I learnt a very valuable lesson yesterday and it is something I will carry with me right through til the end of my life. I am grateful to a close friend of mine (who is also my husband’s best friend) Ronsley for letting me be a part of a wonderful “sharing” experience (Sharing sessions). Now to elaborate a little before I go any further Ronsley owns a Goan restaurant in Brisbane called Goa-Doodle-Do and he came up with a noble idea “Eat for two”, he feeds one hungry child on every full meal that is ordered in his restaurant. (Here is the facebook link https://www.facebook.com/EatFortwo).
I was privileged to have gotten a chance to go along with Ronsley’s parents and three friends to St. John of the Cross Orphanage in Sancoale, Vasco. I was excited and nervous to be there because I had no idea what was in store or how to react. We got there well in time for the children’s lunch. The nuns’ reception was not exactly what I had expected but the children were wonderful. They had heard we were taking food and were thrilled.
We were enveloped by a tsunami of skepticism because we were told by the nuns there that the children did not like noodles and they would waste the food. Ignoring the anxiety we moved forward. We stepped into what seemed to be a hall where the children were all lined up and greeted us with a volley of cheerful “Good afternoons” and medleys of songs and nursery rhymes. The children looked like they could have gone on endlessly with a repertoire they seemed to have lined up. They threw in a couple of Konkani and Hindi songs too. Someone eventually got them to stop singing (much to their disappointment and ours) and start reciting the grace before meals. They were then rounded up and led to the dining area and each child went to his or her respective places. Their plates were then laid out in front of them. Their eyes lit up instantly when they saw they had noodles. Without much ado they dived enthusiastically into their food and their plates were wiped clean right down to the very last noodle. The room was silent apart from their slurping and excited giggles as they sucked in their noodles.
I looked around at their happy faces and I saw one little boy had pieces of his egg piled up on one side of his plate. I walked over to him and asked him why he had kept aside the egg adding that it would make him big and strong. He looked up at me and with a gentle smile and admitted that he wanted to share what he had with his friends next to him. I felt like I had just got hit by a truck. Right before my eyes was a six year old child who barely got much food and he wanted to share this one good meal with his comrades. There I was standing before him amazed by the love I had just seen. Really? Six years old? I thought that it was one of the purest, most lovable actions I had ever seen in a long time. An innocent child already knows how to love so deeply and unconditionally. That made me wonder how we lose ourselves in our adulthood and the throes of our mundane daily routines. Have we; as adults, forgotten how to love as purely as this six year old can? What happened to us we journeyed from innocence to adulthood? When did we learn to hate so much that we have completely lost ourselves in negativity in the process of growing up?
We stood by watching the last child finish his meal. Some of the children ran off to play others gathered around me and some gathered around everyone else. One little girl lifted my hand and looked at my finger nails. “Blue!” she exclaimed, with noticeable awe written across her innocent face. I smiled down at her, vaguely embarrassed that bits of nail polish were chipped off on a couple of nails. She called the other girls to inspect my nails. “Blue!” they repeated. “That’s nail polish,” I exclaimed, smiling down at them, my embarrassment a little more evident at this point. “Ooooooooh!” some of the little ones sighed. Suddenly they started kissing my hands. I started to laugh as I thought to myself that this was the closest I would ever get to “15 minutes of fame”.
One of the children walked up to Ronsley’s mother Lafira, looked up at her and asked what else they were getting to eat. The children were then given a banana each and once again the fruit was relished. Once the children were done with the fruits another child asked if there was more. We thought they had not had enough. Lafira gave them two Cadbury’s chocolate eclairs each. Some of the children ate their share almost as soon as it got into their hands while others put the chocolates in their pockets to save it for later. A few of the children walked up to me, tugged at my hand and patted their pockets to let me know that they were saving their goodies for later. The first thing that popped into my head was an image of Charlie in the final scene of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory where he shows Wonka the candy he had been saving.
Finally it was time to bid the children farewell and return to the real world, our hearts lighter and happier. All the way home there was one thing playing and replaying in my mind and that is there’s so much to be thankful for and sometimes we forget what we truly have and we feel like we don’t have enough that we miss out on the real joys. What were the real lessons I had learnt from the children if at all I did learn something?
The children taught me that no matter how little I have I can still share and yet be happy that I have enough for myself after giving.
Love has no age limit or barriers. Love comes in the simplest form.
We can still be happy with the little we have because we do not know what it’s like to not have more than what we have.
There’s happiness to be found in the simplest meal.
Noodles are fun to eat!
Yes, the little children left me with a lot of food for thought that kept me ruminating for the rest of the evening. Am I so lost that I can’t be thankful for what I have? How difficult is it to share selflessly? Am I not capable of loving someone unconditionally without the fear of getting hurt or feeling let down? Can I not be thankful for a simple meal just as long as I have a full stomach?
If you happen to be in Brisbane, please do check out Goa-Doodle-Do and Eat for two. You’ll be helping a hungry child and contributing to a noble cause.
Charmaine M. deSouza 