Thanks to the kindness of Francis and Marjorie Lefaivre, we were able to bless foundation stones for eight new homes for families who had lost home and land in monsoon landslides. The problem? Which family gets which site? So we had lotto. On feast and blessing days Nepalis express their devotion through flowers. Notice the Swastikas made of marigolds. (Mary's- Gold as I like to remember!) The arms of the Swastika point in the opposite direction to the Nazi Swastika that brought the world so much suffering.  The ancient Swastika brings our people great joy. It's a sign of God's presence, blessing and love. Precious gifts for a new village!

Canada Day - 1999. After blessing the eight homes. I had to go to each home for photo. This is Zita, a widow. When I built my first 23-home village for the poor, I made a foolish mistake. My poor friends walked into their new homes and sat forlornly on the floor! They had none of the 'equipment' that makes a home 'function'. Now in our welding and carpentry shop, we build beds for them, settees (a spare bed too!), tables, shelves. And what are the good shelves without something to put on them? Note their precious gas stove and pressure cookers, great forest and fuel savers! The ladder leads to the loft, which more than doubles the living space in the home. Still a matchbox for a Canadian family, but a palace for a poor family in the Himalayas.

Sooreeta with her handicapped, silent daughter, in the dark, flimsy home she has lived in for 17 years! During our 4-month, 400 cm monsoon, living in this shelter was like spending nights in a shower bath. Among our smiling Nepalis - no matter how poor!! - Sooreeta was the exception. She was a real 'Mater Dolorossa' - 'mother most sorrowful'. (We ancient Jesuits never get Latin out of our bones!) If I were in her situation, I would probably be 'Pater Dolorossus', 'father most sorrowful'! She is a widow, with an old, feeble mother, one helpless child of her own, her late sister's daughter and two young sons. Even at that, a gift our friends helped us give her has changed her into 'Mater Hiralissima', 'mother most joyful'.

A picture is worth 1000 words! Who could put all this joy into words? During my 53 years trying to help the poor, I have learned when the poor get a home they cease to be poor 'inside their heads'. And soon outside too. No family we (our far away friends and 'us') have built a home for is still poor. Along with the home comes dignity, a determination to achieve a better life, a new faith in themselves.  I should have known. During the dirty '30s', my mom and dad didn't have 2 nickels to rub together, but they skimped and saved to buy a home. The last thing my proud dad said to me when I left for India in 1948 was, 'Murray boy, by the time your ship reaches India, 2 Mitchell will be ours.'

When I tell friends our SASAC homes are 12 feet x 15, they think I'm talking about a doll's house. But this hut of Thamu Bhutya was only7 feet x 6=56 square ft. Their new home is 180 square feet and with a lovely loft added has 360 sq. ft.- more than six times their former living space. Their mother will probably be afraid she'll lose her little ones in the vast expanse of her new house! When Cecilia took this picture, only the chickens were at home. The mother was in hospital. The father was cutting wood for sale. The dilemma of the poor. To keep their families alive today, they have to destroy the forests needed to keep us all alive tomorrow. He works at SASAC now.

I admire the ingenuity of our poor. With nothing but a Khukree, Thamu's husband has made a shelter for his family. To make 'walls' he has woven together strips of bamboo. Nice airy walls as you can see, but a sieve during our monsoon. We can get up to 16 inches of rain in 24 hours. Sopping homes are one of the causes of the TB so prevalent in the Himalayas. He has cut down young trees for posts - another drain on our sick forests. The girl, Lazum, and her brother Daba, have increased the number of Buddhists in our family. The little girl is going to school now and is as bright as her smile. The saddest thing about poverty is the waste of children like these.

I'm not fond of pictures of backs, but I'm sending this one of Soreeta's new house blessing day for two reasons. People not used to mountain living don't realize how hard (and expensive) it is to level land for a home on a steep mountain slope. Also hard to realize is that if you go anywhere in the Himalayas, it is either a lung-torturing climb up or a leg-torturing climb down. So (sob!) Ol' Duffer Fr.A can no longer bless houses. Father Patrick Prodhan is a SASAC graduate happy to help out. Though the homes we are building these days are for poor Buddhists, Hindus, or Muslims, they all want their new home to have a Christian blessing and a picture of Jesus!!