I wish I would Have...

Well, it is exactly 4 weeks until I start the long journey home.
And today, there are so many things that have happened, people I have met,
That make me wish I would have done it so much sooner.
Tonight Debbie and I were leaving to walk to Kothanur
And just happened to be going at the same time as Pramilla, Tungha and Jyothi, some of the RLC staff. When they heard that we were going to Kothanur, they invited us to make a larger circle and walk to their homes in Bayrathi Bunde before Kothanur.
We never made it to Kothanur.
We visited each of their homes, starting with Tungha’s, which is a small one-room hourse she shares with her daughter and two sons. She made us delicious coffee (wow how I am going to miss fresh coffee!) and her son went to the stand outside to buy us biscuits and juice. Then we moved on to Pramilla’s house, but on the way she stopped at the same stand to buy us a “Karnataka Special” snack…which tasted strangely like Bugles. Pramilla’s husband (who has now passed away) was a construction worker, and for that she has been blessed with a bit of a larger home that she shares with her 11-year-old son who reminded me SO much of JJ. We declined the offer of tea or coffee, but on the insistance of her son that “You must drink something” sipped the glasses of water that were offered to us as Debbie murmered under her breath, “And will we have diarrhea tomorrow?”
We ended our neighborhood visit at Jyothi’s house; Jyothi is new on staff and oh-so-cute. Her oldest daughter told me that she saw me yesterday at Bala Mela, which made me (a) laugh because in a group of 7,000 of course she saw me, I was the white girl in a sari and (b) a little bit nervous because it’s quite possible that she was one of the ones wanting to talk to or touch me that I ignored. Luckily, through our conversation I gathered that I hadn’t been rude to her.
It was quite the wonderful evening, full of SO much food and hospitality and Debbie and I returned to Visthar without completing what we set out to do, but so thankful we took the walk to Byrathi Bunde. It made me wish I had trekked over there earlier, because I could have connected with these ladies so much more if I had had months to walk home with and visit them…as it is, I now only have a few weeks.