I made it to the Village! Updates & Pictures:
October 18th, 1:08am. Jet lag is winning this time around.
I got to the village October 16th around 4PM after 2 days of traveling, ate lunch and crashed. I slept from 4:30pm until 2AM on the 17th. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I unpacked and read a little. The day started around 6AM, and it was nonstop. Between making shopping list for the home, helping with a water tank build out, and some visits. The majority of my time was spent in the market, where the list of need was endless. We shopped from 10AM until 4PM. Again, when I got home I crashed. But here I am now, at 1AM wide awake so I wanted to share some updates with you, and hopefully some pictures. I am BLOWN AWAY at the home. 6,000 square feet of pure joy and hope. I walked in and immediately felt at home, I know the girls will feel the same thanks to the support they get from around the world.
I recently added a picture of some needs that many of you have been asking about, but I wanted to use this post to go a little further into detail (since I clearly have time to write and not sleep):
We purchased steal bunk beds due to the climate here not doing well with laminate, or the type of wood that we would’ve chosen. Since its steal, I wanted it to be as comfortable as possible, so we went in search for mattresses and the things to go with it. If you want to help financially for the girls rooms this is what you can donate your money towards:
Foam Mattress and Topper. These mattresses will come from Chittagong, but it’s the best quality for a “decent” rate of: 3,500 take = $42usd a mattress. We will need 28 mattress = $1,176usd total!
Sheets & Pillow Cases: We will need 2 sets of sheets per girl for “wash day” and any other accidents. I went to a tailor and picked out this beautiful Red design, and a vibrant rainbow design. The girls LOVE color here. This cost 25,000 take = $300 usd for 56 sets!
Beds- we are getting simple wooden beds made for the house mother, kitchen cook, cleaner. The cost for these is 15,000taka ($180) per bed. It was actually the cheaper option vs. steal due to us having a good relationship with the guys at this shop.
Dinning Tables- with this many girls, we needed to create a long table and multiply it x 4. We will get plastic chairs, to reduce cost and just in case they break overtime. The table is 25,000 each ($300), and the chairs are 450 take each ($6) so total will be $1,200 usd for table and $180 for the chairs.
We need shelving, cabinets, desk and chairs for the library/sewing/computer area that the girls will learn at after School, after looking at basics, this will estimate around 2,000+ due to computers and sewing machines being 200+ each. \
Kitchen supplies: I would type out everything we purchased for the kitchen, but its a LOT (including fridge, stove, etc..) this was 65,000taka plus some things here and there = $800usd.
There are a ton of items I haven’t listed, but these are some hot items we had to order asap to get the girls in by November. If you want to give specifically to one of these needs, please donate here, or through livevertical.tv/give and send me an email so that I know where to designate your contribution.
The rest of the week for me includes:
Hopefully getting a normal sleep pattern
Back to the market to buy clothes for the girls, paint for the house, etc.
A gathering of local villages that I will share at today.
Spending time with the current orphans and visiting their schools like old time.
Meeting with the government here, so that everything is legally filed away before I get our girls in.
Thanks for following along and contributing, I truly couldn’t do this if I didn’t know how much support I have back home.
I’ll post again soon!
-Resh
