Rajkumar... Speak clearly, child!

March 11, 2010
Rajkumar is a 12 year old boy, wavering daily on whether he’s still a “boy” with Darshan and Raju or if he’s an “adolescent” (a word the kids learned at school and is now used freely around the home in reference to the oldest kids!) along with Shiva, Laxman, Prabin and Arun (though Arun still has the free spirit of a boy!). He’s at that 7th-8th grade level, and I had once contemplated moving down to teach those grades, and now I know that my calling is freshmen! Not that it’s Rajkumar- he’s a great kid, usually funny, a fantastic artist, and genuinely cares about you. It’s more that phase of kids when they’re trying to fit into shoes that are just too big for them and you just want to tell them to wait and one day they’ll fit, but they won’t listen :).

Rajkumar has the same problem that I struggled with for most of my childhood (just as my mom!)- he mumbles and slurs all his words together. Rami says that he speaks “roughly,” and she’s right. I think that’s what’s been hardest for me with him, I can’t understand most of what he says in English, much less Nepali! That and the fact that he speaks at 900 words per minute makes it very difficult to have a good conversation with him. A few days ago I finally sat down and told him, “Rajkumar, you are so hard to understand when you speak! You have to slow down and speak clearly if you want people to understand you, ok?!” And that’s when I realized that I must have sounded exactly like my mom did when I was a child! Though, spending 8 months in a ESL country will perfect your pronunciations and teach you to speak slowly :). Since our talk, Rajkumar’s speech is becoming clearer, which is nice!

On the flip side of the coin, Rajkumar is a pretty funny kid. For instance, he’ll discover something on his plate that is questionable, hold it up to just in front of his nose so that his eyes are crossed as he examines it, then he’ll grin and throw it on Darshan or Raju’s plate. Or he’ll talk to the chickens or Dolly (the dog) in this strange cross between an old woman and adolescent boy high pitched voice (picture an old old old grandmother saying “cold hands, warm heart, sonny!”) that cracks often which is really humorous and strangely the time I understand him the best! And for his lack of conversational skills, his communication with paper and pencil is phenomenal. He is a fantastic artist, especially with landscape pictures. I recently had the kids make a poster for the dining room with a big tree and the 9 fruits of the Spirit written on it in Nepali, and he drew the tree with some birds nesting in it while a few other kids drew the fruits. It was phenomenal! With enough practice, both he and Prabin could really be great artists!

Rajkumar’s got a mother and some younger brothers at home and his face is brightest when he talks about his family. I know he genuinely loves them, and he misses them while he’s here. He was one of my boys who was quick to share his Christmas presents with his brothers at home, leaving most of them there for them to play with while he was studying here at school! His compassion for others continues to amaze me! He has a genuine heart for other people, especially those who are hurting or don’t have as much as him and he is quick to do everything he can to remedy the situation. God’s going to continue to use that compassion to further His kingdom, and I can’t wait to see how He does that!