Mairead and Kerry visit the Hebron Orphanage (10/07)

28th October

About to board - signing out now, wish us luck. X

29th October

Where do we start?

We landed in one piece in what can only be described as a shed of an airport (we have a photo).

Sagar met us with his beautiful daughter and we were on our way. We both had no idea what to expect or what we were going to face. Further down the river and we were finally there. All we could see were balloons and a big banner reading "Welcome Kerry & Mairead". It was amazing. We were given garlands of flowers and walked through a sea of children shouting welcome and throwing flowers at us. Every one wanted to know our names and shake our hands. We've never felt so popular in our lives. There was one little bossy girl who's English was very good who instructed the other children to pick us up. Now I'm no small girl but these kids are strong. We were carried off towards the new Angus Lawson vocational college. Four classrooms are now being used and nearly complete and this gives the chrildren something to strive for - a skill they can use when leaving the childrens home.

So tired now, been a long day - yet we are both pleased we came and very happy to be here. Signing out from Day 1. Take care all speak tomorrow xxx

30th October

The day started with a spicey black lentil pancake.

Much to our amusement there was a teacher strike today and so the fun began.

Kerry and I started off with the face paints in one class of 60 6-7yr olds.. The children were all worried at first and shying away. But after the first little boy was made into Zombie there was a stampeed to the front from everyone...... 56 faces later with a sore back and 60 over excited children we were saved by the lunch bell (Thank God) ...... 380 children were stood in line whilst we attempted to scrub our hands, face, hair, arms, clothes ... Let's just say everything clean. Oh well we failed but who cares there was hungry bellies to feed and they were waiting for us :o)

After lunch the children were in assembley and we sat at the front to listen to them sing for us. They truely do have voices of angels, they were all smiling and claping along with one on the bongos and one on the drums. I then stood up to read Nicks letter he wrote to the children, to remind them that they are special and in our prayers. They all cheered and then in return said a pray for Angus, Nick, Kara & baby Mungo.

Once prayer time was finnished it was time for Kerry and I to come out of retirement to teach 24 girls the game of rounders (they had never heard of).

Very funny, but very difficult with a language barrier. They ran in every direction all at once. Eventually they got the hang of it and the competeitive streak in everyone came out. (Of course my RED team one though) :o)

The rest of the children either cheered us, or ran off to play with their new footballs, volleyballs, tennis rackets & badminton kits all over the grounds in the pooring rain. EXHAUSTED !!!! It might well be raining but its still in the eighties.

One would think you would get bored but with 380 children how could you? Sagar (the owner's) cousin asked us to come along on the shopping trip to see where the money we raised was going. So into a tuc-tuc and away we went. Entering into town we were once again the sight to see. Though we are now used to it and didn't notice, people would come to the shop fronts to see us. We went into the biggest shop to buy things the children need. Thankfully we had Sagars cousin with us to do the negogiating, his name means fruit so that's what we called him 'fruit man' as his real name was a mouthful (granted I'm one to talk) :o)

Anyway we had to wait for half and hour so we sat and had a chat with Fruit man.  Turns out the children are of 3 religions. Hindi, muslim and christian. Most childrens parents have died from aids, some tsunami, or mainly just poor and can't afford the children. We asked if anyone ever came to adopt the children in the hope that like in one of our favourite films growing up "ANNIE" there could be a happy ending for some. Unfortunately this will never happen. People can't be trusted here as they don't have the proper network to check people are genuine and won't sell the children for child labour, prostitution, or even for their kidneys or eyes on the black market.

One little girl Mundu is here with her sister. Their family is very poor and can't afford to keep them.... However Mundu also has a heart condition and is very sick. She holds her heart when it hurts and she can't breathe - she is only 8 and there is nothing that will be done for her.

Right we have to go. Kerry is out cold already and I'm being bitten alive and now have to cover my heeeeeed with a mosquito net. Night night x

31st October

We woke this morning to the children singing up in there bedroom-our room is directly under the dorm of 80 girls.  We then  started our daily breakfast task as we have done every morning-the smell of black lentals is growing on us!

Its very hot here today, already sweating like pigs, so its a good job we were saved by the textstyles college class.  We forgot to mention yesterday with everything that happened, in the middle of face painting the teacher took our measurements - much to out suprise this morning, the class arrived at our bedroom with there lovely teacher to present us with 2 brightly coloured westen saris..

The diffence between the two types of Saris is that Western are long tunics with pantaloons and a type of shawl drapped differently. Where an Eastern traditional Sari is a long skirt of layered material with a crop top and a shawl covering most of your top half. We were two Barbie dolls for the class. They dressed us, fixed our hair, Pat Butchered us up (for thos of you that don't know what that means = BIG-Enormous earings).

The Saris were made in one day by talented girls training at the Angus college for the future they have now been offered. We were also very pleased as they were very cool in the sun.

