Nima and Dawa home at last, joy as family reunites
The journey to Nima and Dawa’s home village is sickeningly winding and full of extreme ups and downs — just like the twins’ past 20 months. Finally, after more than five hours of climbing and descending, the family is separated no more.
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As they walk to their front gate Bhumchu Zangmo carries her daughter, Nima. Husband Sonam Tshering cuddles identical twin Dawa. At the gate the babies are lovingly wrapped in white silk by their three sisters and one brother.
Finally, the family is separated no more.
In Buddhist Bhutan the white silk scarfs, or khata, symbolise purity and good wishes.
SURGEONS AMAZED AT THEIR RECOVERY
NIMA AND DAWA MOBBED BY WELL-WISHERS
As a procession of seemingly everyone in Phuntsholing follows the children’s lead to welcome Nima and Dawa home on Sunday, the trauma of battling to save her twins, who were born conjoined, is washed away in a sea of white.
“We have overcome everything and now, for them, I don’t like to think back,” Bhumchu says through a translator. “Now, when we see two separate girls, I like to forget that they were ever joined together and went through something abnormal.
“Though I have so much to say thank you for to so many people, we are just going forward and looking forward as two separate, normal children.”
After placing her khata around her sisters, Phuentsho, 12, bursts into tears. The joy of finally having her mother and siblings home is too much.
Sonam is almost too emotional to speak. He had to remain in Phuntsholing to work and care for four children while Bhumchu tried to save Nima and Dawa.
As everyone else celebrates, he watches Nima and Dawa playing with his other children — son Tsehering, 7, and daughters Phuentsho, 12, Nima Wangmo, 13, and Ugyen 17 — and finds it difficult to reconcile the heartbreaking first 20 months their life.
“When the girls were here (in Bhutan) before the surgery was done, it was quite painful to see them,” he says with a translator. “Now that they are back and like any normal kid. They are playing and even speaking … I can’t express how happy I am.”
Like the white scarfs, everything in Bhutan is about symbolism.
The final journey home from Bhutan’s capital Thimphu to Phuntsholing on Sunday is no exception — it’s ridiculously long, sickeningly winding and full of extreme ups and downs — just like the past 20 months.
The distance is only 174km, but it takes more than five hours of climbing and descending.
Even Bhumchu and Sonam cannot now comprehend how they made the reverse trip in an ambulance on July 15, 2017 while their one-day-old daughters lay joined as mirror images of each other in front of them.
But today everything is different. Nima and Dawa’s entourage is so big two cars are needed to carry everyone (as well as four suitcase full of gifts from Australian families).
More tellingly, when the sisters begin fighting for position on their mum’s lap, Dawa is taken out of the car so she can sit on her dad’s knee in the other vehicle.
When the mountains finally end and the family pulls up at their home in the Indian border town of Phuntsholing, friends and neighbours gather to welcome the children, with balloons blowing overhead and furniture arranged for a reception along the street.
Once the twins emerge from a sea of white silk they are rushed upstairs into their home for the first time, where their parents help them light a candle in front of a Buddhist shrine.
There are no luxuries and few toys in the home, but pride of place on the shelf in the lounge belongs to two small stuffed toys — one a kangaroo, the other a koala.
“We are like a normal family now,” Bhumchu beams.
“When we were driving here I was confident my family would arrange something. But, when I came down the street, even our neighbours and everyone was here. When I saw them all congregating around our gate and so many people gathered I felt very special.”
Moments later Bhumchu, Sonam, Nima and Dawa are placed on a couch at the head of a formal celebration in their street as dozens of family members gather around to first offer tea, followed by a procession of traditional Bhutanese foods and drinks.
Later in the afternoon speeches take place to honour and thank people of two nations for saving the twins.
When the words “Children First Foundation” and “Royal Children’s Hospital” are mentioned Bhumchu bursts into tears, something she has barely done, even in the darkest of times over the past year. Yet more food and gifts are presented to the celebrated guests but, after hours in the car, days on a plane and months undergoing surgery in Australia, Nima and Dawa are too restless to stay seated.
Instead, Phuentsho and Nima Wangmo pick up their baby sisters and whisk them away to proudly show them off to their friends and have the play they have waited so long for.
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