Dear Friends,

It’s nice to come back to you again

 with the latest news of our last trip to Bhola. This time we decided to go earlier so that we could be back in time for Walter’s birthday, therefore, the Three Musketeers - Eleonora, Jose’ and Bruna - and twelve pieces of luggage (!) flew to Dhaka on the 2nd of January.

Because we thought it was better to travel ‘light’, Eleonora and Bruna already in November last year sent by ship to Ali and the children 14 big boxes with medical equipment, tools and machines for the workshop, items for the kitchen and the new building, stationery, different games (always educational of course!), all sorts of sewing items, including a new sewing machine for our fantastic Asma, arts and craft material and a football table and hockey table! We Italian girls still cannot grasp the ‘wisdom’ of cricket! It was a miracle that all the fourteen boxes arrived above all thanks to the personal involvement and help of our great friend Jan Bergdhal in Dhaka that we went to visit immediately in his beautiful apartment the day we arrived. It was very nice chatting with him and Babro his wife, drinking tea, eating a very yummy cake looking at the peaceful river……. were we really in noisy Dhaka? It was also sad above all for Ali because we found out that Barbro and Jan were actually leaving Dhaka the next day to go back to settle in Sweden! It was a real shock for Ali, a thirty year long friendship, working relationship and family bond. But Jan promised to come back to visit Ali and the children in Bhola and both Barbro and he praised Ali to have achieved so much in such a short time, above all to have managed to organize over hundred cleft lip operations in less than four years! This time we had organized to fly to Bhola chartering the amphibious plane of MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). Unfortunately although we were only four people flying, the luggage was still too much and too heavy, therefore we Three Mosketeers went ahead with some pieces while Ali and two pieces of luggage went by overnight ferry. It was the first time for Eleonora to fly on such a small and unusual plane. Although a little apprehensive and deep down scared stiff, Jose’ kept cheering her up commenting also the usual ‘ ….. see? …. she brings bad luck!...’ You will probably remember that Eleonora and Jose’ met for the first time last year, a ‘laugh at first site’ affair. This time too there was a wonderful sense of humour, a growing affection and a strong awareness of the purpose of our second trip together. The trip to Bhola took only 35 minutes and we arrived in bright sunshine It was still very emotional to see so many people at the side of the river looking at our ‘mechanical’ bird landing softly on the water, recognizing immediately the familiar faces of Mantu and Mosharef, the always very excited and smiling Saladin that sat at the back of the Toyota van on top of the luggage!! In the boundary the children welcomed us with three beautiful bouquets of flowers, hugs, kisses, cries of ‘Mummy…..mummy, auntie….auntie…uncle…‘ all eager to help to carry the heavy suitcases. Obviously we couldn’t miss noticing the new big building, nearly finished, a little overwhelming even if we had already seen many photos of it. We could also see many men working and some of our very proud boys helping. We saw immediately how Ismail (Ronaldino) had grown, Faruk being always in charge of the gate, Monira welcoming us as a sister with some skin problem on her beautiful face (we discovered later because of her trying to whiten her skin!) We also saw new faces among the children and the staff; we recognized from the photos Fatima, the young woman that had terrible burns mainly on her chest and arms, with the most beautiful face intact; we finally met Ronazid, Ali’s main help and substitute that joyned us two months ago. It was an immediate good, positive feeling. He is a very gentle, polite but not shy man; communicative and attentive. We saw him many times later interacting in a very natural, warm way with the children. He shared with us an immediate understanding of many situations, some problems and possible future resolutions and a willingness to be really part of Bholas Children Family. I must admit that this time our stay was much more challenging because of the effects of the still on going works of the new building. Although we three had the same rooms like last year, the girls had to sleep on the floor in the next door classroom making the life of always so ‘delicate’ and ‘sensitive’ Jose’ very difficult! Eleonora and I used ear plugs …. eh eh therefore we could not hear so much of the girls chatting, baby crying, 5 am clattering of the Hindu kitchen …. the usual life of a home full of girls! Because of the building works there was also a lot of dust around and things and places were not so cleaned and tidy as before. We could see most of the boys happily involved in the building, guided by the very efficient Saladin. We couldn’t believe how chatty and busy Ismail (Ronaldino) was, working with Mamun and Ronnie. Faruk was always busy checking everybody, cleaning the Toyota van, bringing messages around. But for the girls life was different. Many of them seemed a little lost; classes were not consistent; there was not much guidance of what to do and where. Unfortunately at the moment there is no playground (the space being used for the building work materials). During the few lessons ‘all together’ Rosina and Sophia, both blinds, were mostly bored and sleeping. We felt surprised and worried by Rosina unusual quietness and apathy. Talking to Ali we all realized not only how much the building works have disrupted the life of the children above all the girls, but above all how after a very successful beginning there is now the need to involve better more qualified teachers, introduce a new bigger and more specific curriculum and above all a teacher and material specialized in blind students. It is always good and inspiring to see children with different disabilities to study, work, live together and helping each other, but there is also now a need to give at times more specific guidances and learning techniques according to the different disabilities. Obviously it is a passing face, but it was good to be able to analyse with Ali the present new and unusual situation, already introducing positive and effective remedies, planning future ones, learning and