On February 23, 2013 Evelin’s Remembrance Day was celebrated for the second time. The girls  of the Deenabandhu Home for Girls in Machilipatnam, India made again a trip to Haai Land, the amusement park where they had been last year. This time we were able to go with them because we had planned our trip to India around this day.

The day was for the children again an unforgettable experience.
You can read more about the trip under ‘Our trip to India.’

We again received a spiral-bound book with affectionate and some detailed letters of the girls and their very detailed drawings. Some are drawn after a photo from Evelin’s life or on others Evelin’s name is written next to a drawing. This time the letters are more personal, written with much love and added expressions like ‘I love you Evelin’ or ‘Hi, Mom and Dad, I miss you so much and I love you so much’ or ‘Don’t forget me’ or
similar. A few wrote a small poem, for example
‘Sea is happy with water
Tree is happy with leaves
Sky is happy with stars
We all are happy with your love.’

In addition, we received more than 400 photos and the selection was difficult. Attached are a few pictures.

The children were enthusiastic about the clean and green grounds in Haai Land. There are so many rides that one cannot enjoy them all on one day. First the children took a lot of time and participated with enthusiasm when the principal spoke about Evelin, her life and her motives, which the children want to emulate, and they prayed for her. They sang for us several songs and performed a few sketches about Evelin’s life. They participated full of enthusiasm in a quiz between two groups to show what they knew about Evelin’s life and how they were inspired to follow her ideals. The sketches about Evelin’s life were touching and stimulating. The performances of the girls reflected so much talent and feeling, they moved us very much. The principal and her assistants had tried hard to bring Evelin and her life philosophy closer to the girls.

Thereafter in the program followed a drawing competition.

Haai Land served lunch outdoors. We met the managers of the amusement park who offered us their air-conditioned office, but we preferred to stay with the happy children.

It was a very hot day so that the girls went only on a few rides. They spent most of the time in the pool, the wave pool and the raindance and enjoyed it thoroughly. When they sometimes got out of the pool, we were happy when they cooled us down with some water or a wet embrace.

Since it was a warm evening, it got late and only a few prizes were given to the winners. The rest was postponed until later. Arriving back at the home, the girls went to bed, too tired to dream of anything.