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PL697
20th August 2017
The month of August is flying by but not without a stop at Independence Day here in India. 71 years ago this past August 15th, the British handed back control of the country to the people who call it home. For all the sacrifice and struggle that went into that moment, the nation takes time to celebrate and so do the children at the Maxton Strong School.
As always, the kids created songs and dances, speeches and dramas with lots of patriotic cheering and general flag waving. Thankfully, the rain held off long enough to get the ceremony in, allowing a few pictures to put you in the action.
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Lined up and ready for some Independence Day action.
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Some dancing to help celebrate.
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The crowd, enjoying the show.
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Rick imparting words of Independence Day wisdom.
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The usual kids post-event photo (with some visitors thrown in).
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Raymond gathering up all the discarded flags. Clearly the most patriotic.
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Happy Indian Independence Day, everyone!
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It was the first such occasion with our new Principal, David Chirag Din and to commemorate it, we produced a short video you can watch below. Happy Independence Day to all of India! We hope the video helps to show you what a great job our children did, we are so proud of them all.
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Click to watch the short 1:00 video.
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As a small side note, this week Principal David asked John to write a school theme song that the children could sing at the morning assemblies. Always ready with a creative blast, John wrote and then performed a few options in the Principal's office a few days later, and an anthem has been settled on. Though an actual recording won’t be ready for a while as the children learn it, the opening verse reads:
With respect and honor, I will do my best,
Working hard and standing tall, passing every test.
Strength through wisdom, strength through knowledge,
Strength from God above!
Maxton Strong, oh Maxton Strong,
The place where I belong!
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John presenting the new song in the Principal's office.
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In our free time, we held another fishing trip to the fish pond, complete with inner tubes this time. Despite recently depleting the stock lurking beneath the murky water, there are still huge fish to be found. For those not interested in hauling their dinner from the deep, there was plenty of play to be had both in and out of the water.
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Nothing like a little inner-tubing to cool things off.
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Sabby and Aaron in the late-afternoon light.
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Jimika and Rosie lurking in the shallows.
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Roshni enjoying the pond from her own private (and dry) perch.
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Two more visitors arrived at the mission this week, this time coming all the way from the United Kingdom. Jessica and Sarah are spending ten days with us, adjusting to the heat, enjoying their time with the kids before heading off to do more . Jumping right into mission events, Sarah has been leading nightly photography workshops with some of our older girls, and Jessica has been using her experience as a physical education instructor to get our kids moving and sweating. It’s always fun to have new faces and new energy brightening up the place.
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Sarah enjoying a laugh during one of her photo lessons at the fish pond.
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Jessica showing off one of the prize fish...moments before she dropped it.
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We also had our other visitors, Kelly and Rachael, up at our school talking with our older students about their jobs as an archaeologist and a nurse respectively. In their hour and a half presentation, the audience was engaged and interested, soaking up the new career options. Who knows if a future Indiana Jones or Florence Nightingale was inspired that afternoon. If nothing else, the kids loved the lectures.
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Kelly telling tales of hidden treasure and sunken ships.
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Juggling lessons have been popping up around the mission lately, with kids both young and old trying their hands at this very learnable skill. With a little practice even the nursery children have been getting the hang of it. Everyone uses fallen guavas as props and goes at their own pace. Though there is lots of dropping at first, it doesn’t take long before the trick is mastered.
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Sheetal working on her eye-hand coordination.
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Some guavas posing as juggling balls.
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Ankit showing off his mad skills.
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Not to be left out, April has been getting in on the action.
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For those who missed it, Eugene celebrated his 39th birthday this past week, the main event of which involved the nursery kids, chicken dinner, cake and popsicles. We’re not sure who was happier at the party. Happy Birthday, Eugene. We love you!
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Eugene and his party gang. Happy 39th!
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We completed our walkway for Auntie Violet recently, a dry stretch of outdoor tiles that has become a favorite path in the intense rain as of late, making us wonder how we lived without it for so long. It has also prompted us to look around the mission at a few other needed items, everything from a new drain in the small boys’ hostel to a new tractor for our fields. Even our two well-worn cars could use a new healthy sibling...all of which has led to create a new projects page on our website. We'll be unveiling that next week, so until then, stay tuned...
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The new completed walkway with Rina and Lisa.
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One of our tired vehicles, in the shop for repairs.
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Aaron modeling the kind of hammer drill we'll be featuring on our new projects page.
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One final story this week involves the Royal Bank of Scotland, of all things. After receiving a nice donation on behalf of the RBofS, we put together a quick thank you video, featuring our kids saying various Scottish phases. It was a fun recording session full of laughter and more laughter. Watch the brief video below and try to keep from smiling. It's not easy to do.
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Click to watch the video.
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As for prayer requests: in addition to his birthday and his daughter Eddu heading off to college this week, Eugene has been diagnosed with diabetes and could use all of your healing help. Though his initial blood sugar levels were quite high they have come down rapidly and, as of today after some corrective eating, are back to normal. Still, it’s something to pay attention to as we want Eugene around for a long long time to come.
Thanks as always for your support and interest in the work we do here. We can think of nothing more worthwhile to do with our time than the support and care of orphaned children. For those of you who feel the same, another week awaits us all. We’ll report back next Sunday with an update.
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Blessing on you,
Rick, Clifton, Eugene, Priscilla & John
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