The day starts off cool and misty but gives way to the sun as the morning progresses.  The pit has the dirt and straw, and the water is coming by the bucket full from the front yard.  We need two people to stomp the mud.  Our team leader volunteers to take on one of the pits and I’m chosen for the other.  I was a little hesitant at first, the pit is filled with water and straw.  My little worst-case-scenerio demon is at work again.

WCSD – You’re totally gonna wind up cutting your feet open, you’ll step on a piece of buried glass or a stick or something else sharp and pointy, mabye a rock?

Me – Shut up!

WCSD – Just imagine, you’ll probably need stitches and you’ll get some kind of funky infection. Remember when you got all those needles in your knee after Fuji?  Didn’t they spend about 40 minutes cleaning the dirt out?  Your feet are pretty sensitive too, I mean really ticklish. I wonder how many needles they’ll put in your foot?  Hope your feet don’t kick out, really bad if that happened and the needle broke off and …

So yeah, my imagination is running amuck.  But I’m not about to let it get the better of me.  Off come the sneakers and socks and I’m in the pit.  My first steps are careful, my feet explore the bottom gingerly to make sure I’m not going to step on something bad.  After a few minutes I’m fine and stomping away.  It’s actually a lot of fun! It takes quite some time to get the mud mixed, but once it is, there’s plenty of work for people.  One person is adding dirt to the pit to make the mud thicker.  Once thickened people are putting it into large bowls and others are carrying around the front for others who are spreading it on the walls.

Before too long I can hear people call out ‘Mah-tow’ which means mud.  They’re using it up as fast as we can send it out.  We’re finishing a little early today because we’re scheduled to visit the local ‘SOS Children’s Village’ – an orphanage.  About ten minutes before I’m out of the pit I feel something cut my toe.  I check my foot but there’s no sign of cut, so I keep stomping till time is up. We cleaned ourselves up and put on a change of clothes we were advised to bring for the trip.

The SOS village was only five minutes away by bus.  It was jaw-dropping.  Nepal is beautiful but it does have it’s issues, air pollution and trash chief among them.  The village however was immaculate.  Groomed lawns, brick houses and a tall wall enclosing the place.  The kids were all well-dressed and spoke pretty good English, they also seemed well-adjusted.  Resiliency is an amazing thing.  Raousha, a teenager who’s been living there for the past eight years gave me a tour of the place, every house has what he calls a mother for the kids who live there.  The SOS village also had a school, library, and a soccer field.  The children put on a little culture program for us, singing and dancing.  One of the students even danced to Gangnam style!

I’m thankful that these children have a place where they can be safe, loved and educated.  The world needs more places like this.  I have no doubts that many of the children I met are going to be well and do well in their lives.  I’m glad that in some little way our group is doing something good out here.  The donation I made to join this trip was the best money I’ve ever spent.