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The autumn days are almost perfect in Banbasa at the moment – warm days full of bright sunshine and nights cool with a little chill. However, many of the younger students of Maxton Strong School may have disagreed this week as they took part in the first Government sponsored immunisation programme held at our school. Classes for Friday were replaced by the huge task of completing medical forms and administering injections for around 500 children. Government doctors and nurses came in the morning to administer to our students a triple antigen – Measles, Mumps & Rubella - which is routine in developed countries but has been lacking across India, until this new Government initiative. While this is a major undertaking, we see it as an important extension of our service to the school community; not only does it protect the children from the most preventable of diseases, it provides an opportunity to further educate parents in a range of health issues.
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Patiently waiting for the immunisation call.
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"Jabs" in full swing.
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Ouch!!!!
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Busy queue outside the "surgery".
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The sometimes lengthy waiting times for immunisations were partially broken by a book stall operating in the school courtyard during the same morning. A local company set up a comprehensive display of books for sale catering for all ages, skill levels and tastes. It was so satisfying – and a testament to the school’s efforts – to see the buzz from students and parents alike as they pored over book after book. A number of children took the opportunity to break the morning’s wait with a quick read, and the sales desk was kept busy well into the morning. Everyone associated with school loves to see a child with their head buried deep inside a quality book!!
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Great interest in the book stall.
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Excited students checking out the selection.
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Saturday classes made way for the annual school sports day this week. Students of the four houses battled it out for this year’s honours in the usual range of athletic events. Special races are designed for the tiniest children, including “frog hopping” (over 20 metres) and “head balling” (over a marathon 10 metres). For the older boys, the serious sport of “kabbadi” took centre stage. A highly physical contact sport, kabbadi is played right through to national level with its mixture of tag, wrestling and guile – aptly described by our latest volunteer from Italy as “rugby without a ball”. Race results were recorded, scores tallied, and house teams keenly followed the progressive scores – but (of course) the event is all about participation and from that perspective every student was a winner.
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Seeya and Ayushi battle it out in the 100 metres.
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Santoshi heads the field in the 200 metres.
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The small kids use their heads in the "head ball 10 metres".
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Uncle Eugene and Headmaster David Chirag Din officiate before the first Kabbadi match.
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Shane hits the dirt in the opening Kabbadi game ... but not before scoring for his team!
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On the Farm itself work continues apace. The “recycled” playground project Project Ideas has the kids engaged in painting, digging, and imagining what creature might next grow from a pile of old tyres. The centre piece – a monster-sized (although to date legless) scorpion - is sending out a warning of danger to everyone with its bright red paintwork and a newly installed “stinger”. The kindergarten area is more restrained with cute elephants and climbing structures; although it has a curious archaeological excavation which has yet to reveal its mysteries. Volunteers Klaus and Patrick are working hard with their little band of helpers to compete the planned work before they move on to the next project – thanks to you, guys, you are both awesome!!
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The super-sized scorpion is really taking shape.
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The kindergarten kids haven't been forgotten - with climbing tyres and small elephants.
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Volunteer Patrick finds an alternative use for bricks - formwork for concrete footings!
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The farm work never stops – this week has tested the mettle of our tractors and ploughs, turning over the rich soil and shaping it for the next wheat crop. The bare earth has been seeded, leveled and then groomed and structured to form a series of small areas which can be irrigated. As the wheat germinates and grows over the colder months it will provide our big family with food for every single day of the coming year. The recent good harvest of this years Paddy (Rice) also gave us plenty to sell, providing another means of support for the Mission.
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Fields newly ploughed and shaped for the next wheat crop.
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We would be lost without our tractors.
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Even with tractors, there is still much manual work to be done.
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A far smaller project started this week which will delight our regular visitors – a paved pathway from the dining hall to the guest house. While many volunteers relish the nightly challenge of a cross country walk to their accommodation, the new path will provide a much safer option with fewer soggy feet in the monsoon season.
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Highway to the guest house starts to take shape.
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Things get serious when the tractor moves in.
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In another first for the Farm, our Thrashing Floor (Kulla) is being used by the local Government Feed Cooperative (GFC) as a centre to buy locally grown rice from the farmers around Banbasa. Agriculture is the main industry in the area with many small farmers growing a range of crops to support their families. It can be difficult for a single farmer with a small parcel of land to sell crops efficiently at a reasonable price. The GFC will buy whatever grain that is offered, but the problem is that small farmers need a way of making the sale happen. As another way of supporting the wider community, the Farm is ideally placed to provide a central point for each producer to bring their produce and sell it through a fair and controlled process.
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Ready to weigh up the paddy.
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Bags of grain start to mount up.
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An abundance of grain waiting for the trucks.
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Regular readers of our Prayer Letter will know we have a bitter-sweet event which takes place twice year – Parents’ Day. This is a special time when those children in our care who have family members can receive a visit from parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, or other special family members. Many children in our care have such – even both parents – but for various reasons the families desperately require help to save their child from an impossible future. It is always important that these family ties remain, that the children know who and where their families are, and that the family can see and understand the child’s progress. Parents’ Day provides an opportunity for contact, the exchange of stories, and the exchange of gifts.
It can be a very special time for a child and one of great anticipation. Sitting under the shade of the Mission’s tall trees, it is a time for stories, showing school work, sharing food, and simply being together. Sadly, it can also be a time of great disappointment as a child gazes down the Mission’s road for relatives who won’t visit this time. It can also be a difficult time for children who are indeed without any family; watching as others have the contact they themselves long for. A day, therefore, which can come with high emotion, but which also brings benefits which far outweigh the momentary sadness.
Those unfortunate not to have any family visitors are given a special party of "eats and drinks" so that they not feel completely left out, but of course that doesn't fully suffice.
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Aunty Lucy chats with visiting families.
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Lots of catching up to do.
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Small groups spread out in the shade.
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Remember last week we asked prayer for Wayne, one of our awesome visitors who was returning back to Australia this week. Despite coming out of Hospital two days before from treatment for Pneumonia, with Clifton accompanying, they both arrived safe and sound and in good health. Clifton has another two weeks in Australia before coming back to us.
And so another week comes to a close. Even a "normal" week has any amount of activity and surprises - that's all part of caring for a large family, running a school with over 650 students, operating a working farm, and finding new and different ways to support our wider community.
As always, this work extends far beyond Banbasa - through prayer and donations it travels across the globe in any number of countries. Every day we thank you, our supporters, who are as much a part of our work as those on the ground.
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Blessing on you,
Rick, Clifton, Eugene & Priscilla
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