understanding the evolution of this fantastic unique project. Among the many gifts we brought to the children, there was a specific one for very artistic Rosina, a Yamaha keyboard that immediately brought back life and a beautiful smiling face to Rosina. It took less than two hours for Rosina to understand how it worked. The next morning when Ronazid came to the classroom he found Rosina very concentrated playing and humming some tunes of her own that sounded very musical. He couldn’t believe she had only started to play the day before! We even started dreaming of a famous Bholas Children musician giving concerts in the future ……. uuuuhhh. At first we kept busy trying to sort out ‘secretly’ most of the ítems, material and gifts we had in our 12 pieces of luggage, leaving the 14 boxes for later! We organized a beautiful, exciting celebration of the Epiphany on the 6th of January when in Italy is tradition to give presents to the children. As usual Jose’ made the most beautiful drawing on the board of the Three Wise Men (such a talented artist!); we prepared then all different colourful bags full of personal presents for boy/girl, man/woman, including very colourful wooly scarves (it is actually quite cold in January), deodorants, perfumes, shower gels, shampoos, beads kits, car models, ecc….. I told the story of the Italian tradition symbolizing the Three Kings coming from three different countries to bring presents to Jesús, and how we three, coming from three European countries liked to give all of them our presents on this special day. It was a very happy, funny, cheerful and exciting time. Everybody was so thrilled with all the goodies and suprises found in the bags. Needless to say that most of everybody has been wearing the wooly scarves since! The same day of the Three Kings another very important gift arrived in the shape of a beautiful, cute, fat and wobbly puppy. Faruk found it therefore we nominated him the ‘Dadu’ and all the others became automatically uncles and aunties! They named it ‘Shipu’ that actually means ‘dog’ in Bangla, but we gave it the name ‘Chaplin’ because of the very wabbling little legs! There was an incredible excitment around the boundary, everybody wanted to do something for ‘Shipu’; Faruk absolutely loved and kept laughing with excitement by the idea of having finally become a ‘daddy’ (he is 25) and was constantly busy looking after the puppy, giving it food, building a small shelter, playing with it and making sure that the other children were gentle. It gave Faruk a responsability and awareness of somebody else needing him that unfortunately he could never experience in his life, but now, knowing him, he will be the most dedicated ‘Dadu’ after Ali of course! Bruna as a good Italian Mamma took control of the kitchen to make it easier to prepare, cook and clean by the beautiful and dedicated Laily and Fatima. A new sink frame was built by Monira where now was much easier, faster and more practical to wash up with colourful draining boards at each side. We bought a cabinet to store the plates and mugs (no more on the floor!), we bought a new automatic two-burners cooker, we took out kitchen towels and cooking cutlery, containers with Swiss chocolate powder, fortified milk powder, knives, chopping board, kettle, ecc…. with Laily smiling and shouting ‘mummy good ... mummy good …. mummy great!”. It made me so happy and emotional to see how enthusiastic and happy she was, how excited that ‘her’ kitchen now had so many new and above all colourful things! In the mean time the children were showing Eleonora and Jose’ around the new building where Jose’ started to take photos with his new digital camera, always discussing with Eleonora that she could not take nice photos while his photos were the only ones good and above all ‘artistic’. They kept amusingly arguing and competing throughout the whole time we were in Bhola, with the wonderful results that we must have over 400 photos to look at!! Although we didn’t manage to go for a picnic, we went to see the new land that is really big and very nice. We talked of the different ways to use it and above all of the immediate works needed, but wisely Ali agreed that we should wait until the new building is finished. One day we managed to go to the village and family of Hassra. It was such a beautiful, peaceful drive in the most enchanting rural area; even Ali was happily admiring it for the first time because he usually drives very fast running from one place to another!. We walked through fields and villages followed by at least fifty children with little Hassra so proud to show us around! One of the gifts we brought was a DVD reader with 30 DVDs. You should have seen the faces of the children looking at the films ….. absolutely mesmerized. How special and beautiful hearing them laughing …. explaining to each other…. hugging for the suspence ……. Every evening they sat early waiting impatiently for me to choose a new film, one day we even saw two!! The other very successful ítems were obviously the football and jockey tables. We all played, even Ali and Ronazid, bringing everybody together as a friendly shouting crowd! It wasn’t only a time for distributing gifts. We talked a lot of the future of Bholas Children considering how much has already grown and once the new building will be finished how it will change even more . There is always the issue of Ali being in charge of everything, being very tired and thin. The need of finding more people like Ronazid that can take some responsabilities away from Ali. Creating a team where also others can take decisions within an area where they should be responsable. It is difficult for Ali to trust others, but we discussed a lot about the problem reaching the conclusion that Ali and all of us need to take some courage and even risk to put different people in charge, even to make mistakes, but it is the only way to train future teachers, helpers and carers. It was a short but very intense visit, somehow more demanding than the last one, more challenging and in a way more serious even with the constant ‘laughing affair’ of Eleonora and Jose’. Going away was as usual painful with lots of tears and cries “ …mummy ..no go… auntie….uncle..no go”; at the same time it was less dramatic, there was some serenity and understanding of our future coming back, some awareness of continuity, I really felt a proud mother …. our children are growing up!

Bruna (little heart)