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, resiliant 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 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 city, 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.
I am completely biased when it comes to this book. Almost three years ago now, in 2008, although I can't actually believe it's really been that long, I spent the summer working in Kathmandu, attempting to do my part to help Nepal get back on its feet after the ten year civil war between the Maoist rebels and the monarchy debilitated the country. I have many fond and less than fond memories of my time there, including the time I attempted to find the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction despite not knowing any Nepali. If you're in need of some excitement in your life, I recommend trying to get into a guarded compound in a foreign country which has just recently had a civil war, where you don't speak the language and have to make your way around by showing random people a piece of paper where you've written what you really hope is the right name for this place and not just some random phrase that was on the website, in whatever mangled mess you've made of their alphabet. True story: one time I tried to cheer up my roommate by writing "Happy Birthday" in Russian, and she told me later that she thought a child had written it. Writing in a foreign alphabet is hard.
P.S. Isn't that website great? I love the picture of the old Ministry. I have no idea why the old Ministry was in the middle of what appears to be in a forest, on a mountain, but I appreciate their moving it into the city, because otherwise it would have been a much longer walk from my hotel.
Anyway, this is all beside the point, which is not unexpected, so whatever. The book. Little Princes is one of those books which is not so much about the writing as it is about the story and the problem, and the shedding of light on a previously dark corner. It's like Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea (and the sequel Stones into Schools), which is also about helping children in a war-torn, mountainous region in Asia. Unsurprisingly, I like both of these books, although obviously, Little Princes was more evocative to me, since I have not been to Afghanistan or Pakistan, nor do I have plans to visit in the near future, as it is very dangerous, and I would be scared to go.
In Little Princes, obviously, the problem is child trafficking and it is a heartbreaking story. Grennan does a good job of pacing the story and relating how each new circumstance brought forth the next one - from a short volunteering stint, to a longer one, to finding out the children's parents were not dead, to the discovery of the new children, and the promise made to them which was severed by the escalating violence and disruption. The book does slow down a bit towards the end - Grennan loses the urgency that powered the first three quarters of the book, and he spends a bit too much time dwelling on his burgeoning relationship with a sympathetic penpal who later becomes his wife.
What Little Princes does very well is describe the myriad and conflicting factors which surround child trafficking, and any solutions which may be attempted. Part of the problem was obviously the ongoing war, which has stopped, as have almost all acts of violence. However, during the war, getting the children back to their parents was problematic because of the risk of movement, and because parents would only want to send them away again to avoid conscription. Grennan also puts his finger on another issue: because these particular children wound up being cared for and educated and so on, the risk paid off. I would never want to be a parent and have to make that choice - to say, I can send my child away and perhaps they will be starved and left to fend for themselves or perhaps they will be found and taken care of, or I can keep them close, and perhaps they will be taken away to fight, or perhaps they will not. I can understand a parent who says: in both of those scenarios, in the worst case, my child could die, but in the best case, with me they would have to eke out a living, but in Kathmandu, they could make something of themselves, and then send them away. There are other reasons why reuniting these children with their parents does not go as smoothly and quickly as Grennan first assumes it will - the cost of travel, of having another child to feed, of reuniting after years apart.
Little Princes is poignant, as it illustrates very how just how messy war is - there are no easy choices made in this book, and even parents who send their children away with a child trafficker have your sympathy. The situation in Nepal goes unknown and unremarked too often (as is often the case with poorer countries which are not in the grips of an extraordinary violence). One of my Nepali contacts, a lawyer working with a NGO, said that things were better in 2008, yes, but that she'd seen peace before, and didn't know if it would last. I love Nepal, and perhaps if you read Little Princes you'll understand why. Or maybe you just have to go there.
(this little girl is judging you if you do not like Nepal)
For your further education:
Timeline of Recent Events
Next Generation Nepal (the organization founded by Grennan)
Pictures of Nepal (There's a menu on the left hand side of the page. I did not take these, nor do I know the person who did. But I love them, they remind me of being there. The Nepal ones basically go from Apr. 11, 2008 to Aug. 19, 2008)
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