Fall is here!
Autumn has arrived, and our guest house has been packed with foreign volunteers from several countries since September. I just hired a young mother, not yet 30 years old, who has AIDS, to help with the cooking and laundry. One woman guest found out and moved out that very day.
This time of year is when we are waiting for the rice harvest, and when the kids are on their school vacation of nearly a month. House by house, we have taken them on excursions, and the other day we had a field day (an annual event) with the kids and staff (save for the old lad here) participating. Father Ole and Brother Keng ran a great show. Both were hardly able to walk and talk after the day long event, and are still tired from the yelling and cheering! But the kids and staff had great fun!
The northeast is still hot and humid, but the farm folk say the monsoons have moved further south, but everyone knows it is not over until the fat lady sings. Our rice looks pretty good, but has not formed kernels as yet. And this keeps us a bit nervous. But I dug two retaining ponds two years ago, and now we are pumping water to parched fields to finish up the rice for harvest. We received a grant early last year for a baler, and we finally bought one. This will enable us to bale the straw and not have all that waste. Other famers are interested in hiring us to bale their hay and straw as well.
The little girls of St. Patrick’s saw two of their friends who are crippled from AIDS get new bikes with trainer wheels. They have expressed great interest in bikes of their own, so I wound up buying five more new bikes. They will be fighting like tinkers over the new bikes, but because of my salary scale, someone else can deal with it. I also bought a bike for our Down’s syndrome girl, also equipped with trainer wheels.
Our new kids seem to be doing really well. This week we will pick three more little kids from downriver. The mother died of brain cancer, and the father is a drug dealer. We also have two newly born babies due in any day now.
Again, thank you so very much! We remember you in our daily prayers, asking the Good Lord to give you all good health, happiness and peace. May the Lord bless you and your families.
Father Mike
