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The Prem
Nivas and Karuna Nivas Picnic
Pastor Elisha brought the Karuna Nivas
children to DMC house the evening before the picnic as their
home is 100 km from Vizianagaram. The excited Prem Nivas
children were ready in their uniforms at the crack of dawn.
After breakfast, sacks of spare clothes, sweaters and the
20 litre container of UV filtered water were taken to the
newly acquired bus belonging to the Lilynath Tailoring Institute.
(It is used to ferry women into the Institute from outlying
villages.) When I caught up with the crocodile of children
– Ashok and Ramesh emerged from fixing the banner
under the bus supervised by our huge body building driver,
Prasad.
The journey to DMC House was soon over
and we picked up the Karuna Nivas children, Chef David and
Ardinarayana from Narasannapeta. Mary and The Director arranged
for the food, which had been cooked at DMC House at 5am,
to be loaded on the bus and we were off. The children have
become quite used to travelling and there was no sickness.
Songs were sung and an hour later we were going up the hairpin
bend road to Kailashgiri above Visakhapatnam, which is crowned
by two huge white statues of the Hindu gods, Shiva and Parvati.
The first thing the children headed for
was the play area with swings, slides and concrete animals
to clamber on. The slide was the most popular probably because
the children have swings and a climbing frame at Prem Nivas.
After about an hour there, in the sun, everybody went up
the shady avenue to the statues for a photo call. We then
searched for a shady picnic spot and found a glade with
platforms to sit on under the trees. A biryani rice lunch
with eggs and potato and carrot curry were, followed by
bananas, a few of the children found a banyan tree’s
aerial roots to swing from and soon it was time to re-board
the bus for the beach.
We always go to the same part of
the coast where the beach shelves gently and there are interesting
rock pools. This year we had the bonus of a local wooden
sailing fishing boat landing on the beach and seeing the
twelve men jump out to pull in their net on the beach. A
big fish and some little ones were the meagre catch. Chef
David bought the small ones for 100 rupees. The children
and staff spent most of the time in the water, playing in
the waves, surf and rock pools. Victor and the older boys
played cricket on the beach. I kept an eye on the younger
children waiting for the big waves to reach them. Nagamani,
‘big’ Raju and Suresh drew letters and pictures
in the sand. After bananas and sweet pastries we headed
back to the bus, picked up our dinner at DMC House, said
goodbye to the Karuna Nivas children and headed back to
Prem Nivas.
A big thank you to the friends of Brighter Future who contributed
to the cost of both the picnics.
Kathryn and
Lucy
Kathryn and Lucy stayed with the DMC children
for three months, so it is not suprising that on 23 January
there were a few tearful children. They lived in DMC house
guest room and were always available and willing to help.
Is there anything I can do for you?, was their mantra.
Besides teaching at three local schools for several hours
every day, Kathryn and Lucy were able to do reports and
letters for Victor. In the evenings they had groups of children
learning English They were always on hand to join in games
and teach songs to the children and made several visits
to the cinema with them. Kathryn also persuaded friends
in England to sponsor two children.
On Sundays they would come up to Prem Nivas
and help with painting the school building and getting to
know the children. Kathryn and Lucy came on both the picnics
and took lots of photos and enjoyed the sea with the children.
On the 21 January they came to say goodbye to the Prem Nivas
children and we all had a special dinner. On 22 January
they had another special farewell from the Rainbow children.
Kathryn and Lucy have both expressed
a desire to sponsor two of our children when they are settled
back in England. Kathryn is going to visit other parts of
India and is then off to Vietnam, China and Russia. Lucy
is going to Mumbai and then to Goa for a short rest.
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