The Boxcar Children

Remember those stories? They were my favorites growing up, especially the first book in which the 4 children had to make do on their own. They found a boxcar to live in, and scrap dishes which they used to make their first meal. The concept of being an orphan and depending only on other children to get by was romantic and adventurous to me. I used to play “orphan make-believe” in the woods with my younger brothers. We’d make a shelter, gather stones and moss to boil over a pretend fire, and then sweep the dirt floor of our abode before pretending to sleep on a bed of leaves. I never really wanted to be an orphan, but  imagining was fun.

The Boxcar Children story returned to my memory when a copy of the first book arrived at the Home in a package from a church. I gave it to Rekha, a 6th grader with a beautiful spirit and exceptionally good English. Her eyes shone as I gave it to her, and read it and returned it to me in 2 days flat.

As of Monday, all of the children are gone from campus. They went to be with their parents in the leper colonies for the rest of June. All of them, that is, except six. The six children who are still here are either orphans, or are from bad family situations. These children, five girls and a boy –the boy being the oldest, remind me of the Boxcar Children. Since many of the staff are also gone on vacation, these children more or less look out for each other. They cook together, eat together, play together, and do chores together. They have next to nothing, but are very creative with their resources. One spoon goes a long way during one meal. Last night, they made yogurt for today's breakfast with milk from the Home's cows. For fruit at lunch, they picked litchis and mangos from the trees around the Home.  Below are some photos during their meal preparation process.