Today after breakfast the Sisters and I are going to take a day trip to another Convent named Crus Putri Nina’s, Bihabandh. It will be a short ride about 1 hour away from Rourkela. While here I am going to look at another project that I have been asked to do. That will be making a drying room for the Sisters and future children who will live here to have clothes lines made under a roof for drying clothes in the Monsoon season as there is no place to dry clothes in the heavy rains after washing them. It has become a problem.

 

Before we head out to the countryside to Bihabandh there are two places that we will stop at first. The first stop is in downtown Rourkela called Max Bakery. This is a very busy big bakery. They sell everything here and have a Pizza Den upstairs to eat at. Everything is excellent here.

 

The Sisters and I have to order a few cakes for upcoming visits and a program at the convent. We want everything to be fresh and perfect so we stop to pre order everything beforehand. Everything went very well at Max Bakery ordering the cakes , but parking sure is hard in downtown Rourkela with lots of traffic.

I did not sleep well last night. I explained this to Sister Anna Mary when I met her. I could not stop thinking about my friend Dinesh yesterday. As you already know there are 352 children in his school (all boys) and 351 play in the playing field every day. For the most part Dinesh is left out.

 

It really bothered me that Dinesh had to sit out most of the time playing sports games because of his handicapped leg.

 

I gave many hours of thought about it last night and somehow I felt that I had to correct the problem as best that I could. I thought that Dinesh rather than play on the playing field, Dinesh might have some free time to enjoy something else for himself.

 

So with that I was on the Internet on my iPad all night looking for a music store. I wanted to buy Dinesh a small musical instrument to learn to play when all the other boys were playing in the big field. I know that Dinesh is a smart boy and picks up things fast. Like how to ride a bicycle with one leg or to climb trees to get fruit for his family back in his village.

 

When I told Sister Anna Mary about my plan. She asked me did you find a store? I said yes Sister, the name of the store is The Noise Factory and is located on Karachi Road in Rourkela 769012 and the telephone number is 7735661515. Sister Anna Mary looked the Noise Factory up on her telephone and then called the store to be sure they were there. Sister Anna Mary then said to me Ray , today is your lucky day. The Noise Factory is on our way to Bihabandh and they are open.

 

It took 30 minutes to arrive at the Noise Factory. When we arrived at the store and went inside the store there were all kinds of musical instruments at every part of the store, all brand new. It looked great ! We met 3 young girls working there and explained a little about Dinesh how the other boys can play sports and he can not.

 

We were looking for a small personal musical instrument for him, maybe a flute or a harmonica. The girls had exactly what I was looking for in many different varieties. They told the Sisters and I about each flute and harmonica. The 3 girls were all very good and never pushed me to buy anything and they truly tried to help the Sisters and I to buy something that would be good for Dinesh and be easy for him to learn to play.

 

In the end I bought a flute and a harmonica for Dinesh.

 

When I left the store I was very happy with everything.

 

We are now on our way to Bihabandh. The Sisters are waiting for our arrival. After the washing and drying of our hands we all received a warm welcome by all the Sisters.

 

It only took a few minutes and I was out back looking after the area the Sisters would like to use to build the drying room. It looks workable. I said to get a few estimates from local contractors. Children are Angels from Heaven has done this work before with my friend Sister Mary and everything worked out great , but she is now in Rome so I am not sure how the project will move forward. Quality work is first with the funding being second along with a few other details.

 

After my inspection of the area on the property I went inside and I could not believe my eyes. Sister Anupama, my friend, has come from another Convent to say hello to me and have a nice lunch with everyone. It was a surprise and a very nice time.

 

When it was time to say goodbye some local children gathered around me to say hello to me and we had a nice talk for a few minutes.

 

Two Sisters on a motor scooter had our car follow them to a pretty area to overlook the Rice Paddies. It was nice to see. The sad part is the Sisters tell me there was little rain this year and it will not be a big crop and the cost of rice will go up. Poor people will find it very hard to pay for it.

 

From here we headed back to Rourkela and called it a day.

 

Thank You for all your help….

 

Ray O