GUEST POST: A Week at Kailash Home
To know, to really understand life at Kailash Home is to live in her sounds. Bells ringing suddenly in the pre-dawn light. The steady chanting of morning prayers. A hundred chairs scraping the dining hall floor. The clanging of dishes being washed and stacked back on their shelves. The routine thud of basketballs on concrete. Birdsong from just outside the open windows. And always, always the laughter and shouts and chatter of the children. Life at Kailash is an unending symphony of happy, vibrant noise.
The sound is the thing that most sticks in my mind even now, several months after returning home to my quiet condo here in Orlando, Florida. What is forever imprinted on my heart though, is everything else that accompanied that glorious daily cacophony – the happiness and joy and love that pervades every corner of campus. And what I miss most of all are the daily greetings; endless rounds of “namaste” and “hello miss” – the hugs, and waves, and smiles morning and night. It is impossible to know our children and not immediately want to give them the world. It is impossible to receive those precious hugs and daily greetings and not do everything we can to provide them every opportunity imaginable.
The work of Himalayan Youth Foundation may sometimes seem remote. Literally a world away. But it couldn’t possibly be more personal. For our Kailash Kids, that work, and the support of people just like you, literally means everything. After this most recent visit and a week living on campus with our children, I am so happy to personally attest that our Kailash Kids are happy, healthy, bright, curious, and kind. They take care of one another. They have a hunger to learn about the world. They share everything they have — books, toys, food, everything! — without a second thought. They are talented and compassionate and grateful. They will, each and every one, ultimately make this world a better place.
I still hear their cheerful voices in my mind and miss the daily hugs, but I have never been more optimistic or invigorated by the work that all of us are doing together on behalf of HYF. It is truly making all the difference to our children.
Hopefully I’ll see you on campus at Kailash Home soon, but until then…Namaste,
Simone Boos, HYF & MHF Digital Media Director
