donations and gifts for the kidsThis is what I'm doing today.  This is actually only half of the stuff I'm attempting to carry back with me for 8,000 miles, three flights, and one very long bus ride.  It's safe to say I'm a little crazy.  It's also my last day in Mendham.  There is so much to do and so much to eat ;)  I'm soaking it all in.  xoxo

p.s. YES, those are soccer uniforms you see!!! More on that later.  

Big NishaOnce about 4 years ago when Nisha was really little and she first came in to live with us we went on a walk to get her a toothbrush.  She didn't speak a word of English and my Nepali was just starting to come along.  We played a game where she'd point to an object and I would say the word in English, she would repeat it, and then say the word in Nepali and I would repeat her.  I remember this morning very vividly.  On the way back home she'd point at the same object and recite them to me, remembering each and every one of the words I'd taught her.  

Later that week we walked over to the little school house that I had the children attending at the time and enrolled her into school, starting in the first grade.  They promoted her within a matter of weeks, and then pushed her up again, and then finally again.  Unbeknownst to me,  she had gone to all of her other classmates and asked for their old used textbooks and gone through the lessons one by one on her own.  She'd stay up late at night and read until I'd go in every night and tell her it was time to shut the lights off and go to bed.  

She's always wanted to know how to get ahead.  She thrived on competition, compliments from her teachers, classmates, and the principal.  She came into my room one morning when she was 8 and asked me if she could go to a private tutor in the mornings before school.  Again without my knowledge she had found the tutor and arranged all of this completely on her own.  A month later I went to pay her tuition fee and the teacher refused to take the money.  He proceeded to tell me that he'd never met a girl with so much potential in his life and that it was his absolute pleasure to tutor her every morning.  But it wasn't until her 9th birthday when Nisha asked for an English-Nepali dictionary that I knew something was really up.  

I remember the first day I brought home a few paperback stories from the book shop and told the children that reading is the best thing you can do for your brain.  She picked up those first few books and read them front to back and then again and again and when she was through she asked for me to go out and buy some more.  In a matter of months she was reading both languages fluently and putting English sentences together.  In just a year she was speaking English and to this day she acts as the translator for many of our staff and the volunteers.  The teachers tell me she translates words that the teachers don't know for them whenever they're teaching a lesson.

A couple of weeks before I left in July she walked into my room one night and asked me to give her an essay topic so she could write an essay "for fun" and then have me grade it, "with a red pen," she directed me, "you have to mark it with red pen."  I looked at her for a second and thought to myself, "where did this child come from?"  Then I gave her the topic, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and she proceeded to write.  She wrote a beautiful piece that I actually saved for her because I'm pretty sure there are parts of it that she can use for her college essay.  It was that good.  I remember one part in particular where she wrote about why she wants to be a doctor when she grows up; to save parents of children around the world and set up systems to help with "orphan prevention" a term she created entirely on her own.

Nisha has never needed to be taken care of.  She's never needed to be told what to do, when to brush her teeth, study, read, help out with chores.  Naturally many of the others followed in her footsteps, respected her and listened to her just as much as they listen to me.  I don't know what Kopila Valley would be like without her. I was thinking about all these things after we got off the phone last night when she ended our conversation by saying, "don't worry about us, I'm making sure we're all reading at night and Goma and Karma are helping to put the little ones to bed.  Come back safe."  

And I felt this overwhelming sense of thankfulness.  Like, how in the world did we find each other? How in the world did I get this lucky?      

This brought tears to my eyes when I read it in my inbox this morning.  Thank you to our beautiful volunteer Quyen for all of her love and support. 

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Nepal is very much a country of paradoxes.  There is the breathless skyline of the mighty Himalayas to contrast being breathless in the grossly polluted air of Kathmandu.  There are the rich, snow covered mountains against the backdrop of the intensely dry and dusty landlocked valleys.  There exists extreme poverty, immense sadness and untold hardships of the Nepali people that contrast greatly against the oasis of happiness and hope that is Kopila Valley.  It is, perhaps, the greatest and most wonderful of all the contradictions. 

It is here that you will laugh with your belly, smile with your entire face and love with your whole being.  Every day, songs of children’s sweet laughter fill the air. Like the big, brilliant sun that shines down onto Surkhet, the amazing souls at Kopila Valley lighten up your days.  Falling in love with them is so easy and so natural, that it is inevitable.

Like so many before me, I did not expect this magnitude of emotion.  From the moment I arrived, I could see the eager eyes of the remarkable children and the delightful staff, trying to size me up and figure me out.  I wasn’t absolutely certain how to act or react to everyone.  So for the first few days, I quietly observed and took in everything, not saying much.  I can be a bit of an introvert and hold back quite a bit of myself, especially when so many "big people" are around.  But the children, they get me and they saw right through me.  They even called me out and asked why I was so different (so quiet) whenever the other big people were around.  I shouldn’t be so reserved, they tell me.  I need to share myself and be myself all the time.  They were teaching me!  Their enthusiasm for everything from reading to singing to drawing to dancing filled my heart with so much joy.  I feel compelled to point out that I have spent a lot of time with children, but these children are extra-special and incredibly insightful.  They are a wonderful kind of different, a complete delight.

Every night after Satsung, my favorite part of the day, we say good night to the children.  Goodnights always include a hug, a kiss and a sincere I love you.  One of my best memories came about a week after I arrived.  After we had said good night to all of the children and I was walking past the little kids’ room, headed upstairs, and I heard little Santosh calling my name and tapping on the window, “QUYEN-DIDI, QUYEN-DIDI!!!” I turned and saw him with his face pressed up against the window.  He smiled the biggest smile a four year old can possibly smile and gave me a big kiss through the window and wouldn’t stop until I kissed him back.  It was then that I knew that I had fallen in love.  And so this started our little routine every night.  The thing is, I have a similar moment with virtually every single child: the moment I knew I fell in love with them.  Whether it was sweet Deepak’s adoring affection, mischievous Maya’s unexpected sweetness or Narender’s gentle thoughtfulness, I knew how lucky I was to have been embraced by the Kopila Valley family and to be included as part of the family. 

Unlike most of the children and people we know, these children appreciate what they have and what they have been given, including their volunteers.  The fervor in which they embrace each day and the hope that they have for themselves and in their future are all testaments to the incredible strength of this family and to Mama Maggie.  I have spent so much time in other orphanages, community centers, children’s homes and I have never encountered so much hope and so much love.

I find myself thinking of them, of their little quirks, their distinct personalities, their sweetness and the all of incredible futures that lie ahead.  I miss them and hope I will get to return and see them again.  They are forever a part of me. 

Volunteering at Kopila Valley is not about the wonderful children, the enchanting staff nor is it about incredible Maggie.  It’s about you.  You will grow so much, learn so much about yourself, and appreciate life and all its wonders so much more as a result of your time with these amazing souls and all of the hopes, dreams and positive energy that they all possess.  Being a part of the Kopila Valley family will touch your heart and change you for the better, forever.
 

This is sooo sweet and makes me want to read some bedtime poetry with the kids and have them memorize all the lines!  And speaking of poetry, Lisa just bought us Falling Up by Shel Silverstein, our favorite poet.  I can't wait to read some with the children.