Defying Description – Disabled Newlife Center Trip to Chitwan National Park - Part Four

DNC Chitwan Visit- Part 4

I watched as Rotaractor Sudeep Shrestha carefully hoisted Sanjay out of his wheelchair and up onto his back, carrying him down to the canoe for the early afternoon boating trip on the Narayani River. He placed him gently into the boat, positioning him so that he was comfortable. For those of you who don’t already know Sanjay, he is an irrepressible kid with an engaging smile who had always run around with total abandon on the two stumps that serve as his feet. He had severe burns as a young child as he fell into the cooking fire in his home. His feet were so badly burned they had to be amputated. Another of the DNC kids- Dhiraj comes from a similar background, but that had never slowed either of them down… until this trip. I had noticed that Sanjay had been confined to a wheelchair and he definitely wasn’t his usual, exuberant self. Looking at him, one leg appeared to be shorter than the other. I asked Anjan (DNC admin.) why this was and he told me that Sanjay’s stumps were becoming infected. After proper assessment it was decided to further amputate both of his legs to allow him to be fitted with proper leg prosthesis’ so that he could have better mobility over the long-term. During our trip Sanjay was in the midst of this process and was awaiting the amputation of a portion of his other leg to even them out and prepare for his new legs.

When you spend time with these children and find our more about their health and family backgrounds you quickly realize that each one of them has been through more emotional/physical pain and heartache than most of us will ever encounter in our own lives. I am so glad that we have been able to make this trip to the jungle and that they have these special moments to remember always…

We alternated groups on either the elephant-ride or canoe-ride on this hot, breezy afternoon. The wind was strong, but instead of a cooling breeze, it felt more like what would come out of a hair-dryer if put on “high”! I was alternating my attendance from Group Rhino to Group Tiger to Group Crocodile, thus enabling me to spend time with all of the kids as they did their various activities.

The canoe ride felt great, sitting in those low-slung boats close to the cool water. The river isn’t very deep at any point and as you will note, the boatman simply had a long pole to push us from place to place. After the canoe/elephant rides we had another filling lunch and then some rest time. I spent it visiting some of the older boys – Bishma, Sujan, Mahadev, Manav, Pushkar and Bishnu. As Pushkar fell fast asleep on his bed the rest of us chatted about the happenings at DNC and some of their future plans. Most of the boys in the room were going to be finishing their high school next year, so everyone’s thoughts are very much on their SLC (School Leaving Certificate) exams. Some people call it the ‘iron-gate’ exam as if you don’t do well, your future educational opportunities are very limited (the iron gate stays closed!). Eight DNC kids are scheduled to take their SLC exams in the upcoming year. TRIFC.org has undertaken the responsibility of finding sponsors for their higher education or vocational-training (note to readers…please let me know if you have an interest in sponsoring the higher-education costs for one or more of these great kids…it’s not too expensive and you’ll make such a difference in their lives…).

The kids were also excited about their upcoming move to the new, permanent DNC building that is almost finished with a move-in date of July 1st! The land acquisition and building were entirely funded by the Nepali Children’s Trust (NCT) in the U.K. (http://www.nepalichildrenstrust.com/home.htm). Brother/Sister team- Michael and Fran McGowan have spent many years volunteering at DNC and started their own non-profit organization to provide assistance where needed. They provide the funds for schooling for all of the kids in an English-medium school as well as providing for many other needs. I am proud to be partnered with such a great group of people who are there to help strictly because the need is there…

We at TRIFC.org also partner with the local Nepali Board of Directors of DNC and the Rotary/Rotaract Club of Kopundol, who help administer our funds and also plan/participate in fundraising activities for DNC. Having this balance of local involvement and international assistance is a strong support system that bodes well for the future of our children at DNC.

After my chat with the older boys, Naina and I were walking around the grounds talking about this and that. As we walked past the river, I noticed my mentor and project partner, RR in the river with a bunch of kids splashing close to the bank. He called out- “Hey Rob, go get your swimsuit on and get down here asap, we need to keep track of all of these kids!” I hurried back to my cottage, changed, put some suntan lotion on and rushed back to the riverbank. The kids were jumping, splashing around, leaping here and there and generally having a blast! Now, as mentioned the river isn’t very deep at any point, but for the little kids, especially the ones with mobility issues, even one or two feet deep is deep enough to cause trouble! We quickly moved the smaller kids closer to the riverbank, helped some of them try to learn to swim and splashed with the older kids who were having such a great time. One of the older boys- Hari was a superb swimmer and looked like a dolphin in the water. He is a polio victim and also has a congenital hip dislocation and he walks with great difficulty. Water is definitely his element, however!

The water felt so nice on this hot, hot afternoon. Even our volunteers with blindness- Sita and Namrata walked right into the river- fully clothed! Then, some other oversized visitors lumbered across the river from the opposite side and it wasn’t the tourists visiting from Greece! They were…. elephants, in the river, right beside us! The elephant trainers were astride them and the beckoned us to join them on top! I thought about it for a minute and then decided that this could well be the only time in my life that I would swimming in a river next to some elephants….I decided to ‘be bold’ and climb up and on. The elephant lowered itself down into the water, I grabbed an ear (of the elephant), the hand of the trainer and pulled myself up and on top of my large gray friend. It was great fun holding onto the elephant’s ears as she sprayed me with cool river water from her trunk again and again! Then I dropped back into the river as the elephant once again lowered her head down toward the water level. RR also climbed up on one of the elephants (see the photo!) and some of the older kids and Rotaractors followed suit. We felt it was a little too deep for the little kids to ride the elephants in the river, but many got an up-close and personal look at the elephants as we held them up so that they could touch them and feel the texture of their skin.

After swimming with the elephants, we helped all of the kids back up the banks of the river and back to their cottages to dry off and change. We had one more canoe ride that evening with RR1 in one boat and RR2 (that’s me!) in the other and a variety of kids in each boat. As we slowly poled down the river there erupted a major Hindi/Nepali song contest between boats! The Rotaractors in my boat seemed to be human catalogues of songs, but RR was the true master with a song-lyric recall that was amazing. Of course, I’m not familiar with any of those songs, but it was fun to witness as the sun began to drop slowly in the sky. The contest ended in a draw as our canoes came to a stop on the sandy riverbank near the lodge.

We gathered as a group in the shelter near the lodge. Bishma grabbed an empty Sprite bottle to act as a makeshift microphone and emceed a heartfelt presentation about how much this trip had meant to all of them. Sujan and Namrata sang beautiful melodies beside the banks of the river as the sun set. Sunita fondly remembered her past years at DNC (she is in college in Nepalgunj now). As the other tourists at the lodge looked on, our little group reflected on the past, rejoiced in the present and looked to the future.

The last day of our trip will be my last installment. A few surprises are yet to come…