Shangri-La Liz: Pajamas ≠ Sleeping Suits

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I played at VSN orphanage last night. It is such a beautifully run orphanage – compared to the OCRC. It is still sad to see kids without families, but the facility is clean and the children are looked after. There are two didis (the nepali word for older sister used as a term of respect for women) who look after 11 kids.

The kids are adorable. They just crave attention and fortunately the orphanage is really close to the volunteer office, so we can go there at whim.

They like to play with my camera – take the picture and see how skilled they are. I have a lot of shots with fingers over the lens…

They also taught me the Sanskrit alphabet. I can now sound out a few of the letters. Mostly I was just imitating them, and they got a huge kick out of my mess ups. Seriously I should be able to pronounce ka, kaa, and kaah correctly.

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The next morning I went over and helped them get ready for school. They have a few buttons missing here and there, so I do have a little project. These kids are pretty young compared to the other orphanage.

I mentioned earlier that Katie and I are making pajamas for the orphans at both places. We’re starting with the VSN O because the OCRC kids have lice and scabies. This is being resolved (read about in my next blog), but we are going to wait until they are lice free to give them new clothes.

By the way, pajama is a derivative of an old Sanskrit word – pyjama. It is the word for trousers in the Hindi language. They requested that we make outfits for the kids to sleep in, so I told Sugandha that we were going shopping for fabric for the pajamas. He said, “You are not making the tops? Just the bottoms?” After we figured out why he was concerned/confused, we decided to call them sleeping suits.

Kaite and I went shopping for the sleeping suit fabric. We went to the fabric district of Kathmandu and got taken up 3 flights of stairs to the back room, where we chose this plaid material – that I think is ugly – but it is soft and durable. The kids are going to look like the Sound of Music children in matching, ugly outfits that are practical. It’s not that ugly – I’m just not a plaid fan. Katie says it reminds her of the Tingey family pjs. So for those of you acquainted with the Tingey fam – picture grandpa, Christmas plaid. Katie loved the shopping. She bought a Surwal Kurta. It is crazy colors! She will look so cute in it I’m tempted to buy another one. If only I was petite like her.

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They are currently planting rice. It is cool to see the rice fields everywhere.

Because they are covered in water, the frogs hang out there. At night the frogs have karaoke parties – it gets loud. I see a lot of frogs in the endless puddles on the muddy paths we have to take. Today I say a snake in one. Getting places does not include taking the fastest route. I do creative walking to find parts of the road that are not under water.