I like to plan ahead. ok, really I don't.... but I only get to India once or twice each year- So I know I NEED to plan ahead. In October of 2018, I had an excellent idea. Everyone said so. "Excellent idea!!" they all said. I planned to get a lot of Christmas cards in India, then when the FOCI kids gathered in January 2019, I'd ask them to write something in a Christmas card, sign it and I'd take them home and send them out in November or December of 2019. All of the FOCI supporters would get a cool Indian Christmas card from a child in the FOCI program. I really amaze myself sometimes.....
SO, I sent a message to Chinnapan. "Chinnapan", I asked, "can you go to the city and buy about 100 Christmas cards for me please?" Either my Tamil is bad or he forgot. In any case, I arrived in Eleanganny India in January 2019 and noooooo Christmas cards were to be found. I took the bus to the next city and shopped all day. The shop keepers looked at me like I had two heads. It was January after all. A little late for Christmas cards.
Enter Plan B. We'll MAKE some cards! Josepine is a teacher. She's also very artistic. And she is my Indian Sister (that's than-ga-chi in Tamil) so she is stuck with me. Josepine spent a lot of time creating cards, one by one. They were beautiful. But it was taking a long time. Then she had a stroke of genius. She is a teacher- she can boss kids around! The very next evening, we had three lovely girls come to visit. They sat on the floor and created card after card. These darlings created the artwork so that on the day of our FOCI gathering, all of the children could take a card and write a greeting for the person who supports them.
I am so excited to have these cards to share with you. They are more perfect than anything I could buy.
Each year when I am there, I wish I could bring India home with me so that you could experience it the way I do. Then you would surely know and believe what a wonderful cause this For One Child of India program is. Really, it is an experience that just can't be put into words. Let's see though, if I can give you the feeling of it with a Christmas card.
...that is kind of the way India is. You plan and then you adjust. There are great ideas, lots of initiative, but just as many obstacles. And you persevere, you get creative, you just don't give up! Stick-to-it-tive-ness and endurance are valuable traits there. The FOCI kids are succeeding now, because your tuition support has removed the biggest obstacle for them. You give them a chance... and this year, they will be giving you a Christmas card!