Once Mairead was pinned together we jumped into the Angus bus and were on our way to the Lace park. This is where the girls are being sent to next week for 45 days for their final training in needle work before securing jobs. As you can tell things have advanced since the ALMT got involved back in Jan by starting to build the college, offering courses for furthering education. This will now give the children a future they didn't have and a way to sustain a quality of life rather than no life.  That said, there is still an awful lot that needs doing which takes time and money.

We arrived back just in time to serve lunch and it wasn't long before we were off out again to buy fish for dinner.  There we were wondering around the local market on the mission for fish for 380 children. Though we are now used to being stared at and actually find it amusing, today we were extra special out in public wearing our Sari's :o)

As the fish market was on route to the Bay of Bengal and we had to wait for the HUGE mass of fish to be de-scaled, Sagar and fruit boy were nice enough to take us and show us where the Tsunami hit small villages wiping them out. It was very interesting to see where some of the chilren from the Orphange came from and how far the sea came in land.

Back at the ranch with fish in tow, the cooks got busy and so did we. All the things we had bought earlier in the week (toothpaste, soap, shampoo etc) had arrived and it was time to give it out to the chilren. The boys sat onw side on the floor and the girls the other having a sing off between sexes (not that we're biast at all - but the girls are better - naturally).  They moved up row by row as we delivered them their little bags - everyone saying thank you and still smiling. Seems so alien to give a six year old child a bar of soap to wash their own clothes - and the fact they are so happy and grateful is what we find the hardest to deal with. Could you imagine giving that to a six year old at home who wants a new bike or computer - its just gobsmacking to see. Now came the better bit. As dinner still wasn't ready at 730pm  and the kiddies hadn't eaten since 1pm - much to our delight we were able to give oiut the chocloate we bought from home. Fudges, Chomps, Diary milk animal bars and Freddie Frogs. It was still boiling thought nightime and the children didn't know what to do with the chocolate. They want to save it but it started to melt and we were telling them to eat it. Even the cooks popped out to get a bar of chocolate its so rare out there. Though we lugged x8 boxes of chocolate over with us - it was more than worth it for the response and their little faces. We only wish we could have bought more.

We then had an hour of play time following dinner before bed. The girls danced and sang for us as we filmed and took photos. The moment you pull out a camera to take a photo you get swamped. They are desperate to have their photos taken - yet another thing we take for granted I guess. I had to laugh though a little girl called Prianka came over to us asking if we were married, children, siblings etc etc etc questions, questions, questions bless them. We noticed when we were playing rounders the other day that one girl was quite aggressive, as we watched her more we realised she is deaf. Her name is Prianka, she is very bright and lip reads very well - we have given Sagar money for her to be tested and fixed with a hearing aid. Hopefully this will make her life at the orphanage a little easier. .

At dinner with Sagar and some others we discussed the future of Hebron. What was needed, the day to day costs of livng what's in the pipeline etc.  The orphanage was started in 1968 by Sagars father. It started with just 25 children (Sagar was 1 at the time). Sagars father sent letters to hundreds of places asking for help, he received just 1 reply, from a church in Australia - by then they had 68 children at the home, the church agreed to send money monthly to help him keep the home going. Over the years more and more chilren came to the home, as you can imagine with 380 children they need ALL the support they can get.

Signing off now as tomorrow is our last day and we're up early giving more presents to the children - we're happy as Sagar has given the children a day off to play with us, he hasn't told them yet so we can't wait to see their faces!

November 1st

We didn't sleep toowell last night, and were up at five. It felt weird that today would be our last day here..... So much has happenend in our few days that it feels like we've only just got here and now we are leaving.

Its Indian tradition to keep boys and girls separate. They sit separately, line up for dinner separately, never play mixed games - you name it its done seperately. Even if you are married in public you sit apart, eat at different times etc etc - its very hard to understand unless you see it for yourself. Men and women don't even walk down the street together here. Sagar said in the main Cities its slowly becoming more and more Westernised but that will not happen in the small towns. We can't quite decide if that's a good or a bad thing ??? I think it has +ves and -ves on both sides.

Anyway the girls live in three separate dorms and so Kerry and I went to visit them in turn to give out a few other small gifts we had bought them. We had with us around 70 bottles of nail polish but felt bad that we didn't bring enough for a bottle each. We divided the nail polish into 3 boxes and gave them to the older girls of each room to distribute and ensure the girls shared.

We also bought with us little hair bobbles, clips, alice bands etc, enough for one little thing each. Doesn't seem like much but they were very happy and ran off to paint their nails and do their hair.

