Kiss from An Angel

Oct. 8, 2006

Right on schedule, I woke at 4:20 this morning. I tried hard to ignore it and go back to sleep, but to no avail. Yesterday was a long, long exhausting day and by the time we returned to the hotel I literally fell into bed and was OUT.

Today should be a little more relaxed, although I anticipate we may go to Kadiapattinam. We were supposed to give a computer class there yesterday afternoon, but touring the villages took much longer than anticipated. Yesterday started off running off schedule, and I could see early on we had far too much planned in one day in an area like this. So, the class did not happen and I have a feeling it may get rescheduled to today. Tomorrow will be spent handling the financials with AWED, and we are hoping to go North on Tuesday. Actually, Cedric is hoping to go North. I would be very content to spend the rest of our time here, watching the projects begin and touring around with Sundar. But I am torn, I do want to see the orphanage in Bodgaya as well, so either way I’m happy.

Yesterday in one of the villages as we were followed by the children, there was an especially tenacious little girl who stayed close for quite awhile. She shyly started to hold my hand and stand very close to me at each place we visited. Everytime she would run away, she would show back up on the trail in front of us, or suddenly be holding my hand again. We played with words as usual, and she laughed each time I spoke one of my 4 words of Tamil, and each time we would start to leave her area she would say “bye, bye” and then follow us a little further. Ultimately, we reached the road and began walking away. After a bit of walking I turned around for one last look, and she was trailing behind watching us leave. Suddenly she stopped, crouched down, and threw me a kiss before running back to her small piece of neighborhood. I was surprised to see her do such a “Western” sort of motion, and once again I am reminded love looks the same in any language.