I’m leaving for Tamil Nadu in two hours — still to pack — but this is normal for me no matter how long I plan. I will be away three days. We have shown the girls a map of where I’m flying, where I’m taking the train. But this morning I discovered that some thought I was leaving for America. They constantly assume they will be left.
In August we went to Ramkrishnapur for a day to visit my cow. Everyone went, all staff and children. We took changes of clothes, especially for the little ones. We thought we had prepared the girls, but as we walked out the door one of them asked if we would ever be coming back to this house again.
This morning I went online and found a picture of one of the people I will be meeting in Chennai and then traveling with by train. I’m going to an ASHA-India leadership conference in Vishnupuram. I found a picture of Lakshmi Suryanarayanan, principal of Olcott Memorial School and a picture of the school, and showed the children I will still be in India, visiting a school, and talking about education of poor children. Our girls want us to have a very big school one day. Maybe this will be. We are full of dreams.
Leaving is hard for me. I don’t like being away. I’ve scheduled the trip to be away as little as possible. I will miss the girls. I will miss the little ones. I will miss my home and my children.
Well, I’d better start packing or I won’t make the plane and I am really excited about meeting to talk about education.
I’ve started to put up some photos in an album…
Happy New Year — my resolutions — for the older girls to be speaking English in a year, and for the little ones to be able to say five words in any language they choose.
Leaving is hard for me, always has been — I’m a little like my girls in that way.