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India: A Journey of Enlightenment

In the summer of 2013 I traveled to India.  It was my intention to blog each day about the sights, sounds and my experiences.  Reality has a way of changing things.  It didn't happen.  However, each day affords pleasant memories of sights, sounds, people and experiences lived.

Album: The Spirit of India

Thinking

6/8/2013

1 Comment

 
Tomorrow is the day I leave for India.  As I have been collecting some final items to take and organizing things to pack, my stomach feels as though the monarch butterfly migration is passing through.  I’m at once excited and apprehensive.  The fact that I’ll be fulfilling a dream to be with my friend Priscilla in her homeland is thrilling.  I can’t wait to see Bethania Kids Home and meet the children and the adults that work there.  I can’t wait to visit Kodiakanal where Priscilla grew up and went to school.  I already know in my heart I will love India and it’s multitude of people.  But, the uncertainty that comes with travel makes me a little apprehensive.

My feelings have caused me to reflect on what it must have been like for Priscilla when she came to the States as a teen to attend Olivet College.  It has been so many years since I first heard the story that details have sifted through the cracks in my memory.  Whether her parents accompanied her or not, she was leaving the familiarity of home and friends to move to a strange new place.  There were new customs to learn, new people to meet and new friends to make.  Home was a long way away for her and there was no going back if she was homesick.  A mother’s hug or a father’s wise advice at the moment of need, were not to be had.  There was no Internet, email, Skype or cell phone with international calling capabilities.  There was no texting or posting to Facebook.  How did she feel?  How did she cope?

To those who attended Olivet at that moment in time, you know that it became family to us all.  The people, the place, the time which was Olivet wrapped each and every one of us in her arms and we felt warm and safe, happy and loved.  It must have been a relief to Priscilla to realize she had come to such a place. 

As I pack, I believe that I too am leaving home to go to a place that will welcome me and that I will feel warm and safe and loved, a place in which my heart will feel at home.  There is no need for apprehension.

1 Comment
priscilla link
6/9/2013 10:10:40 pm

Yesterday as I arrived in chennai airport I thought about the first time I left India from the same airport 40 years ago. I have arrived and departed from there numerous times since then, The first time I was able to book with Chris Heineman (Olivet class of 75) who was returning to the US after a visit along with her dear parents Charles and Mary Ellen missionaries returning for home leave. In New York I was met by former medical missionaries to India, the Folmsbees, with whom I stayed for nearly a week, before leaving for Seattle to be in my brother Joel's wedding to Pam. From Seattle I came to Ft. Wayne to yet another former missionary home. The Hennigs opened their home to me for the next four years. From there I was driven to Kalamazoo by Anne their daughter and my friend, and her husband. We saw the Olivet exit sign on the way, I could hardly contain myself as I was almost there. I stayed in Kalamazoo with my friend Kathy, who encouraged me to come to the US--to Michigan. Kathy and her Mom drove me to Olivet...where I met Julio in the lobby of Dole Hall. The next day in town, a lady hugged me and said "you must be our lttle Indian girl". I think that lady was Mrs. Wilks from the Women's Auxiliary who gave me the final amount towards my scholarship to stay in the dorm! All this 40 years ago. I write this waiting for my Sigma mother Cheryl'sarrrival in Shanki (my
student/son), Rekhas's and Shreyas'home in Chennai. Priscilla

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    Cheryl Schaefer
    Retired teacher/media specialist/technology trainer, Mom

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