Disasters of Trivial Proportions

Dear Family & Friends,

There comes a day in every adventure where things just go wrong over and over and over again and you pray so hard for the day to end so that you can start anew with the morning light. Days where at that moment in time you simply want to cry, but once you stop to breathe and get a good night's sleep, you realize how truly trivial the "disasters" of yesterday actually were in the grand scheme of things.

Yesterday, I was meant to go shopping with the older girls to whittle down the Christmas list and Tom was taking the older boys go-karting. We went our seperate ways around 10:30am, and when we finally re-grouped at 4 pm, we immediately noticed that each other's face just showed the wear of the day.

Tom & the boys took a taxi down to the go-kart speedway. Firstly, their meter was rigged and a 100 rps. ride turned into a 500 rps ride. So after fuming over that, they turn around and notice that the go-kart track is closed for the day since it was Holi! Tom was DEVASTATED! But the boys just shrugged and shook their heads in the South Asian fashion and said "OK". They took a bus back to Namaste market and were treated to soft drinks and potato chips. Tom couldn't believe how his big treat for the boys was just shot to pieces and the boys didn't complain once. They just felt happy that they were out for the day and Tom had spent time with them.

Nirmala, Sangita, Bino, Samjhana & I headed out to Jamal to get 33 pairs of winter slippers for the kids since they are just having plastic flipflops at the moment and their little feet are just freezing cold. It was quite an amazing experience dealing with the various vendors. 1 slipper was 90 rps per piece but when I asked for a discount because we were going to buy everything that they had, the price would go up to 110 rps per piece. Huh???

I have to admit, I threw a bit of a tantrum 2 hours into the process and we had bought nothing. I couldn't communicate with the vendors directly to tell them exact what I wanted and what I was prepared to pay, or even for that matter, what I thought of them. Now, little Bhumika has developed her own sign language system. Frustrated and at a loss, I flipped a vendor what I now call "Flipping a Bhumika"; you clap your hands and swing one hand up and ending in a "L" shape finger point.

Here is a picture of Bhumika demostrating.

We did manage to buy all the slippers we set out to get but it took several vendors to fill the order and negotiating with many more vendors over the price.

However, we didn't manage the 50 bathroboes, 50 gloves and mittens, 12 t-shirts or 20-odd teddy bears. I felt like a shopping disaster!

I had volunteered to cook for the entire home. I was going to make chow mein topped with egg and chicken and chilli. After the exhausting shopping trip, I thought making dinner for 37 kids and 3 didis and 2 volunteers was going to be the calming exercise I needed to unwind. I think some days I am just crazy.

Tom tells me it was prehaps the worst meal I have ever cooked in my life. The children were trying to figure out how to eat their dinner and be thankful and polite to me.

Let me tell you, there is no worse feeling in the world than when you think you are sending children to bed hungry because you sucked in the kitchen.

When I went it to tuck them into bed, I was hugged and kissed and loved with abandon and thanked profusely for cooking dinner. By the time I made it to the last room, I couldn't contain my tears. These children hold no grudges, they love unconditionally and are so forgiving. Despite every boo boo, tantrum & miscalculation we managed to make in a day, the love and the kindness shown to us is truly breathtaking.

My lesson for the day has been that something done from the heart, with great intentions, should it meet a disaster, the receiver will still receive it in the spirit in which it was intended. Our real job in the next 3 weeks we have left here is to continue loving them and reminding them how very special they all are.

From my heart to you,

Fi