|
In an attempt to keep more people up to date with the dozens of things that go on here each day we have decided to keep a small blog here on our website. People who use RSS Readers (like Internet Explorer, Outlook, Blogger, Facebook.. etc) can subscribe to this any time by clicking the subscribe button. Our hope is that this will be a great way for people to see the adventures that daily life is filled with.
|
|
Sunday, 25 April 2010 17:34 |
|
Sunday is usually a day where we relax, school is out all the workers have the day off and so most of us here on the mission take the opportunity to have a sleep-in or at least a nice break away from the stresses of 'weekly life'. Today during this rest time (around 3pm) a massive fire swept through the middle of our farm... burning the stalks/straw from our harvested wheat at an incredible speed. With the threat of it catching houses, animal sheds and livestock in its wake all of the men (and some of the women) including our volunteers raced out and spent about an hour getting it under control. The hot weather and strong winds that we have here during this season are a recipe for disaster. Fortunately no one was seriously burned and nothing much other than a bunch of our fields were lost. The fire very nearly spread to our main field (it came within less than a meter). If this had happened there could have been a lot of damage done to our Tharu Village which borders on the field.
We are not sure what started the fire but it appears to have started near the corner of our property, most likely just by accident.
On a completely separate note, Isobel has now received her operation. She is doing well and her Doctors tell us that they are very hopeful for her to make a good recovery. She had two different types of scoliosis in her spine. More details are on our Facebook page and here. |
|
Saturday, 17 April 2010 15:19 |
|
Our jungle crop of wheat has now been harvested. After nearly a dozen attempts to raid it by herds of elephants we have managed to make it through loosing less than 15% to animal damage -which is about what we had hoped for. Wild deer, pigs, peacocks, buffalos, cows have also been a big problem but we have made it through. Sadly in the final few weeks our crop was hit hard by insects and nearly 80% was lost to them! This was a huge disappointment for us having managed to keep away all the animals. We still expect to be able to cover the costs of the harvest but not much other than that. We are confident that if we pay closer attention this should not be such a big problem next time. |
|
Friday, 16 April 2010 14:01 |
|
After nearly a year of studying hard our 18 students who are enrolled in our first grade 10 class through NIOS (Open Schooling) have finally reached their exams. Thanks to the help of our dedicated volunteers Brad and Miriam Crouch our orphanage has been able to run additional classes and mock exams for all the grade 10 students to help prepare them. We are confident that our kids will do well and wish them all the very best as they head into this important part of this chapter of their lives.  |
Our school which we run on our property currently only operates to grade 8. Our desire is that our children should not be limited by this and while we wait for funding for the construction of our new school we have begun enrolling those who have passed grade 8 through NIOS -this allows us to get our current children a year 10/12 pass via a correspondence based course. Many other improvements have been going on of late in our current school, this year we even plan on starting our first swimming classes! Our student base has nearly doubled as out outside admissions have nearly tripled because of the good name we are getting in the local community. |
|
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 12:58 |
|
Our wheat harvest has started today. Our hopes are that we will have over 70 tonnes of wheat (much of which will be sold to help cover the daily costs and expenses of running this place). During the harvest season our older boys normally help out with the harvest however this year sadly it has coincided with their Grade 10 Exams which start this Monday. This has meant that the staff/volunteers/laborers who are working on the harvest have to work even harder. When school is finished for the day several of the older hostel boys also lend a hand to relieve the pressure that is on the others. |
|
Monday, 29 March 2010 22:26 |
|
Today marked the opening of our new Leper Colony. Over a year after the commencement of the construction the families have finally moved in. We celebrated the opening with several key members of the Banbassa community, the families who are moving in and of course the children of the mission.
After a small ceremony in which special thanks was made to Mr Des Willmott from Launceston, Australia the familys selected their room numbers from a "lucky-dip" before everyone was treated to juice and snacks. Mr Willmott was the main source of funding for the entire project and has been a huge help to us here on the mission over the years.
The families were later treated to a special celebration meal with some of our staff and Mr Willmott before they moved in to their new rooms. The families were also supplied with fans, new furniture, curtains and beds.
The colony has been set up with a revolutionary waste disposal system called "Bipu" which was generously provided free of charge by International Enviromental Solutions, Australia. This system processes the human waste in a manner which is much safer, cleaner and cost effective than the regular septic systems that are used in our area. |
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
