Stories…

There are more stories than could ever possibly be told here in Surkhet. One story that has hit home for me this trip is that of a 3 year old girl in nursery class (M).

Those of you who follow my Instagram know a little about her. Her mom works 7 days a week and is gone 10 hours a day working on a construction site. She is a good mother who works hard to provide for her family. M has two sisters who are in a children’s home in Katmandu, her father is dead. On a normal day M is left alone from 6am until 8pm. The best part of her day is coming to school at Kopila. Some days her only meal is at school and often she hangs out at on the school grounds until the gates close at night. 

She has been on my heart since I first saw her. Today I went looking for her since we had a half day at school and found her alone outside her house playing in the nally (a small stream of water that is VERY dirty). I asked her when was the last time she bathed, which would have been at the school since they have no plumbing her house. She told us two weeks..

P age 6, another Kopila child who lives in the house couldn’t help but offer to go get her shampoo and some of her own fresh clothes so we could bath her at the school. There isn’t a lot we can do for this girl, her being in school is a huge step already! 

As I washed the dirt off her small body and in her hair I knew my call was to love her, to hold her and play with her. My heart breaks for what she would call, a normal every day reality. 

After M was all cleaned up we took her home to hang her dirty pair of clothes that we had washed at the school. Her home is what Americans would use only for a chicken coupe. No running water or power and about the size of a closet. The first thing she did when we got home was change her clothes. When asked why she said she didn’t want to get her new clothes dirty. 

I’m not sure why her story has hit home for me more than others, and yes there are others, hundreds just in our school, but what I do know is I will do my best to love her with all I can while I’m here.