NOW I KNOW WHY THEY STARE

In my volunteering today, I won’t go into much detail as to what the condition was of a patient brought in for admission, but what I will say is that it left you looking at your own hands and fingers and thanking God for them.  In reality, spend a day at Prem Dan or Kalighat and you’ll be able to thank God for everything starting with the hair on your head all the way down to the toes of your feet.  And once your done with that and your headed back home on an auto rickshaw, don’t make any appointments for the rest of the day because now you’ve seen enough to fill up the rest of your time to thank God for everything else it’s easy to take for granted back home.   

Prior to today, I could never quite grasp why everyone found me to be so fascinating, but now I think I’m beginning to understand why and in reality, it has nothing to do with the color of my skin, but everything to do with what my color of skin represents and that’s a better world...a world full of opportunity.  In thinking about it this way, I suppose I’m like the toy in the window display that you see the young boy staring at and dreaming about just hoping and praying that he’ll get it someday.  Oh the fun he’d have with it!  What makes me feel even worse about this, is while you have millions of children dreaming about owning that amazing toy in the window pane, at times I think I've been the spoiled kid that has it, but that no sooner than getting it, was crying to “Mommie” for another toy.  Note to self...CARE MORE about everything you have Tyson because there are a lot of people that want what you have and will never have it. 

Once I got back to the Salvation Army today, I took my usual nap and also had my usual social hour with the residents in the senior citizen center—a session that is now becoming a part of my regular routine and a part of my day that the grey hairs on my head are ecstatic about I’m sure.  If the senior center back home is anything like it is here, I might just have to check myself in for early residence once I get back.  In talking with a few of my senior friends today, it turned out that Errol and another gentlemen were stand-ins for the movie “City of Joy” that was filmed there in the late 1980s.  The movie was actually based on a true story and book where a Polish priest went to Kolkata to live what would be the majority of his life in a slum named “City of Joy.”  Another lead character in the story was an American doctor who in the movie was played by our very own Patrick Swayze and although I haven’t seen the movie, if Patrick Swayze was anything like he was in “Roadhouse,” I’m sure he was amazing.  Can’t say Errol and another senior resident had the same appreciation as I did for Patrick Swayze and “Roadhouse,” but they did appreciate the fact as they came to find out during the filming of the movie that he shared as much fondness to drinking tea as they did.  After being here for a little over a month now, I can see how this fondness would grow on a person as I too, find myself enjoying a few cups of chai over the course of the day.   

Well it's tea time again so gotta run.