When the little things matter
I miss people. That sounds weird, but it's true. In India, I don't have friends. I have colleagues, but it is a strange relationship and it is clear that we aren't anything more than that. At the end of the day (or 3:30PM, whichever comes first), they leave and go home to their families. I go back to my empty room.
For 16 hours each day I am basically alone. More if you count the hours that I'm in my office working by myself. It's a good way to go completely crazy. The other girls here are a full decade (yikes!) younger than me, study almost all the time, and have generally shown no desire to be friends. That's okay. I'm here for a short time and make a terrible long-distance friend.
It still leaves a lot of times when I would pay someone for a hug. Or a handshake. Really anything. If that person would bring coffee, I would be their friend forever. Still, it's how it was the last four trips, it's how it is this trip, and I imagine it is how it will be on my next (and final!) trip.
This time, however, something strange has happened. For whatever reason, one class of nursing students has grown fond of me. I cannot figure out why, but they approach me on the street all the time. Sometimes they want my headphones so they can listen to my English music (I have a feeling they don't understand the words). Other times, like today, they want to tell me about an upcoming trip they are taking. It's weird. They act like I'm a celebrity or something.
Today a group of about 20 girls (they are roughly 18 and would all fit nicely in my pocket) stopped me and wished me a Happy Christmas (nurses here are almost exclusively Christian) and explained that they would be going away tomorrow for the holiday. I listened with as much interest as I could while bouncing between four different girls and trying to make sense of the broken interest. Then one of the girls, who I'd never met before, handed me a flower.
Someone gave me a flower. It's tiny and it will be dead before the day is out, but I can't stop staring at it. I imagine that girl won't remember that moment in a couple days. She has boys to meets, books to study, and a cross-country trip that will end near a beach. I doubt I'll ever forget.
For 16 hours each day I am basically alone. More if you count the hours that I'm in my office working by myself. It's a good way to go completely crazy. The other girls here are a full decade (yikes!) younger than me, study almost all the time, and have generally shown no desire to be friends. That's okay. I'm here for a short time and make a terrible long-distance friend.
It still leaves a lot of times when I would pay someone for a hug. Or a handshake. Really anything. If that person would bring coffee, I would be their friend forever. Still, it's how it was the last four trips, it's how it is this trip, and I imagine it is how it will be on my next (and final!) trip.
This time, however, something strange has happened. For whatever reason, one class of nursing students has grown fond of me. I cannot figure out why, but they approach me on the street all the time. Sometimes they want my headphones so they can listen to my English music (I have a feeling they don't understand the words). Other times, like today, they want to tell me about an upcoming trip they are taking. It's weird. They act like I'm a celebrity or something.
Today a group of about 20 girls (they are roughly 18 and would all fit nicely in my pocket) stopped me and wished me a Happy Christmas (nurses here are almost exclusively Christian) and explained that they would be going away tomorrow for the holiday. I listened with as much interest as I could while bouncing between four different girls and trying to make sense of the broken interest. Then one of the girls, who I'd never met before, handed me a flower.
Someone gave me a flower. It's tiny and it will be dead before the day is out, but I can't stop staring at it. I imagine that girl won't remember that moment in a couple days. She has boys to meets, books to study, and a cross-country trip that will end near a beach. I doubt I'll ever forget.
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