Mini Bios and Errands

Hello All,

Yesterday consisted of, once again, waiting for people to help us move. Once again, they did not show up. For lunch we bought fish from a street peddler. We picked out the fish and the man stuck a stick into its mouth and violently thrust it around. Then he squeezed causing most of the insides to fall out of its mouth. Then he roughly rubbed it against a piece of wood in order to rip off the scales. It was, overall, a very violent process. With the fish in hand, Kumari and I set off to make fish curry. The curry itself was very good, but the fish was full of tiny bones, and it didn’t really seem worth all the trouble. After eating I blew my nose, which was running because of the heat, and a tiny fish bone that was in my throat shot up and entered my soft palate like an annoying little splinter. It took a lot to finally get that sucker out.

We took our rest early because we knew that when Babuloo got home from school he would not let us sleep at all. Babuloo came home (school is shorter for him since he is only 4 ½), and a couple hours later the rest of the children followed. Kumari and Xavier then left for the hospital to get another opinion about his back. Priya and I were in charge for the rest of the night. It was pretty quiet and relaxing; we just corrected homework and played with the ones who were finished. We ate dinner, and before I knew it, it was time for bed. I read for a couple hours, I wanted to be up when Xavier and Kumari returned from the doctor. They got home around 11:30, and I went out to meet them. They had the results of several blood tests, which revealed that something was indeed very wrong, but they needed other test to say just what. Kumari and I looked on the internet to see if we could get anymore information about the test results, but everything said the same thing, that more tests were required. The doctor did, however, order an immediate MRI, which Xavier went in for today. The town with the MRI machine is several hours away, and the scan is very expensive.

This morning I woke up and ate. We knew for sure that no one was coming to help move, so Kumari and I got other work done. We set out to write little mini biographies about each child, including their family background, history at WIDE, and interesting little things about them, such as their interests or personalities. I am going to take portraits of each of them to go with the biographies, and we are going to put them on the WIDE website (which currently is only offered in Dutch…). It was fun sharing stories about each child, and it was good for me to learn more about their backgrounds. I knew that we had several sets of siblings, but I wasn’t aware of just how many. Kumari has taken in siblings since she started, despite it being against the law. The law stated that you could only take in one child from a family, and that all siblings must be separated when being sent to orphanages, an idea that I found very sad. Already these children have been through so much, being separated from their brothers and sisters would only make it harder. Kumari, for the past several years, has ignored that rule. Just this year they changed it to be that you can take in two from the same family, but no more.

At one point I was writing about Mukesh, and I reminded Kumari of how worried he is about Xavier, and how caring he is. She told me that the other night she was outside, and when she came in a small group of four or five children were in a circle praying. She went back outside to let them be. When she came back in she woke up Mukesh and asked him about their prayers, and he said that they were praying for Sir (Xavier). Kumari says that all of the older children know exactly what is going on; they know if Xavier is sick, they know if there is a money or food problem, they are aware of any hardship WIDE is going through, and they always pray for the problems to be solved. It is incredible seeing such young children with such great faith. These children care so much for Kumari and Xavier. Kumari started to cry while she told me that when she and Xavier get old she doubts Priya or Prince, their own children, will take care of them. It will be Anitha, Durga, and Maha who will always be there. It is more than true, the children here love and worship Kumari and Xavier, treating them like the parents they don’t have.

Kumari and I then went into town to get some things, and we fought about whether today is Thursday of Friday. It is, in fact, Thursday, so Kumari won that argument. I get confused sleeping in the middle of the day, it makes one day seem like two. On the way back Kumari got into a huge fight with the auto driver over how much we owed. Everyone tacks an extra 5 rupees (about 10 cents) onto anything I’m involved in, and Kumari refuses to let me pay more than an Indian would, even if it isn’t that much more. The ride cost 30 Rs. (25 for the ride itself, an extra 5 because we had him wait for us), and he wanted to charge 35. I only had a 50 (aka, $1.25), which I gave to him. He didn’t want to give me any change, so Kumari reached into his pocket and pulled the change out for me. She started laughing very hard as we walked away from the stunned driver. All I can say is that I’m glad to have her on my side, she is vicious!

That is all for now,
I miss you all,
Peace,
Robby