For the Children

Aaron-
Yesterday and today we worked on some of the projects we had started for the children's home. Crystal, Marie, Michelle and Sarah started on painting, while Raju and I started working on a sidewalk to the shower. The shower is just a spigot high on the wall that the children stand under to bath. The girls finished painting the front of the building, and Marie and Crystal helped me finish the sidewalk. Sarah and Michelle started to help me but decided they could be more useful stamping and labeling. We finished off yesterday's work with a nice trip to the beach. None of us were brave enough to go completely in the water but we all waded around for a good hour. After the beach Marie wanted to say goodbye to the children. Raju also wanted me to play guitar for the children so we returned after dark for my first concert. I can truthfully say there was standing room only. Marie passed out finger puppets that her sister had made as gifts and the children delightfully re-enacted the battle of Jericho for us. Marie had a hard time saying goodbye. Today I went back to the children's home to get an early start. I worked on the platform for the shower for an hour with Raju before Crystal showed up. She took over mixing the concrete while I worked on pouring and leveling. Mixing is especially hard work since we are mixing on the ground with shovels that have handles only a foot long. I was proud of Crystal, because she worked so hard. Sarah and Michelle returned to the office for another day of stamping and labeling while Marie packed for her return trip. We finished pouring the pad and I am waiting to see the end result in the morning. Crystal, Marie and Ricky left for Vizag after lunch to drop Marie off at the airport. Michelle, Sarah and I will be joining them in the morning. I will miss the girls when they leave. They all have been so good with the children. I think the Children will miss them too.