-A New House for the GoF (House #4!)-

The month of June was spent in transition: after the decision to leave the Garden of Flowers house where the water well had run dry, the team searched high and low for a good place in a needy neighborhood.

After three previous moves, they knew exactly what was needed: a house with at least 1-2 large rooms as classrooms, and several smaller ones for an office and storage and a sleeping room for the night guards. They needed a yard for the children, and a good size kitchen, and an accessible location not too far from their own homes.
After long days of searching, they finally found a large house that fit the bill. But it was in very rough shape, dirty, dilapidated. The contract was agreed upon (about $300 a month). The house owner agreed to repairs and paint, and the team began cleaning and fixing it up.

 

 

It was an intensive week of work, including unpacking and carpeting and setting up the rooms. It became beautiful!

The next step was to get to know the neighborhood and begin to find children. The team is very experienced at doing this. But the Taliban surveillance has become tighter and it’s harder for the teachers to circulate house to house as they used to do. They have spread the word about the school, however, and within a few short days fifteen children had already been welcomed (The plan is to have at least 30 children eventually). The first pictures of the children (below) show a number of them with dark circles under their eyes indicating their need for extra nutrition, and this will be a priority for them right away.

Now the children are loving their new classroom as the teachers slowly acquaint them with the Montessori materials in a beautiful and kind space.

The teachers laughingly describe the children as being almost ‘drunk’ on the stimulation and joy of exploring all the activities and materials, and getting to know and love their teachers and their new friends.

In Razia’s words: We are so busy with children and decorations of new GoF😊 and different activities for new DRUNK 😂 children and but we are sooooo happy and enjoying with children.

This is where the powerful work begins!

 

 

 

 

THE NEW GARDEN OF FLOWERS CHILDREN: