Saturday, November 8, 2008

Life is hard in Nepal

Back to Simpani today to give out clothes. Many children packed into a small room just waiting to get a piece of clothing or shoes. We managed to have something for all our sponsored children and others got a toothbrush. Immediately they have the clothes on running around the street. We had lots of tea. Tomorrow we are going to return again to try and find a better and larger room for one very poor family, Mrs. BK and her four little girls. Her terrible living condition is really bothering us so we will see what we can do.
We visited with the young Rotarians of Pokhara this morning. They spend Saturday mornings cleaning up plastics in the city for recycling. They were very dedicated and offered to volunteer for us if I had a project for them. The Rotarian President is so helpful and so very keen that our Chimkhola school project is successful.
Sometimes here when we are exposed to so much hardship it becomes emotional and I find myself comparing our world to theirs. They have to worry everyday that they will have a little work to be able to survive and enough food for their children. Education seems to come before anything else and they will do anything so that their children are educated.
So many men go outside the country as migrant workers and that is less than desirable but their only hope of making a living. I met today for lunch with Kamal and Mann's mother and sister, Gita. Her husband is in Qutar and earns only 300 rupees per month about $4.00 as the rest goes to pay his agent and airfare back. He is terribly unhappy but has no way out. And then we have the caste system and that is really bad.
So you see life is very tough here. Their only bright spot is that they have such wonderful family ties and will do anything to help each other. I envy them that.
Anway onwards and upwards we do what we can.

1 comment:

The Blog said...

Hello Susan
I just wanted to say how much I admire your work in Nepal. I have been following your blog recently from the UK with interest. My Nepali wife is in Nepal herself at the moment visiting our supported schools in Kathmandu. It seems we have very similar goals but with different approaches and routes to helping young children in Nepal. But hopefully, the same outcome.
If you'd like to see our work/blog it's at http://nepalschoolsaid.blogspot.com/
Regards, Brian