Finger Food

So I sit here in Kolkata, just a few days before I depart and I am expectant. Expectant of family, of hugs, of warm greetings, and of conversation. I yearn for a comfortable bed to sleep, to be able to shower without mopping the water into a ‘drain’ and of walking the sidewalks without incessant horns blaring from the ever-trafficked streets. But what I anticipate the most is the story I get to tell you. A great story of the love that is here, of the life that is so raw and beautiful and FULL.

I cannot help but smile when I think of how I get to introduce you to those who have taught me the true nature of service, who have spoken words of life though they are close to death, children who have taught me strength.

I sat yesterday at one of our school, not a new learning center, but a school of several years. The children are from the slums and they sit on cement floors. But I am in love. We signed each others drawings, we made paper roses and marker towers. We played, we sang, we sat over chai and ate biscuits. It is moments like this that the time passes and worries fade away and the world outside seems to not exist and the happiness that we know NOW is the greatest joy we have ever experienced. I am a world away, actually an entire day from home and it is Christmas. But my heart is Full and I am home among children, children who do not ask questions or credential you, but invite you to sit and in that gesture, I am Dede [I am sister].

I eat with my hands and its fun. A lot of effort and little bit of strategy is necessary in the washroom, but its some sort of game or adrenaline rush, the kind of game where you never know how it will turn out or if you will get out clean. This is India without apologies or shame, it’s the way we are. I have sat to dine with Doctors and Missionaries, with Children and Businessmen, and together we all cup our meal in our hands, we smack our lips, and we lick our hands clean.

There is little room here, in a city of 18 million people, space is a luxury for the few. So we hold hands, we bump shoulders and we hope that the path ahead of us is clear of obstructions