Children's Village Blog
Mama India Returns to Her Children

Welcome to the Childrens' Village Blog!

Now, our Director, India Howell can share vignettes with all of us. We will try to update our blog twice a month.

Dear Friends,

Well I have been home for 2 weeks and can safely say that all the effects of jet lag and marathon travel have subsided. Don’t misunderstand! I still haven’t found my short term memory. I have a feeling I accidentally left that in the U.S. on a trip when I was in my 40’s!
Thanks to all of you who welcomed me into your homes and communities in May. I enjoyed seeing old friends, making new friends and sharing stories about our kids.

My homecoming could not have been sweeter. The kids sang, I cried and hugged them all again and again. Simone was wearing mismatched shoes, Abdul’s pants had gotten too short, and all of the kids clambered to tell me harrowing tales of elephant encounters. (In April, a hundred acres of coffee trees were stumped (for regrowth) around the village. The villagers planted corn around the stumps, which attracted hundreds of elephants. One day Peter was walking the kids to school and met up with 9 elephants. Another day Peter counted 40 elephants within sight of the Children’s Village. One morning an elephant sauntered into the school yard!)

Within the first 24 hours I had been dubbed the hero of the day. Now moms around-the- world do not get to be heroes very often. This distinction is usually reserved for Spiderman and fathers who fix broken bicycles. But as it happens the villagers finally harvested their corn the day before my return. This, needless to say, made the elephants go on to greener pastures, but my kids think it all happened because I came home! One day they will figure this out (along with Santa Claus) but for the moment I am basking in the glow of being their hero.

The kids are all on vacation this month so all of the adults are dashing around trying to tutor, play and generally keep the hordes under control. We have also been doing our quarterly – clothing swap. Doctor now looks one day like a gang member and the next like a preppy fresh home from St Mark’s School. Abdul (as always) looks like he is ready for a GQ photo shoot. The hard part is that someplace along the line these kids all developed opinions!! Oh for the days when they would gratefully take any item of clothing you handed them. Suddenly – Happy and Eva only seem to like flowery Lily Pulitzer style dresses and all the boys insist on shorts that go below the knees. This confidence and self awareness stuff has its drawbacks!

Oh almost forgot the best part of my homecoming. The kids at Kiran House had made a big banner that they hung in my room. Most of it said “Welcome home Mama” with everyone’s signature. A the end of the banner was a letter that said “we are sorry for anything you find out about that we did wrong while you were away” So far no one has stepped up to tell me what these things were………..

Cheers, India