It's a Small World After All: Easter Sunday

Although the Indian state of Gujarat is not necessarily a tourist destination, there are quite a lot of foreigners who live in this area. One of my 9^th grade students, Mari, is from South Africa and she invited me to join her family and attend an Easter celebration for all international residents of Vadodara. Almost every continent was represented at this event as families of all colors and accents gathered on the large lawn; I was introduced to people from Russia, Germany, France, England, South Africa, and a few Indian families who lived in the United States for the past 10+ years and have now returned to their home country. There was even an Indian couple that recently lived in Sheboygan, WI because the husband works for Kohler; the bigger shock was that he actually knew the location of Denmark, WI LOL! It is uncanny how small the world is sometimes. :)

The majority of my evening was spent in the company of a family from New Zealand: the father, Joe, who was in Accra, Ghana for a 10-day stay at Labadi Beach Hotel the same year I was there; the mother, Leah, who has extraordinary beauty and is one of those people who makes strangers feel immediately comfortable; Johnny, their son who graduated from high school last year and will be starting college in the Boston area in August on a soccer scholarship; and their daughter, Danny, who I would have taught for 7^th grade English at NISV, but she did not like the social cliques and has decided to home school and dedicate extra time to her future career in tennis.  

We all got better acquainted through tedious introductory chitchat, but the personalities behind the smiles surfaced as Mari, Leah, Johnny, and I played a competitive game of croquet.

Initially, I had second-thoughts about going to this event because I had started feeling sick in the morning, but countless times throughout the night my spirit curved into a smile and was thankful that I was able to meet other foreigners who met the same challenges in India as I did. It has also been a blessing to meet some more individuals around my age who are also interested in seeing more sights of Gujarat, especially since Sohini is leaving in one week :( . Things happen for a reason so I am trying to embrace as many opportunities as I can to find the reasons.