NEI News

Some NE (India) NEWS

November 7, I shared the sad experience of the passing of my former student, B. Kapthanga. He and his little (and poor) family came to Shillong in 1970 to study at Alpha Bible College. Even though Ellen and his wife, Buki, did not have a common language, they developed a close friendship. Kapthanga died of diabetes complications. His family was so appreciative of our presence. A really precious experience.

November 9. Supreme and Mary Sinha are teachers, class IX and class IV, respectively, here at Silver Oak. The birth of their first child(daughter, yet to be named) was born in the local Presbyterian Hospital. This created lots of excitement for all of the Silver Oak family—especially for autumn and Andrew… Ellen who, in my absence, even got to say the prayer as Mary headed off to the hospital.

November 12 is a Hindu holiday and November 15 is a Muslim holiday, so our school gets a break. I used a little persuasion with the management to allow this extended holiday. They said, if the children go home it takes too long to get them back into the groove! However, I made points with children, parents, and even teachers, by voting for a long-weekend! The school has suffered from a deficiency of leadership so the management is leaning on me to do some coaching in administrative areas.

November 11 was of no significance as far as Remembrance Day is concerned but the school did celebrate an annual picnic. Two buses were engaged. We went to a picnic spot about 20 kms—80 minutes—away  where the children swam in a pool and the adults cooked (all day) for a 3:30 PM feast of goat and dozens of other items. The goat was butchered the previous day here at the school by one of the teachers. Andrew witnessed the entire procedure and—you will be surprised—he found it quite fascinating and supplied his grandmother with the details!

November 30, we plan to head down the (mountain) road to Shillong for another reunion. Last month it was 40 years since our wedding in Shillong. We have been blessed with lots of celebrations but want to add one more by being reunited with those who served as our wedding party in 1964. And, an extra special bonus will be getting to spend that time with Wilf and Laura Olson who will meet us there, travel to Manipur with us (December 10 – 20) and then return here for Christmas before they return to Canada.

Ray & Ellen McMillan and Autumn & Andrew

Silver Oak School, Durtlang Veng Thar, Aizawl, Mizoram 796 012, India

011-91-389-236-2093, http://heartwarmers.blogspot.com, www.heartwarmers.ca