Ronnie the Flower Clown

For those of you who joined us at the Sam's House Fab Friday fundraiser last August, you no doubt remember the incredibly talented (and patient) clown who entertained the kids for hours. That was Ronnie the Flower Clown and his family is staying at Sam's House this week. He did a routine at the house this week that I'm sure will spur many requests for repeat performances during his stay. He really is amazing.

GEBS Farewell

The Sam's House gang was asked to perform some formal (formal = costumes and makeup) dance numbers as part of their school's graduation day. Their performances were met by rave reviews... here are Dinesh's comments:

"Yesterday, Gorkha Boarding School organized a farewell (graduation) function for the students of class 10 who are leaving the school. Rani performed his magic and our children performed many dance items. Their performance was excellent!!! All the dance items were performed only by SH children. All the teachers and students were surprised to see their dances as it was their first performance in the school. They got a lot of clapping."

Ronnie the Flower Clown also graciously added his talents to the ceremony. Pics below.

Sabita, Ritika, Chija, Sharmila and Pratima

Sabita

The graduating class at GEBS.

Bishal, Saran and Suroj waiting to perform.

Ronnie entertains one of the graduating students.

From left: Chija, Sarita, Pratima, Sabita, Ritika, and Mamata.

Sabita, Mina, Sharmila, Maya, and Sarita.

Bishal, Rina, Saran, Pratima, Suroj, and Dipa.

Dipa.

Chija and Mamata.

After the performances: Maya, Mamata, Mina, Sabita, Dipa, and Sharmila.

What Dinesh's note doesn't say, but I know to be true: this was a real thrill for the Sam's House children. As they get older, we worry about the children being stigmatized by their situation, but opportunities like this help give them confidence and show their school mates they lead a normal, active life, no different from others.

You make this possible. Thank you.

SLC Success for Sita

With Dinesh's initiative, Sam's House started a scholarship program in 2009 for local children who, without your support, would have to drop out of school and discontinue their education.

Each year, graduating high school seniors (or the Nepalese equivalent of) take a nationwide exam for the School Leaving Certificate. SLC, for short. It's a massive comprehensive test that students spent the better part of a year preparing for.

A few months ago, Sita Thapa, one of the scholarship students learned she not only had passed the SLC, but earned first division marks. They celebrated her accomplishment at the house.

This is just one of the many things you make possible with your support of Sam's House. Thank you.

That's Sita in the brown, ready for the celebration to start.

Dinesh with a gift from the house.

After receiving her gift, Sita gives out candy to the children with help from Maya.

Mina and Sita

Holiday Season in Nepal

Another holiday season has come and gone in Nepal. After nearly a month free from school, the Sam's House gang has gone back to school to resume their studies and the didis take a collective breath as they can enjoy a few peaceful moments during the day.

As has become SH custom, those children who have relatives (that we can find and/or contact) go home for a day or two during Deshain, mostly to keep those familial ties current. They return to the house and have several celebrations and visit Dinesh's home to receive tika. After Deshain, they celebrate bhai tika for Tihar, a holiday to commemorate the bonds between brothers and sisters.

A few photos below...

Tika and gifts from the didis.

Picnic in the yard.

Tika from Dinesh and Rekha.

Wading in the river near Dinesh's house.

Plenty of time for soccer.

In real Deshain fashion, they killed and prepared a goat at the house this year for the first time. We'll spare you the photos, but the children were delighted with the event!

Medical Care

Recently Sabita and Parbati were held home from school. Sabita had contracted something flu-like while Parbati needed to have a cavity filled. I tagged along with those two and Tara for a trip to Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara.

First, there's a very warm bus ride.

Walking to the lobby area. Manipal is Indian-owned and most of the doctors hail from there.

In the waiting area.

When all was said and done, Sabita got some flu medicine and Parbati had her tooth fixed without the aid of novocaine. I looked into the dental lab (you can do that here), and she was laying still as a doll while the dentist worked the drill. Tough little Muppet.

But the larger point of showing you these pictures is this kind of medical care was not possible for these children before you decided to support Sam's House. Now all our children have excellent care available every day. Thank you.

Short Holiday

I'm at Sam's House this week. Been here since last Wednesday, the day of Teej. The children also had Thursday and Friday off from school which made for an especially nice visit (for me) because there was little else to do but play all day around the house. We went to a movie on Friday afternoon. Made a music video on Saturday and took new annual photos of everyone. There was also ice cream and football and dancing and lots of general goofing around.

Dance class on Saturday afternoon with Shiva (the dance teacher, not our tutor).

Amrit and Sharmila prepping for morning dal bhaat.

Dipa, Sharmila and Parbati.

Ritika organizing the stuffed animal closet during Saturday's cleaning session.

Saturday is shower day. Greeted mostly cheerfully by the little ones. The older children now bathe on their own schedules.

Will you look at this face? Dipika. What a killer! Sweet as sweet can be.

Was walking downstairs in the house the other day thinking about how far Bishal had come in terms of behavior. When he first arrived at the house four years ago, he was, by all accounts, a terror. Poor language, tantrums, combative, etc. Today he is just the sweetest boy with an artist's heart. However, he does lapse on occasion. When I got to the bottom of the stairs Bishal was sitting on the wall, crying, not talking to anyone. He showed me a large bump on the side of his head. The didis informed me that he had rapped Suroj and was running from retaliation when he tripped and knocked his head on a step. The time out would last the rest of the afternoon. Prema doesn't suffer fools gladly.

You may have noticed that we've been referring to Kiran as Sharmila on this blog (and it will be soon changed on the official website). As you may or may not know, "Kiran" was the name given to her by the director of her first children's home, which later closed down due to lack of funding. A couple months ago, Kiran told the didis that she didn't like her name and never had liked it. It's commonly used as a boy's name, for one. At any rate, after consulting with Dinesh and our house psychologist, they agreed it would be okay for Kiran to become Sharmila, which she chose on her own. Here's the other part... you might think, "How can you just change your name one day?" Sharmila was a street child with few papers and even today is not formally recognized as a Nepali citizen (getting her citizenship will become an issue someday). In other words, Sharmila doesn't not formally exist in Nepal, so changing her name is really not a big deal because it will not foul up any sort of records. When she does finally get her citizenship, she will be, officially, Sharmila.

For those of you who have been following the blog for a while... isn't it remarkable how Rina has changed. Still cute as ever, but not the baby of the house at all.

The older boys: Dhiraj, Babit, Bishal and Amrit (getting older now; hard to coax a smile out of these guys).

The younger boys: (back) Suroj, Saran and Santosh, (front) Sandeep and Bibek.

The little ones: (back) Rina, Dipa and Chija, (front) Parbati, Dipika, Jamuna, and Ganga.

The fully "teen" older girls: Mina, Sarita, Sabita and Maya. They are inseparable and in many ways no different than teenage girls anywhere.

The middle girls: (back) Mamata, Manju and Pushpa, (front) Sharmila, Pratima, and Ritika.

The didis: Ramila, Asuna (front), Tara, Prema and Pramila. They are the proverbial five-headed monster... one house mother with five arms. It's amazing how smoothly they run a 27-child house. And each didi has her own personality and strength that they contribute to the whole. Remarkable women.