Here are some of the photos and faces of those living in the slum. I hope and pray the children will have opportunities to have better lives.
Yesterday, I carried with me 15 kilograms of rice, 5 kilograms of dal and curry to give to families in the slum. I also brought color pencils and books for the young children. For the older children I brought easy to read science books on astronomy, biology and earth science for them to learn to read in English and also to learn basic science. After I finished passing out the rice, dal, and curry, I spent some time with the older children learning science facts from their new books.
Here are some of the photos and faces of those living in the slum. I hope and pray the children will have opportunities to have better lives.
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Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning was spent at Mother’s House and the rest of the day was spent at Don Bosco. It was nice to celebrate Christmas with the children as they gathered from the various Ashas. Of the 23 children we sponsored, 6 children left Don Bosco due to being homesick or difficult to deal with by the staff. The remaining children are home for the holidays for those who are Christians. The children who are Muslims and Hindus remain at the homes in Don Bosco. All the children will begin their formal education at the start of the New Year; some in Bengali Medium while others will be in Hindi and English Medium. The six children who left we found them back at home in the slum near the Ganhdi Center. If possible, we will try to place them into a day school at Saint George, a nearby private school. The return to Kolkata has been a busy first three days. On arrival at Don Bosco, I learned seven of the children were homesick and were sent home. The director of Don Bosco Ashalayam said the children may return if I am able to bring them back.
Today, I went into the slum searching for them. I found two of the seven children. Tomorrow, I will see what else I can do to find the children. After spending eight months in Kolkata (the first four months from August-December 2012 and the last four months from March-June 2013), I have come to learn a lot about myself, my faith, and about my future. At least for the next ten years, my life will be connected to Kolkata until the children are finished with Don Bosco and graduate. That is if we do not sponsor any more children. So as long as we sponsor at least one child each year, my life and work will be here in Kolkata until God say I can rest. I cannot say if what I do makes any difference; only God knows that. All I know is that I have been given an opportunity to do something and I did not say, “No” to Him. I will probably end up poor and dying poor, but that means some of the children will end up having better lives…I hope and pray. I am not rich by any standard, but running a newly formed non-profit foundation and being a teacher pretty much define my wealth. I am not going to try to convince anyone what I do is right or wrong; only God can make that judgement. For those who have helped me; you have been a blessing from Him. To say it has been a difficult journey is not correct, but it is not wrong to say either. There has been many challenges and obstacles in the way and many times wanting to just give up completely. But then there has been some rays of hope and good things happened. Along the way, wonderful people have come along to help. However, I have also lost or left many people on this journey and I just pray God will keep keep them safe and loved.
For now, my time in Kolkata has come to an end so this will be my last entry until my return in December. Thank you with all my heart to everyone who has helped in sponsoring, donating supplies, supporting and praying for the children. 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. |
Thanh Dinh
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