Fun Space Playground
Today Sister Punam and Sister Gemma Barla who was the Provincial last year along with myself and the driver will be taking a long day trip by small truck for a ride to a small village school named Gaibira to see a new Playground that Children are Angels from Heaven has had made with the Daughters of the Cross Sisters help.
It will be a very long day for everyone because I am not allowed to sleep over anyplace for the night except my hotel room because of the new visitor rules in Orissa.
After the small truck is loaded at 9:30 AM we are off on the road. It takes 2 hours of driving on a very busy road but we finally arrive. I see the school children all lined up in two rows on each side of the driveway to welcome us to the Convent and school. The children all clap their hands and sing songs as the Rourkela Sisters and I walk past them to get in front of the Convent where the Gaibira Sisters are waiting to welcome us here by having the children give us flowers and to wash our hands.
After we are welcomed into the community the Sisters invite us for lunch with them in the Convent kitchen.
When we finish lunch it is time to go and see the new playground. Let me tell you it was beautiful!
The name of the new playground will be called Fun Space.
It had 2 Merry Go Rounds 4 see saws and a beautiful slide with a bridge across the top with 2 slides. The area was filled with white soft sand and the entire area had a painted metal fence around it with a beautiful gate to get in and out that said Fun Space with pretty drawings painted on it. On the side of the fence a big sign was installed that said Fun Space Sponsored By, Children Are Angels From Heaven, America.
The small students of the school had watched the workers build the playground every day and were very happy that the day has finally arrived where we will cut the ribbon and open the playground to them. After I said a few words to everyone, one of the Sisters blessed the entire playground with holy water then the ribbon was cut and the children were let into playground to play.
It was unbelievable watching the children run through the entrance gate. I had to laugh as many of the children ran to go on the Merry Go Round. They did not know how it worked the Sisters had to push them around until they all got the idea of it. From that point forward the Merry Go Round never stopped. The slides and the see saws also got a good workout.
I was very happy with the workmanship and I felt Children are Angels from Heaven got our money’s worth from the project as the Daughters of the Cross Sisters looked after every detail of the project and everything was well constructed and painted.
It was an expensive project but when I looked around and saw all the happy faces I knew it was money well spent as these children never had anything like this before and it was all new to them.
Below is a Before and After photo for you to see the area Fun Space was made along with photos of the children and the new playground.
After the children played in Fun Space for about an hour it was time to go to the School hall where the children of each class had a dance and song program for the Sisters and myself . It was all very good and each class did a great job.
Before the Rourkela Sisters and I said good bye to everyone Sister Punam brought out a big box loaded with Frisbees, balls, earrings (for the older girls) and stuffed animals that the Sisters handed out to each class. Every child got something!
Before we had to leave to go back to Rourkela because it was getting late, all the children wanted to shake my hand and say Thank You for the playground and for visiting their school.
