Suraj

Suraj came to see me at the weekend. He is the elder of two brothers whom we had rescued back in November 2000. They had been found sleeping rough outside Tansen jail, obtaining scraps of food through the bars of the prison gate courtesy of their imprisoned mother. The two boys came to our refuge in Bhairahawa where they quickly began to blossom. Both are very good all rounders - academically, musically, at dance and sport. Suraj took the lead role in a community play that we organised at the refuge a couple of years ago. His part in the play's "dream sequence" (pictured) is very memorable.

His progress took a jolt when his father turned up out of the blue a few months ago. He had been in different prison from his wife but freed after the Maoists burned down the jail at the end of last year; he is technically on the run but apparently had joined the Maoists himself. He arrived at the refuge on his motor bike, flashing money and showing off to his sons. Although told to go away he has been around the neighbourhood ever since. This put us in a doubly difficult position as Suraj's mother was insistent that the boys should never be handed over to their no-good father. And the boys had been signed over to our care by her, not him, and she expected them returned after her release.

Last week Suraj announced that he wanted to leave school (he's now 16 and very close to taking his final examinations) and if he couldn't work for us (not an option) he wanted to join his father. The local staff couldn't persuade him otherwise so he came to Kathmandu where he met the local Director here, Shailaja CM, and she talked him into changing his mind. By the time he got to me it had become an easy interview. He gave me a big hug before he left the room. This is another example of how our refuge children's parents mess their children's lives up leading to their coming to our care in the first place. Thereafter, given the chance, they continue to do so.

The news on the international adoption process has been encouraging this week. It appears that the files at our District office (Lalitpur) were due to be sent off yesterday and there is a prospect of a committee meeting this week to begin to look at all the files. That's what I heard from the refuge where our child came from. But the locals would tell you anything to make you happy....

Amateur dramatics

Today I had the pleasure of welcoming our latest UK volunteers to join the project, Sue Way and Nick Discombe. Sue and Nick are members of Northcott Theatre Group in Exeter and friends of former volunteers from 2004, fellow Group members Derek and Dawn Roberts. Sue's expertise lies in the field of dance while Nick is a script writer. We discussed our needs in more detail with them face to face and have agreed that they will split their time between the kids in Kathmandu and the older circus returnees in Hetauda. For the former they will complementing the great services rendered by volunteer Cherry Hills (right), who has been running drama workshops at the refuge most weekends since last April. Cherry has been on gap year but after her time with us plans to work in youth theatre when she goes back to UK in September. As for Hetauda, the three volunteers will be going there on Sunday along with a fourth volunteer and two of my mosaic studio girls to run combined mosaic and drama classes. The whole effort will be geared to our laying on a performance on the 6th September, this being national anti-trafficking day in Nepal. Previous volunteers in Hetauda, Lynne Rawlings et al, were captivated by a playlet that the girls in Hetauda spontaneously laid on of their time in the circus. I think with a professional input from Nick, Sue and Cherry that can be turned into something really great.


One of the advantages of volunteers such as these is that it stimulates creativity, something that seems to be lacking in a rote-learning, copycat culture such as this one. Just this evening I read a review in the paper of a guy called Shankar Lamichane - "one of Nepal's greatest ever essayists". After a few paragraphs describing his unique and original style it said that his critics had accused him of plagiarism and he had admitted it....