Before visiting some of the projects the sisters are in charge off, we were invited to a presentation by Sr Laila and the resident development worker.

The missions and projects the sisters are involved with covers four states.

We then went out to a place that contains four projects: a school for the visually impaired, a community college, a hospital and a vocational training centre:

The work the sisters are doing is remarkable. This is true service. These projects have been in existence for more than 10 years. the hospital in particular has been incredibly useful to the community.

On our way to Ranchi we stopped in Harzaribag. The sisters of the Holy Cross run a vocational training centre there. One of our past students from the PV school, Pushpa, is currently studying there. She is training to be an early childhood teacher. We knew that she was away on an excursion but still we wanted to see the training facilities. The vocational training centre is being run by the sisters of the Holy Cross. They also offer training courses for hotel management, secretarial courses and accounting.
As some lucky star follows us we just happened to arrive there on a day when the hotel management class had their practical class. We got invited to stay for lunch and sampled everyone’s food. The founder of the Holy Cross came from Switzerland so the students at the centre all study German as well.
Everyone was very kind and again we felt really blessed.

The most amazing welcome awaited us when we arrived at the sisters’ residence. Apparently this is a traditional Jharkhand ceremony. There were garlands, hand washing and beautiful singing.

As we had taken a lot longer than anticipated we arrived in time for dinner and we were again fed delicious cake. A very happy even though brief catch up with sisters from Amar Jyoti from BG before they returned with our vehicle to BG. An early night in this homely place with all these friendly and caring sisters.