Well Kirra got home from 3 days in the village and after talking to her online for about an hour, it seems like it was a hard couple of days for her. She will be more prepared when they go back out on Thursday for the next trip to "The Village". Her hardest time was after having lunch with a family with 6 girls. She said the youngest girl named Shooshma, who is 3 years old had downs syndrome (although she doesn't look like she does, I imagine that is what they call some of the mentally handicapped children). Kirra said she had been sitting with her clapping hands and just loving on her and Shooshma was so happy. When they went to eat lunch, she was put in the corner and left there. It broke Kirra's heart as she said Shooshma was just ignored in the house. When the group left, they took kids with them to go play at the campground and Kirra took her by the hand. While they were walking down the street, kids started to throw stones at Shooshma and she ran home. It was very hard for Kirra. They are going to get to go back to see the family and Kirra has printed her picture and will bring it back for her as the people love to get a picture of themselves. I am posting some other pictures because it took Kirra almost 2 hours to be able to send them to me. She was really tired so said she would go on when she wakes up and post then about the pictures and the rest of the trip. I have always known that Kirra has a gift for loving the unloveable. Please pray that her heart is not too broken in the process. I never want her to lose that.
Love Pam
Shooshma
I just love this picture. Looks like something out of a magazine.
Kirra,
ReplyDeleteYou're Mom's retelling of your story is heartbreaking - but awesome in the love you poured our on that little girl. (Reminds me of when we were in Romania picking up Rai, and visited one of the orphanages. There were many children there with severe handicaps that we knew were highly unlikely to be adopted.)
Keep pouring out the love - it's what you're there for, and really what you're best at!
Love ya!
Auntie Mary
It's hard to be soft and stay strong at the same time. Put yourself in a situation long enough and you can become hardened by it and learn to deal with things. The problem is that when that happens one often loses the softness. I think it's a sort of self preservation thing that happens so we can deal with things. I found that out over years of teaching and I'm sure it's found in many other jobs also, especially the ones involving the public and those less fortunate than ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe trick it to remember what both feel like so you can hold onto a thread of each. Balance; It's hard to maintain but it's the best way. It helps them and protects you. Remember to take care of yourself. You're no go to them if you don't.
Kirra,
ReplyDeleteI'm just starting to get in on this whole blogness you've got going on. It's very brave of you to travel out to different parts of India. That aside, you have a marvelous opportunity for photography, and I see you've been taking advantage of it. Your mom's right; that picture of the girl sitting beside the wall is truly gallery quality. If you keep up taking frames like that, then you should seriously consider submitting your work to a gallery when you get back.
Have fun, don't let things get you down, rise to the occasion, and keep up the professional grade work.