It is hard to capture in words the sense of peace one finds at the Family Village Farm. I awake everymorning to the sounds of birds, and the voices of children laughing. So little they have, and yet they find so much occasion for laughter. ( I brought an ipod and this morning I had fun passing out the earphones as the children listened to my sound track from Slumdog Millionaire. "Jai Ho" they are knew!)
How I will treasure last night. This amazing group from Plymouth Church led the children in the "Hokey Pokey" and "Kum ba Ya" We shared our gifts. I spend time handing out the presents of everyong at Plymouth who had sent gifts along. The Lesnikowski's little boy Valen, the Fry's two children, Barb Watkins child. Many pictues and moments of laughter. I have had time with our sponsored child Saranya. she is now in a secretarial school in a city called Combatore, about five hours train ride from here. she came to the the Family Village Farm just so we would have this time together. I am completely confident that the Family Village will watch over her until she is able to procure gainful employment.
Vatsala, our wonderful host and school principal, was overjoyed at receiving the gifts we brought for her school, pocket calendars and so many supplies that Karen, Heather and Marguerite had purchased and schlepped to the other side of the world.
Hard to captue it all: monkeys in the trees, spending times in some of the nearby village homes, small two or three bedroom homes, with one room given over to a Hindu shrine. Peacefull, buccolic country side, rice padis, many cows, goats, ox driven carts.
Today is a holiday. Pongal. A Hindu holiday. Its a day of revering the homes. children are dresed in new clothes. smile on their faces.
Tonight we bid farewell to our children and board the train for Kerala.
Soon our journey will bring us back home to the USA. This has been a great group.
Peter Luckey
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