in Australia?" and "Do you care what caste I am?"
Most of the children at both homes are from lower castes and even though they are young, they have been laughed at, treated poorly and ignored just because of their surnames and the colour of their skin.
Today I am introducing you to Kabita & Kabita M. Two gorgeous girls with wonderful spirits who have been told all their lives that they are not good enough for marriage, not good enough for anything because of the colour of their skin and their caste. Since living at Papa's House, they have come to realise that they can dream and they can be anything they want to be.
Kabita is 12 years old, I am not exactly sure which caste she is in but she is most happy that we don't care. She dreams of becoming an astronaut like Valentina Tereshkova or a doctor if the NASA space program will not accept her. For Christmas she is hoping for a big soft doll to keep her company in bed because she has a recurring nightmare that a man comes and takes her away and chops her feet off. She can hear Michael looking for her in the distance but she cannot get to him because she has lost her feet.
I was shocked to hear about her night terrors because she is such a loving child. She was the first to start calling me "Mamu" (mummy in Nepali) and is always the first to greet us at the gate when we arrive with hugs and kisses. Tom & I are going to make her a dream catcher to let her know that when she sleeps we are looking out for her.
Kabita Mahato is from the Terai region. The Terai is the bread bowl of Nepal but the girls are not considered beautiful because they are "too dark" from working in the fields. She has the most gorgeous smile and kind heart. She wants to be a nurse. Tom and I tell her at any given opportunity how ramri (beautiful) she is. She bursts into a gorgeous smile and start giggling.
Everyday we are in awe and wonder that these children are so well behaved, so well adjusted and so very loving to us and to each other. They are already cross with us that we have been here a week and are leaving in 3 - they want us to stay for at least a year. We love them all very dearly and think we are going to have our hearts broken very hard when we leave.
Sending lots of happy smiles,
Fi
No comments:
Post a Comment