It was warm and sunny, seemed like a perfect day to visit the Gokulam Bhaktivedanta Children's Home. Fuzzy and Vibrant Bea eagerly carried the box of books to the van. It was a bit heavy for them but they brought it down the stairs without a problem. We planned it just to be a short stop, drop off the books, say hi to the kids, take some pics and go. We also have a wedding to attend  before lunch so it had to be quick. This was far from the program we are planning for Still Waters Chldren's Home. Here, the children are having a program of their own so we couldn't bother them according to the staff - it was their National Children's Day. The release was timely I hope. We would just want to release the books to their new home and we'd be on our way .

It turned out that the Principal wasn't in yet so even after delivering the box, we still waited. With my 3 kids in tow, Mr. R was very kind to show us around their 3-level school building. The Children' Quarters were off limits =). They have classrooms, a computer room (hey! kids were there clicking away!), the Principal's Office and the Library. The children were everywhere, smiling, briskly walking up and down the stairs and corridors on small bare feet, and greeting us with their melodious "Good Mornings". They were a busy bunch and preparing for the day's events. There were 115 of them ages ranging from 2-15 years old.  We didn't see the youngest ones inthe nursery. Many of these children were orphaned by the war and the tsunami. The Library used to occupy a room on the Ground Floor but the rains caused flooding last year and destroyed many books. It is now located on the Second level of the school building. They have a collection of books mostly in Tamil/Sinhalese and some English books.

I hope that the books we are handing to them will be a modest addition to their Library. Many of these were donated by generous bookcrossers from different countries who responded to our request for books for orphans. We dubbed it as The Children of the Sea Book Project -  a homeschool project which started with our children wanting to share their extra books to other kids who have very little access to English books.

The Principal came and we had a little chat. after acknowledging the gift, they also mentioned their meal sponsorship programs. It is in their website, by the way. Finally, we said our goodbyes and expressed our wish to visit again soon. Oh! They didn't allow us to take photos (as a policy).

To think of a child's life touched by the stories from these books is enough to touch our lives too. My children felt the same.