Nena And Nisha
Thursday, November 14, 2013
I've been meaning to write a blog post for like, days! I always want to take my time and add links and make it a good post but then the days melt into one another and I realize I haven't posted anything at all. Now I'm on a plane having a quiet moment and I realize there's just so much I want to say so I'm typing all of this onto my phone like a text message because my computer is crammed in my oversize backpack under the seat in front of me.
First, thank you for my birthday wishes!!! I mean how lucky can a girl be? All of you mean so much to me and I spent the day thinking about how grateful I am. Also, can you believe I'm 27!?! It's my ten year anniversary of leaving home for my gap year. I'm officially a grown up and I'm so so psyched for 27– more psyched than I've been for any other year. People keep telling me 27 is a good one so I say "bring it on!" I'm ready.
Two big pieces of news...
I'm on a plane because Nisha flies into San Fran tomorrow with Nena. It's all kind of hard to wrap my head around at the moment. Eight years ago I started a children's home with babysitting money, my pony tail, a vision, and a lot of hard work. I made a move to Nepal and went all in. I wanted to help every orphan in Nepal and the world. Nisha was my first little girl. She was so sweet and little and she had the most adorable chubby cheeks. I lucked out because she was also really really bright. On her first morning after her first night at Kopila, (which was really just one little room... unfinished, unfurnished without any power or water or a real kitchen or really much of anything.) Anyway that first morning we went for a walk up our dirt road to buy her first toothbrush. On the walk I was pointing to all of these different objects and giving them a name. I didn't know Nepali yet so I just said the English words and Nisha listened. Cow, flower, shop, tree, rock, bird. I pointed to object after object, annunciating their meanings loud and clear. On the way home Nisha pointed at all the words I had pointed out. She remembered every single word and recited them one by one. I tell this story over and over because it reminds me of all the potential little minds there are in the world, just waiting to be found. Nisha and I found each other. It was really meant to be.
We'd stay up late every night reading by the fireplace because there was never any power and it was a cold cold February. I was trying to read about starting a non-profit and development and poverty alleviation and Nisha was learning how to read. I remember those nights so well. First Nisha learned to read Nepali. Book after book, after book. The little book shop in town ran out of age appropriate books and pamphlets for me to buy but then school started, a little old school house just up the road. Nisha was so eager to go to school. She wanted all the other kids old textbooks so she could catch up. Her brain was like a sponge. The teachers later told me she was ready to move up to the next grade level and then the next and then the next! Before I knew it she was reading Harry Potter. All of the series over and over again from beginning to end. She picked up the English language so fast and in no time was at the top of her class. I feel really lucky because Nisha being my first, really set the tone for the rest of the kids as they came in, one by one. They'd see Nisha reading, and they'd want to read, they'd see her brushing her teeth and learning to say please and thank you and they would model her behavior. She never broke the rules, helped around the house, and did as she was told. I thought to myself, "raising these kids is gonna be a piece of cake." "I'm such a good mom!!!" Really it was all Nisha. Having Nisha as my first was kind of like winning the lottery.
A few years later our Peck School friends came all the way to Nepal and immediately identified Nisha as a student they would like to bring to Peck. They felt that she could keep up with the rigorous academics and bring something unique to the Peck community. They also thought that having Nisha at Peck would help get her on track for future academic success. I put it on my list of BIG BIG dreams that I write in my journal or keep in the back of my head and slowly and surely the wheels were set in motion, Nisha got her visa to the U.S. and Peck very generously granted her a scholarship to attend their amazing school. It's kind of crazy to believe it's all happening now and Nisha is sitting on a plane on her way here. This is a dream come true for us! Nisha starts school on Monday as an 8th grader at the Peck School in Morristown. As for Nisha, I'm not sure she totally knows what she's in for. She's nervous, excited, missing her friends and 40 siblings from back home, worried about missing school in Nepal and eager to learn about what being a student in the U.S. is like. I'll let her write here and tell you more when she settles.
I'm thrilled and excited for what the next few months has in store for her and I know this will change her life, open up her world, and expand her horizon in ways we can only imagine. It's going to be fun to watch, just like it was fun to watch Anjali transform after her trip here. I'm also selfishly excited about a little mother/daughter alone time with her over the next few days.
With all of this good and exciting news comes a sad something too. Nena's stay with us, the Wellness Fellowship has come to an end. Flying Nisha back to the states was the last big hurrah and we are all a little in limbo trying to figure out how to go on without our dear Nena. Calling her the "Wellness Fellow" seems so superficial because she was just so much more than that. Yogi, healer, mommy to the kids, teacher, mentor, amazing friend, women's center leader, the person who makes you laugh at the breakfast table, dance choreographer, gardener, work out buddy, patient, loving kind, and everyone's confidant. Nena is superwoman. We're going to miss this girl in a big big way and it makes me cry to think about it. Happy tears, thankful tears, missing Nena tears, excited for Nisha tears—all in one. Tomorrow morning I will pick them up at the airport in San Fran. I'm looking forward to the hugs and dreading the goodbye!
About to land... I have more to tell you
I'll try to write more soon!!! xoxo