Back at the Home

Hello Hello,
After a long week away from the little ones, we arrived safe and sound back at the home last night. All of the kids saw the van and came sprinting towards us. I missed them so much! There is a Christian team here right now from Colorado who are leaving today. It was fun last night to get to learn more about them and the work that they have done here while we were away for the week. They came all the way to Nepal just for 6 days! I can't even imagine! We had another singing and dancing night last night which is always so much fun. The kids are so talented, and then when they see us attempt to Nepali dance they just point and laugh.
There was another strike the day before yesterday so we were stuck in Chitwan. Instead of just sitting around, we decided to walk around the village and look for something that we could do. We came across a Children's Welfare Center and went and talked to the owners. There were 10 children there, some in pretty rough shape. That orphanage compared to the one that we are in was in awful condition. The entire space was the size of my appartment in Lethbridge, but was home to about 15 people. The floors were bare, the beds had one sheet on them, and bugs and flies were all over the childrens faces. Somehow they were still so full of smiles and excited to have some new friends for the day.
I went through some of the files of the kids there which gave their backgrounds and was devistated. Most of them were born into poor farming families, and many have experianced more in their 10 years of living then anyone should have to face in a lifetime. Some stories discussed AIDS killing parents and other siblings, others about torture and abuse within the home, and several with a single mother not being able to meet the needs of her 5 children. I cant beleive that these backgrounds are the reality for so many children here. If its not this, it seems that beaucse of lack of education, parents are selling their children in hopes of a better life into child labour or the sex trade. There are so many problems here, and I truly beleive that the root of it comes from lack of education.
Today we are going to clean out the local river that goes through the Godawari community. God only knows what kinds of things we are going to find in there so it should be interesting. In the same river, you see people throwing garbage and waste, and drinking and bathing their babies. It is not clean at all, but when it is your only source of water, you take what you can get. Hopefully we can atleast clean the garbage out it it.
That is all for now! Only 4 more days left. I can't beleive how fast this month has flown by!
Love you all!
See you in a few sleeps!
xoxo Tory