Yesterday, I spent 10 hours visiting the homes where we placed many of the children. It was wonderful to see them and at the same time sad to see them. When it was time to leave and say goodbye, it was a bit difficult knowing it will be a long time when I will see them again. No longer will I see them when I walk into the slum to teach them or when I go to the Gandhi Center. I am sad to leave.

I hope and pray the children will adjust to their new environment and when school begins, they will take full opportunity to learn and go as far as they can go.

Now that the work is finished and I have a bit of down time to reflect, I wonder how much of an impact and will it be positive or negative. Their lives will be dramatically changed and I pray for the better. That’s all I can do now; pray everyday that God will comfort them, protect them, and guide them and provide them with love and hope.

Yesterday, we brought five children to Don Bosco and left them there to be care for and provided with education. Two more will be added next month due to medical reason and Sisters from MC will bring them in for us. So in the end, we sponsored a total of 20 children during this past 4 months. Combining it with last year, we now have sponsored 25 children putting them into Don Bosco with an opportunity for a better future.

Although we were only planning to sponsor 15 children on this trip, it was difficult to deny the children the opportunity when they want so much to have a chance for a better life. We have many on a waiting list so we are hoping to find sponsors for them when December comes when we will again try to get more children off the street and into boarding school.

Currently, we have 25 children in Don Bosco with 19 children fully sponsored and 6 children partially sponsored for 1.5 years. Somehow, we will find more money for those six children.

The next task is now to find sponsors or money for the six children who are partially sponsored. We are also hoping to find donation to provide savings for each of the children we are putting into boarding school so that when they complete their studies at Don Bosco, they will have a nice nest egg to begin their new life whether it is to help pay for their college tuition (if they can make it) or to be able to pay for an actual house/apartment to rent.

But for now, the work here in Kolkata is finished for me. I don’t know what I will be doing from now until December when I planned to return to Kolkata, but I hope I will be able to lay to rest for at least a short time before I am called to work again. Where He leads me is where I will go.

This week has been a long week at Don Bosco. Yesterday, I spent over 5 hours there to register two boys. I have logged many bus kilometers back and forth bringing children into the boarding school. I have also logged many kilometers going there in the late evening hours whenever one of the children is not feeling well and I have to go and find out what is wrong.

With the latest two boys, Rohit and Suvangit, we are now at ten children enrolled in Don Bosco. Our goal is to have 15 children in the school when I leave next week.

With less than 10 days left, there is still some work to do to get the remaining children into boarding school. Next Tuesday, we are planning to bring 5-6 children so that will be a very long day for sure. I hope when this is all well and done, God will allowed me to rest for a long time.

I have not been getting much sleep and drinking terrible instant coffee is not helping. On top of that, it is very humid and the mosquitoes are out in force. It is now malaria season and the mosquitoes are having their feasts. And I can’t stand how bad I smell from the sweat that is always soaking my clothes. This should make everyone dream of  coming to Kolkata to work with the poor.

I visited Ashalayam today to learn that three of the children we sent there got a bit sad and are missing their mothers. This is common and when it happens, we notify the parents to come for a brief visit and to assure their children this is a good place for them and their future. After a few weeks, the children usually adjust to their new environment and meet new friends to help keep them from being sad.

When I met with the Director of Don Bosco today, we had a good chat about getting the rest of the children into the facility. I will not go into the detail of the meeting, but we managed to convince him to help us with the children. So it looks like we are now able to bring in all the children we intended to bring in and maybe more as we are getting more people wanting to sponsor children. There are so many children we have paperwork for admission, but we have no sponsors for them so for now, they are placed on a waiting list until we can find people willing to help. With grace from above, the children will not have to wait too long…hopefully.

In the prayer of Saint Francis, there is a passage that said something like, “where there is despair, I shall bring hope”. Well, for me it seems to be just the opposite. Just when I felt there is hope we will be able to bring all the children into Don Bosco; our hope turned to despair. In the last two weeks, we were able to get paperwork on most of the children and I had planned to bring 10 children in on two different occasions.

Today, I brought 4 children in to Don Bosco so now the total number of children reaches 8 ( 4 boys and 4 girls) for this trip. My hope to bring the rest of the children in next week got steamrolled when the first words out of the director’s mouth were, “We can not accept any more girls, because we don’t have space for them in our homes.” It seems as though a new challenge comes along just when I think it will be smooth sailing. Why do I even think, nor should I even expect this would be easy. To help the poor, should be easy to do, but the reality in helping the poor is far from being easy. Well, I hope someday it will be easy. After all, this is a brand new foundation so what kind of growing pains can be expected? Well, I just need to do what is written in the name of the foundation and that is to have faith, hope, and love to serve the poor and to serve the Lord even when I am suffering and things are not going so well. Nothing is a failure as long as we do our best. Easier said than to believe.

I hope to get all the children in to Don Bosco soon. So far we have gotten 4 in and this week we planned to bring 4-5 more in on Saturday. It is quite funny how everyone is trying to help me here. People seemed to want to be helpful, but it always end up to be more work. Every week, I would take a 45 minute crowded bus ride to Don Bosco and an hour even more crowded bus ride back to speak with Father Myppan so we are understanding each other. However, they suggested (asked) that I call them instead so that I don’t waste time traveling. This week, I decided to call and set an appointment time to bring the children in. Well, to make a long story short, I can’t understand what the person on the other end of the phone line is saying and he or she can’t understand me. So in the end, I will have to take the bus there to make the appointment to be sure Father Myppan will be there on Saturday when we bring the children in. I have also learned that to be certain of anything here, I need to see their eyes when I am speaking with them to determine if they have understood what I wanted for them to do or what I need from them.

I am now on instant coffee so for those who knows how much I love my lattes you understand how much I am suffering each day…lol. Supposedly, suffering is good for the souls. At least, that is what people tell me. Well, I will gladly trade all the sufferings for one good latte machiato…because that is also good for the soul.

When I walked to mass at 5:30 this morning through the streets of Kolkata, I was wondering what most children in wealthy countries are doing at 5:30 in the morning. Many of the children are probably still sleeping and later will wake up to a breakfast and then get ready for school if it is a school day.

Today, we brought two more children to Don Bosco. Sumit and Prince both age 5 are now given a home and a chance for a future. But before I went to mass and picked up the two boys, I walked past a landfill where a mother and her son, (perhaps 7-8 years old) were scouring through the landfill searching for valuable garbage that can be sold. For many of the children in Kolkata, they don’t get to sleep in at 5:30 in the morning. Their early mornings are always busy with work; finding trash, fetching water, digging for coal/charcoal to cook with and never a thought about getting ready for school since that is not an opportunity given to them. The future for these children are the things surrounding them; the landfills, and the occasional jobs they may find, and life in the streets.

Sumit and Prince are two fortunate children who were found by the Sisters living on the “foot path” one year ago. Prince and his mother were homeless after his father left for another woman and leaving him and his mother with nothing. Sumit and his father and mother were homeless when they decided to marry for love instead of the traditional way of arranged marriage. Their families disowned them and they ended up living in the streets with his mother taking care of Sumit, while his father work to feed the family. A little over a year ago, Sumit’s mother passed away and his father became jobless, because he had to care for his son. Had the Sisters not found them, Prince and Sumit would still be living on the “foot path” and perhaps not having a chance to grow up.

As of today, both Sumit and Prince are at Don Bosco and will have a chance at a future like the rest of the children who are sleeping at 5:30 in the morning and then waking up to get ready for school.