Playing with the boys

Breakfast time in the boys' home: rice cakes and dahl.

On Sunday the house parents of the new boys' home below our rooms had to travel to the villages to hand out food rations and medicine to the HIV-positive patients, so we became house parents for a day. This was a very different experience from the girls' home. These boys are new arrivals--they came just before we did--and their previous experiences are still fresh in their minds. This is the first time that Caring Hands Ministries has taken on boys, but they felt compelled to accept these children. The boys are still getting used to good food, served regularly, and steady adult care and attention. They positively basked in this day of intensive play and hugs and songs and games . . . and so did we!

Here are five of the six boys in the small room
where they sleep, eat, and play when it's raining.

Akash is seven years old, though he looks and acts like a three-year-old.
Both of his parents and one brother are HIV-positive.

Mahesh, the "big brother" to the five little ones,
is an aspiring cricket player. He does a good job
of caring for the little guys.

Prehm: Can you see the twinkle in his eyes?
He never stops!

...but neither does Lara!

Please pray for these boys:
Mahesh, Akash, Shushkamar, Prehm, Sumit, and Abisheek.