Yesterday was so stinking awesome.
Started off the day witnessing an incredibly insane little scene. So there was a goat. This goat was wearing a sweater. A Christmas sweater. And this little Christmas sweater wearing goat was having a snack. But he wasn't having a snack from the trash on the side of the street like every other goat that I've seen. No, he was having a snack in a meat shop. A meat shop that had two...dead...goats hanging outside. A goat meat shop. And he was being fed a snack inside, while wearing a Christmas sweater. It was just way too much. That was just not okay. At least feed the poor thing on the street...not right beside his dead friends. And how could they pretend to care about keeping him warm in this weather, when really they are going to hang him up soon. I don't get it. Haha.
That's not the best. That was just funny, so I had to say it. The greatest event of the day was the organization's Christmas party! It was so, so, so, so beautiful. Not only was the entire staff there, but also their families. The kids and the husbands of the Indian staff got to attend. It was so stinking cool. I have only been here for three months, but it felt like home...it felt like family. The Lord has truly blessed us with that during the holiday seasons that we are missing. Yes, we are away from home. Yes, we are away from family. But really we have a new home...a place and people we love and serve. And we have a family...the family of Christ shines so brightly in this circle. It's truly beautiful, and for a time I've been blessed to be a part of it. We went to this super sweet restaurant...with amazing Indian food. It was never-ending rice, luchee, dal, and and like a thousand vegetable options. Heaven. Minus that one dessert that made my numb mouth with the speck of a bite I took. The Indians all ate it in one bite. I don't understand. We started the celebration with going around and saying something we've learned/that was good about this past year. Incredible. Of course, we were the only kids to speak in English, but we understood the Bangla (which is such a blessing). It was a lovely time. After that, we were all gifted with Christmas presents. I'm the new owner of an absolutely beautiful sari. Not only was I overjoyed to have a sari to wear to the Sari Bari Christmas parties, but but but - it is a red, black, and cream swirly design, very elegant (much more than I can describe), and it has peacock feathers on it. Oh my, it's amazing. After the outing our host mom was teaching us how to put it on...yep, it's difficult. But I'm so, so, so excited for those parties. They do mark the end of our time at Sari Bari, so they can come slowly, but I'm looking forward to those beautiful days of celebration. Anyways, afterward dinner we all took advantage of our moments of being "fixed up" and took some photos. We got one of the family...and by that I mean us servant team and our host family. We are getting it printed and framed to give to them for Christmas. So excited about that. Last night the dad gave us a talk that sorta felt like he was giving us permission to leave. I don't mean that like it sounds...it was more like him saying that they understand we have a home back there and it's important for us to be there...even though daily the sadness of our absence is mentioned in some form. Of course talk of it made me bust into tears, which also lead to our host mom crying. It hurts at times. But there's so much peace in it. Peace in the fact that God is the Father of us all. He's led us hear to learn the hearts of our brothers and sisters, but to learn, grow, and change, and then carry that on to whatever he has next. As my team leader said to me the other day "this is not the end of the story." It was so good to have that spoken over me. It's true. There's peace that yes...these days are joy and that will end, but there's more to come.
It was a lovely night. All gathering. All celebrating. Things like that just fill my soul.
Today was filled with things as well...sweet words, and gestures in the moments that our confused faces give away the fact we aren't understanding their Bangla.
This morning our language teacher, who is a manager for Sari Bari, told us that every night she prays we come back to be on staff here. She said she hasn't given her heart to people that come, because it's too difficult to watch them leave. She hasn't allow herself to be too emotionally involved in the past, but she said for us, she couldn't help it. She's come to love us deeply. It's sad to go. It's terribly sad to go. But it's beautiful knowing that we're all in this family...the family of Christ, and eternity holds a beautiful future for us all...together. I cannot wait to have my hands lifted high in worship of our God beside these people. So cool.
On our walk home from the metro, we've made three different groups of friends. The first being who we call "cigarette lady", because she sells cigarettes. Today she stopped us and talked for about five minutes straight...without taking a breath. After that, I concluded she thinks we understand so much more Bangla than we do. But that's okay. Towards the end we could pick up on it. She was saying how she wants a photo with us so when we aren't here anymore she has that to look at (she's resorted to this...in the beginning she told me I couldn't leave...my family had to come here...and she couldn't come with me because she doesn't have a passport - haha). She was also incredibly concerned that we had plans to go back to America without saying bye. Apparently, she wants us to stop one day for a long time and share Bengali sweets with her. That will be fun. And right before we left, she gave us some cookies, which she would not take money for! We kept trying to give it to her and she was like, "if you do, I'm throwing it into the street." Haha. She's serious, too. She's hardcore. She sells cigarettes. From there we walk about 2 minutes and end up at the stand of our friend that we've named "cha lady". As soon as we walk up, she says "bosho!", which means "sit!" So we sit, and then she gives us something to eat...samosa or a mishti of some sort, and then usually cha. Today I tried to tell her that she cannot give us more snacks, because she has given so much, but she's Indian...that will not work. She said "No, not too much...you are my friend!" So of course we took it. She's so kind. And so cool...she has a strength about her...it's awesome. We told her we would see her later and headed home, only to pass one of our friends that lives across the street (a male, but definitely not interested in our kind, as in women - so it's safe). He stopped us to tell us that when we first arrived in the neighborhood we looked and acted like foreigners, but as we left the house yesterday evening we looked "khub shundor", or beautiful, and walked with the attitude of Indians. He said we are no longer the bideshis, we are Indians. That was cool. Like that guy...and his level of excitement.
We have met some great folks here.
Thankful for them. So thankful - for every one of them. And the blessing they are in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment