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Morgan’s Diary – November 13, 2017
Morgan’s Diary – November 13, 2017
This morning we went to the school to see the wood working teacher teach a class to the grade eight students. It was so great to see all of the kids really get involved and start working away. Some of the students had even built small stools by the end of the day, while others started to use the wood carving tools to chip out squares and rectangles. Many of the children got a chance to try their hand at hand planning the wood. I handed out the aprons and safety glasses, and at first, they were a bit hesitant, but once they put the aprons on they were all laughing and thought it was quite fun to wear! Hearing the banging and hammering of tools against wood was a very nice sound, as it meant the beginning of the work shop!
While we were at the school, I took the opportunity to hand out SEK 1000: – worth of pens, color pencils, pencils, crayons, crayons erasers, pencil sharpeners and drawing paper to all of the school children. A big thank you to Lisa Persson who donated this money from her sales in shawls during a painting inauguration. The smile on the school children’s faces were priceless! As we went around handing out the material in the first-grade classroom, many of the little children were wiggling with excitement and saying “ohhh!” as we went around handing out coloring markers. Now, all of the school children will have drawing and coloring material!
We came back to Home of Hope for lunch and Niklas and I interview Shyam and Asha for the film Niklas is making about Home of Hope. It was really great to hear how much Shyam and Asha care for the children and enjoy their job. I have so much respect and admiration towards them, as they are doing a great job in raising and taking care of 14 children. Asha and Shyam make a great team, balancing each other out. I went to Binita and Preeti’s school today to check up how they are doing in school, and talk to their teachers and headmaster. It was a good meeting!
Once we got back to Home of Hope Niklas and I continued to take portrait photos of the children and interview them. I continued to help the children with writing their letters back to their sponsors and have now gotten so many drawings from them! The kids kept coming up to me saying they had a surprise for me. I had to always close my eyes and hold out my hands, and they would drop a picture or other small gift for their sponsor, and then tell me that I had to give their sponsor it. It was very cute, because it felt like a secret mission, and I could see that a lot of time and effort went into their drawings and others handmade gifts. While I sat with Rajan helping him to write his letter, all of the kids were gathered around Niklas looking at photos and film. He is very good with them all, being patient, teaching them and making them laugh. It’s as if he is their big brother visiting from out of town.
Asha, Shyam, Niklas and I went into the girl’s room to say goodnight, and many of the girls were on the floor playing make believe with their teddy bears. They were all laughing so much and making up funny stories. As we said goodnight to all of the girl’s and closed the door to their room, I could hear each of them saying goodnight to one another. It’s moments like these that make me realize just how close and connected our Home of Hope children are. They all come from different backgrounds and are different ages, but all share the same love for one another.
Morgan Young
Lööf Foundation representative
