A New Orphan Comes to Sooch Village

"Talk to Joyoti. She will help him."

That was the statement made by our driver, Rajesh, as we were leaving Sooch Village two days ago. He was speaking to a man who had pulled up next to our car on a motorcycle. Sitting in front of the man was a young boy about six years old.

This boy is the newest orphan at Sooch Village. The man on the motorcycle was his uncle, who had been caring for him for the last three months but was no longer able to do so. The boy's parents had been traveling back from the city one evening months ago when they promptly disappeared. As the Sooch Village director Jyoti put it, "Their bodies were never found."

I had seen the later conditions of orphans at The Miracle Foundation - the smiling, happy faces and the sad ones too - but not the initial face of a boy who was literally dropped off moments ago to start a brand new life.

Later that evening, the first day the boy was in Sooch Village, I was eating dinner in the dining hall of building #5. I ate a scoop of rice and looked up. There was that new boy. He had wandered out of his room and was looking up and down the inside of the building, surveying his new surroundings. The look on his face spoke deeply to my primitive, human side. He was confused, scared and still wiping his mouth from his first meal at the orphanage. Other children quickly ate around him, regulars who knew the drill and had already found comfort in the habits and rituals of Sooch Village.

Eventually, this boy will find comfort too. But not yet. Not now.

After we finished our dinner, I asked to see that boy before we left for the night. I walked into his room, where he was lying on the floor with eight other children, sleeping away his first night in his new home. As Jyoti put it, even though the children had beds of their own, they liked to sleep together when they first arrived at Sooch Village. The boy was sleeping soundly. So for now, he had found enough peace to rest.

I kept wrestling with the idea of how tough it would be to be that boy. How difficult is it for children to be forced to have adult emotions. I took solace in the fact that he was no longer a lone orphan staying with his uncle but that now he would have a new, much bigger and more capable family at The Miracle Foundation.

Life is tough now for that boy but he only has good things to look forward to. It's been a blessing to see not only the end results of The Miracle Foundation's work but the beginning of it too. It makes the good times here that much more rewarding.

Durga Puja in Orissa

As we've traveled in the state of Orissa visiting two of The Miracle Foundation's orphanages, we've seen the beginnings of the celebration of the Durga Puja festival. One of over thirty festivals celebrated each year in India, Durga Puja is celebrated throughout India and is one of the many, many days off of school and work during the year. Sasi, our accountant at the Bhawani orphanage, said that Indian children only go to school 215 days out of the year because there are so many holidays. Here's a bit more info about Durga Puja:

The pujas are held over a ten-day period, which is traditionally viewed as the coming of the married daughter, Durga, to her father, Himalaya's home. It is the most important festival in Bengal, and Bengalis celebrate with new clothes and other gifts, which are worn on the evenings when the family goes out to see the 'pandals' (temporary structures set up to venerate the goddess). Although it is a Hindu festival, religion takes a backseat on these five days: Durga Puja in Bengal is a carnival, where people from all backgrounds, regardless of their religious beliefs, participate and enjoy themselves to the hilt.

Durga is the goddess that the celebration is centered around.

In Hinduism, Durga or Maa Durga (Mother Durga) is a form of Devi, the supreme goddess. Goddess Durga is considered by Hindus to be the mother of Ganesha, and Kartikeya. She is thus considered the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Shiva's wife, goddess Parvati.

Durga is depicted as a warrior aspect of Devi Parvati with 10 arms who rides a lion or a tiger, carries weapons and assumes mudras, or symbolic hand gestures. This form of the Goddess is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy.

Puja means "worship" and one of the first signs of the coming of the festival is the many tent-like structures that are constructed for the festival. We've seen lots of colored lights and lots of these tent-like structures being built for the upcoming festival.



People will stay up all night exchanging gifts, dancing and singing. One of the reasons this festival is held during this time of year is that the farmers have just sold their crops after the monsoon season so they have lots of money to spend.

There's really no American equivalent to these Indian festivals. Sasi points to the many holidays in India as one of many reasons that Indians lag behind America in terms of development. To a certain degree, he's correct. There would never be a ten-day holiday in America.

Read more about Durga Puja here.

Thank you for the Ice Cream Party!

The children at the Bhawani orphanage want to thank Amy Hart-Jones and Bill and Linda Carson for donating an ice cream party! We just had the ice cream party yesterday and the children loved it. The party was in honor of Andy Jones and Bill and Linda's nephew. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.


A couple of the older boys brought over two tables to set up for the party.


Nichole (right) and the staff begin unpacking the ice cream and ready the plates for the children.


We had two flavors on the menu - strawberry and vanilla. Each child got a slice of both kinds. From what I've seen in India, ice cream comes in brick form instead of the tubs you find in America.


The children line up, youngest and shortest at the front and the older kids to the back. They're watching Susan, the director of the Bhawani orphanage, cut the ice cream.


And we have our first customer!


Just some friends hanging out, having ice cream on a hot afternoon in Jharsuguda, Orissa.


Did I mention that the children love, absolutely love ice cream?


Even in India, the older boys play it cool.


There's no conversation. The food must be good!


Of course, there was enough left for the staff to have some too. I think they enjoyed it just as much as the children.


Even the local villagers that were working on the new office rooms at Bhawani (you can sort of see them in the back there)were able to join in. They grabbed their ice cream and quickly ran back to work.


And that's a wrap! The staff served approximately 200 children in about 15 minutes. Not too shabby.

A big thank you again to Amy Hart-Jones and Linda Carson for their generous contribution! If you'd like to donate an ice cream/birthday party for the children, please visit MiracleFoundation.org.