Orphanage

I breifly gave you some information on the orphanage i am staying at now in Kathmandu but ill give you more of the scoop.
There are 50(ish) kids here, its hard to keep track of them all because there seems to be new ones arriving on a dialy basis. I have only been here a week and there are already 4 new kids. A family runs the Orphange, started by a woman called Beina, her two sons, sister, brothers, mom and dad all help out. Rachana, Beina's sister is in her mid twinties and when other people her age are going out and socializing and going to colledge she pretty much dropped her life to help out with the home and be with the kids, she works so hard i dont know how she keeps going! They struggle with money all the time, the kids are not getting a nutritious diet only eating rice and a mixture of cabbage and rolled up flour as dumplings for their meals. I have been eating their meals for the last week and can already feel a difference in my body, i am weaker, and more tired and really craving flavour! I have had to buy a bunch of fruit because i just cant eat any more starch!
There are about 20 kids who are going to school now but the new kids are going to be starting up the following year. I want them to and from school most days and it takes a good 45 minutes to get there. On the way to school we pass through the temples and river where they burn the bodies. Each morning we guess how many dead bodies we will see for the day taking them to and from school. Their school is actually right near the cremation sight, where all the tourists are so they have an open school room for the young kids for tourists to walk by and donate to their school. There is alot of down time here, when the volunteers and I get tired we just hang outside in the sun chatting with eachother, picking out lice from the kids heads... other times we teach them english and math and than spend the rest of the time just making them smile, playing games and keeping them occupied.
There is one little kid who at first i thought was a girl, but on shower day found out was a little boy. He is always sitting in the corner alone, looking down at the floor, no expression, no energy. People just ignore him and the kids a mean to him but he kind of goes unnoticed in a house full of rambuncious kids. He never talks and never smiles, so he became my project for the last few days. I took a liking to him and tried to give him attention, with no success, he would just keep looking at the floor no matter what i tried. The other day, after a week trying with him we were all downstairs watching the loud kids dance, soaking up our attention. Amongst all the noise and excitement he came and stood infront of me, head down, no smile, but almost testing me seeing if he was allowed to have attention too. I grabbed him with a huge hug and put him on my lap and cuddled him. He usually would push away from such affection but he melted in my arms. I felt so good! To top it off, the next day i saw him again quiet, sad and sitting in the corner i picked him up twisted him around and he had the biggest smile on his face ever! just those little things like making the quiet, non affectionate kid who never gets any attention to smile and feel comfortable with me makes the whole experience that much better.
They are goofing around with me more and more these days and i am getting more of a feel of living with them.
Volunteering like this is a great expereince for me, its forcing me to come out of my comfort zone with giving affection and dealing witht he kids, and is really testing my patients. Its Grea to be able to live like the real Nepalese do, eat their food, sleep on their bed.. PLywood, and partake in their daily lives. No tourist who comes and stays at the top end guest house would ever see this side of Nepal. I am blessed!
tomorrow we are ordering a bunch of Momo's (dumplings filled with meaty goodness) for the kids as a surprise. Friday Pemba, and Faba, the two sons about my age are taking us girls to an outside concert all day where some hip bands are playing, that should be fun and exciting:)