Our lunch, and banana leaves (serving as effective place mats!) were cleared away and we parted with a handful of rupees for the pleasure and went in search of Abilash who had kindly offered to park the car whilst we went to eat (we were getting rather used to this colonial living and amazed at how comfortable it was to have this kind of support, which was strangely at odds with what we were there to do??! – one to be solved later perhaps??!!)
A big curry lunch followed by a drive down 36 hair-pin bends made for quite an interesting combination, particularly as we passed a spot en-route where a car had gone clear over the edge at one of the bends, since our arrival the other day! The remains were supported on the hillside by a tree, and undergoing close observation by a handful of locals. How easy and regular accidents happen here that they don’t even draw much of crowd. Had this been in Portugal or Italy it wouldn’t have been surprising to have seen someone selling ice-creams to a huge crowd, within minutes!
As we neared the foot of the Nilgiri Mountains my mind was in overdrive thinking about Happy Home and suddenly being amongst the children there. Feeling very connected to the experience it dawned on us that we had only been to the orphanage once, and that was being driven whilst in the back of a Land Rover, coming from a different direction and yet something told me to turn right as we came to a junction. Naturally, my less spiritual risk analyser didn’t agree and felt we should carry straight on.
Uncharacteristically I chose to avoid the discussion and with a deep inward smile drove on to the next village where we could ask for directions. With directions from a friendly local (and translated by Abilash) uploaded we turned around and made our way to Happy Home.
“How did you know that?” asked Roy. “I don’t know” I replied “the same way as you know when a project for us to support is coming, I guess!” So different and yet so similar is our partnership in this whole charity, travelling thing that it just works at a level way beyond I would ever want to or have need to question!
As we parked up across from the orphanage gates a group of the children ran to the gates and within seconds had retrieved enough keys to release the various locks and swung them open, beckoning us to drive in. As we pulled onto the grass at the orphanage the car was approached by a sea of smiling faces. It felt like arriving home, and we had just been away on a short trip – how strange! Suddenly here were those smiling faces that had we had enjoyed so much on the last time, been missing from the roadside on this trip so far!
Lots of “hello’s” and “how are you’s?” to be exchanged before we met our first adult, Stephanie who was a friend of the orphanage’s founder Katherine who was over from Switzerland and had been helping out and living at Happy Home for 3 months. You didn’t need to be a ‘rocket-scientist’ to see how much the children loved and respected her. Likewise, you didn’t need to look too hard to see that it was completely mutual! The children would just touch her and smile as they walked passed. It was as though they transferred a little spark of energy to each other as they connected – incredible!
It was wonderful to see Grace again and I had a wry smile as she and Roy shook hands. She must have read my mind and came over for a big hug! I could tell from the twinkle in her eyes that she was up to something and so didn’t say anything as she sneaked off. Formalities over for now – it was like watching the pied piper as Roy wandered off to play with some of the children. He’s like a magnet for some of the boys and they’ll follow him anywhere. Again, it’s completely mutual and a pleasure to see!
I went for a tour around the orphanage led by Stephanie and followed by my own little entourage, each taking turns for cuddles as we walked! In particular, one little girl Yasmin (who I christened as my ‘delightful, cuddly shadow’) led the cuddle charge and was never far from my side. I remember her from playing ‘tag’ last time we were there.
It was both incredible and humbling to see how much had changed with the orphanage since our last visit, including a mini-outdoor eating area with concrete benches and tables for 90 people (with structures in place ready to create a sun cover to protect the children from the heat of the lunchtime sun), solar panels to reduce the energy costs for the clearly increasing population, more books, beds and somehow a sense of more children?!
During the tour, we came across a group of girls dancing together. Recognising some of the faces, it was initially a little surprising and out of character that they hadn’t come to say hi earlier … until the penny started to drop! It’s so noticeable how shy and bashful the tribal girls are over here and it’s actually quite refreshing to step back in time again to this way of being. I’m sure I’ll feel this way even more as my own daughter grows up, no doubt embracing the confidence of the Western race and keen to embrace adulthood as early as possible! Sobering thought!!
On ‘tour completion’ we were greeted by a very smiley Grace who invited us to a quiet area for tea and homemade biscuits and a catch-up. Despite, out of the four people one being fluent in Hindi, one in French and two marginally fluent in English the conversation flowed at a wonderfully comfortable pace! We seemed to cover so much ground, but the lahesting highlight for me will be following my question to Grace “So how many people are you looking after here now?”
“95!” she proudly stated! … “but I thought that you were at full capacity of 85 last time we were here in November? Have you built another bedroom” I asked, interested in her reply!
“We were at capacity then, and now we have 95!” Before adding “How can you turn people away?” rhetorically. Fair point we were thinking just as Stephanie, clearly feeling very emotional, piped up with a story about how they were having to turn people away now. In particular, they had turned one little girl away this morning.
With tears in her eyes she explained that this little girl had no mother or father and had ben living with her aunt, but they had recently been thrown out of their house and were currently living under a tree. Worse still there was no prospect of the aunt getting work to pay for accommodation without someone to look after little girl! She was so moved by the experience that she has already been in touch with the orphanage’s founder to agree special dispensation that if she could raise the money to keep her month by month the girl could move in. “How will you do that?” Roy asked, knowing that she was leaving in 3 days to go travelling.
“I don’t know, but I will!!” she replied with so much determination. We discussed what it would cost to take on the girl and look after her, and fund her accommodation, clothes any medical bills, school uniform, books, food, etc. and agreed that we would fund her for a year. It was a very emotional moment, and I still cannot think about Anabukarasi without getting a tear in my eye! The gift of being able to transform someone’s life into one that they deserve filled with love and care is one of the most precious things on this earth.
Now I understood why having been so very ill for a full 19 hours the previous couple of days, I was suddenly well enough to travel again! There was no way that we could have missed this moment ? What made the whole experience even more special is that we were able to fund Anabukarasi on behalf of one of our personal sponsors who had given us a sizable cheque prior to leaving and ask that we spend it wisely on whatever we saw fit, but to try and make it as tangible as possible. Knowing the person concerned, there could have been no better gift for him and his family or Anabukarasi, and no better way for living the vision of Global Children’s Trust is really about.
Never could we have been given a bigger or better illustration of why we needed to get on and build this second orphanage. We just have to believe now that if we live our vision, the funding and support will follow, and so to all of our sponsors and donors … thank you!
You make incredible things happen to people who really and truly deserve the chance to be loved and safe! Thank you ?
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- Yasmin, my lovely, cuddly shadow
