Saturday, May 31, 2008

Happy Birthday Kabita!



Dear Friends,

It would appear that we have been celebrating Kabita's birthday for quite a few days but her actual birthday was yesterday. We spent Wednesday, Thursday and yesterday morning teasing her that since the strike was on, there would be no Friday this week. Some of the smaller kids were appalled that a birthday would be skipped, and stomped their little feet and walked me to Michael's birthday list posted on the kitchen door and pointed at Kabita's name and birth date and very indignantly said "Look Mum! Look!"

With a sigh of relief for the little ones, the cake and presents appeared after dinner last night. The cake was another spectacular Papa's House creation. Fruit sponge cake topped with melted chocolate and fresh mango. The ooo's and ahh's of appreciation from the girls and Kancha was just heartwarming.

Kabita's haul of presents included new black and pink sneakers, jeans, blue t-shirt and kulta sulwar, as well as many lovingly made cards and posters from her brothers and sisters.


As promised, today we took Kabita and Aspara for pizza. They could each invite a friend, and Bhumika and Chham joined us. I think the photos speak for themselves as to how much they all enjoyed a trip out to Thamel. Apsara made other diners at the restaurant smile as she waved goodbye to the basin of lotus as she headed out the door.








I know many of you are wondering what is happening with the possibility of bringing Kabita and Apsara to live with us. The reality is, it is impossible. The Nepali government has revised it's adoption law 3 weeks ago, and surprisingly, it is exactly the same as the last set of laws. Nepal is possibly the only country in the world where they would set up research committees and work for a year to produce a new legislation that is a carbon copy of the last one. However, we are still hopeful that Kabita and Apsara can make a trip to Disneyland with us in the near future.








Much love from all of us here in Dhapasi,

Fi

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

'Ello Yellow

Dear All,

Life has been very hectic here, thus the lack of blog entries.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow is a general strike, which means there is no school for the kids. You have never seen children so sad at not being able to attend school. They wake up in the morning and still head straight for their textbooks.

Yesterday we took advantage of the hot weather and lack of school to take everyone swimming. The Nature Club is on most maps of Kathmandu and local people that you speak to all know where it is, so I was very surprised to find that the pool was rather small. Nevertheless, the kids all had such a wonderful time splashing for just over two hours. Little Jeny Rai was so exhausted from the whole experience, Oli (one of the volunteers) had to carry her home, fast asleep on his shoulder.



When we got here, we discovered that Apsara's favourite colour was "ello". After two or three tries, her favourite colour is now "yellow". We are very impressed by how hard the girls and all their brothers and sisters are working on their school work and perfecting their English pronunciation. Our Nepali is more than dismal in comparison.

More later,

Fi & Tom.