What's it all about?

40 nights for the orphans of India. My 'Lent in a Tent' is about raising hugely needed funds for 'Shining Faces in India' orphanage in Salem, Tamil Nadhu, by sleeping ouside the Chaplaincy at King's Bruton for 40 nights. My target is at least £10,000 - which amazingly is only enough to feed the hundreds of children there for about two months.

I hope that many might be inspired to trade 40 pounds for my 40 nights. Actually, in the back of my mind I'm convinced that we could smash through the target and go much much further ... I wonder.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Molten mistake ... after 6/40.

I thought it was a really clever idea. To keep out the noise of rooting animals and drumming rain I shove wax plugs into my ears. They need a good warming before being any use, but that's been tricky in the cold of the tent. So? Eureeka moment ... in a flash of inspiration I popped them under my hot water bottle for a turbo-warm!  Trouble is, I fell asleep, and do you know what happened? They completely disappeared ... sucked up into the mattress leaving nothing but a perfect waxy circle!

Night time noise is part of life at the orphanage too. All manner of insect life does its best to gang up on the senses with a cacophony of noise and a full frontal assault on the skin. I spoke to my son, Sam, at the weekend.  He's over in India as part of the current team. 'Dad', he said, 'I was eaten alive last night and I've counted more than 60 bites on one arm!'

For me it's not so much the bites but the buzzing! That's where the ear plugs come in. But they don't help much when 5.30am finally comes and the singing starts! Huge speakers pump watts into the cavernous space between the hostel buildings.

And so we all wake up to the characteristic beat and beauty of Tamil singing. 'What's the music for?', I asked Girija, the girl we've sponsored for years. She paused, then just said  ... 'Entertainment.'

At 5.30am?  What could I say?

Why not make a 'noise' of your own in the lives of these wonderful children and make a donation towards our target ten thousand?

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