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Morgan and Monica’s Diary – May 27, 2017
Monica and Morgan’s Diary – May 27, 2017
We are feeling very sad that this will be our last post from Home of Hope, here in the beautiful mountains. This morning started out very early for the both of us.
Monica:
Samjhana, Sunita, Purna, Bishek, Hari, Shyam and I woke up at 5:00 this morning to go on a small hike up to a view point in the mountains. Along the way to the top, we passed Bishek’s relatives house, Hari and Purnas house. We were invited for tea and a small snack at both places. It was really interesting to see where they have come from. Their living standards are simple and basic, like most of the other families homes I have visited from my health work in the village. They all sleep together and cook over an open fire inside and live side by side with their animals.
After a couple hours, we reached the top to see a breath-taking view over the valley. We also saw the big white capped mountains. To see Bishek singing, talking and laughing while he walked was worth the entire trip. Compared to when I saw him in September, he is much more talkative, outgoing, smiling and engaged. It is such a huge difference, it doesn’t feel like he is the same Bishek I met in September. It was the first time I have ever heard him laugh out loud and I felt so warm in my heart.
I feel very satisfied with this trip since we have done so many things. I have been able to donate so many items and hopefully also spread some knowledge and love around this village. Once again, I would like to say a big big thank you to all of you who have donated money and items. My family, relatives, friends, colleagues and Gnosjö Lions Club. The most fantastic thing is that many of the donations came from people I have never met, because of a domino effect. Thanks to the people around me, the love and support has spread like wild fire. I couldn’t be happier, you make this all possible for me and for the Home of Hope children and the whole village of Ratankot.
I leave the children again with a sorrow in my heart. I honestly love them all and I really hope to see them somewhere in the future. I will keep them in my heart forever but I also feel that now I am ready to head home and see my own family again.
Morgan:
My morning also start early as I woke at 6:00 and woke Aren up. To my surprise, he was already awake. We got ready and headed down the mountain close to his village so I could do a home visit at one of our applications to Home of Hope. I got to meet Binita’s Grandmother, Aren’s mother and also see some of the children from the Ratankot school. The walk down was much easier than the walk up, but it was a very beautiful walk and the sounds of the woods was so peaceful. I was so proud of Aren for translating for me, his English is really improving, and he is very eager to practice and translate for me whenever he can. I spent some time this morning with Laxmi, Puja, Preeti and Binita reading to them. It was very nice to spend some quality time with them, snuggle and give a little English lesson at the same time.
The rest of the children, Monica and Shyam arrived back and we all took a small break and then continued doing a bit of work on the chicken house to prepare it for the inauguration. Once we were ready to hold the inauguration, it started to down pour. We all ran inside to take cover. I gave a small speech thanking everyone for all of their hard work and everyone celebrated by eating the inauguration cake Asha had made. We waited for the rain to clear, but went out between down pours. We put up the “Home of chickens” sign next to the door and then Monica and I cut the ribbon to the entrance! It felt like a huge sigh of relief that we had managed to get to this point and actually have a functioning chicken house with chickens inside! I will buy more chickens tomorrow with the donated money from Gullspång Hova SPF. I would like to say a BIG thank you to Gullspång Hova SPF and everyone who donated to Monica. Without these donations, this chicken house would not have been possible to build. Now the Home of Hope children will have a better source of protein through eggs and chicken. I am so grateful for all of the help from our Home of Hope children, our worker Gan, iron man and monk for working so hard alongside of us. Without everyone’s determination, we would not have been able to build as quickly as we did.
We moved the water tank connected to Home of Hope to a higher location in order for the solar panel to work. We tried to move the solar panel to where the water tank had been, but the area was too small, so we had to smash two layers of the cement stand as it was bigger a few layers down. We had a plumber who worked on the pipes all day today, so it should be a matter of moving the solar panel and connecting all of the pipes, so that Home of Hope will have running hot water. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be here to experience this, but the ground work is now in progress!
After the inauguration, I helped the children to go through their clothes and see what fit, what was old and what could be passed down to the younger children before I gave them the donated clothes I brought with me from Sweden. They were all so happy to get a new pair of socks each and new clothes! I would like to thank Chantal Tabatabae from Qatar Airways for
helping Lööf Foundation to travel with extra weight. Without this extra weight, Monica nor I would have been able to bring all of the things we brought for the Home of Hope children. This trip I was able to hand out two pairs of pajamas for each child, many donated clothes and small gifts.
This evening the children had a special meal which ironically was chicken to celebrate Monica and I’s last night here. I’m feeling quite sad to leave them all once again. Preeti was shedding a few tears as she sat on the porch with me. I feel like I have a strong bond with her now as she is a little hard to read sometimes. This evening after dinner we had a big dance party. I got a little teary eyed watching all of the children dance. It was as if they were completely free through their movements and purely happy. I love all of these kids so much, that it makes saying goodbye tomorrow that much harder.
Morgan and Monica
