On Saturday 16t April Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust and 2 Canadian guests, Emily and Kevin, arrive at the Shiva Ji Mission School in Lakshmanpur during the children’s lunch break. Although it is still noisy today, there is none of the running and chasing in the open area of the school. It is 10.30am and the heat is already stifling so most of the children are sitting in the cooler areas of the schoolyard or in the shade of the classrooms.
However the heat does not dampen the enthusiasm of the children for the bananas they are receiving. Their excitement is palpable each time Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust arrives for this distribution.
However the heat does not dampen the enthusiasm of the children for the bananas they are receiving. Their excitement is palpable each time Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust arrives for this distribution.
Initially we give each student 3 bananas, noting that there are even fewer children today than the reduced numbers last week. Although Varanasi is always hot, the past 5 days have seen the temperature soar above 110F each day, further reducing attendance to around a total of 230 children today. The end result? Much to the delight of those children in attendance there was a second round of distribution and each student received an additional banana, giving a total of 4 bananas.
The smiles were huge and the excitement audible. While some of the children placed the fruit in their bag, many of the small children immediately ate one in the classroom then ran out to the single trash can placed near the gate of the school, holding the banana skin in front of them and grinning. The teachers watched the children fondly and simply directed them to the bin when they showed them the empty skin of the bananas they had eaten, before resuming studies for the remainder of the morning school hours.
The smiles were huge and the excitement audible. While some of the children placed the fruit in their bag, many of the small children immediately ate one in the classroom then ran out to the single trash can placed near the gate of the school, holding the banana skin in front of them and grinning. The teachers watched the children fondly and simply directed them to the bin when they showed them the empty skin of the bananas they had eaten, before resuming studies for the remainder of the morning school hours.
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