Mark Krasenstein is a man of action; some would call him a “projects man”. Since 2014 Mark has dedicated one month each year visiting MITHRA from Perth. Barely does he land in MITHRA, when he has drawn up his “TO DO” List.
Mark’s passion at MITHRA is to beautify the environment for the children and staff, and to teach and encourage the more abled children to grow their own vegetables.
This week Mark could see that so much of his work from past years had deteriorated, partly from lack of supervision, but principally because of Chennai’s terrible drought. Both the South West and the North-east clouds failed Tamil Nadu in 2016 and 2017 so Chennai is facing the worst drought in 140 years.
It’s ironic that the desperately needed monsoons, which bring the rains to parched India, also brought the floods in December 2015 which destroyed buildings and necessitate the construction of flood-proof dormitories for the girls at MITHRA.
Never one to waste time, last night Mark sent through a brief report on his progress over three days:
“The new bore has Dr Sukumar’s approval and we will commence drilling a.s.a.p. As I said, this will be a dedicated bore for the gardens so we will not run out of water again. The lawn can be revived with lots of water I think. I have 6 labourers working today just tidying up the grounds.” [See picture]
Mark was at MITHRA in the late 70’s early 80’s with Sister Mary Theodore and Fr Martin (Laurence) Jenco. He helped establish MITHRA with the help of some extremely dedicated good people.
He says that his time at MITHRA strongly influenced him and he wanted to give the same experience to his daughter Mia, which he did in January 2014.
Mark says: “The achievements made by Sister Theodore over the last 35 years or so are absolutely awe inspiring”.
He says it is his “pleasure absolutely to help tidy up the place and plant a few vegetables, melons and fruit trees when I am here, and I am certainly coming back when I am able!”
MITHRA has so many good friends who believe in the vision of Sr Mary Theodore and who wish to see the unique work prosper.
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