When we got outside Madu (girl with the heart) was very sad. We asked her why she wasn't smiling and if she didn't feel well. She didn't say anything just looked at us with her eyes filled with tears. We didn't know what to say so I told her I had something to cheer her up and ran off to get her and her little friend some more chocolate. When I got back Kerry was upset - it turns out she didn't feel sick, she was upset because we were leaving and didn't want us to go.

These kids have had no visitors since Nick, Jockey & Kuldeep back in January,  and will no doubt not have anymore for another year.

Whilst standing there wondering what we could do to cheer Madu up, the other girls were running out one by one to show us their newly painted hands and feets. They were so excited and happy, one little one had a different colour per nail :o) We asked Madu if she would like us to paint hers and I ran inside to get my two bottles of nail varnish I had in my wash bag. Kerry painted one hand and I the other in different colours and in turn let her and her little friend paint ours. (I would like to say our nails, but actually it included half our fingers as well - bless them).

Some of the others must have heard about this because soon we were mobed. It was so funny they were looking at us so intensley. In our ears behind our ears our arms, eyelashes - everything. This is not the place to come if you are insecure about yourself, they pointed out everything about us they could see. Our fat bellies, moles, scars, mosquito bites :o) they had never even seen freckles before and thought I had something wrong with me.

We then let them play with our hair!!! Another interesting comment "Miss, your hair dark on inside, red on outside" .... AKA I think she meant dyed. (I prefer the words enhanced but as she is a child so I let it go). Kerry however looked about 10 when they had finnished, they put her hair up in bunches and they gave her the ribbon out of their own hair for bows.

It was so nice to spend quality time with the girls, they keep telling us how beautiful we are and wanted to hold our hands and sit next to us. Walking around we had children attached to every finger. What's remarkable is that even if you make eye contact with them their little faces light up. To think that that is all it takes to make them happy and feel important is heartbreaking. If you happen by chance to recall their names - well you've just made their year.

We then served our last breakfast of the trip and went inside to pack. When we came out we noticed the three boxes of nail varnish piled on a chair outside our room. We picked them up and went of to find Susie one of the oldest girls. We asked why she had return them, and it turns out they thought it was a treat just to be able to pain their nails and didn't think it was theirs to keep. We tried to explain but we're still not sure she understood that it was for them to keep.

We then decided to visit the boys dorms to see what they were upto. Heading up the stairs there was soon a mad rush. Everyone wanted a bit of our time, and when they saw the video camera and normal camera is when it all kicked off. They were calling "miss, miss, madam, madam - my photo, my photo". We took what seems like 100s but that still wasn't enough. They loved to look at what we had taken and then tried to junp into the next one. Our turn next - group photos with us.

What we forget is the older boys (children) those 14-16 who also want some attn so to take their photo or speak to them meant so much - we only wish we had more time.

The boys wanted to show us their dancing. So what can only be decribed as a breakdance off occured. HILARIOUS. The best had to be little Bubbie who showed us his caterpillar move across the muddy floor.

The shoes arrived this morning so after lunch the children were made to sit in rows whilst they were called one by one to try on and take their new shoes. As you can imagine giving out 380 pairs is very time consuming and tiring. This one little boy was cripled from birth. If you put your hands flat on a table top, turn them inwards so your fingers are facing eachother, and now flip them over so your knuckles are now touching the table..... Well this is how he walks on the tops of his feet. He never complains and it doesn't seem to stop him. So much so that apparently he runs away to the theatre and hides under the chairs as he loves films. We had to get him special shoes and he came running up (and yes he does run like this) to collect his new little shoes. So we picked him up and helped him put them on.

What is remarkable about these children is there is no outsider amongst them. Not one child is left on their own.

It was them time for us to leave and we reluctantly left the children to finish packing and say our goodbyes to Sagar and his family, and thank them for their hospitality. We were putting off saying goodbye to the children as we knew it would be upsetting and couldn't fit them all in our suitcases.

When walking out of the backdoor we were touched to find every child waiting there to say goodbye. Though you try to say goodbye to all its extremely difficult. Its wrong to say you have favourites as every child is special, but you become attached to some more than others and saying goodbye to those in particular was very difficult, especially when you see the sad look on their faces.

We got in the car both feeling empty and tearful. Though we wanted to come home, we didn't want to leave them behind and for a while couldn't speak to eachother. It takes 20 or so minutes to drive to the bridge to cross the river to come back past the orphanage the other side and to see all the children gathered on the river bank to wave us off sent us both over the edge.

So many people told us it would be a life changing experience and well they were right it has been for both of us. Words cannot described what we have seen this week, though we have tried to share it with ypu as best we could. It really is something to see and more importantly the way it makes you feel cannot be explained unless you experience it for yourselves. We have got so much back from this experience, and we will definitely come back to see the children.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the orphanage.  We got to see the great difference it is making. Your money went to a very good cause and we hope to continue to raise money for what is literally Indias forgotten children.

Thank you

Kerry & Mairead  Xxx