I've been home from my trip to India for 1 week now, trying to get back to normal sleep patterns, focus at work, and reclaiming order in my home. It's all slowly coming back, though I constantly remind myself not to get COMPLETELY back to normal. When you visit a foreign land that has so much less than you, you can't help but appreciate everything that you have and have taken for granted your whole life.
Things in life that never occurred to me as a middle class white girl raised in the suburbs now have significance. The roof over my head, food on the table and clothes on my back were always expected to be provided by my parents. A hot shower has always been available to me, and modern plumbing was something I never thought could be different anywhere else. Of course, as I've grown into an adult and provided these things for myself, I have gained an appreciation of what it has taken my parents to provide a certain quality of life for my brothers and I growing up. But until I experienced another culture where these things are not readily available, I never stopped to think how truly lucky most of us are in America.
I spent time getting to know beautiful people who live with very little (practically nothing by our standards), but feel like they have 'everything they need' in something as simple as a small refrigerator. They have no heat in their homes, no washing machines to wash their clothes and no car in the driveway to go wherever they need whenever they want.
We had the privilege of providing some basic staples to a few less fortunate people in the community in Kalimpong while there was a political strike going on and stores were closed, making feeding their families a real hardship. We were humbled by the families that we met who care for their families with so little.
Our time spent with the girls at Hope Family Home was spent singing, laughing, learning and growing. Some of them have experienced a lot of life in their few years on this earth. They will never be forgotten.
