The week of calm?!

Yes it has been calm, with a few hitches along the way.  We figured with the children gone, we would sail through all our projects, and be ready for a very busy weekend, and week following, to come.  Things do not always go as we plan, however.  On Monday last, we got word that a new volunteer was coming the next day.  Eugenie and her grandmother, Lynn, were on buddy passes so they flew when they could.  The grandmother is only here for 10 days, and they didn't realize that we would have no children here.  We were sad, and so were they!  Lynn got very sick that first night, and we were in Chennai, leaving Erin here to figure it out.  She got our wonderful Indian doctor, Senthilkumar to make a house call at 3:00a.m.  We were on the phone with Erin from 2:30a.m. on, so our night was also a little short.  We headed for the property first thing Wednesday morning, found her better, but she slept for most of the day. She's a real trooper, and by evening she was up and working on liquids.  The rest of the week Lynn and Eugenie have gone with the mobile medical van to colonies twice, visited two other colonies in search of our children for pictures and stories of them in their homes with family, have had day trips to Mahabalapuram, Dachina Chitra, a long (13 hour) day at Spencers Mall (hundreds of stores) as they waited for the driver to return for them. Eugenie will be with us until December, but we're sad Lynn has to return home tomorrow.

In the midst of all their activities, we have been awaiting a contractor who has only done half the job of moving dirt, and leveling the area where the new playground equipment is to go.  (More on that with picture, hopefully, next week.)  Anyway, promises, promises...  Each day we have waited, and again today with three phone calls and "we're on our way", "we're almost there",  still nothing.  The equipment is now set to arrive on Thursday, but we'll believe that when we see it, also!

We did have an exciting activity a week ago.  One of our kitchen helpers, Angelie, decided after great turmoil and more dramatics than we could believe, to marry one of our former drivers, Ganjendran.  He has recently been released as a driver because of some rather unstable behavior, including drinking poison (??) when Angelie told him she had changed her mind.  We were not too keen on having him drive our children and others with that kind of  nonsense!  Anyway, after great tears from Ganjendran, throwing himself at Ron's feet trying to encourage Ron to intervene, Ron insisted they have a three day cooling off period.  After that time, Angelie decided to go forth with the wedding, four days hence. Erin went to the wedding last Sunday and took the photo above (hopefully it's above--having trouble getting pictures on again.)  The grooms family were very dour faced, and most unhappy, as apparently Angelie's family is of a lower caste than his.  Sad. We just hope he treats her and her darling daughter Archina kindly.  They are currently living with his family. The beautiful flowers, which are solid down the back of her hair, were done by two of our house mother/teachers and the cook, the night before.

Busy weekend coming up includes the arrival of Eric Ottesen:  he is in charge of the Sabin Foundation which donated $90,000 for the purchase of our land.  We're excited to have him see what has been accomplished, and hope to interest the foundation with continuing help on the next phase of building for the school.  There is a group of four coming to do a big activity with the parents of our children, spearheaded by a woman from Boston (group includes our daughter Elizabeth (Yea!).  Becky Douglas is also flying in.  These arrivals are scheduled for the wee hours of the morning Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  On Sunday afternoon the children will all return.  We will let you know about that wild scene.