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Kaylee and Morgan’s Diary – February 8, 2017
Kaylee and Morgan’s Diary – February 8, 2017
This morning we were awake before all the children. It was so neat to just lay in bed in total silence. While we were up and making breakfast, you could hear the children waking. We found it interesting to hear the house come alive with all the noises of the children. After breakfast, we went with Shyam to look at other green houses in the village to gather some local knowledge to see what works and what doesn’t. Along our walk we came across lemon trees. Shyam told us that these trees provide lemons year round. Kaylee suggested that with the rest of her donated money she would like to buy fruit trees for Home of Hope. We really hope that we can get these before we leave, so we can help plant! We think it would be a great source of nutrition for all children. Once we returned from our walk we sat down with Shyam and the two workers that will help build the green house.
We came up with a plan to build the green house 20m x 4m, with an arched roof. We will build the walls out of bamboo. The structures of the walls will be made out of thick, clear plastic. We laid out the outline of the greenhouse in the garden with string first. Then we dug holes where the bamboo posts will sit in the ground approximately two meters apart from each other, and 1.5 feet in the ground. The outside posts will be 6.5 feet tall while it will be 8.5 feet tall in the middle. Shyam, the two workers and us worked all afternoon on digging holes for the bamboo posts. It took some time as we were only using a long metal stake and small metal bowls for digging. This would take no time in Sweden as shovels are easier to come by. However, we made do with what we had today despite the sore hands and blisters.
We felt quite proud with the amount of work we got done today. It made us feel hopeful that we will be able to finish the green house before we leave. We have not had any power for over 24 hours now, so when the children came home from school Shyam wanted them to study while it was still light out. Once they were done studying we all played together outside. Bishek slid down a bank tonight and cried. We weren’t sure how hurt he was, but Morgan knew it had to be a lot as she has never seen him cry before. Bishek tends to be on the quiet and serious side. We took him to get checked out by Asha and Shyam as we could not communicate with him however we knew it wasn’t too serious because we couldn’t find any injuries. When it was too dark to play outside, we all came inside and played a game called “Stella, Ella, Ola”. All of the kids loved it and wanted to play it over and over again. We played until supper time. We got the chance to check on the carpets today and make sure that the glue was holding. We would like to thank Ottossons Golv in Mariestad for donating all of the glue as it has really been useful here!
It is so great to see Preeti finally coming out of her shell. She is really interactive and has a more bubbly personality compared to when she first came to Home of Hope or even since Morgan’s last trip in September. The development of these children is very impressive considering their backgrounds. We are off to bed a little earlier tonight since there is no power and we have done a lot of work today in the sun. Tomorrow we will continue with the greenhouse construction!
Kaylee and Morgan
