Sunday, November 20, 2011

Construction Work Begins

Construction of a second floor on the main building is now underway. This will give us another bathroom and seperate sleeping areas for the boys and staff. The work will also include a building with a sickbay room, bathrooms and sleeping areas for the cook and 4 widows who will help with cooking, cleaning and farming tasks.












Update on Mani

While Karen was over in India, Mani, one of our older boys was involved in an accident on the way home from school. He fractured his leg just below the knee and the bone was restricting blood supply to his lower leg. During an emergency operation at the government hospital in Madurai he had a pin and metal brace attached. After 3 1/2 weeks in hospital he was discharged and is now being cared for at Shalom. The pin and brace have now been removed and he needs to make regular trips back to hospital for monitoring and physio. We're not sure when he'll be up and walking or back at school. We appreciate everyone's prayers for his quick recover and we thank God that he suffered no infections. His parents who divorced when he was little, were tracked down and invited to stay at Shalom to assist with his rehabilitation. His Mum is now helping Rada with the cooking and his Dad is doing building and farming work. It's great to have brought the family back together after many years apart.

Sept - Oct: Karen's Visit - Spending Time At Shalom


During September and October Karen spent nearly 4 weeks visiting Shalom. It was a busy time finalising plans for the new building work and arranging things for Israel's wedding in Nove
mber but there was still plenty of time to have fun with the boys. They are all growing up so quickly and its getting easier each visit to talk to them as their English improves. The property was looking nice and green and Israel, Prabhu and and Rada are doing a wonderful job looking after everyone. I hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos on the following posts.




Sept - Oct: Karen's Visit - Study time

The three oldest boys have now started two year courses at Loyala Technical College in Madurai. They are studying to be electricians and a mechanic. Half the classes are taught in English, so their English is really improving and it was nice to have some small conversations with them. The younger boys have settled into a great routine of homework and revision before school and in the evenings. Several of them scored marks betwen 70 and 80% in their exams and Stephen scored 100% in Science which got everyone excited. We're still in negotiations with the village leaders to get final permission to start our new tutoring program at the village school.






Sept - Oct: Karen's Visit - The Vegie Gardens

The vegetable gardens are growing well. There are lots of beans, bringal, ladies finger and other local vegies. On Saturdays the boys help with weeding the gardens, picking vegies and preparing what they've harvested for lunch. Many of the meals are now prepared using rice, vegetables, eggs and milk produced through the farming activities.





Sept - Oct: Karen's Visit - Water Water Everywhere

During Karen's visit, the monsoon rains started falling, which meant that there was water and mud everywhere. The car got bogged and then our access road became too slippery and dangerous so we had to walk in and out through the mud. Our 50ft well, which had been dry, filled up and actually overflowed and water was flowing through the irrigation channel that runs beside the property. All this water means this year we'll be able to double our rice production.






Sept-Oct : Karen's visit - Letter writing

We now have sponsors for about half of the boys and Karen was able to take some letters, photos and games over from some of the sponsor families. The boys were so excited to get letters from Australia and see the photos of their families. They enjoyed playing the games and wrote letters back which they decorated with lots of stickers.







Sept - Oct: Karen's Visit - Looking after the cows

The boys have been learning lots about looking after the cows. They now help with milking, feeding, moving the cows around, and looking after the calves. Both of the cows are pregnant and due to give birth around April. Our biggest challenge is to find some more experienced cow farmers so we can increase the number of cows at the farm.






































Friday, November 11, 2011

July to September Overview

Sorry I have no photos for this period, but I'll give you a brief run-down on what happened.
July 2011
The boys began settling into their new classes. Four of them advanced to High School, and three started studying trade courses at Loyala Technical Institute in Madurai, where they'll study to be electricians and a mechanic for the next two years. Unfortunately the academic year started off badly for the primary and high school students. After a change of State Government, the curriculum was changed and new text books had to be printed. Few proper classes were held during the first 6-8 weeks putting great pressure on the teachers and students to catch up missed classes before the half yearly exams. This also meant that the start of our village tutoring program had to be put on hold until everything was sorted out.
August 2011
We had a little rain and were finally able to replant the vegetable gardens. The cows are going well, producing lots of milk and the boys are now attending normal classes with new text books. The ladies craft group at our church made lots of beautiful craft items and held a stall which raised money towards providing toilet and bathroom facilities for the widow cottage. We'd also like to thank the Brisbane Telugu Fellowship for a generous donation which we're planning to use to start a new goat group in our village in Februray next year.
September 2011
Kenmore Baptist Kid's Church sold craft and cakes and raised enough money to buy new beds for all the boys to use once the new sleeping areas are completed upstairs. Well done and thanks to all the kids and leaders for a wonderful effort. At the end of September, Karen headed over to spend 4 weeks visiting Shalom. The photos from her trip will appear in the next update.

June 2011 - School holidays and more goats

During June, the boys enjoyed several weeks break from school. The youngest boys attended a week of children's activities at Pastor Daniel's church in Madurai. Along with 350 other children, they played games, did craft, sang songs, watched dramas and held a big march through the neighbouring streets. Our first round of goat recipients in Kalkudi started returning their male goats. These were sold to pay for 10 new pairs of goats which were given out to another 10 people in Kalakudi. The goat rearing project seems to be going well in this village, with everyone from the first round able to keep a pregnant female from their pair. A new boy and a new warden also joined us at the beginning of the month.

May 2011 - More cows arrive

Temperatures continued to climb during May, with most days in the high 40's and no sign of rain. The farm worker's accommodation was finished and a new farming couple were hired from a nearby village to look after the cows. Another another cow and female calf were bought bringing the number of cows to two adults giving milk and 3 female calves growing to maturity. The boys were busy studying for exams and the 5 oldest boys completed 10th standard. This is a great achievement considering how much school they had missed prior to coming to Shalom. Thanks to some generous donations from a couple of families at our church, we now have enough money to build a small cottage to house four widows on the property. They will assist with cooking, cleaning and farming tasks. We also have most of the funds needed to construct a second floor on the main building. This will allow us to provide seperate sleeping areas for the boys and staff.



April 2011 - Meet our new calf

During April we welcomed the arrival of our first calf born and bred at the farm. The great news is that she is a healthy female who will be ready for milking in about 2 years. Everyone got colourful shirts as a gift from Karen's Mum, which the younger boys are holding up in the photo below.

March 2011 - Our First Rice Harvest

In mid March, the rice was finally ready to harvest. The crop surpassed our expectations and gave us 9 months supply of rice for the Home. Israel hired a harvesting machine to do the work which only took a couple of hours compared to a couple of days by hand. Once the machine separated the grains from the rice stalks, the rice was spread out onto large sheets of plastic to dry in the sun. A few days later, the older boys helped the workers load all the rice into big storage bags and the straw was gathered up into a huge pile to be used to feed the cows.