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Sunday, April 29, 2007
Friends from HI visit
Murray and Bev Bawden have been here the last 10 days. This was Murray's third trip to Bangladesh and Bev's first trip. We were all happy to finally meet Mrs. Bawden! Bev was very involved and helpful in getting us the playground. She was our middle man (woman!) in the States and made many inquiries, phone calls and handled the logistics with the manufacture. We couldn't have done it without her!
On this trip, Murray oversaw the construction of the basketball court. An added bonus on this trip was that Murray and Bev were able to see their two Grandchildren, Sage and Anneka!
Murray, we sure hope to have you back within a year!
posted
by Thomas at 4:55 PM
Friday, April 27, 2007
Drains and driveway
While Murray was here we were also able to construct drains around the playground and bb court and pour concrete on the driveway. What an improvement! It stormed last night terribly with heavy rain but this morning we had no standing water like normal. What a difference. We thank all the local laborers, foreigners, youth of HOL and staff that helped in these projects. Together much has been accomplished!
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by Thomas at 4:12 PM
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Another Birthday Party
I guess that after working at the Home of Love for ten years it is possible that Thomas and I have seen something close to a 90 Birthday parties... Still we rejoice and enjoy watching the kids grow up and develop.
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by Thomas at 7:42 AM
Monday, April 23, 2007
Princess for the day
Here is a picture of our friends' wedding. We thought you might like to see her beautiful dress. Dola is from Bangladesh and Shawn is from Canada. The foreigners present at the wedding all concluded that Bangladeshi wedding clothes are amazingly beautiful and festive.
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by Thomas at 11:38 AM
Saturday, April 21, 2007
New Face on the Boy's Wing
Tobias Jacob from Germany has recently joined us on staff here at the Home of Love. Tobias actually quit his well paying job to volunteer here for 6 months. He is assisting Patrick in the workshop and is busy repairing many things. Thank God for people like Tobias who work rather unseen and quietly but accomplish much at the end of the day.
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by Thomas at 5:25 PM
Friday, April 20, 2007
Sunset on the Padma River
This river is in the southwest of Bangladesh. We attended a wedding recently and saw this gorgeous sunset on the 13 hour bus ride.
Above is a picture of the type of ferry we rode on.
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by Thomas at 5:20 PM
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Patrick the surveyor
The day we tried to level the ground for the future basketball court we heard things like, "Just another inch!" or "No, it's too deep" or "It's okay there but over there needs another 2 inches off the topsoil" all through the day. Sometimes we felt like strangling Patrick but we didn't...He is too valuable! Thank you, Patrick for paying close attention to detail and having high standards. Written by Colleen and
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by Thomas at 12:41 PM
Monday, April 16, 2007
Basketball Court Construction
This week we will begin formal construction of the Basketball court that we have talked about for a year. How exciting! Most of the leveling has already been done along with some of the drains. Murray Bawden from HI will is here to oversee this project. Murray and team were the ones who oversaw the building and outfitting of the workshop and the playground. It is also good to have Mrs. Bawden here. It is her maiden trip to Bangladesh. The Bawdens are the parents of Sonia Driscoll.
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by Thomas at 5:37 PM
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Happy New Year?
In the Bengali calendar, today April 14th is the beginning of a new year. So, today we are all greeting each other with: Subo Nobbo Bochor which as you might have guessed means, "Happy New Year". If you think that is odd, you might also think it's strange to give out calendars in April, see photo below. The calendars that the kids are holding were given to us from a German company and only arrived this week. We are thankful to the Kawohl Company for donating calendars each year to the Home of Love. Thanks to this company our kids' rooms are bright with colorful photos of German castles, tulips and cute puppy dogs.
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by Thomas at 1:56 PM
Friday, April 13, 2007
Happy Helpers
The assembly line that we formed to stack bricks became so efficient and swift that we soon had too many kids that thought it would be fun to join in our labor. We found ourselves begging the little ones to please go and play...
Jobs that look monumental get done quickly with so many willing hands. Sonia began this job after lunch when I joined her with another boy. Soon we were over 20 people and before afternoon tea time we were finished stacking an entire truckload of bricks. The truck had come and the worker men had just thrown the bricks off in a heap. The trucks here do not have a tilt to dump so there are always men who ride in the back with the heavy job of unloading upon arrival.
After stacking the bricks in long straight lines soon the brick breaker machine will come and crush them into gravel. Yes, you read that correctly. Bricks are initially formed by hand from clay and then fired in underground ovens. After lugging the bricks out by hand they are finally stacked by hand in lines for purchase. Once purchased the bricks are lugged into trucks by hand and then unloaded upon arrival, by hand. The story gets even more interesting...
Now those same bricks that have been in so many hands in order to form and stack and load and unload, become gravel as the brick breaking machine growls and shakes. It is hand fed through the thunderous machine twice and then brought to a pile in a metal bowl carried on a man's head.
In the end, the brick remains will become the gravel element in the cement of our future basketball court.
As always written by Colleen and
posted
by Thomas at 10:57 AM
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Want to join us?
Here I am taking the smaller ones around for a walk on the HOL property. On a typical Friday you will have kids playing football in the back, Jail ball in the front, marbles on the side, cricket on the school field and police & thief all around and in between.
Written by Larisa (age 11) and as always
posted
by Thomas at 5:20 PM
Monday, April 09, 2007
Study room
As you can see, we have a very nice facility for our children to study in. But, as you know nice facilities do not guarantee good grades unless they are used properly! Money cannot buy a love to learn. We pray that our teenagers will be diligent with what was given them and use these facilities to excel in school.
posted
by Thomas at 12:40 PM
Saturday, April 07, 2007
New co-workers
Beauty (on the right) is not new and has been with HOL for many years. She is very happy because over the Easter holiday she will be going to her village. She is taking a bunch of dried fish as a gift. Colleen and I were joking today at lunch wondering what our family and friends would think of such a gift! On the left is Bebi, she is our new co-worker. Bebi is 33 years old and has four children, the oldest being 15 yrs. She is living away from home now in order to earn an income for her family and only sees them once a week on her day off.
We also have a new cook, Thomas. He also has children and a wife at home and is living apart from them in order to work here. The two new staff seem very nice but please pray for them that they are a blessing to us and that they will enjoy working here with us. Thanks to all who prayed with us for new co-workers! God answers prayer.
posted
by Thomas at 7:51 PM
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Ruben dreams of being a Musketeer
It's a gorgeous spring afternoon. Ruben plays outside with bows and arrows passionately. There are tears if a bow is missing. He loves the outdoors and keeps us busy making him bows. The bamboo is easy to bend but doesn't last so long when you are using it so often.
posted
by Thomas at 1:44 PM
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Our morning view from the orphanage
His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
posted
by Thomas at 9:37 AM
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Another birthday party
A couple days ago we had our March birthday party. That means all the kids that had their birthday during that month celebrated together. After the speeches and congratulations we had program with dances and songs.
posted
by Thomas at 9:19 AM
Sunday, April 01, 2007
HOL : WCA boys soccer match
A couple minutes ago an exciting soccer match between "Home of Love" and "William Carey Academy" finished. HOL won this very hard fought game 7:3
Box seats(!)
Serious sideline spectators
This game was better than some professional soccer league games. GREAT job everyone! Phil and Rick you could help these teams to improve even more...
posted
by Thomas at 5:44 PM
Agnes
The kids are doing a lot of April fool's jokes today. We have been hearing them since 7am.
posted
by Thomas at 12:20 PM
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