We Lost an Orphan!

August 10 2007

Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! We lost an orphan yesterday... It was the scariest ten minutes of my life! Here is what happened...

We decided as a little treat and in preparation for the big trip to the swimming pool that we would take the kids to the football field near their house and play frisbee. They were really enjoying it we were all running around like crazy people because that is something they never get to do they spend all day cooped up sitting at desks so they were loving it. We took all of them so that included two four year old sisters (they are like two little old ladies) and one young girl with quite severe learning difficulties. All in all there are twelve kids and four adults so a good ratio.. you would think!!

So anyway we went for an hour and at six o clock it was starting to get dark and we started rounding up the kids when I suddenly realised that Shoba (one of the two four year olds) was not there. At that point I wasn't too worried because we thought she may have just walked home I ran back to the house to check with another one of the kids but she was not there. When I told Jon he just turned white.. it really was the most frightening feeling in the world. She is so small and I just couldn't believe she managed to walk off a football field and not one of fifteen people saw her go it isn't like she moves fast. Anyway to cut a long story short we found her ten minutes later in the house but hiding upstairs.. a valuable lesson learnt. I am really scared about the swimming pool trip now but we have promised them they are going and they are so excited even though they dont know what it is... I think for that trip we need twelve volunteers!!

This morning I read some facts in the Kathmandu Post that I will share with you.

1 in 20 Nepalis under the age of 18 is orphaned.
41% of Nepalis are under 15 years of age.
That equals a lot of orphans...

There were more but I am not sure if I am remembering them factually I will save them maybe one a day to keep you all interested...!

Caroline