a picnic

About a month ago,

one of the ladies said she wanted us to all go on a picnic.

Everyone got really excited.

We picked a date - October 25.

We picked a place - a little park close to the center.

We found transportation - a bus goes right to that park and back.

We planned food - who was bringing what.

We talked about it every day. 

We were so excited.

The plan was that we all go or no one goes.

As October 25 grew closer and closer,
the ladies began to get anxious.

The reality hit them that they would have to
leave the slum to go on the picnic.

They didn't know how to do that.

Most of them have not left the slum much in their lives
and definitely not without their husbands.

Several of them never even leave their houses
except to come to the center.

They have no idea what the outside world is like,

and the more they thought about leaving for the picnic, 

the more afraid they became.

So the week before our picnic,

they told me they could not go.

I told them, No, that won't work.

We are having our picnic.

We will have it right here!

So that's what we did.

We all brought our food to the center

and we had a grand picnic right there.

The ladies were precious.

They worked hard to prepare their food and were so proud of it.

Here are some pictures of them with their food.
I'll try my best to spell the names of what they cooked.

Tabasum - paratha and chic pea & tomato chutney

Zareena - fried rice

Asma - peanut chutney and pakooda

Salma - puri and chole

Nunni - Asma, her daughter-in-law,

prepared the food for both of them to bring.

Anju - egg burghi

Mary - upama

...and I made Georgia Cornbread for dessert.

A little southern comfort food.

The ladies love American sweets.

We had quite a feast! They are amazing cooks.

We ate and laughed and laughed and laughed.

My friend Anju was there and helped with translating

so we got to talk about all kinds of "girl things".

For entertainment, Asma's husband (who is also Nunni's son)

came to tell us a story of what

happened out in the market earlier in the day. 

A boy had a huge lizard on a string.

The lizard got loose and ran into the folds of a lady's sari!

She couldn't get it out but could feel it crawling

around in the layers of skirts she wore.

So her husband had to close his shop

and take her inside and help her find the lizard.

Asma's husband reenacted all of this for us. 

It was AWESOME.

There is never a dull moment in our little tiny room.

Then, we all practiced writing our names in Hindi,

me included (which is quite funny!).

We celebrate when the ladies write their names or initials.

It takes quite a lot of work because most of them are illiterate.

It was a perfect day.
Getting to spend time with these beautiful ladies
that I didn't even know 6 months ago...
getting to laugh with them and know so much about them...
I'm blessed more than I can even express
to have them as my friends.