Tag Archives: Christmas in Coimbatore

A sad goodbye.

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There is much to catch up on…

We took all the children out for a meal on Christmas eve – all the children were very excited about this adventure. 2 busses were due to come but one had a puncture so we ended up using one and did 2 round trips. The restaurant was awoken when the food was served by all the children giving thanks to God for their food in their normal fashion of one child standing to say the prayer and the rest of the orphans repeating bit by pit. Once the meal was finished we crammed all 70 children onto the one bus designed for 30 and returned back for them to get changed out of their smart dress and then off for the park.

Christmas day, well, it will be the only Christmas day I will be awoken at 6.30am by someone dropping off a family of 4 goats in an old ambassador car! Christmas dinner was chicken biryani, eaten in true Indian style with my hands sitting cross-legged on the floor with all the children! We were able to give some Christmas gifts to the children which included footwear for all the children, a head torch and bible for the older boys, a new school bag for the younger boys, goodie bags for the girls and we got a few gifts in return from the children, it was the last day for us and it was full of mixed emotions we each had to give a goodbye speech and Joseph who does the day to day running was very effected from us being there and living exactly like they do.

On the full bus! 

We had to leave Early morning on 26th and it was all a bit of a rush after 2 months it was good bye to the children we had been fathers, mothers and friends to and now it was time to leave. The little and big children had tears in their eyes as they hugged goodbye. Each one of us had far from dry eyes too. We zoomed off to the busy railway station and only just got there in time as we had to walk miles to get to our coach – each train is about 25 coaches long. Two of the orphans came with us on our visit to Mumbai and one came to wave us goodbye at the station, it was a final goodbye to Joseph and the orphan ‘SMS’ as I jumped on the moving train you could just see two arms waving above the crowds of people at the station before the train was on it’s way to Mumbai.

A photo from before on the dogem cars 

One child packs away his new gifts into his suitcase.

Christmas day, christmas and leaving gifts and christmas hats!

Goodbye from the christmas day goat. 

A final goodbye.

Typed on 26.12.12

 

2 Days till Christmas!

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They were all sat outside the main building illuminated only by a few Christmas stars, their faces shining with happiness as they saw some visitors, it was a long way from the main road and overlooked by some local mountains. This leprousy centre cares for 40 families affected by the disease here and they have been provided houses by the government but now receive little help…only 1,000 rupees a month which is around £13. It is a good set up though as the families are able to look after their family member affected by this illness. Over half of the people were Christians and we talked about the meaning of Christmas and sang a few songs beneath a tin roof and illuminated coloured stars. We asked if there was anything they needed and they asked if it was okay if we bought them some food toward their Christmas meal which we did along with soap and oil.

It is now drawing near to Christmas and there has been much excitement in the orphanage as a kind sponsor bought clothes and presents for all the children. We have also attended a few functions, one was at a five star hotel in Coimbatore, the children took it in turns to dance, sing and be entertained by the hotel and we treated to a luxurious meal of chicken biryiani and ice-cream. Tomorrow all the children have leave and we are hiring a bus to take them all out to a famous place in the city for a nice meal, this is to be followed to a trip the park or swimming pool, yet to be decided. It will be a typically Indian last minute decision!

The children’s faces were in great fear as the stairs moved towards the sky in the shopping Centre, they had never seen moving stairs and it was one great leap for an Indian child to board this magic staircase. We had to give some of the 7 orphans we took on this trip a friendly nudge onto the escalator, it took a little while before they realized that the steps appeared too as they walked into the steps to start with by the fifth floor they were pros! It was very funny to witness their first escalator experience! KFC was the next stop and lastly dodgems which proved hilarious so with shining faces they returned sleepy and satisfied. We also went to bed happy after a successful mini trip with 7 of the orphans.