Time After Time

The Second Years from left to right: Vanitha, Libya, Lintu, Joshmi, Me, Leena, Deepa, Merlin, Jincy and Tincy. 

I am sitting here crying, trying to pull it together for prayer. This is the Second year TTC students’ last full day at the hostel. They leave tomorrow morning after a candle light ceremony and breakfast. We have spent this last day together well. I’d like to share some of it with you.

First you have to know that Mariamma Kochamma has a phone that plays the radio. She plays it at all times. This morning a song came on the radio at breakfast that made us all sing along. It was the song Onaveyil. I remembered watching the Second years teaching the children’s hostel how to dance to this song. The children performed their dance at our boarding Christmas program. Across the table, plates and tea, the Second years acted out the dance. It made me really happy to see them dance sitting down.

We then moved to prayer. Each day during exams the Second year girls have been going to our hostel morning prayer and an additional prayer service that they have organized at the school’s chapel. For the last three mornings I have joined them. They sing a song, read a verse from the bible, pray for quite some time, then sit in the pews for a final bible reading. Today instead of doing a bible reading in the pews, we sat in silence facing the front. Suddenly all of the girl counted off “1-2-3-start”

“Happy Birthday to you…” was sung to Leena in the pews. Today was her birthday. Leena is the only girl in the hostel who is almost my exact age. Actually she is a month older than me. Today she turned 23. As we all faced the front and she listened to her best friends sing her a final happy birthday song, she started to cry. So did many of the other girls. It marked the mood for the day, both joyful and sad.

I worked on a few projects as the girls packed their bags. Many also went to the nearby town of Chingavanam to buy goodies. One of my projects today was for a girl who is also leaving the hostel for good, Aleena. Aleena speaks English very well and asked me to write her a story with illustrations and a princess. Those were her demands, so last night I took off writing. Before I knew it I had written 7 pages…then 9 pages…. then 15 pages….and by the end of it I had completed a 20 page story (handwritten) with illustrations. It is a story within a story actually, and I am pretty proud of it. The title of it is “Camels and Kings: the Ragtime Adventures”. The title is a work in progress. haha. Maybe someday I will post it on here if you guys are interested in reading it.

(This next part is written after evening prayer)

 The rest of the day I wrote little notes on bookmarks that I was going to give the Second year girls at evening prayer. I also gave them special gifts. They were just little novelty crystal models for 25 rupees a piece….maybe the best way I have ever spent my money. The girls also donated a spanking new tablecloth to the study lounge. It was a good way to contribute to beautifying our hostel.

After tea and during evening prayer we had a huge filming session. We filmed songs, dramatic and adorable walking scenes, scenery shots, and ten minutes of our evening prayer time session. Tonight we are going to put together a nostalgic video by editing all the minutes (maybe hours) of footage. I also drank two cups of coffee today so I’m not sure if I’ll be sleeping at all tonight.

Now I am not trying to hold my tears back. At prayer they flowed freely. I feel comfortable being sad with these girls. They know they are the first and best friends I have made here in Kerala. They know how hard it is going to be to come back next year and not see them. I went to Leena, Jincy and Libya’s room after prayer and Jincy said “Chechi, we are praying that your days will go fast after this.” “Why?” I asked. “Because we know you will miss us so much.” Hahaha. They are not shy about how much I love them, and I am not shy about showing it.

I told them I am at the point where I don’t want my days to go by quickly. I want them to go by not too fast, not too slow, but just right. That is my nature though. A perfectionist to the core, attempting to control the speed of time. All I can say is, I am glad that I have spent my time wisely during this half of my year.  I am glad to have made deep friendships and strong memories. I am so thankful to God for the gift of time, even though I try and control it. I am pretty sure God giggles up in heaven when I think I can even make time move to my liking. I pray that these young women continue to be blessed as time passes by. I pray that God will hold them fast.

"If you fall, I will catch you, I will be waiting, time after time."-Cyndi Lauper

(this is a cheesy post with a lot of crying, so I figured a fittingly cheesy 80s song would do the trick)