Pushpa lumbers into the guesthouse garden, a bear in motorcycle helmet and face mask. I know her by her walk. Breakfast. Talk of her new website. She’s asks if its ok to tell the story of our meeting in their next newsletter. She asks for a photo from when we first met. I find two from 2008. We both looked really good then! Throughout the morning she repeats how thin she used to be.
We get on her red motorscooter and head out into the traffic. Today is another holiday – this one a hindu holiday that celebrates the sun, so the roads are relatively quiet. Pushpa drives slowly and gently. It’s not just about the potholes and debris in the road – it’s about saving petrol. Although the driver is required to wear a helmet, not so the passenger. We travel for about twenty minutes along the main road and then increasingly rougher and narrower dirt roads as we wind our way up Shiva Puri mountain to the new Butterfly Home. This is Pushpa’s dream almost-come-true. It was very close to completion when the earthquake hit in April this year. Although the basic structure held, the fresh brick walls crumbled. A German organization has offered to fund the reconstruction. About 8 men are working very hard at it. Well, Nepali ‘very hard’.
The Butterfly Home is a permanent home built with CNN Hero prize money for the prison children. I call it Pushpa’s Palace. If she ever wants to change direction, it would make a beautiful resort with magnificent views west over the Kathmandu valley. There is a two story building for the boys, a two story building for the girls, a library/study room, an office and space for a future waldorf school, a white tiled kitchen/dining area, a home for Pushpa, a large garden area, an outdoor ampitheater for the children to perform, a small guard house by the gate, lots of space to play and even a designated space for the solar cookers and food drying racks. Everything is wheelchair accessible and ground floors have special tiles to help the blind navigate. Everything is spacious with lots of windows. It’s gorgeous. I predict that when Pushpa, the thirty four children and the staff move in, they’ll all sleep in one room for the warmth and closeness of it. Maybe two. Pushpa says they’ll move in in about a month. I think that’s optimistic, considering the work remaining. They will have fun! And they won’t have to worry about landlords any more.
Tour completed, we rode the bike back to the ECDC home where most of the kids were at home because of the holiday. Mukesh opened the gate with a huge grin. The kids were playing around the courtyard, looking very healthy and happy. Tej Karan and Manju, two of the older kids, were cooking saag over a bamboo fire. They are slowly burning the bamboo shelter that protected them from the summer sun. They also have barrels of pine cones to burn. Ginger and salt and something very spicy go into the saag that they stir with a large bamboo spoon made by Biraj. Pushpa comes out with a tiny four month old baby. His mother had sold him for $200 – enough to buy a smart phone. He was sold to seven other people before the police found him and arrested the whole chain of traffickers who intended to sell him for his organs. The mom is now in jail, and the baby is living with Pushpa and at least a dozen other little mothers.
A bell is rung, and everyone lines up for lunch. Rice, beans, saag and pickle (like a tomato salsa). The kids place their plates on the metal tables, stand to say a prayer (I can’t catch the content) then sit to eat. Laxmi brings me a plate. It’s delicious!
After lunch we stand in a circle and I ask if anyone can be a tree (the yoga tree pose). Amazingly, most do it without difficulty. I then suggest we make a forest by joining hands and standing together. The little guys on either side of me are half my height and it’s a bit of a challenge to join palms. But we do it! About twenty five of us make a forest, strong together.
Manju starts singing a semblance of the hokey pokey. When I join in with my version, they look at me like I’ve got it wrong, so I quickly learn their version. We play other games that involve running and laughing and spinning about. The last one starts with three kids going around the inside of the circle, stopping and asking “will you be my friend?” then carrying on with an ever increasing train. When everyone has joined one of the three trains, we join together and run as fast as possible until the train falls apart. Lots of laughter.
Jennie, of the Woodruff Music School in the Cowichan Valley, and her students held a concert and raised money for kids in Nepal. I talked with Pushpa about what sort of musical intruments her kids would like. Pushpa was definite: violins! She talked to the kids and asked who would like to be the first to learn. Five raised their hands, and we have another little people to people project underway.
We go inside to have a circle with the six older kids. Pushpa wants them to say something about who they are and what kind of experiences they have been having. They each introduce themselves and tell me what class they’re in, what interests they have, and what the past month of holidays has been like for them.
Tej talks about the dance classes he takes and the pizza they ate during Dashain. Laxmi talks about liking to paint and her visit to her mom – who is now out of prison. It was difficult to see how hard her mom works, just to get by. Mukesh smilingly tells me about studying accounting for his bachelor. He also laughs about the pizza they ate at Dashain. Manju talks about going to the prison to visit her mom. Her brother, who stays at another home, was also there. He had old shoes two sizes too small, and to Manju’s eyes didn’t look well-cared for. Her mom gave her money to buy shoes for the brother. Biraj , who has grown so tall, talks about wanting to join the army. He also talks about a one day excursion to Namo Buddha. Hena, who couldn’t manage school past grade eight, shyly tells me about her sewing machine and the handicrafts she is creating. Hena and Laxmi bring me their crafts and artwork. Beautiful!
I didn’t really need to be impressed; I can see how well everyone is doing!
Pushpa talks of her plans for the older children. After the Butterfly home is finished, her next project is to create a hostel next door where the children who finish their ‘plus 2’ can live and run a little guesthouse. She certainly won’t abandon these kids, and she has a pretty good track record of accomplishing grand schemes.