Saturday, July 28, 2001: Reach out and touch someone…a visit with children living on the streets. - Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India (Penny)

Our second day was a little more relaxing to me. I guess I was getting used to the fact that everyone and their dog seemed to be staring at us, and that YES, I was REALLY back in India. It's funny how you forget the little things, like the smell of mothballs in the hotel rooms or a certain brand of Indian cookies until you come back. The first day I felt bombarded by everything, but by the second day I was starting to get the hang of things again, not completely, of course!! We found a place with TOAST for breakfast (yum) and then started out the day with a ride back to the hotel in an auto rickshaw. It's funny how good a simple thing like toast sounds to you when you are surrounded by new and different foods. We met the manager of our hotel, Babu, who was also the Salvation Army outreach coordinator for the area, and he told us about a ministry he does with a local minister feeding street children every Saturday at noon.

These children live in a local slum and are very poor. We asked if we could visit with him and he said yes! When we got there with Babu the children just swarmed the auto rickshaw. They were really excited to see these new visitors. A few knew "Hello", "How are you?", and "What is your name?" in English, so we were peppered with these questions. As we entered a room the size of a two car garage about sixty kids waited for their lunch. At first I was nervous about what we should do. Then Tad began telling them about us with Babu translating. Then Tad and I were asked to sing with the kids so we sang "Jesus Loves Me" with them (they knew some English church songs because of this ministry). They then sang a couple songs in Tamil (a South Indian language) for us. It was really neat.

We asked if we could take some pictures and as soon as we took those cameras out things went a little wild. They absolutely loved getting their picture taken. As I was snapping away a group of girls at the end of the row kept smiling and waving at me, I waved back and then went over to sit by them. Soon I was surrounded by the smiling faces of these wonderful kids. They saw the gum in my mouth and said, "Bubble gum, bubble gum". I felt bad because I didn't have enough to give to them. It's crazy how something which at home seems like nothing is such an amazing treat for them.

We couldn't communicate through language, but as I've found you don't really need language if you have a smile and care about the other person. They wanted me to sing for them, so I sang a camp song or two and then had them sing for me again. It was really neat. I got to serve a few of them their lunch, but too soon it was time to go.

As we walked out a string of kids followed, laughing and shaking our hands. As we walked out Babu pointed out one of the kids whose parents died of AIDS. It made my heart jump as the little girl smiled up at me. Babu patted her head and said, "Penny have you ever touched a child with HIV?"

I said that I hadn’t and reached my hand down to her, but stopped just short of patting her head. I knew I wasn't in danger, but there was just something odd when you find out for the first time that someone is infected with HIV. I didn't touch her then, only waved, thinking to myself "Why didn’t I?" Then, as we walked on, the other kids seemed to part a bit and she reached up and put her hand on my arm. There we walked with her arm resting on mine, this beautiful little girl with pigtails and I. For me it was just the two of us in that moment. As we left she stuck her arm in the auto rickshaw for one more goodbye. As I squeezed it I was filled with joy and sadness. In just a few minutes she had given me so much. As I left I thought of what I could do for her and the others. I still ponder this. I know there are people like her all over the world who are infected with HIV, but it starts with just making a difference to that one person. I hope my smile showed her I cared and that she was a very wonderful girl. That is what I would have wanted to tell her. It was a visit that brings tears to my eyes, even as I type this out. I hope I've given you a glimpse of what it was like.

Penny

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