Angels Galore

Good evening Web Wanderers,

It seems hard to believe that our month in Nepal is rapidly coming to a close. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to introduce you to all of the children in the homes before our departure, but tonight I would like you to meet two other sweet angels that have touched Fiona and my lives.

The first girl is Mary Rai. Mary's real name is Gyahunta, but she quickly latched onto her nickname and made it her own. I first noticed Mary when reading Michael's website; you could tell from her smile that she was an introspective soul. And indeed she is. When we first arrived, I was really looking forward to getting to know her and was a bit disappointed that she seemed to have no interest in me. I could see her give me the occasional glance from a distance, but she would never come in for a hug like most of the children.

But over the past week, she has suddenly warmed up to me, and I've gotten a chance to really see the depth of her personality. Perhaps the jealousy of seeing the affection heaped on the other children became unbearable, or perhaps I somehow unknowingly passed the test for her to open up to me. Now she comes in for big hugs, and I get the Nepali kiss reserved for the most prestigious (a kiss on each check and then on the forehead) and the proclamation ,"Father, I LOVE you SOOOO much!" Mary is actually quite self confident and helps me by translating what I'm saying to the younger children. Yesterday, we took 6 children to get sodas and samosas; Mary amongst them. Mary naturally took a leadership role and helped Fiona and I keep the group together in our single file line. A natural leader - she got the other children to do what we wanted without coming across as bossy.

Her little sister, Rasmita, also joined us on our adventure yesterday. Rasmita is a slight show-off. One of her favorite things to do is play hacky sack with a ball made out of rubber bands (almost all of the kids in Nepal seem to have one) and make sure everyone knows how many times she was able to kick it before it hit the ground. Rasmita warmed up to me much earlier than Mary, but given her English is still quite basic, she isn't able to always communicate what she wants to say and gives up trying despite gentle prodding from me. But she always runs off with a smile, and each night fights her way through scrum to make sure she gets her goodnight hug and kiss.

These are two other girls that could easily be fallen in love with. Both always look upon you with a smile expressing the pure joy and goodness in their hearts. Innocent to the core, they are two angels whose nightly hugs I'm going to miss dearly when we depart on Saturday.

62 hours and counting....

Best,

Tom