In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.
Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life’s work.
Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.
I think that part of what I liked about this book was that I could see the legitimate transformation of the author during the story. He doesn't sugar-coat his initial selfishness, naivete, and inexperience. From a spoiled young adult who decides to go to Nepal for a few weeks in order to justify taking a year off of work to play and travel the world, to a person who spends everything he has (and asks other people for money) to get back to the country and keep his promises. I laughed at how naïve he was initially and how little he knew about Nepal or interacting with kids. This is the kind of true story that’s better than fiction- finding out that one of the supposed orphans that he knew actually wasn’t one, but that the other orphans were. This book is a reminder that the answers in real life aren’t always easy. Conor frequently has to wait for the slow wheels of bureaucracy to turn in order to rescue some of “his” kids. He misses a crucial helicopter ride by an hour after waiting through a fruitless week and making a grueling hike on a bum knee. Parents who feel they have no option other than to trade their children to traffickers are reluctant to bring them home because they can’t afford to feed another mouth and the children are well cared for at the orphanage. I learned a bit about a part of the world that I don’t know much about (Nepal) and about a topic that I’ve never researched (child trafficking). Oh, and there’s a love story too.
At this point I've read so many books about people who started charities or foundations (3 Cups of Tea, etc) that I feel like I should start donating to small charities every month and just rotate the ones that I donate to.
0 friends stopped by:
Post a Comment