Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

Grennan leaves Nepal and the orphanage in January 2005 to travel around 16 countries in nine months. First, the author meets up with an old friend named Glenn in Bangkok, who wants the pair of them to travel around Southeast Asia on bikes for six weeks. Next, he goes to Cambodia, then on to Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Bali. Finally, he travels to South America and adventures in Peru and Bolivia. In October 2005, he finally returns home to New York.

After a few short weeks at home, however, Grennan longs for Nepal and the Little Princes. He makes a second trip to Nepal in January 2006. Upon returning to the orphanage, the children are surprised and thrilled. Most volunteers, he notes, came for one short visit and never again. Grennan is different. “I knew these eighteen children like I knew my own brothers,” he writes. “Godawari was home” (64). Farid, the French volunteer, is also there continuing to look after the children alongside multiple Nepalese men and women.

During Grennan’s year away from the orphanage, the civil war between the Maoist rebels and the Nepali monarchy has become even more serious and deadly. King Gyanendra refuses to concede power despite the extreme turmoil the majority of Nepalese civilians live under.