It was a fantastic annual leave for me to be at the orphanage for nearly one month. So much has been achieved and we will share it with you as soon as possible .  The trip was started right after my flight from New York and after sending Tassya and Christian off to go back to their  school .   Christine , Tassya and Christian were spending their school break at the orphanage with their mom and the orphanage children. They were so wonderfully on assisting their mom to run the orphanage daily.  It was rather hard when all of them must return to school and must leave their mom alone.  Again we are so privilege to have all of our own children ( Christine , Tassya and Christian ) to be with us at the orphanage during their school's summer break.   It has been a happy moment to all them them to play and sharing their time with the orphanage children .  They have been looked up by the orphanage children as far as their schooling is concern . It is for them to have more motivation to be able to give the orphanage children a good example to progress.  It is not a must for them to be at the orphanage during their school break but it has been their desire to be there , Praise The Lord.

We are also so happy to see them having fun among them self and with the orphanage children . Praise The Lord We have no handicap as far as the relationship and interaction are  concern for the whole members of the orphanage.  We can always able to communicate and interacting freely and no sense of being a stranger nor being less than others.  A critic was given to us that we should not call it as an orphanage but it should be a BIG FAMILY home . We are so blessed that the children are able to have a feeling to be part of a big family instead of to be one of the orphanage's children

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Sonny and Cornelis holding hearts for you

sending off Tassya and Christian back to school ( to Vancouver. Canada)

It was only Peggy and my self  going back to the orphanage after all the kids were gone, it was so different when we were going there for the first time . That time all of the children were so little and Christian was even less than 4 years old. The time is surely running so fast.  The big difference also when we were reaching the orphanage. It was an empty and stony land when we were there but now the place is having so much plants which making the place so green and we can hide ourselves from the sun . Even more the plants can block some of the dust and reducing the wind breezing through the orphanage's ground. Praise The Lord indeed for the good and healthy trees and for the healthy 73 children at Roslin Orphanage.

It was great the orphanage is having its play ground so that the children can have some quality time among them self.  It was so sad that one day we were having a visitor whom were asking for some help . Three mothers from the East Timor refugee compound came in the evening hours with their 3 children. when we were just went inside the house , the 3 mothers were bringing their children away as much as possible from the gate then then the three mothers ran away without their children. The three children were crying loudly and calling for their moms to come back but their moms were continue running and never coming back. It was rather hard to witness the situation and must face the facts that the children were abandoned by their moms. It was so hard for Peggy to calm them down where toys and items cannot actually replace the feeling of having their moms around . Peggy were spending such a long hours trying to make them comfortable with us and being with us .  All other children were also trying to be closer to the 3 new children ( Asiku or Mateus Koskan De Carwallo  , Abosco  or Joad Da Silva and Ella or Maria Paskuela Da Silva ) . Finally they were ok and gradually willing to be together with the rest. Some problem were developed as they were not so good with their Indonesian language thus making things harder. The next morning ( 3 hours after they were sleeping) at 04 00 am we found the 3 of them were on the swings and other playground equipments. It was for the first  for the 3 of them to be able to feel and play on a swing and other .  The East Timor refugee camps until now are in a very bad shape where sanitation is worst than what the bad condition that the local are having ( we are so sad and feel that they do not treated properly for at least a decent treatment or assisted enough).

Praise The Lord for enabling us to have the playground and equipments

It was so great to see the children able to do well in their schooling.  Indeed most of them are giving us the sense of pride when they are arriving from the school, those children who came to us as babies they are now in primary school 1, 2 , 3  and 4 already.  Not only they are growing well but again almost everyday they are coming home with perfect scores of their school progresses.  Carlos is only grade 1 but his writing is so neat.  The one who has been so lacking in their schooling are now also giving us good scores, Praise The Lord.  It was Ako and Markus that were so slow but now they are also contributing our happiness with letting us their perfect scores . We are so blessed that even we do not have any extra lessons for the children but they are doing well in school.  After lunch is a good habit for them to do their home work together.  It is also the best time as they will be able to ask the older children if they are finding some difficulties with the home work.

studying and home work time

big and small are doing it

Until now we are still using the same place for the children to have their meals , to study and many more but we are hoping that we will be able to have a proper room for them to study and for many other things. We are currently still doing the girl's dorm building.  While I was there we were having such a great time at which all of bigger boys and bigger girls were working together upon making the second floor's foundation.  We are so blessed that we are having our cement's mixer and no more back breaking like before when we have to mix the cement manually. The back breaking cement mixing was reminding us our friend Amy and Chris Wong who were helping us with the boy's dorm foundation. Both were involved on making the ditch and arranging the stone and bricks for the library building and the boy's dorm building. Thanks again Amy and Chris Wong.

Upon making the second floor of the girl's dorm all of us were involved on filling the bucket with the mixed cement and sand then we brought the bucket one by one and hand in hand to the second floor which is about 5 meters up . Peggy was controlling the phase of the flow while I was controlling the bucket filling. Our voice was so loud as all of us were working together with such joyful feeling. The girls were so cheerful for they are building their dorm them selves. Praise The Lord for the togetherness and for the children realizing the needs and their collective efforts. It was a hard work for the boys filling up the bucket as they must do it fast and must compete with the machine. The second floor making must be done continuously as the cement must be filled without any stopping , to make sure that the cement will give the best grip to the metal structure and for not making any hollow part of the floor.

The girls were also doing their hard part as some of them must hand the buckets constantly and continuously plus the heat of the sun that they must dealt with. It was started from 8 am and finished at 5 pm.  Praise The Lord for being able to complete the floor filling, for the good weather and for the togetherness among us.

the manually made supporting structure

preparing before the cement mixture being poured to make the 2nd floor

the materials are ready  and the cement mixture machine is also ready

It was so great that all of us are working together based on our orphanage's slogan which is togetherness is our strength. By practicing the slogan we can create their sense of belonging and they are doing things with happiness rather than as a burden. They even doing extra cleaning and some were able to arrange some snacks and drinks while the work is in progress. Indeed we have trained them some sort of multi tasking and trying to appreciate the available time and energy among the children.

The second floor work was left for 3 weeks before further progress is being made. I left 2 days earlier before they open up the scaffolding.  Now the scaffolding has been opened and some  upwards pillar works are in progress. e are hoping that the girl's dorm can be done in 2 months time ( otherwise it will be disturbed by the rainy season).

the jack fruit tree

While I was there , one of the jack fruit tree was having 7 fruits ripen at the same time. Indeed we are so blessed for being able to eat jack fruit in a place where it is difficult to get it.  Even more as we are able to eat it from our own tree . Some of our friends were having the privilege to get the ripen jack fruit from the tree directly and to cut it open and to eat it together with the children.  The trees are the same type of jack fruit tree with the one that we have in our home in Jakarta. On one tree at least we are having 20 fruits this time.  In the past we were having a jack fruit tree collapsed during a rainy day in Jakarta , The reason was that tree was having 72 fruits when the heavy rain was falling

Captain Christopher Bek , the CEO of Medic LLP company in Singapore taking the jack fruit down

bro Kelvin Kong from Singapore taking his turn to take the jack fruit down

If we are remembering this place 11 years ago , it seems to be impossible that we can have this fruit harvest . It was a land full of stones and coral when we first came . Indeed it is God's blessing only for us to be able to make this land to be a fertile soil and able to produce fruit for us.  It is jack fruit season now and it will be the turn of the mango trees to give us fruit in December.  We are so privilege to have these as the neighbors are not able to have these precious fruits like what we are having.

TO BE CONTINUED ON THE ENTRY AFTER THE NEXT ONE