Being apart of things

Nebin's beautiful design in the Hope Arts Shop
Ummmm......H2O
Family night-Water maddness
The shop getting bright and shiny-This picture doesn't give it justice

At one time
At one time these faces were strangers
At one time there was no communication between us
At one time, I understood as little as an ants is the universe
At one time, all I had to give was a smile
At one time, all I could see was the end
At one time, all I had was packed bags

At one time, I would never believe that I found a family in India.
With all of the uncertainty I have, from which food is safe to eat to what I am doing here, one thing I know for sure is that I will never think of India in the same way. One night I was thinking…what did I think of India before I came here? Not even books can tell you what I thought, what I thought of it was practically blank. Now I stand in the country of India with not only picture to tell a story but interactions with people that writes a novel in my mind.

At one time, I felt like an outsider, looking into a home for widows, an outsider looking into children’s eyes, an outsider looking into the humble widow’s work days. At one time, I would never think that I was part of something here.

I haven’t really thought I was part of the things that go on around the widow’s home till just in the past week. I was working on the Hope Art Shop and I pasted a widow. I asked “how are you” in Hindi and she replied and then asked me and I replied. Then words seem to want to drip out of her mouth, but she hesitated knowing I wouldn’t understand. Although that was frustrating, there was something in our interaction that gave me joy, perhaps it was because it was a connection, a connection that at one time I didn’t have.

Every month at the widow’s home there is a family night for the staff. This month there was water games. The evening was warm with a bit of cool breeze, very comparable to early August evenings. People gathered around playing water games, about a dozen mothers stood from the side lines with their babies and as I looked around, I was overwhelmed by how I knew everyone around. At one time, I walked into a room of the same people and called them strangers.

There are always children around, either the staffs of the widow’s home or the widow’s children. When I enter a room, I am greeted with a “hello Aunty”. There are also many babies around ranging from 1 months old to 1 year old. The times are countless that I laugh or joke with the children around. At one time, I was felt insecure around children and babies; I wasn’t quite sure how to act around them. I am learning you don’t have to act anyway around them; you just have to have fun and be yourself.

My friends and family are very far away. But I am developing a family in India, which at one time I could have never even thought of having. No longer will I think of India as books portray it, although it is filled with unexplainable poverty, tons of people, and cattle roaming the streets. It is a place of a smiling and relation based people that of at one time, I never thought I would be apart of.

Love: Jessica e.