A foundation completed

The foundation of the new orphanage has now been completed. We have helped fill in the holes with rocks and filling in the sides of the water tank with sand. It has been great to see all the smiling children again and how they all do their little bit to help out.

We have taken two of the children to a small water park they were beaming from ear to ear and really enjoyed it. We have also seen the celebrations of Diwali which is like November 5th but a lot more explosive and dangerous as half the rockets take off and half explode on the ground. They have ground fireworks called bombs which are exactly what it sounds like. If you put a tin cup on top the cup is fired up into the air and about 5 seconds later it returns to earth from its small trip into orbit. One of the orphan’s relatives took us to their coconut farm and we were given 3 coconuts to drink straight away. It is fascinating to seem them climb what seems to be a smooth trunked tree.

This week has been mainly spent in some rural villages about 60km out of Coimbatore. We’ve met a lot of Hindu people and have had many Gospel preachings throughout the different villages. Some congregations were half Hindu and half Christian which was interesting. We have also been looking around large companies to try and find jobs for the children when they leave the orphanage to support themselves. We have successfully taught the children some songs and some English and today we are continuing to help build the orphanage and attempting to wash clothes in a bucket of water, this turned into more of a water fight with the young children as they found it very funny to jump on your back when you were washing and to spray you with as much water as possible. This is a brief account and due to a lack of internet connection updates maybe few and far between!

 

Building the foundation

It’s now day 4 into the building of the new orphanage and the metal pillars are to be placed today along with the cement. We arrived safely after a bumpy bus journey from Hyderabad we left the city at 4.30pm arrived into Coimbatore just after 10am. The bus journey was like driving along a twisty Somerset lane that needed to be resurfaced or maybe it never was… The temperature is very warm here and they have more time without power, every day there is 14 hours of power cuts and 10 hours of power which can be interrupted with mini power cut.

A close shave

If you say there is no room to swing a cat in India… the answer would be, no, it’s no problem. Space in India is lived within an inch of your life. As we catch an auto into the city to get some stuff, we pass traffic so close that you can see every speck of dirt naturally graffitied onto the side. We nicely make contact with the rear of a motorbike and a hurried apology is made and we continue on our journey, if it’s a red light then take left slip road, then go straight across the traffic both ways and join the road, just a quick and unsafe way to skip the lights. The other trick to save time at the junction is to drive though the petrol station. We go a little further down the road and a motorcyclist wobbles as she over takes with her young daughter because the road has many bumps and dips. Some of which have what is probably the origins of the Grand Canyon. The car she wobbles beside slows down as she over takes, however gravity seems to be stronger as she fall over in front of the oncoming car as the bike falls on top of her daughter. The car skids to a stop and the wheel is inches away if not centimeters from crushing her head. The daughter screams and the traffic stops everyone jumps out and gives a hand to clear the scene a few seconds later they were standing at the side of the road, shaken, bruised with a few tears. Traffic resumes in the normal Indian chaotic chaos with the young girl’s shoe left in the middle of the road.

We attended the birthday celebration of our host’s daughter. She was 17 and the guest of honor was the retired chief of police for the state of Andhra Pradesh. He arrived with a few bodyguards with guns and when he left it was very late at night so the host and I travelled through the back streets of the city to show him to the main road (I was bare foot!), when we arrive at the road we ran out of petrol and so the saga of getting home commenced.

The plan tomorrow is another short trip into the city, 60 orphans will be sleeping on the ground floor tonight. The family we are staying with were asked if they could accommodate 4 orphans for the night while they had a look round the city on an educational trip. The phone call this morning revealed it was actually 60! On Wednesday night we are going South to the orphanage at Coimbatore. We will leave Secunderabad at 4pm on Wednesday by bus and arrive in Coimbatore at 8am on Thursday, hopefully without too much of a hitch.

Some happy village pictures!

Gallery

This gallery contains 13 photos.

Life in an Indian village

We arrived at the bus station to catch a bus to the poor villages. It was all very chaotic as we tried to find the right bus stand, meandering through the beggars and other travelers. Finally our bus arrives narrowly missing the passing dogs and people. The driver has a long beard and looked sinisterly at us with his small prayer hat. He tells us that the bus is a non-stop so we compromise as you can, in India, never be satisfied with just a no. So an hour later we disembark the bus in the middle of nowhere at the side of the highway; a team of 8 of us and wait to thumb a took-took. Finally one arrived and some of us travelled by took-took and me and two others by bike. We only fell off once, I don’t think that’s bad for Indian standards. We then arrive at Parvathapur – most of the houses are mud and straw and their inhabitants are the happiest people on the planet. Their smile lasts and their eyes get wider and wider until you think their face couldn’t get happier until they laugh! We bought around 20 sets of children’s clothes for each villages along with sports equipment and about 6 chickens for each village. One baby was to be named and a church meeting was held underneath a sheet outside their house. It is tradition to name your child on its 21st day. The family had decided on a name but on the day the rest of the family did not agree so it was changed, we were asked to choose an English middle name! It also rained a couple of times in the villages, one of the times we walked a mile in the pouring rain for 3 baptisms in the local lake, there was a string of soaking wet people under umbrellas walking along the muddy lanes, an experience I will never forget.

(Photo above is giving some of my pictures taken last time to the children)

Working alongside some farmer was also some of the work we have done while in the villages – helping taking the corn from the cob and extracting the rice from the plant. These people have proved to be the happiest people on earth despite having so little, they have a satisfied life. It is hard but laid back, life is cheap but the family is valued highly. They have no worries… no complications… just the next meal…

Photo of us teaching

Local washing

The 21st day of this babys life, with her mother

A young girl collects some wood for her family

A farmers day house, its designed for one person!

The buffalo are brought back to the village for the night

A local farmer chilling out side his wee home!

Two orphans about to leave for school