On Saturday November 1, Paul and Lily English from California sponsored a field trip for the Dayspring Children to see the sea for the first time. We packed into an 18 seater van: 24 children, 2 drivers, 6 adults and three pots of food for breakfast and lunch! In India, everything works out in the end, but it still made an interesting five hour bus ride! Luckily, we had some great Kollywood films for the journey to entertain the children (and baffle the English-speaking adults!) on our way to Kanyakumari, located on the tip of India.

As soon as the sun rose, children were searching for the sea, which they finally found about one hour later. We finally arrived and took them to the shore where they all ran into the water and greatly entertained themselves and the adults for a half hour! They were jumping up and down with huge smiles on their faces, running in and out of the waves! Then we visited the Gandhi memorial, recently reopened after the Tsunami in 2004. The Gandhi memorial is as high as a church and sits on the ocean front. When the tsumani hit, the crest of the wave was as high as the entire building – just crazy to realize when you see the grandeur of the building. As the children played on the swings, we prepared breakfast under a veranda. There was a bounce house that caught all of their attention, and as today was their treat, we paid for them to enjoy the bounce house. Oh man, flying children on a bouncy contraption they were experiencing for the first time! All these new experiences for them were so entertaining to watch.

We then walked to the ferry dock to visit the Vivekenanda memorial and a temple, both located on islands just off the shore. The children were so excited to travel on a boat for the first time, and although the ferry lasted a few minutes, they enjoyed every moment of it! We took a great tour of the temple and took some great photos of the group - meanwhile the children were excited to get back on the boat again! On the way back to the bus, we stopped by an ice cream stand and, you guessed it, they got to have ice cream for the first time! (By this time, you may be thinking that we spent an exorbitant amount of money, but wait till the end and you’ll be amazed how little this cost…). Some were savoring each tiny scoop, others were wanting to save it for later – we had to explain that unfortunately, ice cream couldn’t survive in our pockets!

We boarded the bus for a palace in Kerala that was strongly influenced by Chinese architecture and authentic Keralan design but strongly resembled a colonial villa….the children took little interest in this because a.) they were exhausted from little sleep (Viramuthu fell asleep standing up and fell over in the bus, whoops) and b.) they knew that the waterfalls were our next stop. We arrive at the falls by about 4 p.m. and had to drag most of the children out of the van, they were absolutely exhausted. Most of them had fallen asleep in awkward positions all over the bus (including right next to the gear stick) and were unwillingly awoken.

However, they were soon grateful that they woke up when they reached the waterfalls, which is also used as a washing area for people. The waterfall was divided; 90 percent was allocated for men and 10 percent for females. Women had to stay fully clothed as they swam in the water and dipped their hair under the falls!

On the way back, all the children slept and the adults tried (unsuccessfully) to follow suit. By 2 a.m. in the morning, we returned to the Dayspring Home after 24 hours of fun. They were well and truly exhausted but clearly satisfied with their day.

For the first (and maybe only) time in their lives, the children visited Kanyakumari, tasted ice cream, went on a jump house, swam in the waterfalls and – their favourite part – went on a boat. Aside from visiting Kanyakumari, all of us have experienced these things but all these memories swim among an ocean of similar experiences that we also take for granted. Seeing the smiles on the childrens faces put life back into its proper perspective.

To see more photos, please visit the Kanyakumari photo album.

 
 

Thanks to kind donations from Caritas Sweden and SI Chico USA, we have been able to purchase:
     * A reverse osmosis water filter for the Dayspring Home. This means that the children now have constant access to clean, safe drinking water.
     * Mosquito net panelling for all of the windows saving the children from many unwanted bites during the night.
     * A new cow to provide the children with fresh milk and to use for future breeding

Dayspring Home was very much in need of all of the above and the children are extremely thankful.  In their own words, the things brought with the donations are  "SUPER!" As soon as we purchase the cow, we will post a photo to introduce our new member of the Dayspring Home.
We have just updated our needs under our "HOW YOU CAN HELP" page.  Even if you can only afford to donate a small amount of money, it will go a long way at the Dayspring Home. Nandri!

 
 

The DSH Children had the opportunity to entertain many visitors over the weekend. To welcome their visitors, the children rehearsed dances and songs to entertain their guests. Here is a taste of some performances.