Leaving Nepal
After leaving the orphanage, I spent several days in Kathmandu writing for the Tourism Times. I wasn’t quite sure with what I could get away with, considering the involvement of the Editor in the things I had found frustrating. So instead of giving him the article on volunteering as a business, I gave him an article that briefly reviewed child abuse and neglect in Nepal using the orphanage I visited as a case study.
Several things happened in the interim at the orphanage. Two volunteers remained there who had gone through Info Nepal. Their frustrations mounted and they demanded their money back so they could help the children visit the doctor and buy basic necessities for them. The Director reluctantly returned their money and called the owner of the Center. The so-called ‘uncle’ threatened the children with physical beatings should they talk to the two volunteers.
The owner of the center, Ruplal, has been notorious for being one of the worst people in the community. Among other things, he has raped previous volunteers, children in the orphanage, withheld money received to aid the orphans for his person use, sold drugs on the premisis using the children as runners, allowed his own children in the orphanage and giving them privledges such as milk and biscuits that are refused to the orphans. Somehow he is still running the organization, despite efforts by previous volunteers to get him removed.
The two volunteers initiated a closing of the orphanage to move the children to a safe location. It seems to me that with a few slight renovations to their quarters and with a change in ownership the children would easily thrive. Looking at their pictures, however, it is easy to tell that they are not the happiest children. Their ages don’t reflect the years that show in their eyes.
After all of this, I left obviously dejected. My plan was to head to China, but the consulate in Nepal is not allowed to give visas to walk-ins. Only after visiting the consulate 10 times was I informed this. So I had to change my flight from Bangkok to Beijing and buy a new ticket from Bangkok to Hong Kong, where I paid $400 for a visa in 8 hours. The only plus side to it was getting a multiple entry rather than a double-entry visa. Here’s where I thought it would start getting better, but instead it got worse. I took the train from HK to Shenzhen, where it is easy to catch a train to Beijing for a reasonable price. I stood in line for an hour, was pushed into another line where they sold me a ‘seat.’ What I didn’t realize is that they sold too many people a ‘seat.’ So for 24 hours, I stood on the train, sometimes dozing off only to be interupted by someone passing through or another person dozing off on my shoulder. After finding refuge in the corner, I woke to find a farmer leaning on top of me and had to push the rice bag he was sitting on to the side.
And now, after 4 days of traveling, I have arrived in Beijing. It is colder than I expected, but the ability to shower when I want, to sleep comfortably, to have constant electricity, these are all things I had taken for granted. I even bought shampoo, which I hadn’t used in weeks. Nepal is a place that changes a person. Not only your skin color from being in the sun, but also your tolerance, your resistence, and your resilience.
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