Ravi’s Sister Pabitra
Sunday, December 07, 2014
by Patty Breech, Kopila Fellow
We have a very special announcement to share with all of you: one of baby Ravi's four older sisters, four-year-old Pabitra, has joined our Kopila family.
The first time we ever laid eyes on her, she was super sad. We had just taken in Ravi, and she and her sisters were staying with a nearby relative in town. They would hop in a passing jeep or jump on our school bus and show up at the house all day with nothing to do. I took them to school on one of those first days and sat them down with a blank piece of paper and some colored pencils while all the other kids were in class. Pabitra seemed like she didn't know what to do with it, like no one had ever given her fun kid things to do before. She stared sadly at the paper and only picked up a pencil after being urged several times.
When she first came to live with us at the house she was the same way for a few days. On her second night here, she wanted to sleep with Ravi. She said she didn't mind getting woken up by his crying all night, she was used to it. I happened to be on night duty then, and I slept out in the nursery room with both her and Ravi. She didn't say a word, she just had that sad look on her face the whole time she was awake and barely moved when she slept.
When she finally started to come out of her shell, it was awesome. I remember around Dashain she started dancing spontaneously, maybe trying to mimic everyone around her, I'm not sure. She just started doing this strange, adorable little dance where she'd bend over at the waist with both of her hands behind her back, a smile shyly creeping across her face. We were all so happily surprised and laughed to ourselves – who was this little sprite who had taken the sad girl's place?
Ever since then she's been the little ray of sunshine that we all know her to be. She loves being held by any of the volunteers or older siblings. She knows all of our names, and always greets me with a cheerful, "Hi Patty!" every single time she sees me.
She's really smart, too. She's picked up on the fact that I'm learning to speak Nepali, and she'll say sentences to me really slowly and clearly multiple times, like she's teaching me. She also loves to play this game with me where she points at different parts of my face and says their names in Nepali ("Naak! Muk! Akaa!").
She also started to pick up English so quickly. She came to us with worms in her belly, and on one of the first nights when Maggie was giving her medicine, she said, "Thank you, mom!" Maggie cried out and started showering her with kisses. This was a girl who hadn't spoken a word of English a week earlier.
There was an afternoon on the roof recently where she had a little jar of bubbles, and it was the best day ever for her. She was standing up on the raised edge of the roof and was patiently blowing bubbles towards the three girls around her, making sure everybody got an equal chance with them (it was so cute to hear her assign them: "Sabita didi!"). And she would generously let little Manisha have every other blow on the bubble wand.
To me, this is the perfect example of the Kopila effect: if you take a child out of an abusive home environment where she's so sad she never smiles, and you put her in a loving home full of positive reinforcement, she truly shines.
Thank you so much to all of you who have made it possible for us to create this home for these kids. I shudder to think about what Ravi and Pabitra's fate might have been without Kopila to catch them when they needed it. Every gift we receive this holiday season to help keep our doors open will be matched up to $100,000, thanks to a generous donor. While doubling your gift doesn't capture what it means to us, we hope it's a good start.