Jet's From Nepal

I received a phone call early in the morning yesterday. It was the brother of the woman who I babysat for last week. Their nanny is having back problems and he and his wife have three young children who need child care while they get some work done from home. The oldest child, Ema, is three and she was adopted from China last year. Jet and Mya are a little over a year old and just arrived in the U.S. three weeks ago. Jet is from Nepal; Mya is from an industrial part of Southern China.

Their new adoptive parents are very affluent. The house is huge by S.F. standards (downright palatial by Chinese or Nepalese standards) and is set up perfectly for taking care of kids. They have a gigantic playroom with tons of toys, drawerfuls of clothing, and TiVo.

I don't even have cable, let alone TiVo.

It's obvious that these kids will never suffer from want or need.

Last year, I wasn't able to use my ticket to Nepal. I ignorantly booked it in the dead cold of January. I thought: Oh well, I can always return in the near future. But, it doesn't look like I'll be going anytime soon.

Nepal has been a troubled country lately. The King recently overthrew the state government because he thought the leadership were not doing enough to keep the Maoist rebel movement in check. As a result, the King has forbidden free speech and public assembly. Today, I read food prices are doubling in Katmandu due to roadblocks set up by the rebels. It's a formula for disaster and not a good place for a tourist.

So, since I can't go to Nepal, I was so happy to have Nepal brought to me. Jet escaped with his adoptive father just before the autocratic King ordered the Nepalese Military to overtake the airport and enforce martial law. Admist this political chaos, Jet had a fever, chicken pox, and extreme diarrhea. Statistically speaking, if you compared Jet to one hundred children of the same age, he would be in the bottom five for height and weight. In a funny way, Jet is a small symbol for the present state of Nepal -- kind of sick.

But, there is hope. His rash is clearing up, he's pooping normal now, and eating as much as a pot-bellied pig. When I left his new home yesterday, he was sound asleep, just where I left him.

Jet, a Nepalese-American child, player of his own dreams and destiny, napping on a bed big enough to fit a true king.