For a New Tomorrow.

I’m sitting at the Miami International airport waiting to board my last flight pondering about the conclusion of the long, and needless to say, life-changing experience I just had. As I sit here, over analyzing, I’m trying to figure out what these children, and this model, and India mean to me all together, and it is impossible to put in words. I guess what I would love to do for this “end of the beginning” is recount the last amazing few days I had in India and what it feels like to be back on this side of the world.

The goodbye began Monday morning even though everyone knew that I was not leaving until Wednesday. For some time, all of the girls had asked me to wear Indian clothes for my last days there, and so I did. I wore my blue sari on Monday and though it was very sweet to see their excited faces, It some how also signified that my stay there was coming to an end. Therefore, the melodic cries of my fourth graders began that morning, along with the first few out of dozens of cards cards ( I ended up with 200 of them) saying something along the lines of: “Please don’t leave me, but if you must, I wish you the best of luck and you will be in my heart forever”. This time I wouldn’t try to make some stupid joke in an effort to make them laugh, this time it was just not in me to do that, I usually just looked up at the ceiling expecting somehow that the knot in my throat would just slip right down into my stomach. It was okay if glistening tears rolled down my cheeks but I thought I’d leave the unending and much louder cries for later on that week. Teaching class my last three days was the most difficult thing during my whole stay there.

Anyways, the last few days it was as if the Indian breeze smelled sweeter, as if the sun shined brighter, as if the amount of spice in the food was just right and as if every minute of my day was worth gold. I just wished the days would keep on going; that they would never end. But then again, when I would go to bed, I would close my eyes and dream of home; it was time.

There was one thing however that made the last of it all a bit stressful. The children have these so called “autograph” books, where they ask the volunteers that come and go to leave their feelings about them writing down on paper. First of all, they gave me about 80 books two nights before I left expecting me to write pages and pages, amongst the nervousness of packing my bags and saying goodbye. And secondly, though I came up with sweet words to write on each personalized book, my words fell short from what each of them really meant to me. Regardless, I know that it meant the world to them, and so my last night there I stayed up the whole night (that’s right, before my 18 hour flight and 20 hours of traveling) and I wrote in each one of the books. Towards the end the notes became shorter and my handwriting messier but they know I tried my best.

Then the time came when Ms. Beena (vice-principle) stood up in front of the whole school at assembly to summarize, in a few words, what I had meant for this school. She spoke about how much she along with everyone else truly appreciated everything I had done and that they were going to miss my enthusiasm and affection. Then, Rajni stood up and said that the choir had prepared the last few nights to sing for me a couple songs that he knew I would love. He sat at the piano, and began to play the most beautiful music. They first sang a Tamil song and then they sang a song from the Phantom of the Opera, the one that says: “Think of me, think of me fondly when we say goodbye. Remember me, once in a while, please promise me you’ll try…”. He played to powerfully and they sang so sweetly, and I just cried; out of sorrow, out of joy, and out gratitude. Then it was time for me to stand in front of the school to say goodbye and say anything I wanted about my experience with them at Shanti Bhavan. It was very difficult to speak because I was crying but I did say a few words. I spoke about how harmony is one of my favorite things in this world, and I that I had never experienced a harmony as strong as it was at Shanti Bhavan. I encouraged them to see in each other the good things and to appreciate their differences and to celebrate their similarities. The whole assembly was very emotive and a truly perfect goodbye.

I left Shanti Bhavan with tear-filled eyes but with an ecstatic heart. I am so excited to go home and I just cannot wait to take part in igniting smiles on the faces of Nicaraguan children. This model that The George Foundation has established is a brilliant one. Embracing a “smaller” group of underprivileged children and providing for them an education like the one that you and I receive. Meanwhile, inculcating in them values and ethics geared towards helping each other and those they left behind rather than one of personal successes and material gains. These children speak of becoming the best they can be and for what…to go right back to where they began and build a new tomorrow for those people in the untouched corners of our world.

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It has been a pleasure sharing this experience with you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for accompanying me through my words.

A million thanks to those who made it possible for me to get to India, this experience and therefore, you, have changed my life.

Love