Ok, hello.
This is all written in haste as its the first time Iv had internet in AAAAGGGEEESSS and as you can tell from the title, some major shit is going down.
Sardip, one of the youngest boys (7) is seriously ill. It has been going on apparently for nearly a year and this bout of sickness is the worst it has been. To cut a long story short we don't know what he has as there are so many bloody possibilities, unfortunately none of them positive. He is extremely unresponsive and weak, he is in and out of fever fits and dark legions have appeared all around his body as well as having an incredibly bloated stomach. Due to the sickness coming in bouts, we believe it may be or have initially been a nasty parasite - but the legions after a second opinion from a good friend of mine, a med-student, is a sign that he has a blood condition - its not doing its job. So unfortunately that points to something prevelently urgent from a liver problem to worse. In an hour I am taking him to a medi-care station in central Kathmandu to see a doctor who specialises in gastric-intestinal cases, something that is unlikely to be relevent but in this country it is the best chance we have. Now here comes the problem, we are going merely for a diagnosis, not admission. His case may require a long-term hospital stay (as he is also vastly malnurished) and maybe the need for surgery. Neither of those things Connor or I think are beneficial in this country. Dogs live in the hospitals here and all rooms, including surgery rooms, are seperated by only curtains. Unless we get an absolute garuentee from the doctor today that it can be cured by pills alone, I will have to take him to Delhi to get him admitted into a hospital there along with his mother who is the woman who looks after the orphanage. The flights are cheap, around $30 each way, and Nepalis do not need a visa or a passport to travel into India, it is an open boarder. If this does happen I aim to leave tomorrow or the day after to return 4 days post, with or without Auntie and Sardip. We believe the trip will cost around $300 including the medical expenses unless he is admitted for a long duration something that I, quite frankly, believe will be the end case - I pray I am wrong.
So yeh, that's me at the moment. If all goes well and he makes positive improvement or whathaveyou, I will return and almost immediately leave for the Annurpurna Range for 3 weeks of trekking. I met this lovely girl from the states the other night who is leaving for the Pokhera very soon and hopefully, if all goes well, with me too. I need a break from the city, its becoming chlostrophobic and tiresome. I have now been in Nepal for a month and am yet to see mountains at a ground level, my mind is pining for an adventure at high altitude and luckily as Danna is experienced in this kind of shiz, we won't need a guide so we can cut down the expenses of the trip to just about what Im spending weekely anyway. Plus due to the fuck-ups happening all around the orphanage from finicial to managorial descrepincies, I feel I will be more needed there in one month that now, when things that are just thoughts at present begin to be written in stone. I may be even meeting Connor after trekking in Pokhera to scout for a new home outside the city for the remaining children not taken by Parkesh and adopted by another potential orphanage. You see on the board of comitee there are 7 people, 2 people don't even know they are on the board of comitee so technically its 5 people. Now 3 of those have pulled out, these men are businessmen. They own a tea shop in Thamel and a percentage of their proceeds are donated to the orphanage and this charitable donation is well advertised in the shop. However it is not so simple, this is not a charitable donation as it increases the revenue of the shop, it is purely a business strategy to windle more tourists out of more money. Because of this those three men are pulling out so they can invest in an institution closer to the shop so they can show customers where this money is going. Fucking business, its terrible. This is resulting in a few things;
1. The children who have parents in the city have to go back, to no education and no hope.
2. The children who have been found by the three business men are going to the orphanage in the city.
3. The rest's future is more undecided. Either a new board of comitee is found and they can stay where they are, or in a better situation (as a new board of comitee will just procrastinate the whole situation just as re-animating a corpse, after a brief period of life it can only go wrong.) Connor will go ahead with his plan to open up his own and have it partnered with a potential NGO in Pokhera, where there is little polution, it is cheaper, and the kids who are all more or less children of farmers will actually possess land to learn this vital skill, something which they don't have. Again we shall see....
I apologize for the frankness and shere depressing values of this post, it's just what's going down and I'm not one for censorship. Mum if your reading this before I call, I will call you between 11am-1pm your time to explain this all over the phone so sorry if you found out this way. I will fill everyone else in when I know if India is the only option. Love xxx
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